Why I Loved: Paragon Studios

Will this get tearful? I think so!

Paragon Studios was an amazing place. It was a studio that took chances on people. Many people who shared their experiences with Paragon had talked about this. People who were QA were now designers, developers who wanted to flex their muscles in another field or area were given the chance to do so, and the studio gave some kid from Brooklyn a chance to really make games. That was me.

Paragon took a risk on me; it's because of this that a lot of things in my life changed. I want to specify something here, because it's not like Paragon went out and found my lovely fiancee or amazing group of friends, although our HR department did try very hard on the former. Paragon was the method through which all of this happened; if it wasn't for them hiring me and keeping me out in California, I wouldn't have been in this place to have all these amazing experiences. I decided I wanted to do a post explaining why I loved Paragon.

Paragon Studios was a place where (mostly) everyone was friends. Sure, we all fought and got angry at each other every now and then, but there wasn't any sort of hatred or bitterness between people. It was never oppressive and always felt like we were in a family, even on some of the worst days. I joked around that Melissa "War Witch" Bianco was like our mom, Nate "Second Measure" Birkholtz was our dad, and Matt "Positron" Miller was the cool uncle (who I would go to try to get things from when Melissa or Nate said no). Joe "Hero 1" Morrissey was the successful older brother who went off to college since he was working on the next project.

The cool uncle, Matt Miller.

There were never any real divisions between different sections of the studio. Artists could talk to designers, designers could talk to QA, QA could talk to programmers. Programmers could talk to anyone who understood robotic, which was pretty much no one, but they had the option. It was a family atmosphere, if I didn't get that across. There was a meeting we had once, and I hope I don't get in trouble for mentioning this. Someone in the studio had to leave because he had to handle various things with his family. Brian Clayton, the studio head, looked to all of us and said (if I remember correctly), "I want you all to remember, family comes first before the job. Family is always first."

I knew I was in the right studio when I heard Brian say that. Who wouldn't want to work for a guy who sincerely believed that? Parents sometimes brought their kids in when they couldn't find a babysitter, and that was totally OK. I sometimes felt bad, however, as I may or may not have dropped some curse words around those kids. But they'll live and learn, and it was good training for me to try to clean up my act for the future.

There's so much more I could say, like our frequent Ultimate Frisbee outings or our races in the bouncy obstacle course, but I'll keep this brief. I also should probably keep these posts shorter in order to avoid building up unrealistic expectations for more posts in the future. Paragon Studios was an amazing place, and it left a permanent mark on my life. I know I'm going to do my best to remain friends with as many people as I can at Paragon, and we even have a facebook group that we're all part of to help keep in touch.

If you're sad, that's OK, we're sad too! But, Paragon was given to us, and it was amazing. It being gone now doesn't mean that something else even more amazing isn't out there. So, you can be sad, but don't despair. Plus, now an entire studio of amazing developers have been let loose into the wild to spread our awesome abilities. Instead of all of us working on one game, we'll be working on a TON of games, and that's exciting to think about!

Goodbye guys! We'll see you all again soon!