Alumni
Alumni
Gaming With Kevin Larken '99
- Class: 1999
- Degrees: B.A. Fine Arts/Business Administration
- Current Job: Creative Director for GameBrains
Kevin Larken plays games for a living. Literally.
As the creative director for GameBrains, a Southeast Asian video game developer company based in Kuala Lumpur, Larken is the lead designer for the creation of well known video games, such as the Backyard sports titles, AbraKaboom, and Mission Paintball 2.
Earning his undergraduate degree in fine arts and business administration, the Canadian-born Larken has been in the games industry since 2004. Before joining GameBrains, his experience was in website design for companies in France and Los Angeles, and a stint in advertising for an international firm based in Singapore.
According to Larken, success in this industry requires experience, interest, and a broad understanding of the field; to become a creative director, he adds, you need that "something extra." Typically, entry into the gaming industry is a multi-step professional process, but with Larken's background, he seems to have shot to the top fairly quickly.
As creative director for GameBrains, Larken serves as lead designer and visionary.
"To come up with game ideas," he says, "you have to understand the human-machine interface, which is basically how the human brain interacts with machines."
In his four years with the company, Larken has worked on multiple titles, including Backyard Baseball, the first Malaysian-developed PlayStation 2 game.
"I oversee most aspects of game production: working with the designers on the storyboard, with the artists for the look, and with the programmers on what can and cannot be done in the game.
"I also do a lot of research to determine the setting of a particular game, the types of characters and the world of the game," he says. "For this, I need to play a lot of games in that genre."
In late 2007, GameBrains signed a multi-year deal to fully develop a number of Nintendo Wii and DS games, significantly adding to the company's current licensing with PlayStation 2, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance, Windows and OS X platforms. The deal may indicate a dramatic boost in profit and notoriety for the boutique company in the not-too-distant future. In addition, the company has gained some notice from the Malaysian government; in 2006, Larken and Gamebrains colleagues were invited to speak at a government-organized game workshop, and in 2007, the team was asked to judge the government's Malaysian Independent Games Grant.
But Larken takes it all in stride.
"While there really isn't an artistic video games culture here, many big gaming companies have shown interest in Malaysia. Internationally, though the field is definitely a burgeoning industry. It will diversify a lot, but it will definitely grow. I think it's going to become like Hollywood."
--Published in The Rock, Spring 2008
