Alumni Spotlight: Timothy Staton-Davis (ETC ‘16)

by Hannah Kobre

How did you end up at the ETC?

I arrived after my time at Howard University — pretty much the same year that I graduated. I got to the ETC at the same time as another Howard alum, Nigel [Randall]. We showed up at the ETC together, and also stayed in the same house together — all that stuff. That was my camaraderie there. I think in our year, we were the two black folks in the cohort that ended up coming.

While I was there, my focus was on game design in particular. I had a programming background from computer science, and I wanted to develop my design skills and learn how to do more entertainment-related things and more creative, artistic things with technology. That was my whole goal.

What were your most memorable ETC experiences?

In BVW [Building Virtual Worlds] we made an actual physical controller. We named the project Book of Fate and it was an actual book — a magic spell book — that you could use as a controller to cast spells. It came together with a lot of trial and error — it was a little ambitious for what it was — but it was a lot of fun. We ended up getting an offer to take that to the GDC [Game Developers Conference] which was awesome.

What has your career path been like post-graduation?

After I finished up I didn’t have a job for a while. I went back home and applied for opportunities, which eventually led to a job opportunity in Seattle at Warner Bros. Games’ Monolith Productions working as a mission designer on “Middle-earth: Shadow of War.” I got my feet wet there, but once the project shipped I ended up working with Microsoft and 343 Industries on “Halo: Infinite.” It was during this period that I started getting more involved in the cultural aspect of the industry — noticing what’s missing as far as diverse voices in these rooms and in the games and figuring out ways I could contribute, ways I could bring people from similar backgrounds together. 

I also kept in touch with friends from the ETC like Nigel during this time, who were all in California or on the East Coast. When I would travel to GDC or LA I would catch up with some of them and do some playtests of their games. So when I got an opportunity to go work at Crystal Dynamics in San Francisco, I took it. I was working on Avengers, and when that contract ended I went to Santa Monica Studios where I worked on encounter design for “God of War: Ragnarok” and I was there for about two years before moving on to my current role.

How did you end up in your current job at Brass Lion Entertainment?

My contract with Santa Monica Studios was ending at the same time conversations with Brass Lion were happening. They were really ramping up their team as a new studio, and it just so happened that one of the co-founders was someone I had purposefully met at GDC. They were another creator from New York, African-American background, and I just wanted to learn from him. But he got in touch and told me he was looking for someone that understood combat and encounters, and I had been doing that for the past three years. And at the same time, they were creating a type of studio I wanted to be involved in, doing the kind of work I’m interested in. And in that way, it was really serendipitous.

We’re working on an action RPG co-op that’s focused on black and brown people and their culture, and bringing those elements into focus for players to experience as well. That’s been really interesting for me to work on and dive into, and at least in this moment things have clicked in a perfect way.

You’ve mentioned your involvement in the cultural side of the industry where you’ve been a part of inclusion work — including the Black in Gaming Foundation and Melanated Game Kitchen. What has that looked like for you?

After I moved from Seattle to California, I noticed the game dev community was very different. Seattle has a large indie community with an emphasis on supporting each other. But when I got here, I was like: there’s nothing here! People were so spread out and especially with the pandemic it was all virtual. 

I knew I wanted to find a way for people in the community to come together — whether in-person or virtual. Initially, it was about finding those threads of connection – finding people who understood the struggles of being African-American in the industry and the microaggressions you experience being in predominantly white male spaces. But once we came together and started sharing, we began asking what we wanted to do as creators and how we could start to build things for ourselves and our community.  

I knew I wanted to tell these types of stories and to take these experiences and to bring them into interactive spaces. So we started out with some small game jams — talking about ideas, exploring different engines. And through that you develop relationships and learn from each other and begin to share and work on projects together. Providing a safe creative space has been just as much of a focus for us as providing a community space.

What’s a project that you’re working on now that you’re excited about?

I’m really excited about some of the work we’re doing with the Black in Gaming Foundation. We’ve partnered with other organizations like Latinx in Gaming to start doing more events and setting up more structures to support younger developers. We want to create ways to guide people who are in college and high school into the industry and into the creative work they want to do. And figure out how we can help them flourish even though times in the industry are chaotic right now.

And with Melanated Game Kitchen, we have a game jam coming up this summer that we’re hoping it will be a really big one. We’re also planning to provide more offerings from our indie collective, like consulting on localization efforts for languages as well as cultural consulting for studios trying to bring other cultures into their games.

Do you have any advice for current ETC students?

Make efforts to grow your relationships with your other classmates — including not just those in your current class but also the people in the years before and after you. You’ll be surprised how nurturing those connections may help you in the future. 

Also, stay curious. Be open to applying your growing skills in different ways. Now more than ever it’s important to be creative in how to apply your skills in these creative and technology focused industries. Don’t just pigeon-hole yourself into games, because there will surely be a time for you to pursue that area as you continue in your career.

How would you describe the ETC in one word?

Rewarding.

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