Congratulating Cubehouse
by NorseGamer, HSM Founder
June, 2012. Cubehouse and I are sitting on the bus as it grinds its way from the Hertz rental car lot to the LAX terminal.
We’ve just completed the whirlwind experience known as E3. Seventy-two hours of nonstop epic-win insanity. Getting to hang out with the awesome teams from LOOT, Hellfire, Heavy Water, Game Mechanics and SCEA Digital Platforms. We also slightly kidnapped Halli and Joel from Lockwood, but it all worked out.
And I got to party with someone I’d known for two years, but only just now had met face to face: Cubehouse.
It was, quite simply, fun.
So. Back to the bus. It’s a stereotypically sunny day in LA, we’ve just had In-N-Out Burger for lunch, and the time has come to depart back home. It is, frankly, a bit melancholy. And as the bus lumbers along, we idly joke:
Wouldn’t it be fun if we both ended up in the games industry some day?
Keep in mind, at that point in time, it really wasn’t anything serious. Cubes was working in ultra-high-tech internet security and I was finishing off my tenth year in resort development. But we couldn’t quite shake the feeling that the games industry was just a hell of a lot of fun, and boy, could you imagine being a part of that fun…
(Fun is important, by the way. I spent a decade in a lucrative industry that wasn’t much fun. The business of game development, however, is fun. And fun is worth reorganizing your entire life to enjoy.)
And that’s why I’m writing this article. Because Cubes made it. In case you missed the announcement, he’s working for nDreams now.
This is a properly big deal. The man who built the biggest Home media site in the world just got a job with one of Home’s biggest third-party developers. And it is completely typical of Cubes that he hasn’t gone and been all shouty about it, instead preferring to just get on with things.
Well, dammit, somebody needs to acknowledge this success story.
Cubehouse is the man who wrote Facebook Chess as a teenager. He built AlphaZone 4 for kicks. He’s done so much for the global Home community — and thus, by extension, helped monetize that consumer base and thus benefited Sony and all the developers — and never, not once, asked for anything in return. He’s legitimately one of the smartest people I know. No ego, no look-at-me antics. Just pure skill and work ethic. In the time it’s taken me to write this paragraph, he has quietly discovered the Higgs Boson, averted a stock market crisis in southeast Asia, invented an actual working TARDIS, and put the kettle on.
And he made the jump from consumer to developer.
These sorts of stories serve as inspiration. The Home community media scene exists first and foremost because people from the community love the product and people so much that they want to give something back. And that is an end unto itself, and a very satisfying one. But there are writers and artists and filmmakers and programmers within this media scene who perhaps aspire to something greater professionally, and Home is a place for them to cut their teeth and gain some visibility. And when you see a success story like Cubehouse, it affirms the belief that if it’s something you want, and you’re willing to put in the work and conduct yourself like a professional, always doing things the right way and surrounding yourself with people of like mind, it can in fact happen.
(On a personal front for a moment: the one thing I’m hoping for — and I genuinely believe it will happen — is to get an e-mail, years from now, completely out of the blue, from someone telling me that they landed a professional job in some creative field due in part to their work at HomeStation. Nothing would thrill me more than to know that HSM helped someone to achieve that.)
So congratulations to Cubehouse for a well-deserved success. And well done to nDreams for snagging him! It really is a perfect match.
Bring on E3 2013 — and let’s all hang out, party, stay up until some ungodly hour, kidnap Halli and Joel again, and celebrate how much life has changed since that bus ride.
April 6th, 2013 by NorseGamer | 6 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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So glad for you guys and what can I say, Cubes the guy has earned it.
Congrats, Cubes! You work hard, and your labor shows. Continue on that road for success.
Cubes you deserve this job and so much more for all your tireless work on AlphaZone4 and your generosity towards others. Good luck in all of your endeavors.
Congrats Cube!!
That IS one inspirational story this side of ‘ROCKY’..
Another Local from England that gets to go to E3 AND make it happen for himself has got to be at the most enviable position that you can be in and boy does this young geezer deserve it!.
I’m not anywhere near as bright as this bloke and I reckon when he talks it’s just going to be bloody rocket science to simply understand him, but all i can say is well done, mate, you done the hard graft to get to where you wanted to be and it paid off, literally.
Enjoy!
The Cheekster
I’d like to congratulate nDreams for making a wise choice.