Before we start, can you do a little introduction and tell us about yourself? What is your role and what do you do here?
Cecil Kim, Studio Art Director at thatgamecompany: My name is Cecil Kim, and I’m a studio art director at thatgamecompany. I’ve been working in the video game industry since the late 1990s. On PlayStation One, the first games I worked on were Final Fantasy and Parasite Eve at Square. Then I joined Sony Santa Monica Studio, where we developed the God of War franchise. I spent about 12 years there, mainly as a visual development concept artist focusing on world-building and environment concepts.
After Sony, I had the opportunity to start my own company with Justin Yoon and Jimmy Yoon. We started Section Studios in downtown Los Angeles, focusing on art outsourcing for many game studios and publishing art books. That eventually led us to develop our own games and collaborate with different indie studios.
At thatgamecompany, I manage and art direct our announced projects. It’s been five years since I joined. A lot of my work involves shaping the creative direction of new titles and figuring out how to support Sky as a live service game, including finding the right talent.