Boon Cotter, an Australian game developer currently working as a lighting artist at Naughty Dog, told the story of how he got that job at the studio.
I had just flown halfway around the world, my first time out of Australia, and it was to interview for a job I KNEW I wouldn’t get.
It didn’t matter tho, I was so fucking beyond starstruck to be in LA at the Naughty Dog office. I was like a kid at Disneyland.
I went in not overthinking anything, just determined to be myself and meet these fucken rad people I adored.
During the interview, @bruce_straley walked in and I kinda pooped in my pants a little. He asked me some Q’s I had horrible A’s for.
Bruce: So you were a lead artist on your last project? How many artists were there? Me: Er… LOL… Just me. (Everyone laughs)
Then he asks “Why do you want to work at Naughty Dog?”. I began to answer a true, but rote, response: You’re the best, blah blah.
But then I stopped and said… “Ugh. No. It’s Bill (from TLoU).” and everyone looked at me with this kind of bemused curiosity.
I told them it was the first time I’d seen a gay man portrayed as this gruff, masculine, tragically heroic type of character.
He wasn’t a punchline to a joke. He wasn’t overtly stereotypical. A lot of players didn’t even pick up that he was gay.
I told them that I saw myself represented for the first time. A burly, hairy, daddy bear character, a guy I respected and understood.
That made me fall in love with everyone here. And telling them that made me start crying. WHO THE FUCK CRIES IN A JOB INTERVIEW?
Anyway, fast forward to 3 hours later and I was shitface drunk on margaritas and hired to work at my favorite game company on Earth.
Moral to the story: Don’t underestimate authenticity. Be raw, be vulnerable, be real. That’s where your uniqueness shines.
Boon Cotter
You can find the original Twitter moment here.
We love reading these kind of stories. The response to the story has been overwhelming, says Boon. The artist has been working at the studio for three years now and we hope to get another amazing story from him soon.