Hello Grim Dawn community!
My name is Ben Soderstrom (Allminoxy) and I’m the newest recruit to join the ranks of the Crate army! I’ve actually been around for a couple of weeks, but I’ve been lurking in the shadows, waiting for the ‘right’ moment to introduce myself. Officially, I’ve joined the team as an artist, but you can think of me as a “make stuff look good” guy, or a “make stuff gross and disgusting” guy (depending on your tastes).
Like Jalex and Zantai, I am yet another survivor of the 38 Studios Holocaust (I know, we’re a dime-a-dozen these days) After losing my job, I did what is only natural for anyone in that situation: play lots of video games and drink. Diablo 3 had just come out and I swore that even my livelihood imploding would not ruin the game for me. And then something incredible happened - the game just up and ruined itself! At first I didn’t really understand it and I kept on playing for a while, but to no avail. Around the time I was getting really pissed off at D3, a little angel disguised as Jalex floated down and told me that Crate was looking to hire an artist. Being an artist and a lover of ARPG’s I thought to myself “wow, I rather enjoy spinach!” Shortly thereafter, I spoke with Arthur which lead to him offering me a job at Crate. Well, there may have been a few other things in there somewhere, but that’s the gist of it!
Anyway, back in my 38 Studios days, I worked on the ill-fated Copernicus as an Environment artist. I made props, textures, buildings and statues, but my real passion was secretly in character design. Fortunately for me, Arthur was looking for someone who had some arcane lore in the school of characters as well as environments. At Crate, I will be making creatures, characters, items, props and basically anything else that needs getting done! Even though I loved my time at 38 Studios, the company was so big that it was hard to really connect with the team and the project completely. Crate, on the other hand has a small and personable “do it yourself” culture that is much closer to home for me. Additionally, I’m super excited to be working in a genre I love in a setting I love.
Before I go, I want to thank you all for your support in Grim Dawn. In addition to funding the game, you have also made it possible for me to get a job here, which I find to be rather awesome. So thank you, I cannot wait to help bring you the release and make this game as awesome as possible!
Finally, I would like to show you some of the stuff I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks. I’ll try to post more stuff in the future when I get the chance. Therefore, without further ado, here’s a giant spider and a carnivorous larva-worm thingy!
Until next time!
-Ben
Attachment: spider_comp_01.jpg
Attachment: worm_giant_comp_01.jpg
