Making His Own Way In Gaming: Interview with Edmund McMillen
Being relentless in your vision.
Edmund McMillen is a legendary game designer with an extremely interesting back story. He has created hits like Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, and The End is Nigh — and most impressively, he did it all independently, so when I had the chance to sit down and talk with Edmund, needless to say, it was an awesome experience.
From Comics to Videogames
There is a big difference between wanting to make video games and actually doing it. However, Edmund McMillen didn’t even know he wanted to make games at first — he kind of just fell into it.
Originally, Edmund started by making comics between the ages of 15 and 18 but soon got frustrated. He didn’t like that he couldn’t see the joy in people’s faces as they read his work nor did he know the number of people even reading it! As a result, he was unable to measure success on a personal level. Before he was posting them online, he would sell them in stores by just asking the owner. Who would have thought it was that easy?
He eventually transitioned to posting his comics online after receiving a rejection letter from a publishing company that was managing other successful comics at the time. Edmund also decided to take things into his own hands and take some HTML course at his local community college. He told me he failed all of his classes, but he learned enough to start his own website. Now, he was able to publish his comics under his own terms and even get some ad revenue as he gained traction.
“It wasn’t harsh… but it was crushing.”
Thus, This Is a Cry For Help was born, Edmund’s website dedicated to publishing his comics.
Working for Free
While he was managing his website, Edmund also worked a variety of jobs. From GameStop, a factory assembly line, Blockbuster, Animal Control, and independent projects for local companies, Edmund was always a hard-working man.
In addition to holding his paid jobs, Edmund would reach out to multiple local business everyday, explaining that he is an illustrator and asking if he could do a logo for them for free.
From his perspective, working for free did two things for him. Not only did it provide the opportunity for a paid job down the road, it gave him invaluable experience and artwork to put in his burgeoning portfolio to show to other prospective clients.
In Edmund’s case, it was his hard work here that got him into the gaming industry. After offering to do free work, he got a paid job at Chronic Logic, a young independent gaming publisher.
But where did that drive or knowledge to do all these things come from? For Edmund, it came down a deal he made with himself a long time ago.
He promised himself that he would do at least one thing a day to help him with his career.
Indie Game: The Movie
I asked Edmund about his experience in making the film, Indie Game: The Movie. He compared the experience to doing a promotional piece for a Wario Game he had previously done for Nintendo; which Edmund described as uncomfortable since they had asked him to act. Though the cameras were in his living room this time around, he felt a lot more comfortable compared to his previous work for Nintendo as it was just him being himself. In fact, he said that when he was watching it back, he didn’t even remember filming some of the parts shown because he was so used to it.
The film was undoubtedly a huge moment for indie games as a whole. Edmund says that it did a great job showing what was really going on and doesn’t regret doing the movie at all. However, he told me there was a small misconception about his work as an indie game creator. Some of the feedback he got included stories about people leaving their jobs at larger videogame companies such as Electronic Arts (EA) to pursue indie game creation full time, thinking anyone and everyone could excel in the field. Edmund says that while it’s great that people want to do it in the first place, people working in the industry know there is a degree of risk associated with it and that you have to work at it for a long time. You never know if your game is going to take off! Luckily for him, it did.
As you can see, Edmund has worked super, super hard to get where he is today. With good reason, as he told me that he can go to a really dark place when he’s not able to be creative. In fact, his main motivation in pursuing this career was to make himself happy.
“My major motivator was to stay alive. I need to make myself happy. Sometimes I think that maybe I’m just the type of person that requires more than most people to continue to live and feel like life is worth it.”
I think that’s one of the key things we can take away from his interview:
Work hard for what you want to make yourself happy.
To hear Edmund talk about the creation of his popular games The Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy in-depth, be sure to check out the podcast on iTunes, Spotify or YouTube.
