Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Andy Cortez's Gaming History - Kinda Funny Gamescast (Patreon Exclusive April 2017)

Episode Date: May 28, 2017

Tim sits down with Andy to talk about how he got in the gaming industry. (Released to Patreon Supporters 04.30.17) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys? Welcome to the first ever games cast Patreon exclusive Kevin what month is this for April May? I'm gonna say April for April 2017 I'm Tim Getty's as always joined by Andy Cortez. Hey Maximum Cortez himself I didn't have a little fucking fun name for you You know what I mean you are one of the coolest dudes in video games now I am you know now you've earned it I'm like top 400% okay top 400% 400% Andy Cortez. It means he's... Do the math, Kevin.

Do the goddamn math. Big Cavdog. Do the math for... He's like a... For Hex-s-s-h-h-sac-man. Man, for heck-sake. Yeah. I love you, man.

I love you. Such a sweet young boy. Thanks, guys. Aw. Yeah. How are you... So this is your, like, I don't know, third, fourth week?

I'm in my... I am three and a half weeks in, yeah. Oh, my God. 17 business days. You just keep getting more and more proud. You know, if they start to crawl, then they start talking, and then they won't stop talking.

And then they're getting their asses slapped every day. Well, I'm not supposed to talk about that stuff. What Nick does to you behind closed doors. Kevin or Greg slapped me on the ass so hard that cool, that cool Greg said it should be a sink clap. Yeah. It was like so audible.

It was a good slap. Yeah, Greg. Nick, you want to give any, uh, any input on this? Bullshit. Come, come talk. You told me when we were in our initial discussions to have you come work for this fine company that I would have exclusive access to that ass. In fact, I remember it because I have an email where you spelled it, dat ass, D-A-T-A-S-S. It may not have been you.

It may have been something that I completely wrote to myself and signed a name. There's an Andreya Cortez out there that's like, what? This is a really bad like forged signature? Look, it boils down to this. You guys know our good friend, Hunter Pence. You know, a place for one team called the San Francisco Giants. Now, in baseball, they do what's called the good game, where they give a little pat on the ass. It's not considered sexual harassment.

I don't know if they still do that, and I've never seen a hunter do it. They do do that. On some level, I'm sure that someone somewhere still gives the good game. I'm just saying, you had a good game today. You got two paths on the ass. One from me and one from Greg. Okay. I actually got four from Greg today.

Wow, that seems successive. It's a great game. Having said that, you may have a lawsuit on your hands. There you go. Oh, man. So, Andy, your journey has been very tumult. Yeah. To get here to the kind of funny studios.

But now you are here. I wanted to talk about that journey. I want to talk about you and video games and your career and jobs and all of that stuff and how it intermingled to have you get to this table. Yeah. It's a really odd thing. Like when I trace everything back, all the different moves that had to happen, it's really bizarre.

Like, you know, I think when I was younger, I always wanted to do art. I was always into like the making of documentaries on HBO. And when everybody graduated from fucking, from elementary to middle school, you know, you had that little ceremony. Oh yeah, had the fun little thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Everybody wanted to be, you know, an astronaut or a cop or an FBI agent or a major league baseball player. I said visual effects artist, which was like so fucking weird. And like,

and I even had a friend of mine from back. back in the day remind me like, man, I remember you said you wanted to do that. Yeah. And it's really weird that it like played out and I actually did what I wanted to do since I was a kid. But visual artist back then, I don't know what the fuck that meant. To me, that was like, make the big fucking T-Rex move in Jurassic Park. That shit was tight.

That's just fucking tight. I want to do that. Yeah. But yeah, so I was drawing all my whole life, super into art, creating like, I was making games but not like actual designing them. I meant like I would draw characters and rip off. like Zelda and Mega Man and shit like that, but they were my games. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It wasn't the legend of Zelda. Who were your Mega Man bosses? Um, I, well, so my, my Mega Man that I ripped off, I named him Bleepo. And you know what he looked like exactly? Total rip-off visual design of Roli-Polioli on Disney Channel. Okay, shout out to Roli Polioli. The springs as the arms, yeah, totally ripped off that design. But then whenever he beat a boss, he'd get the dudes, like, that boss is like awesome visor.

And he gave that the other boss is like fucking awesome wing set and shit. So yeah, it was like stupid shit like that that I was doing in elementary and like getting into middle school. And I just always had a special place in my heart for video games. Like it was always my brother and I playing on the weekends and my parents like hiding the console during the week so we couldn't play it. You know, even though it was on the third row, third. Everyone knows where it is. Yeah. My mom's strategy was to hide the AC adapter.

Oh, that's smart. That's a lot easier. Take it with her to work. She was just taking hide it. But it's just like little did she know. I was resourceful. And the electric piano also used the same easy. Oh, shit. And that shit worked fine. That's really smart. That's really smart, Tim.

So speaking of video games, where did you start? I know it started somewhere in the NES era. I don't remember exactly where. When were you born? 88. 1988. So NES has been out years at this point. Mm-hmm.

S&ES comes out in 90. 90? 90. 90. Yeah. So for you, your older brother? Yeah. Okay.

So that's where the N. Correct. Yeah. He was born in 82. So we had an NES. And I have like those memories that are like barely there that I can kind of picture myself like playing that some fucking racing game where you're racing around a track on NES. And then of course I remember Super Mario Bros.

three. Yeah, of course. Like, that's like the one that definitely is ingrained in my brain, um, uh, along with, um, well, was, no, All Stars was S&S. Yeah, All Stars was the first game that I owned. Oh, okay. God damn, what a game that is. Yeah, yeah. I, to this day, best single game cartridge in existence. Like,

any of the, like, any of that stuff, like any officially put out game. Wasn't it just a gray cartridge? But what I'm saying is, for what it had in it. Oh, sure, yeah. All the Mario games, especially the one I had was Mario All-Stars Plus World. So it also included World. You don't get better than that.

There's been like Namco Museum collections. No. Sega Genesis collections. Like, no, no, no, but you ain't Mario All-Stars, bro. I thought you meant best-looking cart, which in my mind goes to Maximum Carnage, where I got my name from. Hot Red thing.

Maximum Carnage, Maximum Cortez, the super hot red. I remember renting that shit so many times from like the local freeze frame, which is the local, or all-hit video. and life was so... I didn't know that's where you got your Maximum Cortez from. For some reason, I always thought that it was a neocortex reference, but that doesn't make sense.

No, it doesn't. Maximum Cortez, yeah. I'll fucking love that. That's one of my favorite, like, SNES games. Yeah. For sure. So, yeah, gaming back in the day was Mario, of course, like, I don't have a huge gaming past because, like, we just couldn't afford that shit, you know? Like, I wasn't buying games all the time or whatever.

A lot of it was renting games at the local all-hit video. All-hit video. All-hit video. Or freeze frame, which had a two-story, it was a two-story building, and the top floor had all the horror movies and all the porn movies. Oh, man. Freeze frame is a dope. And it was so scary going up there, dude. Like the horror or the porn.

Well, both. Because you felt like, like, you always felt in danger up there. Yeah. Dude, that's so funny, though, because it's like when you're a little kid, there's nothing more. And it's scary than the porn section. Because you know you're not supposed to be there and you feel like everyone's watching. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Absolutely. I just don't give a fuck. Like the cameras are watching me. I know it. But like just walking those stairs. And it was like a, it was like the fucking Titanic staircase that like formed up like that, right? Yeah.

And so it was so scary being up there. I thought that like it was haunted. I remember like my brother and I like we were probably, we probably made up stories that it was haunted at some point. But yeah. And that was freeze frame in Fartexas, man. That shit. was rad. We had a, what was it called?

Ultimate Video. Shout out to Ultimate Video. That place, it also had one of those like two layer situations going on. That should have been the name for kind of funny. I don't know you guys said quality internet videos would have been fantastic, but not Ultimate Video. Ultimate Video. Fun story. Yeah, I legitimately called the city about the building that Ultimate Video is, used to be.

Because it's been abandoned for years. It became a sofa place for like three years that failed. And, And I called the city and I was like, who owns this property? And it took me a while. And they're like, eventually it called me back. And they're like, oh, yeah, the city owns it. And I was like, is the city looking to sell?

Because that place, still in my mind, is the perfect place for the next kind of funny studios. The like warehouse. It's fucking dope. Is that near your house? It's a daily city. It's right close to my house. Yeah, it's in between your two places right now. Is that why you, is that the place we were walking by?

Yes. Well, okay, yeah. I think we were driving by. I was like that place over there. One day. Yeah. No, it was a special place though because there was the blockbusters, right?

Yeah. Those are always fucking dope. Blockbuster's going to be a topic on. Sorry, just to close that out, unfortunately, San Francisco or something has some law that they can't sell any of the property they own or I think it's California right now. It's bullshit.

One day. One day. We'll win. Blockbuster and Tower Records are going to, it's going to be a topic of mine on Gog coming up because, like, there's a lot of good memories there. But ultimately, video for me was really like where the video games were at because by the time that I was

renting games it was super Nintendo through and through sure yeah up on n64 time right because I was born in 89 so I the first system I played a lot of was the NES like my dad had a Commodore 64 but like you know whatever yeah yeah bleeps and bloops uh but Kevin and his family had an NES so I played a lot over there my first system was super Nintendo so I started running a lot of those games. And I remember the ultimate video was always so impressed with me because they had all the NES games. Oh. Like Blockbuster was like, nah, man, we over that shit. You know, I guess our

blockbuster was the nicer, um, like the nicer non-family own place was Hollywood video. That was rarer here. Okay. They were, they were around, but they like blockbusters were on like every district had a blockbuster. Yeah, I guess we had a Hollywood view within walking distance. So that was like we'd go to Hollywood all the fucking time. after after after it was built a little bit later I'd say towards the end of elementary where freeze frame and the other spots were like there since before I was born probably but yeah not really renting a whole lot of NES games we're

mostly renting SNS games yeah and I remember getting my my SNS and Mario All-Stars was that bundle that came with the bundle or whatever that was my first thing I bought yeah and that shit was fucking hot and it was really fun and And from there, like, I remember my friend, CP came over and brought over Mega Man X and totally hit it from him. And I was like, hey, man, I can't find your game, dude. If I find it to you, I'll bring it to you at school.

And he was like, all right, just because I wanted the rest of that Sunday to play Mega Man X because I was just like, this is the best game I've ever seen in my life. And I took it back to him. I was like, hey, I found it. Oh, I didn't steal. I was like, oh, I fell behind my... I forgot what I told him. Because I'll say that's a fucked up.

No, no, no, no, no. I just, like, I needed to have this game for one more day. Well, that's what's funny about you is if I were to describe you in a video game, it would probably be Mega Man X. Yeah. In terms of just colors and sound and all that and one. Oh, my God. Like, so many, like, even when I wanted,

Mega Man X is how I started learning how to write like harmonies in music, because I was in a band and I would look up all the tablatures, all the music sheets for the Mega Man soundtrack. and that's how I started learning how to write like, oh, that's how guitar is harmonized. Well, Mega Man X is like the guitar game.

Fuck yeah, dude. That shit's just fucking, yeah. So, even that the first opening level, oh man, that song is just,

it goes so hard. It's so awesome. I mean, all the Mega Man songs fucking rule. But I remember Colin saying that Dr. Wiley's castle on three is better than two, which is so false.

That is the most hipster-ass thing you can possibly say. I mean, Dr. Wiley's theme in two, is it overrated? No, it is perfectly rated. It is the best song. It's just a perfect song. It's great. It's fucking perfect. Yeah, absolutely. So Mega Man X was huge for me. Of course, link to the past. I was like the total guy. I was the guy who played all the like more known hits. I didn't really play any like weird offshoot. You weren't getting into that earthbound shit. Earthbound now is cool. and everybody likes it, but back then.

Earthbound was totally a game that I always saw in that big ass box on the top row. I don't know what the fuck that is. I want to play it, but I don't want to play. It was a big ass box. It was a large box. Yeah, so I said I'd get Mortal Kombat. My brothers and I would play Mortal Kombat or whatever. My brother

and I, not brothers. Yeah, and then like my aunt got the 64 when it came out. And I still had the S&S. I was like, oh man. She took it over for Christmas vacation. She lived in Austin, and we were still back home. So she would drive down with her family. And they brought over the 64. And it was like, oh my God, Mario. Dad, check dad. He can run anywhere, dad. Like, you don't get it.

He's not running just side to side. He can go where the fuck he wants. And that was such, like, mind-blowing moment to me. And so influential to me to see that, like, that this is what games can be, you know? I, you know, of course, I've been a fan of kind of funny for a long time. and Greg always mentions that Metal Gear Solid won, the first Metal Gear Solid was his moment of like, oh my God, this is what games can do. I'd say it was probably 64 for me. Which is still like so fucking brilliantly designed of like,

hey, yes, this painting has this hub world, but there's like seven different things you can do in that hub world. Like they do such a good job of doing so much with so little. Yeah, blew my mind. There's something about Mario 64. that is so special that I don't think I could ever be tired of talking about it and just enjoying the moment that you just explained. Totally.

Because especially for me, like that was that game that was like, oh my God. And it felt like you never learned all the secrets. Yeah. It was like Mario World was like that as well. But the fact that Mario 3D, there was just this level of creativity when it came to in 64.

Like the paintings alone as a concept. Yeah. Was so cool. You're in this castle and just exploring just the castle was so much fun. Not even going into the castle, just running around the grass and climbing the trees and doing backflips. Mario was fun to control. You know, just being, just playing. It was just like a sandbox.

Exactly. So everything else you added on top of it was just, it just made it even more and more brilliant. And it's just weird that I, there's been amazing Mario games since. And there's been some that I think are even better Mario games. None of them ever captured the pure brilliant magic of 64, where it's like the moments of that the room where there's the mirror. and you only see the painting in the mirror. Oh, yeah. It's like, are you fucking kidding?

The never-ending staircase. The never-ending staircase. Yeah. When you go to the first Bowser and then the floor drops open, but you always try to jump over the thing, even though there's an invisible wall. It's like those moments, man.

Fucking awesome. But 64 was the route that I did not take. I wanted a 64. My dad was like, get the Sony one. My dad's a big... Thank God. I thought you were about to be a Saturday boy. Oh, man.

My dad's a big electronics. like geek, right? So he's like, of course he's a Sony fan and he knows all the top brands. He was like, no, get this. It's on a disc. It's going to be better than a cartridge, Andy. All right. So we went for Sony went for the PS1 with the bundle and had a demo disc

crap of the wrapper. PS1 demo discs, man. And PS2, but specifically PS1, like those were a thing. Yeah, it was fucking awesome. So PS1 is the route that I took. So what does that route look like? Metal Gear Solid was just like

oh my god this I remember a it's like we called them my cousin but really he's been like his dad was my dad's friend since they were young so it's like we saw them all the time yeah I would just say my cousin

yeah exactly yeah and he brought over Metal Gear Solid and then he lent it to me and he was like yeah you can just borrow it when you beat it I was like oh my god and like the the codec on the back of the instruction booklet and Psycho Man does all that stuff just like

I'm sure everybody listening to this is like, yeah, we've heard this million times, but like, man. That's why, man. These moments are just things that we all share. Just incredible. And from there, I was like, oh, my God, whatever this Kojima dude is cooking. Like, I'm going to eat that shit. I'm going to eat that shit.

Yeah. So, PS1. I got to ask. What about my boy Crash? Hell yeah, I played Crash. Hell yeah, you did. So I played Crash 1 and 2 for the ones that I played. Wow, really?

Do I remember him a whole lot? Not really. Okay. Okay. Like watching the demo, watching the remaster, like all that shit I recognize, of course. I remember watching you stream it on your birthday. Yeah, yeah. And of course, I recognize all that shit.

I think Crash One is just a little bit more memorable to me because it was like the first, like, version of their mascot. Yep. So that's why it's a little bit more memorable to me. I have a weird memory. Like, I'm either not going to remember shit or I'm going to have like the most vivid, like, I was there and I can see it in my head right now. Yeah. But it's, I don't know, it's really bizarre. There's tons of games I just don't remember playing, but I did.

Even like the Mega Man games on PS1, like, very forgettable and I just don't remember them at all. Legends and all those, or you're talking about like the X? I mean, even like X, you know, fucking X-Ford or whatever. Yeah. So speaking of PlayStation, like, I got an ass based on the hair. Final Fantasy. Nah, it's just not your thing? Final Fantasy was never a thing for me.

A cousin of mine played it, and I remember going over and seeing, That's a lot of discs. How long have you been playing this for? He was like, I don't know, however, like a month or whatever. 17 years. And I just like, I didn't get into turnbase until Pokemon. I mean, that makes sense. I mean, honestly, I didn't get into Final Fantasy until after Pokemon.

Because I was a young one. There are games that I remember, though, that like, I remember a vagrant story. Wow. Was like, I have like a big memory from that game for some reason, even though I didn't particularly love the game. It's still like meant a lot to me for some reason. I'm like that with Legend of Dragoon. I didn't like the game, but I played it a lot. Brave fence from Musashi.

Yeah. Yeah. I fucking love that game. Yeah, I don't know. Just weird shit like that. And then so I always knew that I wanted to play games growing up. And then I got a PS2 and then popped in Metal Gear Salo too because a classmate led him to me. And I remember I was saving up for it.

And I mentioned my mom was like, you know what? I'll just pay for the rest. Like whatever you saved. And it was like awesome. So we bought it. We took it home. And my brother got home from school and I just kind of like walking in the living room. He was like I was like hey I want to come check on my PS2 and he's like shut up like he didn't believe me

he walked over he said oh my god the fuck just the way the black with the blue light like that box even just like it's a statement it's like you're getting a Sony fucking product right here like nowadays it looks a little dated yeah sure sure sure I don't give a fuck looking at the PS2 the original console it's a thing of beauty. That's just sleek black with that sexy ass PS2 blue on the top.

Super sci-fi looking. Popping Metal Gear Solid 2 and then just the intro on the Verrazano Bridge and just like Was it the Verrazano Bridge? No, I'm thinking Grand Theft Auto. But it was, yeah, that bridge.

Yeah. In New York. With the with the fucking Octo Camo bullshit he had on. The music playing. Just like this is like, how is this a game, dude? Yeah. Like how is this real right now?

How am I about to start playing this? And I remember seeing my friends playing the demo from the Zone of the Enders disc. Which seems like a very Andy game. I never got into that game. No, no, no, never did. Because I didn't have my PS2 at the time. I saw that demo being played. And my friends were the ones that had the PS2 before I had it.

So Grant the Vought of Auto 3 was another big like, oh my God, this fucking game is, this looks so cool. There was three big games at that time. It may have been, you know what? it may have been Grand Triismo 3, Final Fantasy 10 GTA 3 Devil May Cry

Final Fantasy 10 was a game that I did play a little bit of I put maybe like 20 30 hours into it And for some reason I didn't like I didn't hate it

I normally just don't like For example I popped in I popped in I started Cosmic Star Heroin Oh yeah And I was like Turnbase

Nope no thanks I just like It's not for me And I know I understand the greatness of Final Fantasy and what it means to games, but it's just, I cannot get into that shit. Oh, you know what? It was Devil May Cry.

Yeah. For a PS2 that like, the PS1 was also fucking awesome, but my friends... Well, there was no Devil May Cry on PS1. PS2 was the first one. PS2 was the first one. Okay, so then I guess it was that one. It was...

Because Devil's Cry was supposed to be Resident Evil 4. Oh, shit, I didn't even know that. Yeah, as they were directing it and like going down the path of making it. They're like, this is way more fun as an action game. And then they're like, fuck it, let's split. Because I remember, like, my friend CP and his brother Orley and his brother, Hector, they all had their games.

And C.P. was GTA3. Orly was Metal Gear. And Hector was devil-may-and-like. So, like, I'd go over and each one of them might be playing one of those games at a different time. I was like, God, I want that console. And eventually I got it and it was fucking awesome. So awesome. For me, I got my PS2.

I say fairly early on, but that was fairly on as a kid. because I got it before a lot of my friends did, but I still got it probably a year into its existence. When I got it, I had to trade in a whole bunch of games to be able to get it. And the only game I got with it was Crazy Taxi, which was like, love Crazy Taxi,

but I never had a Dreamcast. Dreamcast port to play it on that. But it was one of those PS2 games that had the blue bottom because it was CD-based instead of DVD. So it was like not the best example to like one of this beautiful new system on. I see.

But my friend had On Emu Shia, And that was kind of how our friend, one of my best friends current, it's how we forged our friendship was from him letting me borrow Ani Musha and just being like, holy shit, this game is choice. But then you played double-made cry. Did you a big favor. Yeah, Devil May Cry is so much better. Yeah.

So much better. Just stylistically, story. Everything was fucking great about that game. And it was so perfect for being a like 12-year-old kid at the time where it's just like hot topic's cool and like all that. Totally. The character designs are so. edgy. He had cool ass hair.

I was like, God, I want to be Dante, man. I fucking shoot people. Ebony and Ivory. Oh, man. I got a sword. All that shit was so fucking cool. I wanted to be Dante so bad. And I wanted the abs. I wanted the white hair for some reason. Trish. Oh, get out of town.

Get out of town, boys. And so what happened after PS2? So my quick PS2 story that I don't know if I've ever told on a show is the sound. The sound that the PS2 makes is so identifiable

where you just turn it when the PS2 is on just the sound of the fan oh sure it's spinning where it's like you would never really think about it but when you hear it like so I haven't had a PlayStation 2 like in front of me in probably a decade right yeah when I first started dating Gia

I was at her house and her roommate like isn't a band so he was like never there and we came over one time and it was just me and her in the place and like it was like dead silent I just hear this like I'm like Still kicking, huh?

This is weird I looked over at her We ate dinner We did this whole thing And then I was just like Hey, is there a PlayStation 2 on right now? She's like, what the fuck are you talking about? I'm like, do you have a PlayStation 2?

She's like, no I'm like, does your roommate? She's like, I don't know And I'm like, there's a fucking PS2 on in this house And I looked around Lo and fucking behold There was a PlayStation 2 on And I was like, what the hell?

The guy had left it on And he was using it as a DVD player With the cool ass blue and Oh, that sucks. Yeah. Yeah. So awesome. But yeah, that's sound.

You don't know you know it, but you do. And then I think it was, it was my friends playing Halo that I, that just like, I remember being, I fucking just have this fucking vivid ass memory of being after, waiting to be taken home to be picked up by my parents or whoever, or whoever, whatever, whatever stranger wanted to pick me up that day. And them talking about. hearing them talking about sticky grenades. I did not know where they were talking about, but it was like my best friends, the same three brothers that I was talking about. And they were talking about, yeah,

they got this game called Halo. I was like, what the fuck's this Halo game? And I remember playing Halo with them and just like, oh my God, this multiplayer game. Like, it's the funnest fucking thing I've ever played. I'm going to go to Austin and babysit for my uncle.

And with that money, I'm going to buy an Xbox. Well, before I even went, my dad was like, you know what? I'll buy it for you. Oh shit. So I had the fucking the green see-through.

Whoa, limited edition. Yeah. Okay. Oh, man, that fucking console was so awesome. Dude. And just with the console first person shooters,

like there was obviously golden eye and everyone fell in that. Sure. Yeah. Perfect dark came out. I was like, oh my God. But then the spiritual successor was time splitters, which was on the PlayStation 2.

Did you ever play that? No, I did not. No. Fucking awesome. But it's very much a golden eye, perfect dark kind of successor. in a dying age for what those games were. And I love them so much.

But it's like, it's kind of in the space between spaces between GoldenEye and Overwatch. Okay. It's time splinters. But then when Halo came out, Halo did for console first person shooters what Mario 64 did,

which is like every single thing felt perfect and from sticky grenades to just how the split screen worked to the names of all the characters, like the donut and Tucker and like all the shit. All the red versus blue names are based off of just the default name, caboose, in the game. And it was just like, there was like a lore to it.

There was a lore to the multiplayer, which is amazing. Yeah. And just countless matches of that. Like, Blood Gulch, Beaver Creek. Oh my God. It was always like, if you want a shit to get real, it was CTF on Hangum High. Oh, yeah. And like, that's where, like, that's where you tested your true skills.

See, for us, it was Death Match or Slayer on Hangum High or CTF. or CTF with a full team on Blood Gold. Yeah, yeah. Boarding action snipes, Shiron shotguns. God damn, man. So many great memories from Halo. And like the constant system linking

from one room to the other at my friend Leo's house, like keeping his parents up late at night. There'd be like 10 kids in his fucking house, like playing Halo and yelling at each other and getting into fights and like arguing with each other and shit. Yeah, man, Halo was huge for me. Not only, I guess I always had like my tight group of friends, but I think from there I started, you know, making more friends that were outside of my group, you know, other kids who were Halo fans. And yeah, Halo was so huge for me.

So from there, I was no longer a PlayStation boy. I was an Xbox boy. So I went 360. And most did. And Halo 2 was just, again, huge for me. Xbox 5 was Xbox. Oh, yeah, yeah, sorry, sorry. So Halo 2 was, we were playing XBC.

XBC, well, that was Halo 1 was XBC. Halo 1 was XBC, yeah. And going over to my friend's house. And you were into it. I like that. My friends had like, and I wanted that setup. I don't know how the fuck it was set up. I don't know what you connect to the router to this and that or the, you had a switch

connected to the router. Like, how the fuck do you even do this? But we would get home and type in the chat like, hey, we want to do CTF on hang them high. And they'd be like, all right, well, we want to do this in this match. And the winner gets to pick the third match or whatever, you know. And so we were just like playing HAL against random kids that before Xbox Live was even a thing. And it was just so awesome, man. Using like aim to coordinate. It fucking blew my mind. And then and then yeah, Halo 2 came around and that's when, when, uh, that's when things got real. That's when things got real. And then there were clan matches and

you fucking, uh, was that Halo 2? The rush to level 50. Oh, man. Matchmaking. Halo 2 was the birth of matchmaking. Halo 2 sort of introduced me to I think it was Halo 2 where you created your clans Oh yeah I mean clans were in a lot of Clans were in a counterstrike was what But yeah but like they introduced me

It's like the idea of like hey all of us can have the same The same symbol The same logos Team Kitty Cowboys And we were Hispanic panic And that's when I realized there's a lot of racist people on the internet After every match You fucking wet backs.

Like, oh my God. Jesus. So, yeah, Halo was huge for me. And then, um, I lost my two best friends to Halo too. Curran and Alfredo, both of them. Like, we were all so good. And I'm, I'm a casual player when it comes to Halo. Like, I'm not good.

But I had fun playing capture flag and just fucking around and shit. But I'm not good at it. They got so good. And they would just get hooked. And every night, they're like, got to get to level 50. Yeah. I got it. My KD, man.

I'm like, dude, what the fuck? Yeah, man. I remember the night that we got Roadrunner Roadrunner Roadrunner like we got fucking high speed internet we got Xbox Live ready to go and my first match was

I didn't know that you were I didn't know the the way the leveling worked on multiplayer so like my first match was a Slayer on Beaver Creek and I just fucking destroyed everybody I was like oh my god I'm so good at this shit I'm a fucking god yeah it's but like little that I know

that like you know that's not how worked out. You played the shitty people at first and then eventually you got better or whatever. But yeah, it was awesome. And so again, video games have always been huge to me and I was always drawing stuff. I was drawing huge into drawing Dragon Ball Z and Master Chief and fucking Resident Evil and all these different characters. So now we're Xbox 360. So we're up until what? 2006. Still had my, you know, I still had my, my, uh, I saw my PS2. When you started, working? Um, no, because I'm thinking of like Snake Eater because I still beat Snake Eater. Snake Eater was huge for me on PST. Yeah, that was like towards a very, very end. Um, and I,

the, the best bosses in the game in my opinion, the best collection. Oh, really? Of, of Metal Gear bosses. See, I can get down with that from a gameplay perspective, uh, but you can't beat the bosses from one, man. Yeah. That team is just so iconic. Yeah. Maybe the gameplay. Maybe that is what it is. But I remember, yeah, once I was done with Metal Gear and I was more of an Xbox guy, Xbox Live was just where it was at. That's where all my friends were at. That's where I got, that's where I made a bunch of friends who were like friends of friends. Suddenly I was friends of these people and I didn't know who they were, but we were playing online games together. And it was so cool. I'm trying to think of like what that timeline looked like.

Well, I mean, if it was Xbox Live, yeah, it must have been like that started with Halo 2 on the Xbox. Yeah. In a real way. Yeah. I'd say towards the end. Yeah. I remember my parents left for New Year's Eve. They drove to Austin for New Year's.

And my brother and I stayed home. And it was straight up. Play Halo from 2 p.m. until 6 a.m. Fall asleep, wake up like at 1. Play from 2 p.m. to sit. Like it was nonstop. Dude, we got to figure out some Halo lets plays. It was an addiction, dude.

Because I think that we could... That would be fucking awesome. We got to figure out, though, like, I'm talking OG. I mean, actually, with the Master Chief Collection, maybe... Yeah. Maybe we can get that set up in a more easy to digest the way. Yeah, absolutely. Not all shitty looking.

And so where am I now? So when did you kind of... Because, I mean, from there, we can kind of put together. Like, just what's the brief recap of you went 360 and then your PS4 boy now? 360 I went to I went to Xbox 1 Oh That was the first console I bought

Because all my friends were on it Because I had my gamer tag I only owned a PS3 Because I wanted to play incharted And then I sold my And then I sold my PS3 And then the last of us came out And I bought another PS3

Wow All used Like I was just buying them used From friends or from One of them I bought from Craigslist and then once that was over I sold my PS3 again so it was like I just played the exclusive

on PS3 or I saw friends play other games or whatever but like yeah Nottie Dog was like oh my god this is like next level type shit The Nottie God's man Yeah this is a next level type shit So that was awesome

But I was Xbox 1 all the way And yeah I was just attached to my gamer tag attached to all my friends on there And then it wasn't until I knew that like, all right, whatever Nottie Dog does next is probably what I'm going to do. Right.

And so now I think, when did I get my PS4? Because I bought an OGPS4 and then I sold that to upgrade to a pro. Am I using the pro to its full capabilities? No. You're using it. Not at all, yeah. But I'm having fun with it. So this is interesting to me because if I remember correctly, you became.

a fan of Greg and the whole situation via Beyond. Yeah. So you were listening to Beyond, even though you were a 360 guy. I started listening to Beyond probably towards the tail end of that generation. I think I had just gotten an Xbox One when I started listening to Beyond like around 2012, maybe. Wow.

Okay. Maybe 2013. Because I remember listening to it like listening to Beyond, listening to On locked. To me, I didn't know that I wanted, I didn't know that I wanted general topics from my video game people. So kind of funny it existed. And I was like, no, they're not like, I'd rather hear them talk about video games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like the radio show I listened to, Dan Lovatard. Back in the day, I would have never, ever wanted to hear anything but sports talk from my sports people. But now it's like, Dan Lillipatar talks about whatever the hell he wants,

because he hates talking about sports. And I love that shit. I just love like the general talk. I didn't know that that's something I wanted out of my video game personalities or whatever. But yeah, so I was at home and I knew that I wanted to, I was living back home and I knew I wanted to live to Austin to pursue my career in art. So where is home in relation to Austin? Home is five hours south of Austin, about four and a half, five hours, right on the borders, the southern border of Texas. and I knew that there were no programs there down there that really benefit me.

And so I had tried to make a career in the music industry and that just didn't go well because, of course, how are you going to make it in the industry as like five Mexican kids trying to play like indie pop rock, right? I love it so much. And so we quit that. What was your band called? Ambalina. It's a character from the Coheding Cambria universe.

Oh, okay. Coheed and Cambria have this big story saga. with all their music. I'm a huge coheed fan, so we named the band Amblina. And so once I figured out that wasn't going to happen, we moved to Austin, like actually me and three other friends, moved to Austin knowing that like, yeah, let's leave the Valley, let's try to do something cool up here.

So are these the same friends that have been like here the whole time? No, one of them is CP. And I've known him since I was five. and then JP and Alex are two of the other friends. And so we all moved to Austin. We got an apartment. We were right out of, a little bit out of college.

We were like 19 years old, 19 or 20. Sorry. And so going to school there, I applied at Austin Community College because it's cheap or whatever. Wasted so much time there. Oh my God, I wasted so much money and time. Like, you get these cool-ass loans

and you're just like, I guess I can do whatever I want with these loans. but you can't, it turns out. But of course, you'd get this, like, $3,000 check, like, damn, I always wanted that laptop. You know, it's just stupid decisions. Like, you put that money away and, like, you know, pay off the loan later, but that's not what we did.

No, it wasn't. And so I took, like, a golf class at ACC. Yeah. Me and my two Mexican friends and the coach called us a three amigos, which is kind of racist, but it was fine. And so, took a golf class, took a singing class, took like stupid classes, right? But it wasn't until I was in a graphic design class. And I'll never forget the teacher's name. I don't know if I should name

it. Probably not. But I remember her name. She's the only teacher I'll ever remember because on the final day of school, I had really caught my stride with just art at that time. And after not doing art for a while, because I was doing music a lot, I finally got back into it. And on the final day of class. She had always liked my project. She liked what I'd done in, uh, in, I got good grades on everything. Uh, and on the final day, she said, hey, um, can you, can you wait after class for a bit? I was like, and then we fucked. Yeah. It was crazy. No. Um, she, uh, everybody was gone and she was like, what do you want to do with your life? And I was like, I, I don't know, I want to do something regarding art and she was like, well, you should really go to a real university. Like, talking shit about

Austin community college, which if you go there, sorry, like, that's, that, I'm sure she just had like, like, some sort of thing against it. She was like, look, you need to go to a real university and harness your skills because you're probably not going to get that here. Like, go to a real school. You have a real talent for it. And, you know, I was learning Photoshop at the time. I was, you know, fairly proficient. So I took her advice and it was like the weirdest thing for me because coming from a middle, middle class Hispanic family, maybe a little bit less than middle class,

an art school just never seemed like a possibility. You know, that seems so expensive. It's just like, oh, we don't do that. Like Latinos don't do that. We don't go to art schools. And I talked to a lot of friends and they were like, you should fucking do it. You should apply. So I applied at the Art Institute of Austin.

and of course you just get in, right? They just want your money pretty much. But again, that's where her telling me to go there is what started my path to get here. So I went to Austin Community College. I was taking like 2D animation classes and graphic design and illustrator

and all sorts of shit. Video editing, that's how I got my start learning after effects and premiere. And I wasn't sure, what I wanted to do, I thought I wanted to 2D animate, but I realized that I wasn't super great at that. Like I can I can family guide 2D anime. It was just like

walking and talking and moving. But then I would watch anime and I would see a guy like running on a building and jumping from a building. It's like, I cannot do that. My brain, I can't see that shit in my head or whatever. So so

I think it wasn't until I took a couple of 3D classes. And I was like, I kind of like this shit for game design or whatever. And then they opened... So were they game design classes? They were like 3D modeling for like film or games or whatever. They were more taught, I believe, in the film,

with the film sort of guidelines, which are kind of different, which are way different actually from games. And we're like building environments and building like guns and chips. And I was like, man, this shit's really cool. And I'm digging it and I feel like I'm pretty decent at it. and then they were like all right now build a character

and I tried it I was like oh man I'm bad at this like fuck I guess this isn't what I wanted to do what do I want to do like I was terrified what am I going to do I'm at this expensive school

super scared you know I'm a warrior just naturally I'm pessimistic all the times like fuck I'm fucked like yeah I'm not good at this and then it wasn't until I took a 3D art class with

a guy named Isaac Oster who right now is working at certain affinity and they've they are like the team that all of these big studios look to to make DLC for like they worked on the Master Chief Collection they worked on the Doom multiplayer they worked on all sorts of shit

like all the big studios go to them for like their extra content because a lot of that stuff's outsourced and he was super talented so Zbrush is like 3D digital sculpting which is how you get the super nice high resolution looking characters in games to me when I was modeling with just boxes extruding like edges

and I was like how the fuck does a character look like Nathan Drake out of this and then I was like oh that's Z brush that's why it looks so good and I started learning Z brush and I was like all right I'm pretty good at this and I like it and I'm digging it and and then I, what's it called?

What's the word when you go learn at a school, when you go learn at work? Intern? You interned. Yeah, that's the word, Kevin. So I interned at Sony Online, which is now daybreak, but Sony Online Entertainment with one of my prior teachers, Ben Nauman, who's the environmental lead.

And I emailed them, I was like, hey, I got to get a credit for my internship, He's like, hey, come intern over here. I was like, super easy. So I entered in there for a few months. On my second day, there were layoffs. It was like the most terrifying thing. Like, knowing that like these guys who have been in the industry for 10, 15 years and they're super fucking talented and they're, they don't have a job anymore.

And I'm just there like, oh my God. Like, what am I doing? Like, this sucks already. Damn. So that was terrifying. But I needed that to graduate. And then we had the portfolio show, which is. kind of like where you showed off all your shit.

And I won best in show at the Portfolio show. And I was like, all right, I think I'm kind of good at this. And I want to get a job. And my teacher, Isaac, who was the Zebras teacher, really liked my stuff. And he, like, at the portfolio review, he was like, yeah, this looks like a colleague of mine. Like, this looks like, you can do this. And so super encouraging, great boosts of confidence. And then I graduated

And a couple months later was like, hey, I want you to take over my job at my old studio. Like I'm recommending you to have my old job. You can take my spot because I'm leaving for a certain affinity, which is at the place he's still currently at. And he was at Portalarium, which is Richard Garriott's studio, Ultima. I didn't play Ultima.

I don't know any of that stuff, but I knew that this guy was like a legend in the industry, you know. He is the reason why characters are called avatars in video games. Interesting. He, he, it's, I, Kevin, can you Google this for me? Avatar comes from, I forgot what, what language of, I forgot what the language of origin is, but he is the reason why your character in a game is called your avatar. He's the reason why

He created MMO RPG As a tagline He's just like this fucking legendary dude And he's been to the fucking space station Of course he has He went to the space station like in 2008 He and his dad are the only father's son pair of astronauts that went to the like

It's just crazy The dude's fucking soup But he's like the nicest motherfucker Like he's so awesome dude he has like a Hinduism there we go he has like an original

Sputnik in his hanging from his ceiling All right All right His house is like Amaze I don't know He's just the coolest

motherfucker fucker So I knew that like I'm working with somebody Legendary here I better not fuck this up And I had great co-workers there And And it was awesome

Because it was my first game's job And I remember like My first stand-up Standing up with everybody And being like I'm gonna be working on this shield in the game or whatever it was I was making. A door, which is

what everybody gets, the rookies get signed, assigned to like make doors and stupid shit like that. But to me I was like, I can't believe that like my job is to hear this guy talk about how he's working on the fucking flame spells to look brighter or whatever. Like, it's just so surreal to me that like I did

it. I fucking did it. I'm in the games industry. And and that was great. And it was, I learned so much there. And I had really great co-workers and great teachers there because I, you graduate, you think you can do it. And suddenly it's like, oh, you guys do a lot more shit here than what I did in school. But I learned. That's how it happens, man. Yeah, I learned. And I, and it felt great. It felt great to, to learn from people who had been doing it for several years. My coworker Bob worked on

like games like, he worked on a couple Lord of the Rings games, but he also, the best, the best fact about Bob is that he worked on... Please tell me he's 50 cents blood in the sand. No, he worked on the environment in demonic from, from, from, from grandma's boy. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, they like, they contracted his studio to make the fake game that is demonic.

That is amazing. And he worked really hard on the environment. And then he was like, yeah, and then they, and then at the last second, they added big ass wings to that motherfucker. And suddenly you couldn't see any of my work. Because the wings like expanded and like covered up all of his work. That's so funny. Yeah, so awesome.

So I learned a lot there at Portlarium. And I met my coworker Abe who is this Wiz kid. He was I think 23 at the time. And I was like 27. And he got a game's job straight out of high school. He didn't go to college. He had been, he worked on the Black Mesa Half Life 2 mod. back when he was like in high school

like 14, 15 year old and he'd just been doing it his whole life he was just his prodigy who knows how to make art and code and design and I met him there and he's cool and like we became friends or whatever but he doesn't work

super well with certain types of leadership and so after like eight months he pieced out to go work for rooster teeth and I was like, motherfucker's going to work for Roosite. Because I had been listening to Roosteat for several years already. I was like, man, that's fucking awesome. Like, good for Abe, right?

And then, I believe it was RTX 2015 when I met you guys. And the VIP party was going down. And he took a picture with, fuck, he took a picture with somebody there. One of the, one of the online personality.

personalities there. They're not RT. Visual effects guy. Wong. Oh, Freddy Wong. Freddy Wong. I kept wanting to say Justin Wong, but that's the street by NBC. Yeah, Street Fighter Marvel. So you met Freddy Wong there and he took a picture with him. I was like, you're at the VIP party, piece of shit. And he was like, and then he texted me. I commented on this photo and then he

texted me. He was like, hey, come over. All right. So I went over and I was like, how do I get in? He was like, we're going to pretend that you're boyfriend. I was like, all right, I'm down. And so we walked up to the front, we walked up to the, we walked up to the door and, you know, there's a line or whatever. And I, like, like, waved at him as if he was my boyfriend, right? I don't know, I just kind of like, and so, yeah, so, so I did that wave and I get up to the line. And I get up to the line. and he fucking chokes. He goes,

hey, this is my best friend. And I was like, oh, you motherfucker, dude. And the door guy's like, sorry, man, can't let him in this and that. And he was like, what if I have Bernie come over here?

Like, he didn't even know Bernie at the time. He had been working there for like, I don't know, a month or something like that. No, you know what? He had not even started there yet.

Oh, my God. This was like when he had accepted the job, right? And the door guy is like near a staircase he's like elevated right

and there's like railings and I'm on the floor walking near the railings and my friend just Abe just kind of like gives me the eyes or whatever so we walk aside the railing and he just like tosses me his badge

fuck yes I'm gonna go to the back entrance now walking up to the back entrance like all right I hope this works super nervous and I walk up and door guy's like hey what's up man and I was like I'm just trying to get back in and he just kind of looks at me, the door guy. I kind of look back at him. He's like, Andy Cortez.

And I was like, David, I forgot his last name. I was like, David Garza or Pena. I forgot what the fuck his last name was. And he's like, dude, fucking Best Buy, dog. What's going on? Like, we worked together at Best Buy with each other for like six years or something. And he was like, how you been, dog? I was like, I'm doing great.

I'm just trying to get back into the party. He was like, get the fuck in here, dog. So we just like walked in, like, totally no problem. And that's what I met all of you all. And then I met like, and that's when he was like, my Abe who's, you know, working at RT, was like, hey, why don't you mean Michael Hadwin? Michael Hadwin was drunk as fuck, as a lot of people were. And but I still went to go talk to him. And he was like, hey, I think Andy would be a great addition to the team to be an artist.

And he was like, oh, great, man. So we started talking this and that. Michael Adwin is the, is the studio head. Yeah, the head of RT games. and then nothing happened after RTX which is like I came on from such a high from like meeting you guys from like you all recognizing the art that I had made

and talking to Michael Haddon and being at the party and like mingling it just felt so awesome and then after RTX I was like oh man like I guess I have to go back to work at my old studio which is like you know being in the game industry is kind of a privilege anyway but I still felt like oh man that was my shot

and then I think December, going to Christmas break, my buddy Abbas text me and was like, hey, after break, do you want to come interview for RT? I was like, oh my God, I got the call. I got the fucking call. And so I was like, of course, dude, of course. And winter break comes. And I'm back home visiting family, knowing that I was, no, I'm still in Austin, but I know that like in two weeks I have an interview with RT. And Kevin texts me and lets me know how awesome Phantom Menace, or not Phantom Menace, Force Awakens was, because

he just saw it early with Paula. I was like, oh, it's fucking awesome. And I'm at Raman Tatsuya and Austin, and I'm walking towards the line, waiting for my friend, and I see Bernie Burns in the front line with Ashley. I was like, oh my God, Bernie's in the front line. What the fuck? Oh my God. Like, get super nervous, like, oh, man.

And my friend gets her, I was like, that's Bernie Burns. And she was like, who the fuck's Bernie Burns? Like, I don't watch your nerdy shit. And so we walk inside Robin Tatuio. I'm like hug. And I kind of joke around with her. I look to my friend and I'm as if I'm talking to the coworkers.

I'm like, can you just sit next to them, right? That'd be kind of cool. Sure enough, they seed us right next to each other. So we were sitting down. She knows that I'm like nervous the whole time.

It's like, it's her, me, Bernie and Ashley. And I'm just like, oh man, like super nervous. Or maybe it was Ashley Bernie.

And then she goes to the restroom, my friend. I was like, this is where I'm going to talk because I don't want to feel embarrassed in front of her. I turned on. I was like, hey guys.

Sorry to interrupt. I just want to say hi. I'm a sponsor. Been a big fan for a long time. They're like, oh, great, man. Hey, nice to meet you. Totally nice. Of course.

They're like, Bernie and Ashley are fucking great. And then I was like, I have an interview with you all in two weeks. And they're like, oh, really? Wow, that's fucking awesome. It was just cool as shit. And then went to go do the interview two weeks later, called the day off from work. Or I said that I was sick or something.

Yeah. they wanted it to have been taking note of that if Andy ever says he's sick oh what I'm feeling kind of feverish so I knew that I knew that I wanted to be there longer

even if they didn't want me to be their longer you know they said hey come for lunch we'll go out to eat we'll talk to you for a bit but I was like I'm gonna like supplant myself in this fucking spot and so we went out to eat and after we got food I was like I'll just walk back with you off the city

at that's cool and they're like all right that's cool But I remember, like, walking and be like, oh, it's Miles. Oh, fucking, oh, that's Blaine. Oh, this bar. Like, it was so cool, man. Like, again, come, you know, coming from the perspective of a fan who's, like, watched these people on the internet for several years to now, like, having this shot to be able to work with them at the same company.

It was, like, so cool. And I remember getting home after the interview happened because I didn't go back to work. And I'm like, all right, I guess I'm just going to take a nap, you know. like 5 p.m. And then I get an email five minutes later. Like, wake up, look at the email. Hey, here's your job offer. And like, oh my God, freak the fuck out.

Freak the fuck out. And like, I'm, I didn't know what to do. I called my parents. I'm like, you texted me. Yeah. Yeah. I remember, I remember even texting my dad. He's like, I mean, you've got a real great at where you're at.

And you're like, how much do they pay you? I was like, well, they're paying me this much. You're like, oh, shit. Like, that's a good, you know, boost up from what you were making at your last spot. And I was like, yeah, plus, like, just go to their YouTube, Dad. Like, this is like a real, this is a big deal, Dad. I was so upset when I got that text. No, you were.

I was. I really was. No, you were. I had long, plan. Kevin's a long Connor. Yeah. He was planning. He was scheming this forever.

When I got that text, I texted you telling you the movie was great because I was waiting to hear back. That's a true story. Yeah. Hmm. I was like, fuck. It all worked out, but. Ha! You know what I mean?

Ha! Yeah, so that's, I mean, like, again, working for Rucididth was so fucking cool. My first day was the first day of catered lunches. We had tacos. I was like, oh, my God, this place rules. I was just there last week, and now it's at the point that, like, catered lunches, people like, do we even really want this right now? No, like, yeah.

I mean, it was chelancho at first, and now it's, like, weird shit. Chilantra, it was chelotro this time, too? Really? Oh, but was it, look, the taco bar? No. Because this was like a create your own taco. This is a create your own taco. It was fucking radical.

But yeah, so now it was like a roostertyth employee. And it was cool. And I was like, man, I'm like kind of employees. It's kind of funny. Like we're almost on the same thing because like I had, I kind of suspected that you all were doing the let's play thing. You didn't tell me out right. But like I knew. You know, like.

Well, also, I mean, even before you were at rooster teeth, you were designing our shirts. Right. Yeah. So that was kind of also happening on the side. That's how we kind of got close. Even before I got hired at RT. Like I was still at my old studio and I remember you all were looking for a graphic designer. And I said, I emailed you and I was like, hey, I don't have a portfolio for graphic design.

I could do it. But that's not what my portfolio was geared to. And you're like, hey, it's all good. We already found a guy. But do you want to make the garbage truck on fire shirt for a t-shirt Tuesday? I was like, sure. So I made that. And then you kept coming back to me and it was great.

That was right. Because then we were looking for logos for when we did PSI Love You. Yeah, yeah. So we're looking for someone to make the PSI Love You logo. And we ended up going with Zach Silver, who's fucking awesome. Yeah, who's like an actual like, hey, this is what I do. Yeah, this is his job. And he's done PSI Love You, the morning show, the Game of Great Show, the new games cast, all our logos.

Yeah, all the imaging for a lot. But you were always so good at the more like, like, more drawn stuff. stuff, more art, fun, like, t-shirt designs, you know? Yeah. Well, I mean, it was the initial drawing of U4. It was calling his Mega Man, you as ass. The games cast picture. Yeah, yeah, actually, yeah. But I drew that drawing, going before RTX.

And I was almost done with it. And I, like, oh, dude, if you can finish that, it would be fucking rad. And then I remember finishing it and being at the kind of funny panel at RTX. And I'm the type who's like, if you know me, I won't ever, like, want to talk to, like, personalities or celebrities. I'm just like, hey, I'll let the mob get them. If they want to talk to them, I'll wait. I'll wait my turn.

Like, I'm not super anxious about that stuff. I know that some people, you know, can feel weird about things like that. So I wasn't going to mention the shirts to you all, like, right then and there. But then, uh, Sean Pitz, who loves doing that shit, was like, love you, Sean turned around and Sean turned around and looked at me. He was like, hey, Andy, do they know that you're the guy who drew that thing? And I was like, no, I mean, don't worry about it.

Like, not yet, but it's all good. And he was like, hey, Tim, of course. Like, this is Andy, the guy who did the thing. So then that's how like you all like recognize me or, you know, figured out that I was a dude who'd do that stuff. And then, yeah, so then the shirt designs just started coming after there. And I think I've made like, I think I made maybe 10. shirt designs before I even got hired here.

Yeah, there's a bunch of shirts you've designed that we haven't even released. You're dismissed, the Colin one. Shoehay? Shoehay, yeah. I believe in shoe hay. Yeah. For PSX.

The Greg Miller. You know what I'm saying? The one that didn't sell. And what was the other one? What's up everybody? No, that one was in me. Oh, was it not? What's up everybody was not me?

I thought that was Tim or you. Or that was Nick or you. What's up? money. Maybe I don't even remember what design it was white. Oh, it was the white Greg's face. There's been multiple Greg's face. The thing is, the thing with Greg Miller is that he says something and he's just like, we gotta get on

a shirt, got to get on a shirt, you get on a shirt, and it's like, it's not gonna fucking sell. Yeah. Yeah, it is what it is. Yeah, so there's been a lot of shirts made. There's been a couple shirts that like, the one shirt that you need to finish at some point is the PlayStation one. Oh, yeah. We never fully got the idea down, but, but, you know,

But the concept is the KF to look like the OGPS logo with the colors with us as like polygonal characters, like looking like Laura Croft style shit. Final Fantasy. Yeah. The idea is there, guys. It is. It is. All right.

But, yeah. And so, yeah, I've made a shit ton of shirts. And so when I got hired at Rouser Teeth, that really made it easy for, because you all would talk about me. as well to Ruth's Heath employees. So, like, I remember the first time I met Blaine, he was like, hey, so how do you know kind of funny? So that was like, that was really easy and cool for me because I was the new guy, but I was,

I already felt really accepted by a lot of the, the quote-unquote personalities or, you know, the people who are on camera a lot. Yeah, the cast members. Because you all had talked about me already. So I didn't feel awkward or whatever. Because, again, like, if I, unless it's like maybe, I don't know, President O'Brien, Bahama or something. Unless it's like a really important, huge celebrity.

But if it's just like somebody walking on the street, Chad's his arm just going to be like, oh, that's that guy. I'm not going to say hi, but that moment's all you need. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I just don't want to feel like I'm a burden on them. Yeah. If they're sitting down to eat, I just always felt,

I've always felt weird about shit like that. I got to look back and find at some later point, my text with Bernie, because you texted me when you saw him at the ramen restaurant. And I think that after you talked to, him I texted him and then we had it back and forth and I was like this kid he's a good kid I forgot what don't but don't you take him was so classic Bernie where he's just like okay good I'll make it happen yeah like you know it's like god you're so fucking cool like that man's just

not bad man Bernie's like the bad man of the world he is yeah he's just cool as shit yeah like even him even him tweeting about me when I left over here so cool it just makes you feel cool. Yeah, and the whole process too because like obviously it's all love between us and rooster teeth. Like when we were first talking about bringing you over like that was totally like I'll never forget it was we're at the outback classic us. It was me and Kevin a lot of big decisions at that outback. But it was me and Kevin. We're just talking about like we're like dude like we need we're ready to make a move. We want to hire an editor and like we want that person to be somebody that's not just an editor but also a content creator like a producer.

and like that is as funny if not more funny than we are. An every man. But like not an every man though. Like I've told you this before. Like we wanted someone that had the right personality and the right sense of humor. So it's like it's not just somebody that can do everything. It's we need somebody that is a content creator. You know what I mean?

And I feel like that's a very specific thing when it's like I like that I can task you with something and you could make the product. You get I'm saying top to bottom. That doesn't mean you're in every man. That means you are a. producer. So like if we were to give you a title, I would need, like we refer to you as editor all the time. I would actually say it's more akin to content producer. Sure. You know, or content editor. Either way. It doesn't really matter. But me and Kevin were talking about it and we're like going through all the options because we knew that we wanted to ideally hire from the community, you know,

and we were like looking through thinking about a whole bunch of people and like as we were going through some names and there's some obvious people out there that we did consider. But when we got to you. It was one of those things where Kevin was like, dude, Andy man. Andy's the man. And I'm like Andy's really good at all these things. But I don't know if he has like we need someone that at their core is an editor. Yeah. We need that like that is the whole purpose of us. I told you of us hiring this. You can teach someone how to edit. And Kevin's like you can teach him. You can teach him. And I don't I don't know. I don't know. And like we just kept talked. But by the end of the conversation, I was so sold where I'm like, you're fucking right.

Like I'm just trying to talk myself out of this for some reason. Like, Just let it happen. I'm sure he can fucking do it. And then I remember, I called you and started talking to you about it. And I was just like, can you edit? I think actually that I texted you. I was like, can you're like, well, yeah, I can. I mean, I can do a lot of shit.

That's the thing. Like, to me, editing is like something that I, like, I did in After Effects four years ago. And it's like, yeah. Like, I can edit. Yeah. I can fucking, you know, create complex 3D models. Of course I can edit. Like, it was like one of those things.

like yeah I can learn Premiere whatever like so so that that's when it for us really hit the like oh shit this is real let's make this happen and as we started talking it was like the number one concern was like this needs to be all good with rooster teeth like we do not want to fuck up those relationships because those guys have been so good to us

and like all of them and like once we got kind of got like a real kind of interest level from you that's when it was like all right Andy we're going to reach out to the big dogs we're going to make this a thing you're like all right man do it yeah and that we hit up Jeff and Bernie and like all their like we went on all way up to Matt, the CEO.

Like we really kind of talk to the whole gamut of motherfuckers over there. Yeah. To be like, hey, we're doing this. Is it cool? And they're all like, fuck yeah, man. The thing that impresses me most is being at rooster teeth last week and seeing every single person that talked to me mention you and mention how proud they are of you and how excited they are seeing you kind of be given a platform that you didn't necessarily

have at rooster teeth. And they're all like, dude. Andy's in his fucking element. Like, it's so cool seeing him that way. And what's awesome is that ranges all the way from your team and your bosses to the Bernie's and Barbas and Blains and, you know, the more front-facing people. But then also just like the camera guys and like the dudes that just started a couple of weeks. Shout out to Ben there.

And just in Peyton McLeod. There you go. There you go. But it's like, it was cool seeing animators talk to us. Like people that I don't even really know, but they knew me because of you. You know, they didn't know me because they're kind of funny fans. They knew me because, oh, Andy is. With those guys.

Went to go work. Yeah. And it was like, this is fucking rad, man. Like, you definitely made an impact there. I'd like to think that I did. You did.

You did. I mean, I had a lot of help from you guys, of course, but. But that's what's cool. It's like, I like that this is,

it is a community, you know? And like, that's the, the coolest thing about it is you legitimately came from the community. And just like everything

that we want to try to do is it's just like, we just like the same thing. We just talked for an hour and seven minutes about shit that we like, that we share these, you know, situations with and it's like the amount of times that I've called you and like dude we need a shirt

for t-shirt Tuesday tomorrow here's my idea can you make it work and you're just like yeah yeah yeah yeah can and then you send me something I'm like change the colors I don't like this and you're like all right man did you change it and you're like here here's the thing I have a totally different idea and you pitch it to me I'm like fuck that sounds better can you get it done just like yeah give me two hours that happened like every fucking month I think I've heard I heard Nick mentioned this before of the, when Tim calls you and says, what are you doing? No, no, or like, so how's it going? So what are you doing?

That's how I, that's how I start. And that's what I know, like, I'm about to have a long night. Dude, my favorite thing I did to you was when we were about to announce the partnership with rooster teeth. So going into kind of funny live to announcement. the day we announced was March 28th I think I told you

like March 14th or something merch redo and I was just like it was during South by Southwest I was like hey dude you're under NDA right now

there's a huge announcement coming here it is now I need you to redesign all of our merch we're doing a whole new store refresh that shit I was like I have all these ideas you're like oh shit

all right dad You made it happen. I remember. You made it happen. But it's just weird for me to think about like, again, all those things that could have gone wrong along the way. Like, if I never worked, if I never, like, really became friends with Abe, he wouldn't have wanted me to work at RT. And I would have never met, like, it's so fucking bizarre to me. Like, I'd like to think that even if I kept going, if I kept, if I kept, like, making art for you guys.

Because, again, the reason why I started making art was the most scheming way thing possible, the most Tim Getty. scheming thing was like I would see on Twitter Barbara and Bernie always retweet all these RT artists I never really see I haven't really seen and and then I would follow them right yep but I never really saw a dedicated kind of funny artist person that would like just make fan art and stuff like that so I want to be that guy yeah and and yeah so that that's essentially why I'd like to think that maybe I still would have even gotten hired here had I not gotten RT or anything like that but like, but they were like, there were weird times of like working at my old studio when I was still under contract and there was a round of layoffs and they were going to be more layoffs and I was

just, I remember talking to my friends and being like in a pretty dark spot not knowing, not really being sure of my future and like talking to my friends and being like maybe I'll just go back to school and get my teaching degree and move back home and you know just teach art somewhere or whatever. Yeah, yeah I am but but my coworkers were just like no man we're not going to let you go. Like my coworkers, Hutch and Bob are like the fucking homies. And they're like second and third dabs to me. They're just like, no, we're not going to let you go, dude. Like no matter what happens, we're going to fight for you to stay here.

And they did. And I stayed there. And then I met Abe and then I worked at RT. And yeah, it's fucking crazy to me. Two morals of the story that I think are important for people at home to listen to. Because I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that are like, how can I get into the industry? How can I do this? No matter what your ages, whether you're in high school or whether you've graduated college years ago,

Two things that you did that are very important are one do the thing you love You want to do art just fucking do art and yeah you tweeting it us or whatever that's brilliant That's that next level scheme stuff but simply just doing it and getting it out there You're giving it a chance to succeed sure if you don't do it there's no chance right second thing You met Abe you met me you met Kevin you met that dude at best by that got you into the party Yeah even if you think that what you're doing right now is totally useless. You never know. Like always try to meet the, meet cool people and learn about them and what they're doing. And in the back of your mind, think about like, how can I

apply what they're doing to what I'm doing? Because yeah, dude, working at Best Buy, like it or not, working at GameStop, those are a step towards being in the industry. Yeah. You know, you meet people. Meg Turney worked at a GameStop. I'm sure she did. With my one of my good friends, Isaac. Alfredo Diaz worked at a game or Best Buy for years. Yeah. You know. And it's like, that's how the shit happens. And it's like a cool thing to keep in mind, Alfredo worked at a Best Buy and had a lot of co-work as a Best Buy, super cool dudes and chicks.

And most of them now work for IGN because that's how that shit works. Where it's just like one by one, they just start getting picked off. I hate the idea of it's who you know. I think it's more of it's who you know if you're fucking, if you're really passionate and good at what you do. And like, again, a lot of where I can.

got in life was who I knew, but I don't think that they would have wanted me to be in those positions if I wasn't capable enough. But I mean, that's, that's it. It's a combination. Practice the shit out of your craft and try to make friends and be social with people, even though it might be tough sometimes. Because I know I'm the same way. Like, I feel like I can be very loud and talkative and I try to be funny in videos or whatever. But when it comes to like being in social situations, I'm not super easy to, it's not super easy for me to go talk to this guy who, worked at this company that I could possibly have a future within the company. Well, that's thing.

Don't be like that. Yeah. There's a difference between being swarmy. Yeah. And don't be swarmy. No. Yeah. And like, schemey and thinking.

I use the word scheme very liberally. Sure. Everyone's like, stop using that word. I'm like, I like it. Yeah. But it's like, no, you need to, it all needs to come with you. Like, you need to be scheming with yourself of like, believe in what you're doing. Keep doing it.

And it's not about who you know, but it's about being willing to know people. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Because then they will see. the talent or whatever the fuck it is that you have. The last question I have for you, Andy. 30 second reviews.

You've been here three weeks or whatever. We've thrown so much at you randomly. This has been very little consistency. However, it's kind of what kind of funny is. You know us. Garbage truck on fire. You're probably familiar. How has it been for you?

And do you think that did you make a good choice? And are you excited for the future? Yeah, I think I, again, in my first day being here, I was like, what did I do? I don't like any of this. I don't like San Francisco. I want to go home. Really?

I want it like, no, not my work day. The first night of like moving into my spot, you know, even though like Kevin's mom was great and she hooked it up and everything was fucking awesome. But I still like, there was a moment where I'm standing aside along my bed frame and I stood there for maybe 20 minutes just like looking at my bed. And I had all this shit that needed to be unpacked. and I was just like thinking of like was this the right choice

and I think it was I think I knew that I had made the right choice when I saw the reactions from people after the first Gog I did where I remember DMing Colin and being like man dude everybody's gonna want me to be the next to you huh? And he was like you'll be fine dude

don't worry about it like you're gonna be fine. But I was still super worried. And it wasn't until seeing the comments out of that I gog and everybody being so welcoming and not everybody, right, but a good chunk of people were like, hey, I like this guy, you know. And I think a lot of that was due to due to the confidence that I had from the 30-second videos that I made. Like, I don't think I would have ever had the confidence to try to be funny on camera. until I had a little bit of a following on Twitter to make those videos to then get on camera here

and try to be funny in front of people. And it wasn't until I saw those comments and I was like, man, I guess this probably was the right choice. And ever since then, I like that I've been used to do a bunch of different shit. I've been editing, I've been designing, but I've also been able to get on camera and try to make people laugh. And I get a lot of great feedback on Twitter from people. being like, yo dude, I don't know who the fuck you were.

My favorite comment from one guy was like is the same sort of attitude that I would have probably felt towards a new person and he said, man, I saw this guy and I was like, fuck this guy. And then I listened to him and I listened to him talk. And I was like, I like this. I feel like I'm the same way whenever I see a personality that I'm not super familiar with.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I get it. And I again, like I told people on Reddit. Like, look, if I'm not your type of humor, I get it. Like, that's totally fine with me. But the people who have been really welcoming has been really awesome and really humbling. Yeah.

So I think I totally made the right choice. Fuck yeah, man. We love having you here. It's been such a change in the office and how this all feels, but in a good way. You know, it's like it's in life that we definitely need it. Cool. So I appreciate you. Well, thanks for hiring me.

Yeah. And I appreciate all of you at home. Thank you for supporting us on Patreon being the best, motherfuckers in the entire damn world. Thank you, Kevin. Thanks, Kevin. Until next time. I love you.

The mic is off.