Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Bofenkamp.
Hi Matthew, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
People often tell me that I have a lot of very weird and unexpected life experiences. I’ve lived a nomadic lifestyle on a boat in the canals of rural England, discovered a new virus and got it named after me, been homeless, became mildly youtube famous for knowing a lot about foreign languages, cofounded an independent game company, been attacked by an entire flock of pigeons, and worked for celebrities. It’s been a weird life, but a very full one, and I owe a lot of it to my background.
I grew up in the town of Federal Way, Washington, often (lovingly?) known by locals as Felony Way or The Dirty Fed because of its high rates of poverty and crime. Federal Way is in the top 5% of most dangerous cities in the USA and over two-thirds of the students at my high school were on free or reduced lunch because a $3 lunch was a financial burden for their families. I loved the community of Federal Way, and I’ve met a lot of my favorite people there, but it’s not known for opportunity and producing successful people. My parents pushed me from the day I was born to be the most academic person I could possibly be so that I could escape poverty.
Luckily, it worked out, and I got to go to Carnegie Mellon University: a world-class institution full of rich people. It was a culture shock for a lot of reasons, but I’m very grateful for the opportunity to go there. I started as a biology student because my background instilled in me that the best possible outcome for me was to get a career that was a ‘safe bet’ with a middle-class wage and job security, even though I didn’t like biology, but I could tolerate it, which I figured was good enough. My advisor saw that I wasn’t happy in biology, and pushed me to try new things until I found a career I liked. That’s how I fell into video game development, which I loved (and still do, thankfully!). I loved creating something and how people-centric the process was, and the great possibility that interaction has in media. I always considered going into video games too risky growing up; I always thought that was one of many careers that was only for rich people, and the chances of me becoming a professional game developer were about the same as that of me becoming a duck. Not the best odds! But my advisor and others in the field convinced me that it was a risk worth taking, and I’m forever grateful to them that they put so much effort into changing the course of my life in that way.
I made my first game in 2016; it was tiny, janky, and all about cheese (because obviously, what else would anyone make a game about?), but it was mine. I loved the process, and I loved bringing something to life, and I loved working closely with a team full of people with such different skill sets. It hasn’t been the easiest road, and I’m still very much haunted by poverty, but I have a roof over my head, food on my table, my heart is in the work, and I’ve brought to life some things that I’m very proud of.
Three years ago, I co-founded Lunarwood Studios with one of my friends from Federal Way. We’re working on our first game: The Old Manchestor Place. It’s a story-heavy turn-based role-playing game that plays like a mix of Undertale and Wario Ware about a diverse group of teenagers facing their own mortality for the first time. It’s far from finished, but we’ve been showing off the demo at various showcases and people are really enjoying it, so I’m really excited to watch the game develop. You can follow the game and its progress here: https://linktr.ee/lunarwoodstudios
I’ve also gained some fame as a youtube personality due to my frequent appearances on the channels Cut and Jubilee, which has been unexpected but amazing and opened up lots of doors for me.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
A lot of my struggle has come from my background in poverty. Poverty isn’t very highly talked about or understood by people who haven’t experienced it personally, but the biggest part for me wasn’t necessarily about what can and can’t be bought, but about how it feels. Poverty is heavy. It feels so hopeless all the time. With rising costs of education, it’s very difficult to afford the simplest of post-high school degrees for lots of people born into poverty, blocking opportunities for jobs that pay well enough to save up for education. And with rising cost of living, most people in poverty in cities (who are living in the cheapest housing available) are spending 60%-80% of their income on rent, and with food and utilities and transportation and toiletries added in, there’s so little left for saving up for education. To be in poverty is to know in your heart every single day that this is your fate, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. It won’t matter how smart or talented you are if you don’t have the money necessary to prove yourself. I still feel this weight a lot, because I know that it wouldn’t take much to send me right back there.
Also, when you’re poor, there’s a semi-unspoken rule that so many things just “aren’t for people like you.” This is something that affects me very deeply, A career in video game development definitely falls into this category. I like to think that it’s not true and that anyone regardless of childhood income can become a great game developer, but I’ve met extremely few people in the industry who weren’t born into the middle or upper class. Those who are in the industry and grew up in poverty almost always keep it a deep secret out of fear of experiencing classism. I always try to be very “out” as poor, in the hope that it will help more people understand just how horrible poverty is, and that I may inspire others from backgrounds like mine, but at the same time, I often feel like my belief that I can have a career outside the realm of my background is immature and delusional, like one day I’ll wake up and realize that this was never going to work out, and then I’ll resign myself to becoming a line cook, falling in with the wrong crowd, getting addicted to drugs, and dying tragically young. That may be overly specific and dramatic, but I know very well it could be me. Every homeless person, every collector of food stamps, every reluctant criminal who feels like they have no choices but crime or starvation, they all could have been me. As far as I’m concerned, we are the same. I just got lucky. I have to hope the luck doesn’t run out.
Lastly, as you might expect, I’ve faced my fair share of classism as well. More often than not, it’s people assuming that I’m stupid or dangerous or inherently lower in value than they are. The best-case scenario is that people tolerate it and move on. It’s extremely rare for people to show interest in learning more or see my perspective as a useful window to look through. Sometimes I get microaggressions, like the old classic “why don’t you just stop being poor?” which (1) I don’t know, why don’t you stop being a jerk? and (2) wow!! I never thought of that before!! Great idea!! I’ll just magic tens of thousands of dollars into existence, golly, thanks!! One could argue that this question comes from very ignorant people who want to learn more, but context is key here. This question almost always comes up when someone is annoyed that my poverty is an inconvenience to them, which I find incredibly selfish. For example, once when I was in college, I was assigned a new team for a group project. One of the team members sent out a message in the departmental WhatsApp group that our team was meeting in a location at a time.
However, I wasn’t in that WhatsApp group because I didn’t have a smartphone. Back then I was rocking my $10 flip phone for emergencies only (like a boss), so I never knew about this meeting. Later, the group member who sent the message (who was born into a rich family) came up to me angrily and demanded to know why I didn’t show up to the meeting. I explained that this was the first time I heard about the meeting and why, and his response was to roll his eyes and ask in a frustrated tone (you guessed it) “why don’t you just stop being poor?” This wasn’t the first time I had an oh-so-lovely interaction of this nature with him, and he has a very bright and shiny career in games now, much brighter and shinier than mine, and is well-liked by his peers. Unfortunately, blatant classism isn’t much of a dealbreaker in this society. And if this story angers you, keep in mind that many others have treated me far worse. I’ll keep fighting though, don’t worry.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My biggest goal as a creator of games is to bring joy, understanding, and catharsis to as many people as I can. I often say that if there’s some 14-year-old out there somewhere who I’ll never meet, but can forget the crappiest parts of their life for a couple of hours a day by enjoying something I helped create, I’ll have led a good life. I believe that joy is a very underrated emotion, and I believe in the power of stories. I don’t consider myself the kind of person who will change the world, but I do think that I can change SOMEONE’S world by creating something that they can connect with and be inspired by. We all have stories that we hold dear in our hearts, and I hope that one of mine can find a home in some stranger’s heart.
My games are very varied in tone and style; I’ve made a game about using physical control panels and yelling at your friends to drive an actively crashing submarine (The Unfathomed Voyager), a brutally honest story game about the struggles and hard decisions that come with a life in poverty based on a collection of true stories (BROKE: The Game), a platformer focusing on the ancient practice of the Northeast Indian Khasi people of redirecting the roots of living trees to form walkable bridges across chasms (Rubber Fig), and a turn-based role-playing game about a diverse group of teenagers confronting their own mortality for the first time (The Old Manchestor Place). I generally think of mechanics first when developing games, since it’s so key to engaging players. Most of the mechanics I come up with exist in some variation of “controlled frenzy” as I like to call it; I force players to make lots of rapid movements with their hands, often to do something at least a little bit silly and laughable. I think movement is very fun, and I do my best to maximize that into oblivion.
In terms of subject matter, I am often drawn to stories of communities and cultures with virtually zero representation in our media. I have a great desire to make others feel seen, and it’s clear to me from seeing people react to what I’ve created that it’s very simple to achieve and very powerful to let someone see themselves in the media for the first time. For example, one big ongoing project of mine is the creation of a playlist on Spotify with one song each in as many languages as possible (currently I have over 500). The playlist has over 7,000 followers (which astounds me), and while many of the songs in the playlist will never result in one of its speakers stumbling upon my work, I’ve had people who speak minority languages unheard of in the west (Osing, Ingush, and Atayal, to name a few) who have told me just how shocked and excited they were to see their language be represented. That feeling of joy is so powerful, I’m always drawn to trying to recreate it as much as I can in my work, whether that means shining a light on the Khasi people or foster kids or anyone else who hasn’t felt seen in a specific way important to them yet.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
The biggest thing I’d say is to always make sure you keep moving forward. Even if it’s hard, or you feel like you’re moving forward too slowly. Having spent so much of my life surrounded by poverty, I’m very aware of how hopeless and out of reach certain aspirations can feel, and how discouraging it can feel if it seems like you’re not going forward in life as fast as others around you. You’ve got plenty of time ahead of you. You don’t need to get your dream job at 24 or 30 or 40. Life isn’t fair, but that doesn’t mean you can’t fight. Nobody can stop you from fighting; they can only make it seem less worth your while, and it will ALWAYS be worth your while. Even if fighting just means sending out a job application once a day for a job that pays more than minimum wage after you get home from your second or third job. Any forward-moving pace is useful. You never know what tiny action will give you an unthinkable opportunity.
And even if your dreams do feel not worth moving towards, ask yourself: what is it about those dreams that really appeals to you? Is there something more within your reach that could make you feel those things too? If the answer is yes, then the opportunity that changes your life may be much closer than you think.
Lastly, to anyone who wants to pursue a career making games (especially if you’re a teenager or younger), live the fullest life you can. Have a hobby or be an expert at something outside of a screen. The best games I’ve seen always come from people who have libraries of real-world experiences to choose from. If you have an opportunity to do something, especially something new, especially if it scares you, say yes. Don’t go putting your life in danger or anything, I’m not trying to get you in the hospital, but having experienced many things and many different types of people will make everything you create so much richer and more powerful. Plus you’ll make memories, it’s win-win.
Contact Info:
- Website: matthewbofenkamp.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthewbofenkamp/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matthew.bofenkamp.3
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-bofenkamp/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/matthewbofen
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MatthewBofenkamp
- Other: https://linktr.ee/matthewbofenkamp
Image Credits
Youtube behind the scenes photo by Emeke Nkadi.
