Today we’d like to introduce you to Jobye Karmaker.
Jobye, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m a Canadian Video Game Artist living in West LA and working at Respawn Entertainment! I specialize in environments — helping bring to life the worlds you run around in, in video games. I’ve most definitely strayed from the path my Asian parents wanted me to take, no Doctor or Engineer to be seen here!
I started out my career up in Montreal, Canada where I studied 3D Art, and from there, I’ve moved a fair bit. From the beginning, I always knew I wanted to take full advantage of the global industry that the video game industry is! I spent five years living and working in Toronto at Ubisoft Toronto (working on games like Splinter Cell, Far Cry, etc.), and 1.5 years up in Seattle working at Monolith Productions (Middle-Earth: Shadow of War). About two years ago, I finally moved down to Los Angeles to work at Respawn Entertainment on Star Wars – Jedi: Fallen Order.
Los Angeles has frankly been the favorite city I’ve lived in so far. The great landscapes within earshot, the diversity of people and neighborhoods and not to mention the beautiful weather (I don’t miss the Montreal cold and snow) have all got me enamored with LA. Being a bit of a ‘foodie’ (I hate using that word), LA is the food mecca of the world. You’d be hard-pressed to find this sheer diversity in food anywhere else. I love both discovering new restaurants and cooking at home (can see some dishes below). There’s a lot to love in LA, I’ve had some of my best meals here and can pretty much find everything under the sun with the diversity of cultures and people here. Still working my way through Jonathan Gold’s Best 101 list from 2017.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Having moved around a lot by now, that part was actually smoother than I thought! Every move has somewhat gotten easier, though that just might come from experience going to city to city. I feel it’s gotten easier getting used to a city quicker, meeting people, etc. I hear that’s not the case for most people coming to LA, but I was lucky to have a buddy here who is an expat as well and had been living here a few years, who showed me around.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from living in different cities, the best parts aren’t the downtowns or the tourist areas of a city. Where it’s at is the different neighborhoods outside of the downtown core, that’s where you find the soul and fun of a city. That’s been true for Toronto, for Seattle and for Los Angeles in a big way. Whether it’s driving down to Long Beach for some amazing Cambodian food, or driving up the windy roads of Malibu Canyons for some breathtaking views or taking a long beach-side bike ride down to Redondo beach to get great popcorn shrimp at Quality Seafood along with some craft beer at a nearby bar, there’s so much to do and see. LA is so much more than Hollywood and the superficiality it’s known for, you just have to dig a little deeper under the surface!
As far as coming to work in the US from Canada, getting a visa was definitely tricky initially. It can be a long process depending on which work visa route you go.
As far as being an Artist in Video Games, as in any other medium, there’s always impostor syndrome to deal with…with every new project, every new company. In my nearly ten years in the industry, that’s definitely a constant. To a certain degree, you get better at dealing with it with every project, but sometimes you have curveballs as I did when I moved here — it took several months to find my footing and confidence at work!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
The company I work for is Respawn Entertainment. The founders are the original creators of Call of Duty and as Respawn, they’re best known for the Titanfall series and most recently, their latest hit, Apex Legends. I’m on the Star Wars project, JEDI: Fallen Order (can see our Reveal Trailer here: https://youtu.be/0GLbwkfhYZk), which releases on November 15th, coming up real soon! Above all else, Respawn prides itself on making games that feel good to play. You get your hands on the controller with one of their games and it just makes sense and feels good.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m an Environment Artist, so I specialize in working with a team to bring the worlds to life in video games. So, the spaces you run around in, fight in, shoot each other in, that’s what I have a hand in creating. It’s never a dull moment creating these worlds and is a big collaborative effort between many disciplines, Level Designers, Lighting Artists, etc. What might set me apart at this point in my career is my ‘well-rounded-ness’. I’ve worked in a multitude of kinds of art, genres and styles. Whether it be fantastical art, organic art, architectural art, sci-fi art, etc., I’ve touched a bit of everything as you can see in the images below.
What were you like growing up?
I think I was definitely a bit of a nerdy kid growing up. I was very into fantasy novels, into video games of course and very driven into doing well in school, a bit of the Asian upbringing coming up there. Early on in High School, I knew I wanted to get into video games one way or another. I initially thought I’d do it through Programming, but in the end, I went the art route.
I feel I did a lot of my growing up once I left home and started my career though. Moving from city to city, meeting great people, I’ve grown a lot as a person. Sure, you do miss home from time to time, but I wouldn’t trade the experiences I’ve lived for anything else.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jobyek.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jobyek/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jobyek
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jobyek
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=zvFQl7FHhXyfuCbaZbIBSQ
Image Credit:
Personal photo by Nacho Yagüe
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