Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Franchina.
Mike, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always enjoyed drawing and creating worlds, but it seemed a bit far fetched that I could make a career of it. I actually went to school at first for computer science. But I failed all my classes and realized I was drawing in all my notebooks, so I decided to switch to art.
During college, I actually started doing some freelance art for some tabletop RPG companies and getting paid absolutely atrocious rates. I mean way less than minimum wage. But I just kept doing it and improving and getting better jobs.
Eventually, I got lucky and managed to get a full-time job at a videogame company. EAMythic, now long gone, on a game called Warhammer Online. Warhammer is one of my favorite universes, so it was a real dream come true to get to work on that game. As is often the case, especially with EA, the game didn’t do as well as they hoped, and so everyone got laid off. I then moved to Runic Games in Seattle and worked on Torchlight 2. After that, I moved to Blizzard and worked on Diablo 3 and 4, and some unannounced games.
I’ve since left Blizzard and have gone freelance again and have been really enjoying myself. After lunch naps, no meetings, its heaven.
Has it been a smooth road?
The videogame industry can be pretty volatile, and getting laid off isn’t fun. But I’ve always been a really hard worker, and I’ve managed to have job opportunities available. The hardest part has been balancing expectations with reality and getting too attached to a project I’m working on.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I focus on designing dark characters and disgusting monsters. I’ve been fortunate to be able to design gross monsters for a lot of companies, and I hope I can keep doing that.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I’m hoping with the advent of AI, more individuals will be able to create more by themselves. It’s so expensive to develop games, these big companies typically make the safe bet and its always a bit vanilla. I’m looking forward to more unique voices in games.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artstation.com/sirfrancisdrake
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @mikefranchina
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/mikefranchina
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
