Things have been busy here for a while and we knew we needed to bolster our forces if we wanted to keep apace of our production schedules, so in recent months we've added a few new faces to the development team. Some of you keen-eyed readers might have noticed new names in our credits, and now's the time to let them introduce themselves. Welcome the newest faces of Paizo!
Eleanor Ferron, Developer
Hello! My name is Eleanor Ferron. I just joined Paizo back in January as a new developer, and it hasn't quite sunk in for me yet. I'm amazed to be a part of this team!
I got into tabletop roleplaying back when I was ten years old, when my brother started buying RPG books and bringing them home. As I was dedicated to my role of annoying younger sibling, I promptly stole all of his books when he wasn't home and read through them as well. I wasn't able to play until much later in life, but I was fortunate in joining a dedicated RPG club, which exposed me to all sorts of RPG systems and styles. In 2015, I started freelancing for Paizo, and it's been exhilarating to share my creations with the Paizo community.
I originally was trying to break into the RPG industry as an artist; I've illustrated RPGs such as Short Order Heroes and the Queen's Cavaliers. The fact I have now been hired as a Paizo writer is a clue to how well that went.
Luis Loza, Developer
Hail and well met! My name is Luis Loza and I'm happy to be your new developer! I've been playing tabletop RPGs in some form for almost 15 years. My first experience with Pathfinder was a random picture I found online which featured the cover art of The Skinsaw Murders with a caption proclaiming it to be the scariest night your characters would ever have. My interest was piqued and I was fully hooked shortly thereafter. I jumped into Pathfinder, fell in love with the setting, and never looked back.
My first freelancing gig with Paizo was writing spells for the Giant Hunter's Handbook and I've done plenty more since then! (I keep a list of my credits on my profile page.) I guess Paizo liked me enough to bring me on as a developer and I'm excited to get to work! (Note: This is actually my second time on the Paizo blog, the first being a random picture of me from PaizoCon years back. I told myself I would mention this fact if I eventually worked for Paizo, so here's to you, Luis from 2013!)
Ron Lundeen, Developer
Adam Daigle didn't believe me when I said I wanted to come work for him full time. He knew I had a career as an in-house attorney for a large company, but he didn't know that all my freelance writing, freelance developing, and blog post authorship was part of a long-ranging scheme to live my dream by working at Paizo. My wife, in particular, was more supportive than I deserve when I told her I was angling to pursue my dream job. And now I've done it! I've moved my family from Chicago (where the winters are cold enough to kill people and the summers are hot enough to kill people) to the Pacific Northwest. We were greeted with a Christmastime snowfall robust enough to build a snowman with my kids. That's a rarity here, I've been told.
I've been hurled into the deep end of Adventure Path development—more specifically, the back end of the Adventure Paths, where the articles, gazetteers, new monsters, and "what's coming next month" all go. I see a lot of variety packed into the backmatter, from articles about noble spy networks to flaming ghost monsters to wicked halfling gods. It's a rush to see all the goodies Paizo's stellar freelancers have created, and still a bit of shock to realize that coordinating and developing it all is my actual job now.
Everyone at Paizo has been incredibly open and helpful, from setting up useful macros to showing me around the cavernous warehouse, and from talking about bicycle trails to work to explaining what a "Fred Meyer" is. I'm thrilled to be with such an energetic and friendly group, and I can't wait to bring these wonders to you!
Michael Sayre, Developer
Hello! My name is Michael Sayre. Before joining Paizo as the new organized play developer, I've worked as a lead designer for Dreamscarred Press and Drop Dead Studios, and done freelance design and development for companies like Amora Games, Lost Spheres Publishing, and Rogue Genius Games. If you're a fan of third-party materials you might recognize my name from projects like Dreamscarred's Akashic Mysteries, Drop Dead's Spheres of Might, or Lost Sphere's recent City of 7 Seraphs Kickstarter. Working here at Paizo is going to present me with some amazing opportunities to help develop and grow the adventures for the organized play community and I'm looking forward to helping the team as we work on the current and future seasons.
Chris Sims, Developer
Life is weird. It's like a strange dream moving along unexpected paths. I'm a Starfinder developer now. How did that happen?
I knew from an early age that I wanted to work in games, but in a massive failure of imagination, I didn't ponder the design and development route. I trained as a graphic artist, thinking that was my road to a game job. When D&D's third edition came out, it revitalized my love of the game. I delved deep, and I reviewed d20 products. Owners of a few such products asked me to edit or develop for them. I did.
Then, Wizards of the Coast issued an open call for freelance editors. I answered. The rest is history.
For fifteen years, now, I've been in games. I've worked on Magic, D&D for the last three editions, Pathfinder, and a few digital offerings, including the upcoming State of Decay 2 video game. With plenty of ups and downs, I've been a freelancer and an in-house contributor. I've had the privilege to know a lot of fine folks in this industry.
It's to these relationships that I feel I owe many of my past successes and my current lucky arrival here on the Paizo Starfinder team. Yeah, I have experience and skill, but being a known variable helped, I'm sure.
Anyway, that's enough history and philosophy. I'm excited to be delving into a new game yet again. My work on Starfinder is supposed to focus on Adventure Paths, which is right up my alley. Since I started, though, I've been developing and designing all kinds of game elements, from hybrid items to aliens, starships to new rules. Like an explorer looking for that big find in the Vast, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. And, I can't wait to show you what I discover.
Adam Daigle
Managing Developer
