I’ve had a wild imagination since childhood. I loved acting out ideas through play, drawing, or creating stories I sometimes believed were real. For example, I told my best friend clouds are formed when you kill a giant and then their corpses turn into smoke and float up. Weird.

My obsessions always became art – the games I played, family moments, or crazy stories I made up. My teachers hated it; my school diary was full of drawings, not words. Their criticism of my “heavy hand” only made me more competitive, pushing me to improve. My biggest thorn in my flesh has always been my constant need for reassurance of my worth, this only added to the competitiveness.

When the internet came around, I quickly adapted to forums and online communities. I joined Newgrounds early on in 2004, alongside SheezyArt and DeviantArt around the same time. My curse for reassurance really took hold on these platforms, and I became obsessed with drawing alongside the communities there. But it felt more positive – it was like being on a shared social art journey with others. That experience has stuck with me, and I think it’s what eventually drew me to game development.

My style has jumped around a lot over the years. Cartoony stuff as a kid, anime in my teens, then painterly on professional forums. After that my style mutated to whatever the project needed of me. Like during my Pixadome years, my work turned brighter and cuter. These influences eventually merged into my current, darker style.

It took us three years to complete the game, and by the end, both Jonas and I were completely burned out. Jonas worked entirely off his savings, while I juggled a full-time job at a AAA studio, Sharkmob, alongside the game’s development. The final product didn’t perform particularly well commercially, but it remains one of my favorite creations. I still replay it from time to time.

While Hayfever didn’t sell much, it won several awards and gave us opportunities to travel the world. Those efforts helped us make a name for ourselves in the industry, and I’m proud of what we achieved.

We were preparing to shut down Pixadome when a group in Boden, Sweden, reached out. They’d found an investor for their studio, “Frozen Waffle,” and Jonas had been doing work for them. During that time, Jonas mentioned a game idea we’d planned to make: Chenso Club. I pitched the game to them, and they asked if Jonas and I wanted to join forces, keep the Pixadome name, and make Chenso Club together. We agreed.