Meet Chris McGinnis!

In the beginning was dark and void. Then the powers of art and technology collided in a tremendous explosion and a hero was born! Well, at least that's the origin story we imagine for Chris McGinnis, the latest creative to join HakJak Studios.

Whether it's forming towering sculptures of steel, or bringing life to characters in a video game, Chris has a knack for creating things that involve both technical and artistic skills.

How did he arrive at this unique point in his career? Let's find out!

Chris grew up in a small town in Ohio where he enjoyed the great outdoors and clean country air. He went from being an Eagle Scout to earning his degree in Sculpture with minors in both Computer Science and Art History. He also practiced what he learned, building cool mechanical sculptures and even becoming a glassblower apprentice at a local shop.

After graduation, Chris used his newfound skills to land a job at a set building company in New York City. Naturally, he moved into an illegal loft with 15 other artists, living around a central gallery where they would host events, make art together and party the night away. There he met his soulmate, got married, and they continue to create things together to this day!

While working in NYC, Chris learned welding, carpentry, CAD software and CNC machining. He also taught himself 3D modeling on nights and weekends, with the dream of making games! After a few years of this, and starting to become more active in the NYC gamedev scene, he enrolled in a graduate program at NYU for game design where he learned from amazing teachers, created several works he's super proud of, and graduated with a Master's in Game Design! His thesis project was even accepted into the NYU Incubator program and "Cognition" was released shortly after to the iOS marketplace.

Upon finishing this, Chris was immediately hired by a game studio where he worked closely with several veteran game developers, built up his skills significantly, and helped deliver 5 games in 5 years! Wow!

After 12 years in NYC, Chris and his wife were ready to leave the big city and moved from Queens to a tiny village in Ohio with less than 4,000 people. There they enjoyed gardening, hiking, and creating. Life was good, and Chris was ready to move on to a new role in the gamedev world where he could really flex his creativity and grow his skills in both art and programming--that's when he found us! We feel super lucky to be working with someone like Chris and know he'll help us make each game extra awesome!

Chris in a Nutshell: