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Ruth Brent Tofle, chair of MU's architectual studies deparment,
gives Ken Feldman a hug at a Kate Ellen Rogers Gallery presentation.
Elizabeth Townsend photo
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Playing
Games
By Teressa Tignor Gilbreth
As a child, Ken Feldman’s parents became
disgusted with him for playing endless hours of video games indoors
instead of frolicking in the Missouri sunshine like the other
kids on the block.
They grounded him by limiting his video play
to one hour per day, saying, “If you keep sitting in front
of that computer, you’ll never make anything of your life.”
The Feldman family laughs about this story
today as Feldman now works as a lead artist for Sony PlayStation
in Santa Monica, Calif., making more money than his parents do.
Feldman holds what his teenage niece, Brittani,
and her friends call their “dream job.” No doubt it
is also the dream job of many students at Feldman’s alma
mater, the University of Missouri-Columbia College
of Human Environmental Sciences.
He surfs the ocean waves outside his residence
three to five mornings a week before going into work at 10:30
a.m. Play is an integral part of his job. But he is quick to point
out that hard work is a definite job requirement and something
that is very important to him.
When working on a project deadline, he works
12-17 hours a day, six to seven days a week. He recently completed
one of those deadlines and was able to take a month off to travel
and snowboard.
He worked on a fantasy epic PlayStation 2
game similar to the popular Lord of the Rings movies.
Such projects take 18 to 24 months, 50 people and an $18-million
budget to develop.
The part that Feldman is responsible for is
designing the environments that the characters interact with —
the forests, Greek temples, factories and submarines. This task
was a natural fit with his background, which is environmental
design and architecture.
He earned bachelor’s and a master’s
degrees in 1993 and 1996 respectively from the college’s
Department of Environmental
Design (now called the Department of Architectual Studies).
He was the first student to graduate from the department’s
Design with Digital Media graduate program.
He chose MU because it was close to his St.
Louis home, he could qualify for in-state tuition and because
he could attend Mizzou sporting events. Originally enrolled as
a political science major intending to go to law school, Feldman
changed to environmental design after his first year.
“As a kid I was good at drawing and
building things,” Feldman says. “Everyone told me,
‘You’re going to be an architect.’ I didn’t
want to admit they were right.”
A member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity, he
had won Homecoming banner competitions and really enjoyed the
challenge.
He worked for the Gray Design Group, a St.
Louis architectural firm for two years between
degrees at MU. Although he enjoyed that work, he doesn't want
to go back to it.
“I came out here (California) with big
eyes, intimidated by this industry, but my education from MU and
my work habits fit right in,” Feldman says. “I landed
a great job right away.”
Before his job at Sony, Feldman worked for
EA Sports, helping develop titles such as Tiger Woods 99
and James Bond, “The World is not Enough.”
Lately he has been advising some MU students
who want to follow his path. He tells them that it’s a growing
industry that always needs more people, so they should work hard
on a portfolio, get involved in online communities and play lots
of video games.
Note: This story was published originally
in Vanguard, a publication of the College of Human Environmental
Sciences.
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Last Update:
March 12, 2007
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