[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]  Sandy Petersen 🪔 [@SandyofCthulhu](/creator/twitter/SandyofCthulhu) on x 41.9K followers Created: 2025-07-25 19:17:15 UTC I am a full time game designer, and I've had this job from 1981 to now. Until I founded my own company in 2013, EVERY SINGLE GAME except one (Lightspeed 1991) was assigned to me by a corporate suit. The Man, if you will. I'm not complaining - the Man treated me well. I had a decent salary, generally good benefits, and a fun work environment (i.e., I wasn't with EA or Disney). But from Call of Cthulhu to Halo Wars, Someone Else picked my topic. Was this bad? Not necessarily. The Man is paying my way, so ought to get a say in what I do. How did I deal with it? Easy. I made every game my own. It's not like the suit was micromanaging every step - or at least when they tried I was able to push back. Example: around 2005 I was told to create a game about pirates, but like Diablo. While Diablo Pirates was not something I would have chosen, I plunged into it. I researched pirate activity from 1500-1750, I created pirate classes: the Brute, the Sea Dog, the Dandy (Captain Hook was a Dandy in my system), the Weird, etc. I created a whole complicated campaign, interesting enemies, both random & fixed, mini-quests. etc. etc. By a month into the work, I was dedicated to Pirates Diablo to the point I was evangelizing it to others at Ensemble Studios. Then it got cancelled so the team could be moved onto something else. That's the dark side of corporate picking your game project I guess. But hey I got paid for my time (probably a little under a year). And since we weren't EA we didn't all get laid off as a result. We just went on to other things at the same company.  XXXXXX engagements  **Related Topics** [sandy](/topic/sandy) [$lspd](/topic/$lspd) [walt disney](/topic/walt-disney) [stocks communication services](/topic/stocks-communication-services) [Post Link](https://x.com/SandyofCthulhu/status/1948824887168303323)
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Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu on x 41.9K followers
Created: 2025-07-25 19:17:15 UTC
I am a full time game designer, and I've had this job from 1981 to now. Until I founded my own company in 2013, EVERY SINGLE GAME except one (Lightspeed 1991) was assigned to me by a corporate suit. The Man, if you will.
I'm not complaining - the Man treated me well. I had a decent salary, generally good benefits, and a fun work environment (i.e., I wasn't with EA or Disney). But from Call of Cthulhu to Halo Wars, Someone Else picked my topic.
Was this bad? Not necessarily. The Man is paying my way, so ought to get a say in what I do. How did I deal with it? Easy. I made every game my own. It's not like the suit was micromanaging every step - or at least when they tried I was able to push back.
Example: around 2005 I was told to create a game about pirates, but like Diablo. While Diablo Pirates was not something I would have chosen, I plunged into it. I researched pirate activity from 1500-1750, I created pirate classes: the Brute, the Sea Dog, the Dandy (Captain Hook was a Dandy in my system), the Weird, etc. I created a whole complicated campaign, interesting enemies, both random & fixed, mini-quests. etc. etc. By a month into the work, I was dedicated to Pirates Diablo to the point I was evangelizing it to others at Ensemble Studios.
Then it got cancelled so the team could be moved onto something else. That's the dark side of corporate picking your game project I guess. But hey I got paid for my time (probably a little under a year). And since we weren't EA we didn't all get laid off as a result. We just went on to other things at the same company.
XXXXXX engagements
Related Topics sandy $lspd walt disney stocks communication services