About the Artist & Designer • Mike Barrette's Worktable

ARTIST. DESIGNER. WRITER.
COLLECTOR OF TINY PICTURES.

FORTY-SEVEN PROJECTS

"I haven't had an original idea in twenty years, but I do love to recycle."

Sci-fi aficionado, music nerd, and collector of things that sit nicely in little boxes, Mike is fascinated by the possibilities of exploring endless worlds without a spaceship, or even getting out of his chair. Twenty years ago, he skimmed an article on parallel universes, and hasn't been the same since. Self-taught through the internet, he managed to see a few lectures and partially read dozens of books on string theory, particle physics, and quantum mechanics-- some of which he almost understood-- and all of which became fodder for a slowly evolving project in world-building and story-telling that fifteen years and a dozen game projects later, became Alphazett.

MAN OF CIRCUMSTANCES

"I was never very good at planning. I never knew what I wanted to do or be when I grew up. I usually just fell into things-- studying architecture, for example, because I liked a drafting class I took in high school and to me, an undeclared major just sounded like more high school. Then in the 90s, I learned 3D modeling software because an instructor friend was looking for students, which in turn led to my first game-industry job because "knowing computers" was about all you needed back then. Twenty years later, and I still know nothing, but at least I've discovered that I can tell a good story."

From architecture to exhibits to games, after thirty years in the trenches, Mike took an extended break starting in 2017 to focus on his writing, art, and finally building out the world of Alphazett, which keeps him busy on most days that he isn't goofing off. Meanwhile, the other animals in the house are generally glad to have him around underfoot, even if they do miss their quiet afternoons.

GAMES LIFE

FOURTEEN COMPANIES

Leblanc Architects
Mintz Architects & Planners
Forma Architects
Morphosis
SLAB Architects
Barry Howard Interpretive Exhibits
Edelstein Associates
Turner Exhibits
Eyefly | Zombie Studio
Microsoft Game Studios
Surreal Software
Warner Brothers Games
Cryptic Studios

In all honesty, there is a disconnect between my experience of working on a game project and the game itself-- either as a finished product or as an entertainment experience. Only about half the projects I've worked on were ever released, while the rest were failed experiments-- either creatively, financially, or both. Sometimes you knew from from the outset that the project was doomed, but you had to make the most of it. I almost always found a way to be creative and have fun, though, even when I disliked the project itself. When I stopped having any fun, it was time to take a break.

Twenty of those thirty years were spent building games, first as an "artist," the all-purpose designation for anyone who doesn't write code, then as a designer, where more code probably would have been appreciated. Whatever the designation, his intrinsic value went beyond his obvious skills and creativity. Trained as a designer, but self-taught as an artist, he was comfortable in both milieus, and able to ameliorate the often fraught dynamic between the different production teams.

A WORLD BUILDERS ENCYCLOPEDIA

TWELVE JOBS

FOUR CITIES

Hartford
Boston
Los Angeles
Seattle

TWO DEGREES

Syracuse University - B.Arch
SCI-ARC - M.Arch

ONE ENDLESS PROJECT

ALPHAZETT

"I've always collected something--first it was baseball cards, then it was stamps, then records, and so on, but the 'what' never really mattered to me as long has I had plenty of items to catalogue. A librarian at heart, It only makes sense that any self-created project of mine would be an encyclopedia of one kind or another.

I've always loved to draw. As a kid, my interest was never in superheroes or dragonslayers, or characters in general, but in buildings and cities, and especially maps. Even then, I was avoiding the main narrative to instead imagine the world in which it took place, jumping from one idea to the next without any concern for how they related. Individually, they were just drawings, but as a whole they told a kind of story that I did make at least one attempt to tell, by stapling together the dozen or so large sheets of green cardstock I used because my dad got a deal.

The fate of that early masterwork is unknown, but the spirit of that effort lives on here, in what I like to see as a long-awaited sequel to that early volume. Thirty years of game design, architectural exploration, and digital experimentation, edited into a single resource. Like earlier efforts, its efficacy beyond my own use is unproven, but perhaps other artists and designers may find inspiration in these pages."