MEET SQUANCH PRESENTS: DREW & JERRY!!!

Today, the highly regarded Meet Squanch series is thrilled to present, the very amazing Drew and Jerry! Yeaahhhhh!

Drew & Jerry come to us from the far off land of content design. One, a massive pet-lover and ally to talking chickens, as well cheesecake enthusiast, and coffee addict. The other… something about “CD turnstyles?”

Anyway, read on about to learn more about Drew & Jerry!

Drew Pariser, Content Designer

What do you do at Squanch?

I am a Content Designer.  I currently implement and create content for Squanch, but I will always help anyone on the team who needs assistance.

What got you into the industry?

O man! Long story short, I used to work in the Hospitality field in hotels and restaurants - and not to be a buzzkill, but my mother passed away at the time, and I thought, “know what?! Screw this! I want to do what I love…” Which was games.  So after that I went back to school for Video Game Development, and got an internship. And next thing you know, I cracked in the industry.

Would you take the red or blue pill?

I mean why not take both! Who doesn’t like taking random pills that have been given to you by strangers 🙂

What’s the last game you played?

Valheim

You are stuck on an island with a sentient, and quite frankly very polite, chicken. There is literally no food on the island, except maybe some tiny little potato bugs. What do you do?

DUDE! Them bugs gotta go! I will eat the hell out of them.  The chicken seems like a homie!  I am a people person, and even if it's a chicken, I will still probably talk to it if I was stuck on an island.  It will be my Wilson from cast away.

What’s your favorite flavor of Tuesday?

Coffee, because I am a cranky boy without it

If you could get delivery from any restaurant in the world (for free), what would it be?

Well the restaurant no longer exists, but it was called Wolfies in Miami. It was the best Delicatessen and a staple for massive deli sandwiches.

What is your favorite cheese dish?

Cheesecake. Who doesn’t like cheesecake?

Any key takeaways you’d like to share with aspiring content designers? 

• When playing games think about the moments of “o crap that was cool” and break it down why you think that thing was cool.

• Iterate Iterate Iterate Iterate Iterate Iterate Iterate Iterate Iterate...  It is a very important part of creating content.  Sometimes things that are created may seem like a bug may end up being something you want to keep!

• Be able to handle positive/negative feedback.  Behind that negative feedback there is a reason why that person is saying the negative things and many times as a designer you need to crack through the comments and find that reason behind the comments.

• You do not have to come up with the “idea” you work with very talented people and should foster the creativity!  At the end of the day you and the team are trying to make an amazing game!

What else should we know about you?

Well I am a massive animal lover! My whole life I have had dogs.  When I was younger my family had 5 dogs (3 Great Danes, 1 Miniature Schnauzer, and 1 West Highland Terrier)

Jerry Belich, Content Designer

What do you do at Squanch?

I am a content designer. So that means working with art, narrative, and engineering (to generalize) to help make the game space feel alive and interesting. Although there is usually a primary storing being told, my goal is to never let the player feel like the experience is on rails. They should be rewarded for exploring!

How did you get into the industry?

If we ignore a bizarre time in highschool where I helped create a game series called Pac-Guy that was published to many CD turnstyles around the world (that is a long and strange tale full of failure) then it was about 2012 when things kicked off.

While working for an agency when I was given an Arduino microcontroller after expressing interest to a remote creative team we were partnering with. The gift inspired me to finally try creating something with electronics and after reading all of the Adafruit and Sparkfun online catalogues A-Z I decided I wanted to make an interactive fiction thermal printing arcade machine called The Choosatron.

About a year and change later I launched a kickstarter to manufacture this bespoke storytelling device and raised $75k. That led to years of traveling the world exhibiting alternative controller style experimental games, giving talks, and educating through workshops and as a professor. This also opened many doors into other game design areas, such as escape rooms, and of course digital games (such as narrative work for Owlchemy’s game Dyscourse). I’ve also created game and comedy panels for various geek conventions as a way to bring my love of comedy into my love of design; but now I get it all in one place!

Why Squanch?

Comedy has always been a part of my life, especially creatively. I’ve also always been a bit weird, whatever that means these days. Absurd and physical humor tickles me the most, and I grow up on all forms of sci-fi. Squanch is pretty much the bullseye when you throw all that together!

What’s one of your favorite projects that you previously worked on?

There are a few projects that were seminal for me, such as directing the digital FX work for the first stage production of Fahrenheit 451 with Ray Bradbury almost 20 years ago (I mean holy shit) and The Choosatron mentioned above changed everything for me and my career… But when it comes to pure creative and cathartic joy, it would be Nature Machn. It was a concept that came out of a deep burnout from academia and trying to understand what meditation provided people with more relaxed minds than my own. Natural systems have a way of capturing my attention and focus while not forcing my brain to try and ‘solve’ them. So I partnered with friend and collaborator Victor Thompson (dev on West of Loathing so no stranger to comedy games). We created an installation piece in the form of a three walled tent projecting procedural nature scenes while playing original scores by musician Robert Frost (of Joggernauts). It premiered at Bit Bash in 2019 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, constantly full of visitors engaged and relaxed. Part of the prototyping also spawned Mushm Gardn, an alien mushroom simulator which I’m quite happy with as well.

Do you have somewhere people can go to look at your work?

My portfolio is on my website at https://jerrytron.com/projects - and I’m also on twitter/instagram @j3rrytron.

There is a haunted mansion (former frat house), with a long history of constantly annoying its inhabitants (sometimes to death) with college-like pranks.That said, if someone can live here for five consecutive years, they are given the home of their dreams, alongside a hefty savings account. Would you do it?

Last week I was on a game industry social video call and the moment ghosts were brought up I went into a long (mildly tipsy) dive into my history of trying to find and acquire ghosts. Honestly as long as the kitchen is decent (gas stove a must) and my partner and I can have our own home offices, then absolutely without a doubt! I guess I’d want to see how walkable the area is to decent food and bars… Got a Zillow link?

Did you watch NASA’s Perseverance Rover landing on Mars recently?

I absolutely did! I dropped what I was doing, told my partner (she already was aware) and we put it up live on the big TV. It was incredible! I can’t express how excited I am for the first aerial vehicle on Mars.

Is there a TV show that you hate to admit you watch, and maybe even somewhat enjoy?

Hmm, that would imply I have shame about stuff like that which I don’t, but I watch a lot of competition shows on fashion, glass blowing, tattoos, and who knows what else. I probably wouldn’t if my partner didn’t watch them, but we have so much fun together yelling at the people on the screen that can’t hear us. Oh, and I unabashedly love watching The Great British Bake Off. Sometimes competition where folks aren’t trying to destroy each other is a great change of pace!

Sooo we are a company built on comedy, what’s your favorite joke?

A skeleton walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a beer and a mop.

Tell us something interesting (or uninteresting if you really want) about yourself?

I’ve played the theremin for nearly fifteen years. I started on a dare because a friend wouldn’t let me join his band as a whistler (I’m a very good whistler); though drunkenly promised (verbal contract) that I could join his band if I played the theremin. So, of course, I contacted a known theremin builder in Tasmania, Kees Enkelaar, and commissioned one to be made and sent to me in America where I learned in secret for months, finally played for my friend, and we immediately started a narrative album together about the many forms of the apocalypse.