Derek has been playing games as far back as he can remember, but everybody says that. What they don’t say is that the discovery of the original Halo 17 years ago led him on a path where he lived with a chain-smoking man from Alabama in a Super 8 hotel for part of a summer. Derek was always doodling and etching; whether in cartooning class his senior year or painting company banners in military college. He left military college to pursue an art degree, where he ended up going to The Ohio State University to study glass blowing, stained-glass construction, and glass painting. It was during his time in school that he began to pursue writing and started reviewing music and games in his free time. These two forms of media have always been his biggest influences as an artist. Derek graduated and moved on to stained-glass installation, which is where he spent part of that lovely summer in the motel masquerading as hotel. It was here that he realized he needed to focus on his passion for writing and games. He promptly applied to Game Informer to be an intern and was just as promptly denied. Luckily, Derek is not easily beaten, so he worked harder and wrote for sites such as OnlySP to gain an insight in the industry. In the next term, he was accepted. It is the highlight of his life.
