10 Weird Hobbies of Video Game Developers

Game developers are some of the most talented people in the entertainment business. They’re artists and musicians, programmers and writers. Above all things though, they’re able to steep themselves in the fictional realities they create and build experiences unlike anything found in reality.

What about when they step away from their desks though? What do video game developers do with their free time between making excellent games? Some developers spend time with their families and others like to catch up with friends. There are a few though whose passions outside of work are wildly different than what you’d assume. Some of them find their hobbies cathartic, others use them as a creative tool, but for whatever reason, these game developers have some rather unexpected past-times.

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Studio: Giant Sparrow

Notable Games: The Unfinished Swan

Weird Hobby: Rock Climbing

I got the opportunity to hang out with Ben Esposito for a couple of days at his home in Santa Monica. After a long day of designing his first PlayStation game, Ben invited me out to his local rock climbing facility to take on the challenge of keeping up with him and his friends. Holy crap, this is a challenging sport.

In addition to the sheer level of body strength needed to master a wall, you need to be mindful of every hand and foothold. One errant stretch, one misplaced grasp, and you fall to your death. Well, maybe not your death... but you get the idea.

Studio: Tripwire Interactive

Notable Games: Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

Weird Hobby: Archery

The folks over at Tripwire Interactive absolutely love historical combat. Their Red Orchestra games have done a great job adding realism to an often hyperbolized genre. However, Mike Munk's love goes back even further... all the way to the middle ages.

With bow in hand, Munk will head to the archery range and fire off a few arrows every now and again to help keep his mind and eye sharp. It may look easy, and having played tons of games where you fire a bow, most of us assume we can do it. Despite this assumption though, what Mike can do to his targets is nothing short of miraculous, and that takes a lot of practice.

Studio: Dejobaan Games

Notable Games: AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity

Weird Hobby: Tomato Gardening

I've met a lot of game developers who also garden. It's a pretty common hobby, and one Ichiro Lambe shares. Some developers like to grow flowers, others like carnivorous plants, Ichiro grows tomatoes.

When I was in Boston I had the good fortune to share a few drinks and a dinner with him. Our waitress struck up a conversation with us and somehow the talk started centering around gardening tomatoes, a topic that Ichiro knew way way too much about.

I'm not insinuating his passion for tomatoes in particular goes into dangerous territory, but I never expected that a mild-mannered (if a little odd) game developer would be able to dispense such a high-level of knowledge about everyone's favourite member of the solanum genus.

Studio: Epic Games

Notable Games: Gears of War: Judgement

Weird Hobby: Building Fishtanks

A couple of years back, Ryan Brucks decided he wanted a nice saltwater aquarium. Thinking like a level designer does, he decided that rather than just going out and buying one from a store, he could likely build a better one for his purposes.

The massive 200 gallon tank houses all sorts of aquatic life, all made possible by his genious engineering skills. Getting the water just right for all his exotic fish was no easy task and it required a lot of time and effort to get just right. Still, the results are worth it in his mind.

Studio: Runic Games

Notable Games: Torchlight II

Weird Hobby: RC Planes

Max Schaefer is the CEO of Runic Games, the makers of Torchlight II. It's a pretty hectic job that keeps him plenty busy, but on the weekends Max finds time to let his spirit soar through his favourite hobby; flying model planes with radio control.

Now, it may not be as complicated as flying a real airplane, but there's a serious level of complexity handling the aerodynamics and controls for one of these things. It's not a cheap hobby either by any means, even a starter plane can cost upwards of $1,000. It takes a lot of trust in yourself to have faith you won't crash that fragile little plane into a tree.

Studio: Epic Games

Notable Games: Gears of War: Judgement

Weird Hobby: Dressage

Games are about taking control over something you don't really have control over, kind of like riding a horse. Laura Ware is a person who can recognize that connection. Having ridden her horse for the past three years, she's been riding dressage, a form of Horseback riding that's like "ballet on horseback".

As a QA tester, she's used to handling situations when things go wrong, but when her steed came down with a case of colic, she thought she might lose her faithful companion forever. Thankfully the best of care was available and within 48 hours they were able to get back to riding. She tells me "We hope to start showing locally again in March, when the show season starts back up."

Studio: Pixelscopic

Notable Games: Delver's Drop (Coming Soon)

Weird Hobby: The Lego Armada

Dungeons and Dragons is an hobby that's been with the game development community for decades. Ryan Burrell and his buddies gather every now and again to play, but unlike most who sit in on a regular session, Burrell's mind tends to wander while his party makes decisions.

Enter the Lego Armada, a fleet of tiny Lego ships he's been amassing over the past few years. Now, building with Lego isn't particularly peculiar, but the sheer number that he's constructed is staggering, all without the help of any guides or pre-fab sets. While he plays, Ryan thinks up new ideas for ships and just gets to making them.

Studio: Klei Entertainment

Notable Games: Mark of the Ninja

Weird Hobby: Renaissance Fencing

Games and weapons go hand-in-hand, but it takes a much more graceful subject to practice the elegant art of Renaissance era fencing. Slightly different from the Olympic version most of us are used to seeing, Nels and his classmates at Academie Duello use a wider range of blades and practice a much more cinematic type of fighting.

Nels assures me that there's plenty of opportunity to throw witty quips in the middle of battle - think of that scene in The Princess Bride - while he's carefully attacking his opponent with his weapon of choice; the rapier.

Studio: Independent

Notable Games: It's Not OK Cupid! (Coming Soon)

Weird Hobby: Bee Keeping

A lot of game developers have pets. Some have more than one or two. Zoe Quinn has hundreds and hundreds of them. When she's not turning her awkward dating experiences into sections of her romantic parody game, It's Not OK Cupid!, she can be found happily tending to her bee hives.

It may seem like a strange sort of pet to have, but Zoe has kept it as a hobby off-and-on for the past few years. Her life's recently taken her across America as she finishes her game, but the swarm is never far from her heart.

Studio: Spicy Horse

Notable Games: Alice: Madness Returns

Weird Hobby: Building Scooters

In China, one of the best ways of getting around is by way of electric scooter. Cheap, fuel efficient, and sturdy enough to handle the bustling city traffic, the streets outside American McGee's Shanghai studio are flooded with them. To him it only made sense that he'd build one of his own.

His passion started long before he ever got into game development, working as a car mechanic for a long time before starting at id Software. However, it was a peculiar law in China that prevents foreigners from owning gas-powered scooters that got him building his own electric one. With a top speed of 50 mph, and a battery life that survives his 7 day/week commute, it's a pretty clever way of getting around the rules.