Thanks again for checking out my Website. I hope that you saw something that caught your interest. If nothing did, don't worry about it. Come back in a couple of weeks and check again.

If you want to know a little more about me just keep on reading and don't forget to check out my Resume. I made it just for you.

For as far back as I can remember, I have always loved video games. For me, they hold more magic and wonder than even the best of the Disney Films that dominated the early 90s. Right away, after saving Princess Peach in Super Mario World for the SNES, I knew I wanted to create experiences for people that would capture their imaginations as greatly as that game did mine.

I started creating my own games at a very young age. I would create "CandyLand" styled board games at the age of seven, making all of the art and player pieces from the paper and scissors about my home. These games eventually turned digital when I first discovered RPG Maker 95 and my life was changed forever. I would spend countless hours of my childhood developing games, creating the stories, animating sprites, learning the basics of programming and game development process through this wonderful program.

My love for creating and building experiences for myself, and more importantly, for other people to enjoy, followed me into high school where I became part of a high school animation studio, K9 Studios. From there, I learned how to hone my skills and how to focus on a project and see it to completion, as well as gaining a deep knowledge of art and animation. It taught me invaluable life skills about how to work on a team, how to deal with stress. It taught me to be confident in my abilities and unafraid to speak up and voice my opinion. When I entered Digipen, those same skills became far more useful.

On everything I do now, I give my absolute 100%, even if it is a project or assignment that I am not particularly interested in. But I've learned that doing anything and everything will always teach something, or at least help reinforce something. I am very passionate in what I do and take great pride in my work, even if the end result wasn't particularly good, I still see it as a valuable experience that will lead to me becoming a better Designer.

Warhammer (Table Top)
I've been playing Warhammer off and on for the last 8 years. I love this game, and not because it is a perfectly balanced game (because its not), but because of the social interaction that any table top game brings. Not to mention it is also incredibly rewarding to plan out and execute that perfect strategy, and even when it doesn't work, there is always a way to change that tactic to work in your favor. And yeah, I play as the Lizardmen.

Miniature Painting
Another part of Warhammer that I really enjoy is just the simple task of painting the models. It is very therapeutic in a lot of ways as it often helps me relax and take my mind off of things. Not to mention, when you spend three whole days painting a Stegadon and you put it onto the field, you just feel like that Stegadon will roll a whole lot better than anything else on the field. It doesn't, of course, and you cry a bit as it dies from some stupid hero with a ridiculous sword...

TED Talks
I've honestly only seen a few of these, but each time that I have seen one, they've blown me away. I could seriously watch these all day as it is just about incredibly intelligent men and women talking about... anything and everything! It can be about some new technology or about how to get into the mindset in order to create things. Which leads me to...

Learning
This is kind of general... but I believe that the moment you stop learning anything, that's when you are dead. That's probably a quote somewhere but it means a lot to me (Google says its from Albert Einstein). I love learning. It doesn't matter what I'm learning as long as I learn it. One of my biggest pet peeves is not knowing something or not understanding something. I usually will go out and read about it and attempt to understand it.

Writing and Narrative
I tend to write a lot. Sometimes too much. But this is because I love it. My favorite thing to write is of course Narrative. Creating the characters, the setting and the plot is something I could spend all day doing. More importantly, whenever I begin to work on a level or start coming up with a game concept, I always figure out how and why and what emotions I want the Player to go through and what I want them to experience and learn. For me, this is incredibly important as it not only helps make the game make more sense, but it allows for the Player to become further immersed in the game. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West had a great article about how they focused on WHY those robots came to attack you. This type of Level Design I find to be incredibly inspirational.

Animation and Art
Back in High School, for four years, I was a part of K9 Studios, a High School Animation Studio where the Teacher believed that the best way to teach someone was to let them teach themselves by giving them something they enjoy. While I was there I learned to love art (which I could hardly do) and animation. Even now, four years after graduating from High School, I still love art and animation as there is just something so great about picking up a pencil and bringing something to life. Its seriously like magic.

Penny Arcade's Extra Credits
Extra Credits is great. Not only is it fun to watch cartoons, but you LEARN at the same time, particularly about Game Design. What Designer doesn't like Cartoons and Learning?

Mechanics as Metaphors (Extra Credits)
So, I don't know if anyone noticed but the above two links are actually from the same place, but they represent two different interests for me. I've grown up playing video games and I've watched it grow from being just a toy to becoming something much more and much greater. But even after all these years, it is hard to determine if video games are in fact an art piece in and of themselves as most video games focus on the "fun" and not necessarily the engagement of the Player. This can be seen in games like Call of Duty and God of War that are great games, but they have very little... depth for the Player. Games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus and even Papo and Yo have started to emerge, as well as an amazing Indie scene, that are really starting to push Game Mechanics and Game Design in general to be something more than just... fun. And for me... that is awesome. Please Note: That does NOT mean that I want games like CoD and GoW to go away, because I love those games as well.

Exploring and Camping

I don't know if everyone realizes this, but the world is a beautiful place, filled with amazing sights and people. There is nothing better than to pack a car full with camping gear and head out to a new location, one that is just ripe for exploration. One of my personal goals in life is to travel to many different countries and explore their world and culture as while it is different from mine, I believe that they have something to teach me about this world.

Did I mention Gaming?
This was probably obvious, but I just wanted to make sure that there was zero confusion on this matter. I probably should have put a link to a more specific game genre, but that wouldn't do my interests justice. Some people only like a very few select styles of games. I don't. I enjoy all of them, even the social and mobile games. There can be so much that can be learned and experienced by playing every genre that I just couldn't imagine being a fan of only FPS or RPG or something.

Jonathan Gregoire - Game Design
JonathanAGregoire@gmail.com

July 2020

Started at Ready at Dawn as a Senior Level Designer on an unnanounced project.

March 2020

Last days at Naughty Dog working on The Last of Us Part II.

September 2019

Shipped the Last of Us Part II press demo level "Patrol".

May 2018

Started working at Naughty Dog as a Contract Single Player Level Layout Designer on The Last of Us Part II. 

December 2017

I started doing contract work for a start-up company called MyPad3D that focuses on VR experiences for corporate products.

More interestingly, I have begun to prototype my own card game on the side and have been volunteering with Sunbreak Games on an unannounced product.

July 2017

With a heavy heart, E-Line Media has shut down the Seattle studio, laying off everyone including myself. I am currently looking for new opportunities.

November 2016

Began working at E-Line Media again as a Level Designer on an unannounced and untitled game.

October 2016

Updating my website to reflect the work I did on the Forest Song with Colabee Studios. Unfortunately due to funding issues, I am no longer with them, so I am currently looking for new opportunities.

December 2015

Lots of new stuff since I last updated. Added in a short comic I made called Old Debts. Also have put up information about my role(s) on Never Alone and Never Alone: FoxTales.

January 2015

Promoted to Lead Designer on Never Alone: FoxTales at E-Line Media.

Summer 2014

Graduated Digipen as a BAGD and with a Cum Laude. Started working at E-Line Media as a Level Designer.

March 2014

Uploaded a new Beta build of Chained. Also just put up the old builds of the game for anyone interested in our very quick process and progress.

January 2014

I recently wrote a paper that was published for the IGDA about the benefit of Paper Prototyping. You can read it at this following link: http://newsletter.igda.org/2013/11/30/student-beat-faceoff-the-influences-of-board-games-on-video-games/#!