Before coming to Klang, Matt had worked in the mainstream game industry for 14 years, but he grew tired of it. In fact, the main reason behind his switch was his daughter. More specifically, the fact that he couldn’t share what he was working on with her, because of its mature content. As a dad who classifies his daughter as “free-range”, where she has access to all of his life and things, having to hide something from her was hard. “I actually had to lock her out of the room”, says Matt. “She couldn’t come into my room because what I was working on would be upsetting to a child, and I realized that’s not cool”. This moment of clarity is ultimately what pushed Matt out of the mainstream game world and into the loving arms of Klang! And we are so happy to have him.

At Klang, Matt is Head of Creative, which basically means he is in charge of both creative content and the people that are making it. In other words, he first works to understand what a project’s vision is, and then helps synthesize that into an actual product. This sometimes means he works with design, art, or even music! His role is versatile and spread across many different fields. “I don’t have much hair left, so I like to wear many hats”, jokes Matt.

When he’s not hard at work you can find Matt making music, making games, or illustrating children’s books. Matt says that “drawing is my happy place”, and it’s no surprise that he uses his talent to make things that he can share with Salomé. Similarly, if Matt could have any superpower it would be the power to materialize toys and ways to play with his daughter. This is because Matt likes to build and design things with Salomé, but sometimes they don’t have the tools needed to make their fantasies come to life.

If Matt could give one piece of advice to his day-1 Klanger self it would be “trust your gut”. He says that every time that he was too rigid about sticking to a structure he would end up losing energy. Matt’s adaptability and intuitiveness are some of the things that make him such an amazing person to work with. Happy 1 year Matt! We are so happy to have you on our team.