Coming out of college with a BFA in Graphic Design, Phil sought to set the world on fire with snazzy branding design and cutting-edge layout work. But instead, he somehow found himself stumbling through the independent video game development scene — and he’s been there ever since.

A self-taught pixel artist and animator, Phil has worked on over a dozen commercial projects since 2013. Art direction, character sprites, environment art, VFX, logo design, UI design, key art — if a game needs it, he’s probably done it.

In 2018, Phil co-founded Tako Boy Studios, which went on to development such games as Candies ‘n Curses, Creatures of Aether, and their latest project Cross Blitz.

Designing quirky worlds for players to explore is one of the key drivers that fuels his passion for game development. Bringing it all to life with patterns of colorful squares keeps it interesting, with every artistic task offering a new, exciting challenge to overcome. The limitations of pixel art offer an extra layer of creative problem solving that never gets old, and one that Phil hopes to continue to pursue for many years to come.