The tale of a talented beet farmer

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  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    Hello Legion Gamers!

    Amidst all the news of studios closing down and developers being let go, it would be nice to have an uplifting story. Here is one for you: a tale of a clever beet farmer.

    Not so long ago a guy was born in Estonia named Eero Varendi. When he came of age, he decided to try his fortunes in the distant land of Australia where he became a beetroot farmer.

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    And so he toiled daily collecting delicious beets on his combine collector, then only a bit over 20 years of age. But all the while, he had a passion for Witcher games and modding which he did during the evenings after long beet-filled labor days. So much so that he made the Witcher 1 prologue playable on the Witcher 3 engine with the power of modding:


    The video made its way to YouTube and was seen by CD Projekt Red's Pawel Sasko. Who was so impressed with the quality of modding that he found the talented farmer, asked for his CV and brought him all the way from Australia to Poland where he now works as a senior developer for the upcoming Witcher game.

    And while his story is inspiring, he is not alone: Valve, Blizzard and Bethesda, among others, sometimes hire accomplished modders as staff, and as for CD Projekt Red itself, the makeup of Cyberpunk 2's quest team is half former modders, which is an impressive ratio. And a good strategy: good modders have both the skill and passion for the game they're moving, after all.

    The moral of the story is that, as Pawel Sasko said, it can happen to anyone, no matter what they do or where they live, so long as they have remarkable skills and it shows. So if you like a game and like to mod, keep at it as there is a chance that it will land you your dream job 😉

    I wonder if there are stories like that among our people in the industry know. @j7schultz, @GoLLuM13, @SKYTRiXSHA, you ever come across cases like that?
  • 4 Replies

  • SKYTRiXSHA's Avatar
    Level 16
    I dont have similar stories outside of Finnish gamedev scene being full of people who just know how to do stuff and have learned everything by themselves.

    I have a lot of ex-colleagues who have found their way to the industry just by doing personal projects while working on different field.
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @SKYTRiXSHA I'd say those can too be inspiring. Especially if there is a big gap between the game industry and those fields. I mean, beet farming is pretty far from developing games, so a leap like that is impressive 😅
  • GoLLuM13's Avatar
    Level 52
    I don't have a similar story, but I like this kind of stories

    PS: Nintendo, if by any chance you read this, you should learn from it 👀
    Tag me to be sure I see the answer and reply to you / Taguez moi pour être sûr que je vois la réponse et vous réponde en retour
    Most of my writings in no particular order (mostly in French) / La plupart de mes écrits sans ordre particulier
    >> HERE/ ICI <<

  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    Stories like that are nice for a change, yeah. 😊

    PS: Nintendo, if by any chance you read this, you should learn from it 👀

    Not just Nintendo... 😅