Meet the Magnopians: Tunde Glover
Tunde Glover is an artist with over 20 years experience working in games, creating wonderful 3D worlds. He has worked on quite a few different titles across many genres, with highlights such as Alien: Isolation, Halo Wars 2, and Shogun 2: Total War.
As a quarter century 3DsMax and Photoshop user, he's still fond of the original bright user interface from 2 decades ago! He has enjoyed and learned a great deal from the many talented people he's crossed paths with throughout his career.
Tell us more about your role at Magnopus
Hi! At Magnopus I serve as one of the Lead Artists working on or supporting various projects throughout the studio. While delivering top-quality work for our clients is our primary focus, Magnopus is a very people-focused studio, so ensuring my team of artists is well-supported and guided is one of my most important mandates. As such, beyond creating and guiding project work, every day without exception I always make time for my art team. Even while navigating other responsibilities such as scheduling, general leadership meetings, and other company initiatives.
You’ve been at Magnopus for a few months now, but what attracted you to Magnopus in the first place?
Initially, my growing interest in novel XR experiences, especially with all the new tech dev in the space, made me quite curious about who was doing all this cool work. I had heard the name ‘Magnopus’ a few times.
When I was approached about the idea of creating with Magnopus, I delved deeper into exploring what could be possible and I began to get excited. It was upon watching videos about Magnopus and hearing the CEO, Ben Grossmann, and Sol Rogers (Global Director of Innovation) talk about some of this stuff, that I became captivated by the prospect. As things drifted closer, I reached out to an old friend who’d been here for quite a while. It seemed he couldn’t be happier with the years he’d spent at Magnopus, and I very much trust his judgment.
What made you decide to pursue a career in this field?
Much of the above, truly. It sounds all dreamy but it’s pretty much accurate! I’ve spent over 20 years making games, and honestly, the potential for experiences feels so much broader with XR compared to what traditional games have offered so far. There are far less preconceptions.
I had always been interested in forging an art-based career, I just didn’t really know how to make it work. The starving artist stereotype wasn’t that attractive. However, having a keen interest in interactive experiences, I sort of put 2 & 2 together and I ended up looking into game dev.
The precise moment it all ‘clicked’ was while building something in ‘Macromedia Director’ (top marks for anyone who remembers this) about a quarter century ago. It dawned on me at the time that what I was actually making was a ‘game’.
What’s your favourite thing to do when you’re not working?
Spending time with family, especially playing (and now finally) talking with my boy. Working out, and of course, playing a lot of games. When someone figures out how to do ‘life’ at 1.5 times speed, I might find time for the large backlog of TV shows, books, and even graphic novels I need to catch up on.
If you could have any other job in the world, what would it be?
As weird as this sounds, landscaping! Specifically Indian sandstone settings. I find the idea of creating a semi-permanent jigsaw puzzle in someone’s garden really appealing. Especially if the garden or space has super weird shapes!
Where would you most like to travel to in the world?
I’m very much a homebody and not really a huge traveller, but I’d really like to visit one of those US diners in some rural town you tend to see in all of those TV shows. Where there’s some famous local speciality that everyone swears tastes incredible. Food that is both massive in size and rich in flavour. Even if it took me six months to burn off the calories, it might be worth it.
How do you want to leave a mark on the world – personally or professionally?
Earlier in life I was very keen on creating something like the defining game of the decade or inventing a whole new genre of some sort. While I still have some of these aspirations, now my main focus is trying to ensure my son has a really good life. While it sounds like the typical answer, it’s very much because I like to over-prepare for everything to try and ensure success. The thing is, there seems to be absolutely nothing you can do to prepare yourself to successfully raise a child. It’s like ‘try hard, all the time, forever’ is pretty much all there is, haha. A fun challenge all the same.
If you were on a gameshow, what would be your specialist subject?
My subject would be memorable one-liners from 90's movies - a personal favourite is from Back to the Future, "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."
What are you reading/listening to/watching right now?
I’m still trying to finish Stephen Baxter’s Time’s Tapestry series after something like 10 years now... So much so, I’d probably need to start over again. It’s especially sad since I love his books, just seemingly not enough to read them anymore! Time really has a way of getting away from you, which is pretty funny considering what I was reading. Naturally, it’s all the internet's fault, and I have no agency at all.
What’s your life motto/ guiding principle you live your life by?
“Try hard, all the time”, seems to work pretty well so far 😂
