We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gavin Graves. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with gavin below.
Hi Gavin, thanks for joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?
The best experience I have gained from a previous job was hardly creative, but crucial to my growth as a collaborator and a leader.
I started my first job at Antoine’s in New Orleans at fifteen. I was an apprentice waiter working alongside some of the most seasoned servers in the city. Each one of them could describe any dish front to back with their eyes closed while simultaneously weaving in perfectly timed quips and trivia. It didn’t matter the size of the crowd, the fame of the customer, or the intensity of the evening, they always knew their lines, and they always said them right. I… did not have this gift. Amongst a room full of Bogarts, I was the dud. At first I could get by with my youth. In their eyes, I did not have to be charismatic, I was a child who didn’t know any better. I soon realized, however, the opportunity at my feet. I was in a playbox of social situations, each with its challenges and lessons to be learned. I found out that communication is not a gift, it is a skill, and all it took was the confidence to throw myself in. Even to this day, I overthink my interactions, but I maintain that my best learned advice to anyone struggling with socializing is, throw yourself in. Because in reality, we are all just people looking for someone to bond with, share experiences with, and, in my case, collaborate with.
Gavin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Currently I’m working towards a BFA in Game Development at the Savannah College of Art and Design. My focus is on the Design of games, which takes me deep into the logic of why a game may or may not be fun. My number one goal is seeing the game in its entirety before we type a single line of code. This includes the mechanics of the game, the aesthetics, as well as the minor details like how the game thinks. I work hardest at creating documents and visuals that communicate these aspects clearly so the people I am working with can execute their process with efficiency.
This abstract aspect of game development didn’t just find me at SCAD, I have always known this was the route I wanted to take. Even as a child, playing on the original Xbox, I was obsessed with the worlds painted, the stories told, and how I was made to feel like I was ingrained in the narrative itself. Understanding this interactive form of storytelling was my focus from then on.
Three years into college, I have found myself at the helm of several teams acting as design lead and project manager. This year in particular, I have had the privilege to work on a year-long SCAD game development project which encompasses, as of now, over a hundred students’ work. This project is set to be showcased at GDC, the largest game development convention in the world. Working on a project of this scale has been a defining experience in my growth as a designer, but more than that, it has shown me how to think beyond the mechanics and systems and strive to communicate the game’s vision across an entire team, allowing me to become a competent leader.
As exciting as the large-scale project is, one of the most meaningful experiences for me this year has been forming and leading a team for a competition called Global Game Jam. This event is a worldwide game development challenge where teams have just 48 hours to create a game from scratch based on a surprise theme. Upon winning best in show at SCAD, we’ve gained the opportunity to compete on the state level. This accomplishment has opened the door for us to take our project beyond the jam and into full production as an independent game. The rapidness of this experience has pushed me to iterate constantly and prioritize the creation of minimum viable products over bloated systems.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, I find that when I can see a concept go from idea to product through the shared efforts of a large group of people, I am the most rewarded. Game making is a volatile process, the smallest error can break the experience, and because it requires so many people to execute properly, it often feels as if you’re in freefall for most of production. Each twist and turn in the development cycle feels like life or death. You will get into arguments with your peers over what, in the grand scheme of life, seems pointless. But when it’s all said and done, and I can watch someone pick up the controller and be as immersed in my creation, as I was as a child in my favorite games, it makes everything worth it.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
One of the most important moments in my life was playing God of War (2018).
The game sinks you deep into the world of Norse myth, with stunning visuals, and an unforgettable story that has influenced much of my work. But it’s not the game alone that I want to highlight, it’s what followed: Raising Kratos is a documentary following the creative director of God of War, Cory Barlog, as well as the team of more than three hundred artists and developers. In the documentary, you can see the entire cycle of development, witness the highs and lows for the team, and can follow along in the mind of Barlog himself. Watching his process, I learned a lot of things. The pressures of creative leadership, how your view of the product can be skewed, and the toll it takes on your mental health. But more than that, I learned that story comes first. From the very beginning, Cory emphasized the importance of a narrative drive in creative endeavors and in doing so, cemented God of War as one of the greatest stories the medium has to offer. I aspire to one day lead a team that brings stories to life with the same depth and impact that inspired me to pursue game development.
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Image Credits
The first image is of an environment, my team had worked on about a month back for a game
The second is from the Global Game Jam event, showing the professors and chair during the winners’ unveiling
The third is of my team having won Game Jam 2025
The last is a concept piece done for promo of the collaborative SCAD game that will be going to GDC