Hey everyone! Remember me? No? That's totally fine! I was the winner of The Tournament of Flash Animators like 12 years ago and it looks like the last time I posted in any official capacity was like... 2015? Just figured for those curious if you'd like to know what I've been up to.
I'm pretty solidified in my career as a Game Animator, been doing it for about 14 years now. I started at a Christian Facebook Gaming studio that made Journey of Jesus: The Calling, where I did traditional character animations for about a year and a half before being laid off (that game also sunsetted, get ready to hear that a lot haha) Subject matter Im luke-warm to but a job is a job and it helped me move to California in 2011.
Then I worked at IGT, a Casino company, doing art and animation for digital real-money slot machines. There I got to work on fun stuff like a Ghostbusters game and other cool IPs. Eventually after 4 years I left wanting greener pastures and more interesting work, which was a good call because apparently like 2 months after I left the entire art team was laid off, and now the whole studio doesnt exist.
While working at IGT I took on side work with Studio Yotta, who was super fun to work with. Only helped with 2 projects: The Simple Plot of Metal Gear and the Obituary short film. That was a cool group of animators and its awesome to see them become power houses in the industry!
But my day job I moved to Big Fish Games, the Self Aware Gaming studio to be exact. There I started on a new card game named Gambit, but that game was like.... sort of sunset? More like forgotten about. It still exists, you can still download and play it, and if you have two friends play it at the exact same time you can even peer to peer play online! Big Fish seriously doesnt remember it exists but its still there! Haha Otherwise I did some fun stuff for Big Fish Casino. I left when the studio was getting shifted around, about 2 years after I left the whole studio was laid off and all the artists were replaced by mostly Ai, so Im a bit bitter about massive talent being tossed away for automation with no soul >.>
While working at Big Fish I accepted a side gig as an animator for Puppet Combo Games, which has been a dream come true, as a dude growing up loving PS1 survival horror games I never thought Id be working on them in 2019! I still pop in to freelance for them but its been a bit due to some big news Ill mention later!
After 5 years I moved on, like I said the studio was rearranged too much and I saw the writing on the wall. I now work at Scopely Games on Monopoly Go! Which has been incredibly fun and that game is doing very well. Its a full remote job too so I went all in maiking my home office look kick ass.
And you may have noticed I also moved to 3D animation. I'm really loving it. I have a special place in my heart for 2D but 99% of my jobs in 2D have all been Puppet Animations and not Traditional, so after a while I was like "well if I'm gonna animate puppets anyway, might as well have access to the 3rd dimension" and it also broadens my scope for jobs going forward because 2D is a lot harder to find in a day and age where GENSHIN IMPACT runs on a PHONE haha.
But yeah, Im 36 now, my wife and I had a baby back in May and shes wonderful (and is also why I havent accepted more Puppetcombo work, one day I will again, just kinda busy raising a human at the moment is all haha.) My hobbies these days include playing TTRPGs and Board Games with my friends.
But yeah, thats what happened to Dave Bruno! Just livin my adult ass life haha. You can still see my updated stuff on my Portfolio Website. I exist, just not really on the social animation side as much as I used to.
-See you later, Space Cowboy.
-Dave Bruno