When I was little, my brother (Timothy) programmed some small graphics programs for me to putz around with, so that was my introduction to computer graphics. CGA pixel-pushing (Literally- I made little icons and pictures by working a pixel at a time.)

He got involved with some friends making a computer games part-time. When they needed graphics, they grabbed me as cheap labor. Very basic amateurish stuff. They eventually left for Dallas while I finished high school.

I got involved with another part-time game-development thing with some local guys. I was getting better, but it was still basic 2D by-hand pixel-pushing in Deluxe-Paint (IIe). They eventually left for Austin while I finished college.

I transferred to Denton, TX (just north of Dallas) to finish college. =) My brother's group had since failed, but he got involved with another new start-up (as of yet not named Ensemble Studios), and so he put in a good word with me and I started doing 2D icon-work for them while I went to school, doing about 10 hours of work a week on a little game called Age of Empires. I was the original first artist, the one that made the palette that got used in the game, set the basic look and feel, yadi yadi yadi. But I didn't really DO a whole lot. I eventually left for marriage while they finished the game. =)

I moved to St. Louis with my wife so she could pursue her PhD. I looked for a local game company to join, but couldn't find any. So I started working at a local movie theatre. A couple months later, my brother (the one in Dallas) forwarded me an email a roommate of his had gotten from a company in St. Louis that needed artists. So I danced around a minute, then applied, got accepted, and did clean-up work in the final months of Railroad Tycoon II. THEN I finally got around to learning 3D in my spare time here at PopTop, and Tropico will be the first game I've worked on start to finish, and the first one in which I've done real in-game artwork on an extensive scale.