自2014年从满帆大学毕业以来, Mark Diaz has gone on to contribute to some of the biggest games of the last decade, including id Software’s massively successful revitalization of the 厄运 和Insomniac的 漫威《十大菠菜台子》. A Lead Gameplay Programmer at Insomniac 游戏 and currently in development on 惊奇的金刚狼在美国，马克的成功之路并非一帆风顺.

他年轻时的大部分时间, 马克在教育环境中感到不满足, preferring the controlled chaos of the games that consumed his off-time. 从超级任天堂经典 超级马里奥兄弟. 3 到小众的世嘉创世纪游戏, Mark had an acute interest in the exploration of new worlds and game mechanics. 当他第一次玩任天堂的时候 塞尔达传说:时之笛，游戏在他生命中的作用变得清晰起来.

“That was the game that made me realize I wanted to make games because it was the first game that made me feel like I was really in another world. And that just got me excited about trying to make my own worlds too.”

虽然对传统学习不感兴趣, the young programmer excelled when it came to creativity and technical skills, 以他的风格创作自己的故事 选择你自己的冒险 书 and later, learning to write programs on a scientific calculator.

“[My buddy] taught me how to write some simple programs on the TI-83 calculator, 有一次我把脚趾伸进了水里, I just dove straight in… I made just text-based adventure games the same way I made those 选择你自己的冒险 书. But now, I could make it more simulated and I had more control over it. I could have combat and I could have items and inventory and power-ups and hit points and enemies.

“当我在高中的时候, I realized [game development] could be a career because I just couldn't see myself doing anything else.”

高中毕业后，他进入了一所传统大学, 但他对游戏的吸引力并没有消退, 这让马克陷入了困境. “I got [to college] and I just couldn't bring myself to stop playing 暗黑2. I didn't go to any of my classes and I ended up on academic probation.”

在他的第二学期，Bethesda的流派定义 《上古卷轴4:湮灭 released, and all hope for Mark’s success at a traditional school dissolved. “我最终得到了1分.到大学一年级结束时，我的平均绩点达到了5分.”

在军队服役后 U.S. 海军, Mark utilized his military benefits to finally pursue his long-time goal of making his own games and enrolled at 满帆 to study game development.

全速航行, Mark discovered that school didn’t have to be as tiresome and unengaging as Mark had remembered it to be. The life-long “bad student” suddenly found himself at the top of his class.

“It was here at 满帆 that I finally felt like I had found my calling,” he says. “I would show up on the first day of every class and I would look around the room at the other students, 我会对自己说, ‘I’m going to get a higher grade than everybody in this classroom.而且这并不是恶意的. I didn't sabotage anyone to do it, but it was just a way to motivate myself to work harder.”

Excelling in his studies, Mark graduated as the valedictorian of his graduating class with a 3.他的平均绩点达到了8分，这与他曾经的学生水平相去甚远.

“It seems silly to say, ‘Do all your homework and go to class and you'll do well.’ But that's what I did and that's where I started, and that's really worked out for me.”

在满帆的职业发展部门工作之后, Mark landed an interview with celebrated AAA developer id Software. 背后的工作室 厄运 – which set the standard for the first-person shooter genre – served as an ideal landing place for the game-loving grad.

“厄运 was one of the games that was responsible for the poor grades I got in high school,” jokes Mark. “这是我第一次看到第一人称游戏. And then there was like a light bulb moment that went off when I realized I was seeing this world through someone else's eyes like I was in a hole. 我在火星上和恶魔战斗? 是我. 是我亲眼看到的.”

From full circle moments to multiple AAA releases in just 10 years in the games industry, Mark has been able to take his childhood obsession from hobby to career, 说, “我喜欢尽我所能把自己放回自己的位置. I'll go back and play the games I played as a kid and just draw inspiration from that… It reminds me that games are fun and that I'm doing something that I dreamed of doing as a kid.”