| Michael Watterson | |
|---|---|
| Biographical Information | |
Date of Birth |
17 September 1995 |
Gender |
Male |
Nickname |
"Watto" |
Current Position |
Programmer / Design Lead |
Company |
Vengeance Entertainment Studios |
Nationality |
 Australia
|
Michael Francis "Watto" Watterson is an Australian game developer, voice actor, and writer. He has developed games for the last ten years, namely, the unofficial Halo spin-off Halo: The Flood. He is also a former actor.
Early Life[]
Born and baptised Roman Catholic in Carrum, Watterson was raised under adverse family conditions in the late 1990's. Many of his brothers and sisters have represented the state of Victoria in sports. His mother is a breast cancer survivor and distinction-winning Nurse from Monash University; his father is a Melbourne-renowned musician and piano technician.
Watterson was initially a stellar AFL Footballer, playing for Bonbeach Sharks, but due to many previous family sports representatives from the club, he was denied a chance to play for the Frankston District Team on the basis of giving someone else a go. This supposedly ended his drive to play professional football. However, in 2015, he played cricket for his local club, Carrum Lions, and took 2 wickets for just 12 runs on his début, statistically, the third-best figures in the state across all levels and age-groups and the nineteenth-best in Australia.[citation needed]
Watterson is an accomplished Voice Artist, with the ability to perform accurate impressions of friends and family. This got him into a situation in high school where, after a scheduled inter-class debate, 200 Grade-10 students quickly begun chanting his name in an attempt to do humorous impersonations of popular quirky school teachers.
Additionally, Watterson has acted in various plays and short-films but since 2012, has refused to talk of his acting career going any further.
Watterson got into video games from a young age, taking a particular liking to Motorcross Madness, Pokémon Puzzle League, Age of Empires and Supaplex. However, his favourite game to date remains Bungie's Halo: Combat Evolved.
Game Development[]
Since age ten, Watterson has developed video games; initially with Game Maker 7's GM Language.
He has given speeches at high schools and has spoken at the International Game Developers Association's Melbourne Chapter regarding video game development, the video game industry and his experiences as a developer and gamer.
Watterson is an atypical developer having worked previously in construction jobs, hospitality, body armour testing, piano removal and as a forklift driver.
As of 2016 he currently works part-time and leads his team at Vengeance Entertainment Studios in South East Melbourne.
Watterson took inspiration from the story of Bungie Studios.