Meet the Makers #10 - How To Become A Game Designer - With JoeMag3D

In this episode of Meet the Makers, we sit down with JoeMag3D, a talented 3D printer and video game designer. Join us as we delve into the world of video game design and gain valuable insights on how to pursue a career in this exciting industry.

We explore the Bambu Labs X1C, an exceptional multi-color 3D printer, Joe discusses how this innovative technology has revolutionized the process of bringing digital creations to life in multi color 3d prints 

If you're passionate about video games, aspiring to be a game designer, or simply interested in the intersection of 3D printing and gaming, join us for Meet the Makers #9 - How to Become a Video Game Designer - with JoeMag3D. Prepare to be inspired and equipped with the knowledge you need to embark on a successful career in the captivating world of game design.

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Where to find Joe
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@joemag3d?lang=en
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/joemag3D
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joemag3d/
Itch.io: https://joemag.itch.io/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joemag3D

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Come be a guest on meet the makers: https://forms.gle/wTqzxqGpsu9hZ39F6
Follow misfit printing on TIktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@misfit_printing
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Chapters 
Intro- 0:00
Transitioning from Digital Art to 3D Printing - 2:16 
How to Get A Job As A Game Designer - 5:12
Video Game QA at Blizzard - 9:13 
Do you need to go to college to be a game designer -12:05 
Designing a 3D printable Modoc Helmet - 16:23
Developing a unique style of 3D models - 20:10 
What is the best 3D printer - 23:08 
Is the Bambu Labs X1C worth it - 27:30 
Building a full time 3D printing business - 34:57 
Developing a video game - 36:03 
What's the best game of all time  - 38:14
Where to find Joe  - 42:58 

Transcript

Hey everybody, welcome back to Meet the Makers. Today I am joined by, very exciting guests. You may know him on TikTok if you're into 3D printing or 3D modeling, but what you might not also know is that in real life he is also a game designer and secretly I think he might be related to Jack Black as well.
So Joe, I am so excited to have you on today. Welcome to the Beatmakers Podcast. Hi. Thank you so much for having me. of course. as we jumped off to, you have a big background online, in the 3D printing, 3D modeling space. How did you get into that, whole side of things?
I've always been interested in doing like 3D art for a long time. I've been working in blender for God, maybe 
I three. and, and. I started building little things with that. Started posting, Hey, I'm working on this little project in TikTok. And those always started getting way more views, way more like I [00:01:00] started to like tap into that community and started meeting people, started getting like more of that and then started to push more of my 3D art and more of my 3D skills into.
The 3D printing space. And that's how it started to really build and build and build. And then as many people will tell you what, TikTok, once I hit a thousand followers, then I could start doing live streams. And then you just point a camera at your printer for an hour and suddenly, like the algo starts giving you lots of, lots of viewers and everything.
And suddenly I was at, 10,000, 20,000 went out. Just over 75,000 followers. And I can't truly make answer tails of it, it's that I got it. Yeah. You seem to have had crazy growth. I've only been on the platform, for about six months now, and I remember when I first got, you were one of the first people that I got linked into and started following, and I don't remember what you were at then, but I know just in the time that I've been on the platform, you've like exponentially grown and people seem to just absolutely love your content.
So it's cool to hear how your skills,transitioned into that and lended so well to 

that. with your background in more traditional digital design, have you found [00:02:00] struggles, as like you've gotten more into doing 3D modeling? Is it a different process of how you have to work on that to, make it like, I guess actually work in the real world when you're printing it out? 
is it a different process than where you're just working in the digital world? obviously there's, a lot of things you don't have to consider when you're. In a totally virtual space, you don't have to worry about overhangs, you don't have to worry about conflicting geometry or everything.
But if you know you're making something, it is going to be four 3D printing, then you approach it slightly differently. You try to do much more straightforward, what you would call, like block modeling, where you're basically like, I'm building it out in simple geometry. And then building and building around that, but not doing a lot of let's say, joining.
So if I put two spheres next to each other, if I join them in 3D modeling, then they just, will be, Perfectly fine, but if I wanna print them, it will know that it has that same geometry on both sides. So you have to do different things like, a Boo Union or something like that.
there's different tools in, blender that can help you do this, including there's like a 3D printing toolkit in Blender. Okay. You can actually punch in and be like, it'll tell you like, Hey, this object [00:03:00] is not manifold. There's stuff intersecting with itself. And then you can just press a button and it deletes.
It doesn't always work perfectly, but it will do it will merge objects together in a better way and clean up a lot of bad geometry. Oh, gotcha. I, I'm, I've used blender literally a handful of times. I got in there. I was. Super overwhelmed and I never went back, but I didn't know that it had those specific tools in there.
 did you start in Blender as well or was that kind of a newer program for you when you got into the 3D modeling side of things? I've only primarily worked with Blender. mostly cause it was free, Yeah. I never really had a, other than old pirated licenses when I was a kid of doing noodling around in Maya an age ago.
But, No, I, when I really started taking it seriously, I started doing Blender. I actually did, a course through, game dev.tv that does, these, tutorials through, Udemy, where it's like multiple hours of stepping you through the process of learning everything for it.

And I did that for Blender. actually,I would plug those guys to the moon. They, I owe a lot of my, even my video game dev career to like doing those tutorials and doing those videos. they're structured in a different way and just like finding stuff on YouTube. They're like actually like [00:04:00] we're gonna do 15, 20, 30 hours of like instruction and step you through it and take pauses and be like, okay, here's what you learned. 
Now try and do new things on it. So I recommend that to everyone who's either interested in Blender, interested in game design, interested in Unity, that sort of thing. Like they're my. Brighter dies. That's good to know because, yeah, I think it's really easy on the internet to get overwhelmed just by how much information there is out there.
And I know for me, like in trying to learn different programs, I've jumped from this tutorial to that tutorial. And it sounds like having a little more of a guided process was probably helpful for, you or probably would be helpful for anyone getting started. It's better for building on your skills, like lesson.
Oh for lesson. Cuz Yeah. A big problem with a lot of what, when you go onto YouTube is they're like, oh, build this one thing over here. Build this one thing in this sort of way, and it doesn't really give you foundational skills and then like tries to build on them in that sort of way. So yeah, I found that the doing Udemy courses, not even necessarily just from game day tv, but just generally that formatting is, is works, works better for me for a more,Closer to like traditional coursework, [00:05:00] obviously like 15 bucks for a class.
Yeah, it's, I always say we live in in my opinion, one of the greatest times that you can, pay $15 and learn a skill like that. And it's, it's cool just how much there is out there to learn. so outside of just your fun for your profession, you do game design, I think for so many people that's like a dream job.
How did you get into that line of work and, what was your experience in starting that? I always, it's still my dream job. yeah, so I've, I've been in the video game industry now for. 17 years. I started, working, night shift at Blizzard, working on what The Warcraft, testing it from 7:00 PM to 4:00 AM I got my foot in the door on that mostly cause I saw a posting for it on online, on the Blizzard website.
And they were like, do you wanna get paid to play well from 7:00 PM to 4:00 AM I'm like, I'm doing that for free. Heck, I'm paying you for it. so I applied for that role and I was still in college, was like 19 and got it. And it consumed my 

life. I was building my way through qa. 
I got my way up through the, through what we would call the trenches of going through that. I became a QA lead. I worked a bunch [00:06:00] on Hearthstone. I worked on, wow. I worked on StarCraft. and then actually for a long time I was planning to be a producer, Which, a different game role where you're like managing, scheduling everything mostly.
Cause that's what QA has you do. And then I really started to, I, I'd always been a jack of all trades. I'd always known a little bit of 3d, I was a little bit art, I was a little bit of programming and started learning all these little skills and I wasn't, I realized then Game design actually is what served the best for that.
And I actually kinda took a step back. I actually left QA leadership. I actually was like, I'm going to stop focusing on this track of my career. And then I started taking game dev TV courses, started teaching myself game design, started doing game jams where you like make a game over 48 hours or a week.
Ah, yeah, those are super fun. There's one called, Ludi Dre Ludi Dare. And that's, gonna happen at the end of this month. And that's one where you do make a game from scratch in, in 48 hours. I highly recommend that to anyone who's like trying to like, get in the industry, try to make, just have an opportunity to make something.
and yeah, and eventually I started making at least small projects and then a role opened up on the Heart Stone team that was, we'll need [00:07:00] someone who can make a bunch of stuff quickly. we need to make a lot of live content in tavern brawls and that sort of thing. And I was like, that's my whole portfolio.
I ended up getting that role. And one thing I always tell people with that role in particular, it was actually, a mid-level role, not an entry level role when I applied for it. And I actually,they made an associate, they made an entry level role for me because they liked my package and my, my,application so much.
and actually that's something I recommend to a lot of people. there's,a thousand people will apply for an associate level, an entry level role. Not a lot of people will apply for that mid-level. And that actually put me in this smaller pool to be, I was on, not competing with yeah, a thousand other people trying to get their, like their foot in the door on this.

I wasn't even telling, I was telling him like, I just want you to see my, my, my submission. I want to see my portfolio. This is what I'm interested in. And if I don't get this on this one, I'm gonna get to the next one. But yeah, I ended up getting that role. and then, yeah, I worked on Har Stone for a few years, making tavern brawls. 
I did a lot of stuff with our in-person play where we had people like go to like bars and stuff and play, play in person and Oh, yeah. Yeah, we called 'em fireside gatherings. They were really awesome. then after a couple [00:08:00] years there, I moved on to Niantic to work on their,Marvel game,the World of Heroes.
did that for a couple of years. That was like my first like big lockdown pandemic project and everything. Yeah. and then from there, I actually, people I knew from Heart Stone had moved over tot team fight tactics at, riot. And were like, we need people that can build a lot of stuff quickly.
We need you, your skills. we need you. And he's like, all right, twist my arm. and ended up moving over there and I've been now at Riot for, for about a year. And yeah, I've been working on, team flight tactics and, that's the grand and then. And then I got a 3D printer and got really into that and started realizing, wow, a lot of my skills also translate really well into that, including being able to,pitch ideas and describe my process and everything, which is very important in game design.
Very important to talk about, I want this thing to work in this way because this works and this is why it's important. This is why it's interesting. And that's a lot of the energy I try to bring to my TikTok videos. A lot of that same sort of, process breakdowns. This doesn't work, so I'm gonna try this.
This worked in this way. So I'm trying this. And I [00:09:00] think, that is in some small part what has really been a big part of my success there. Has people been really responding well to seeing the gears turn as it were. there's. A thousand things that I would hope to unpack there. I guess I'll start at the beginning of where you started.
you talked about your kind of first roll at Blizzard and being a Keyway. I'm not sure if this is Hollywood's like version of it and if this is any accurate thing and hopefully you've seen this movie, but, the thing that comes to mind for me is Grandma's Point familiar. Yeah. Yeah. Is that any sort of accurate representation of being a QA or how does that kind of play into things in your words?

no. we made fun of it relentlessly, especially about, a lot of the way it presented it,was really like, I. The big thing with qa, you do most of the time, especially at this low level, you do checklists. You are mostly, yes, you do play the game to understand things and suss out bugs, but most of the time you are like given a packet of, when I started it was a packet of paper. 
Now it's all in like websites and everything. but it was literally like a stack of paper. It was like, here are all of the palate and spells, or here are all the weight and ma spells [00:10:00] fireball. Rank one does 10 damage. 10 damage check fireball. Rank two does 20 damage. 30 damage. Oh, that's a bug.
It's supposed to do 20, because this is there and then you write it up and then you go through the whole dance hall and that's it is. it's just a lot of detail work and a lot of trying to figure out ways to push it, the edges of the game, and. Yeah, but it was a great experience working with that team, going through, I really saw Blizzard QA in particular go through a lot of growth over, over about eight to 10 years and just became much more of a professional team and really started taking more seriously.
I. but yeah, always it all still came back down to running checklists, doing,making sure bugs got, because like you would ru with that bug and then the developer would fix it and then they'd send it back to you, and then you had to make sure it worked and made sure the fix went through correctly and didn't break other things.
And yeah, that was a lot of that experience. Interesting. I work in software myself, so I'm familiar with the QA process when you're testing something, like a game as big as, I'm, I don't play, but I know it's like a [00:11:00] very expensive game. How do you like go about testing things to I guess verify that, like you said, one piece of it doesn't break.
Another piece is wait. That had to be a really extensive process there. Oh, definitely. and we had it all broken up into like you as a tester and you report up to a specialist that is in charge of a certain amount of content specialist support leads. Leads are persistently like that, that was whole, like there was a whole hierarchy, had the very.
Military aspect to it as well. very much a this is how you like, communicate, this is how you manage things. but yeah, the specialist would be like, okay, I'm in charge of all the environments, in wow. So I'm doing all making sure all the trees are flushed with the ground. Here's a list of all the trees in the game.

Go find them and make sure that they are all. Flat with the ground, and like that would be your task for the day. And they would be the ones who would plan out to be like, and then when you're a specialist, you are planning out and making sure you're creating these checklists and that they are covering things correctly. 
And then you report up to your lead, make sure that they're, and then they know that the specialists are covering everything. it just, it all goes up that, that, that level of, [00:12:00] coverage and accountability and I'm sure like racy, that, that sort of thing, Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting.
I guess to back up even more on that, it sounded like almost you had stumbled upon it at the time when you were in college. Were you studying to , go into a field like this or did this kind of just come outta left field that this is how your career ended up going?
No, so I, and even going further, back in high school I was in a magnet program called the Media Communications Academy inside of my high school. in the. I grew up in,San Francisco, east Bay area. a little town called Newark that nobody's ever heard of. Fremont, Oakland area. but it was really cool.
It was really like revolutionary. This is in 2000, 2002, where they were doing, all your homework is on computers Revolutionary at the time, like all. we were on, max in our classrooms. And, big thing was they taught us a lot of PowerPoint. They taught us, Photoshop, like VO video editing.
And I was really passionate about film and editing and that sort of thing. And then I actually went to, I went to college for film, was the plan. I went to Cal State Long Beach, and then I,[00:13:00] got there and they were like, Until you can, you can't even take a film class until you've completed like two and a half years of prerequisites.
Yeah. And I like, so I went from every day I was in an editing booth to I'm not doing anything. And I was like getting like creatively starved in a lot of ways. Yeah. And then, yeah, and then I got, found this. With, qa, I'm applied on a lark for the most part, and thinking there's no way they're gonna take, take me with no next to no experience.
but they did. And actually a lot of those skills that I got from the Magnet program, working in Photoshop literally since I've been like 16, really benefited me there putting I, I do so much PowerPoint stuff for like game design and 

figuring all that. it all goes back to that yeah, little. 
High school program. I hate to age both of us, but be like, oh, it's a different time than it was back then. But would you say, I guess as somebody who's works in the industry still, for somebody who maybe wants to go down that path, do you feel like it's something where like they need that formal college education background before getting into it?
Or can you go your own route about it? I'm a strong proponent and also, yeah, I feel an example of I'm a call, [00:14:00] Just like Spielberg, I'm a proud Cal State Long Beach dropout. but no, I don't feel you need, it's valuable. And there's a few schools where that have really, robust, game programs that I would recommend USC dig Japan, have actually built out their.
Their video game program. NYU has a really great, video game program as well. And everyone else, it's like you're better off really just like learning on your own and really building, I think as if you're anything like me, self-directed learning is the best sort of that sort of thing cuz you can go off and do your own work and build stuff.
and that's why I always recommend like Game Jams honestly are the closest to like real game development. To anything because you have a time limit, you have limited resources. You have to really work leanly. and I think, and you have to finish. That's the big thing, like I've known plenty of people who like have got this like grand game design idea and they've been working on it for years and years.
It doesn't go anywhere. what's more valuable specifically for the industry, he's like being able to be done like. I was even telling you before we got on this call, like I was working on champions today on a t [00:15:00] on a big project for tft. And it was just nice to be able to, there's some things I can get done in today and some things that take me a week.
And it was so nice to be done with something that took me a week and be able to like, you know what, it's not perfect. It's gonna have these many flaws. It's gonna have these issues, but I can be done. And that's a professional development skill. Yeah. I think that you learn a lot from game jams.
I,I think that was one of the biggest things that I learned as I got through my career is it's more so those,I guess if you wanna call 'em soft skills, but like you said, pushing through problems, getting them done, those are like the things 

that seem to. 
At least for me, like really have pushed me along in my career. one of the things I heard you re say, like from position to position that seemed to have people draw you in and like you said, they were like, come with us. was being that person who can just iterate on things fast.
would you say that in this industry that is, that like something that's a really sought after skill is maybe like speed over perfection? there's a certain level it needs to be a perfection, a certain level. It needs to get polished and everything, but yes, having the ability to quickly.
Taking feedback and iterate is very valuable to very much be able to see something that's this wasn't clear, okay, I'll add this was too hard. Okay, I'll make this easier. and be able to like quickly [00:16:00] turn that around and then continue. we talk about this in this is any design, this is about the feedback loop of yeah.
how quickly can you manage that? So yeah, that's a valuable skill and it's a invaluable skill in start of the 3D printing as well. Being able to quickly turn around and be like, Oh, this part isn't working. Okay. What do I need to do to make it work? What do I need to do to oh, this is, there's bad geometry here.
Okay, we'll fix it. and, I, a lot of that. dovetails together. Yeah. I know one of the projects you've recently been working on is your Modoc helmet, which if people aren't following you, they need to go follow you. Cuz it's really cool to see it coming together. and I think maybe it was just today or yesterday.
It was recently. Oh, there it is. Perfect. it was just recently I saw you were posting on it and you had your first iteration of it and then, you print it out, you test it, you're like, the magnets aren't fitting right. I'm gonna re articulate how the arms are going in. I guess for you, have you found, like in your career, I guess you've talked about it a little bit, but has that been a big thing in guiding you in 3D printing of like how to do that progressive iteration on these different things?
Yeah, absolutely. It is all about finding how to make it the best way you can do it. How you can improve upon [00:17:00] your designs, how you can improve upon the models and everything. And it, you just need to like, And sometimes you just need to print it. Sometimes you just need to try it out first.

like this thing here, like it was there. I mean I know this might be an audio thing, but if here's for the visual aspect of it, there were, when I wanted to first pull this together, I always knew I wanted to do magnets, but I wanted to try it out first and build it and see that the magnets could hold the weight. 
Yes. and they can well enough, but I'm still improving it. But yeah, I basically, hot glued magnets to, to keep the piece together. but because of that, now the pieces that like have this large gap between them,a thing I'm implementing or a thing I, I'm iterating on is adding a, cavity into the model so that the magnets can get socketed in.
And and that's a lot of I gotta take the measurements for the magnet. I gotta make sure that inside of the model things are the right size. and and yeah, just keep going back to the project. again, I think that is what you know, What you this is design, this is, 3D design, 3D modeling design, 3D printing design, but it's design.
And yeah, a lot of the skills that I have built over years of working in [00:18:00] games, years of working in, in, in that sort of thing, really do serve me well. they apply it's sticking in the tune of your Modoc helmet. I. Loved. Again, I love seeing the videos online, like just seeing the reaction of other people and people seem really excited about it.
Do you have plans, to, do like conventions or do you have a, I guess an end place that you're hoping to showcase this or is it just a fun project for you? The most level? It's something just fun for me.
I mean like a lot of like my showcase is on TikTok is online. Yeah. I definitely think. This one I might take to a comic-con just for fun, Yeah. I have a thought of wearing it with just a black turtleneck or something and then having that be the full costume and everything.
cuz yeah, people seem to really like, get a kick out of it. it is definitely, I think is very indicative of the sort of design that I like doing. the, it's a little bit goofy. It's a, it's certainly whimsical. It's a little bit campy. It's a little bit weird. and that sort of, if anything, my.
My big brand, the sort of stuff I like making for myself is that weirdness. Yeah. have the projects that you've worked on in your professional life do, have they influenced your personal design style at all?

Or [00:19:00] would you say that's really something that kind of has always been more so your aesthetic? Naturally. It's more so my aesthetic,naturally. I've always tried to make stuff that's a little bit weird, a little bit out of the normal way of doing things, which is, certainly served me well. 
People wanna see something different people wanna see and there are very often, I will sit with something and be like, do I wanna do this? Or has everyone else already done this? Is this already out there in a million different ways? Or will, will people appreciate my. My take on it in some way.
And yeah, that was something. So when I was actually on heart stone, when I was working on these thinker called Tavern brawls, we had stuff that would only last about five days. It was the way these game modes would work. They would come up on Wednesday and then shut down on Sunday and it would allowed us to actually be much more experimental.
We would basically create house rules for the card game and could do something really silly, really weird. And then, worst case scenario, if it doesn't fly or is an interesting, it's gone by Sunday. Yeah. but yeah, that was a space that I really could make a lot of really my sort of vibe, my eccentric bits and that's what has I feel carried on of trying to [00:20:00] find novelty and whimsy and, yeah, and goofy and weird.
and. referential. I like to pull on other weird individual things that I like, the stuff that's more specific, Yeah. that was another thing as I was going through your content, I think,what I personally really enjoy and it seems to be like universal that the people on TikTok really enjoy as well is your quirkiness and like the unique things that you have.
One that comes to mind is you had a sleepy Time Tea Bear that you made, which is such a. Strangely specific thing, but people loved it. And I, it's just it's fun to me how it's those unexpected things that I would never think to make that, but you made it and it seemed to blow up and people really loved it.
yeah. Just I'm just so terminally online and I definitely saw some people posting like fan art and like weird stuff about the like sleepy Time Tea Bear. And I was like, oh, I just want a little statue of that cuz it's most. Silly, ridiculous thing I can think of. And that's that once I hit that in my brain, that's where I know I need to follow it.
Like when it's something [00:21:00] that I feel like I've never seen before or I've 

have ne because I consume so much, media can, so much content and I also like never forget anything. I'm one of those weird people that like have a photographic memory sort of thing. And so like when I feel like. Huh. I really never, that's really totally unique. 
I've never really seen anything like that. It's yes, I need to follow that. Yeah. Hey, thank you for calling that. I love that. That was a fun project that, yeah, that one stood out as one of my favorites. I, I don't know what it was about it in, but it must be like a cultural icon that kind of slipped into the back.
Frames of my memory and forgot about. But,that was a cool book. It's so unique. It's so unique. Art. It is such a yeah. Classic thing. Anyone who's either ever been sick or ever been like wanting to get a little dressed or something and it's like that bear in his little cozy co cabin. He is so perfect and so cozy and Yeah.
it, and it's something that, yeah, of course there's not merge for that cuz it's, why would there be so Of course there has to be. Yeah. I think that's a cool thing with 3D printing, you can really create something that does not. Does not exist or that to make something that seems very femoral or liminal [00:22:00] or little bit like, to make it real, make it, something you can hold and touch, feel so unique.
To make your own merchant toys for stuff that would never exist. Yeah, I think that's,when I first got my 3D printers, and I don't know if you can relate to this, but it's, it sounds so obvious saying it out loud, but just going from something that like only ever existed in a virtual setting and holding it in your hands and actually bringing it to life, it's, if you've never had the experience to do it, it's a really fun and really unique kind of thing to have happen.
Yeah. it feels. So it's such a unique experience with them. and also the great joy of having a 3D printer where every problem becomes something, hang, wait, I could 3D print something for that. there's so many little things around our house that are like little, like I have a,I have a holder for our hair dryer that I 3D printed.
I've got,curtain rods that are 3D printed. Like everything around the house is like some amount of, a print going on. Yeah, it definitely opens your mind up to, To different ways of thinking about everything and it's definitely, in some ways it's made me a bit of a hoarder, cuz now anytime anything breaks, I'm like, [00:23:00] we don't need to get rid of it.

I'll just. 3D printed and fix it somehow. But yeah, it's, the solution is always 3D printing. Yes. yes. now staying on the topic of trying different things, pushing yourself into different ways. One of the things I've noticed about you that's a little unique about other people in the 3D printing space is you seem to have jumped from A lot of different types of printers. 
Like I think most people, they kind of stick to PERA or CRE or whatever they, on you, you've had a wide range of printers. How was that kind of by choice or like how, have you like jumped from different machines? I started with that, that, the ubic, was actually a mega S that I then convert.
I had to replace some parts and it basically turned into an I three. but it was a little bit rough. It, it worked well enough. It was loud. and that was just how I started building things out. And then I got an ender three and an end three V two in particular. And that's like where things really started to open up, where it was like, oh my goodness, this can do anything, it can do all these things.
Oh, but that part broke. Okay, I can fix that though. Oh, but that part broke. I can fix. And that became my, my, my project horse. And I just started building and adding new [00:24:00] things. That was really where I learned the vast majority of Printer repair and everything was from that v2.
I always recommend that machine to people for starting dirt cheap. And also, yeah, you are what? You have to have the stomach to do a lot of repairs, buy parts off Amazon, figure out how to pull it together. But piano know, like it's definitely now, like the boards replaced, the nozzles, replaced the hot ends, replaced the, the extruders replaced.
Like I've just gone through all the little bits and bobs on that and then I started expanding out like. I really only, I had that, I got the Lock Me Shark V two from a Twitter Mutual who, Andrew Sink, who also does 3D printing reviews and was like, I'm giving this away. I don't have the time to use it.
And it was like, it was a dual,a dual color printer. Yeah. And that, and sent it to me and I started learning. And that has its own issues. It does the color prints that are only okay for them, but same thing, I learned a lot from that project and building things throughout through there. and then really last year things started going crazy for me, for my, my, my fleet was, so my, I sell products on [00:25:00] Etsy.
I sell, these things. They are biblically accurate angel fidget spinners and 

ornaments and everything. they're giant golden rings covered in eyes and. I had sold a few of them on Etsy, and I don't know what hit correctly this last year, and I started selling hundreds of them. and in particular, so these, and I also sell the bigger version of it that is supposed to be done like a Christmas tree topper. 
Yeah. And it's like you put the angel on the tree. That's, yeah. That's, again, that's my weirdness. But, The, I actually needed to, I was not able to meet demand and so I got, a ender three S one and then I started got another f S one and I started building out to get the, get that sort of thing. And then also I like kickstarted an on anchor M five, like a year ago, and it finally came in.
And so then I moved on to using that a bunch. And then I started really starting to understand like that the new game I feel in 3D prints is speed, Yeah. And. And then I then also, after a long period of I'm not going to spend $1,600 on a 3D printer here, that's rid, ridiculous.
No, [00:26:00] why ever. And then I got, finally got an X one carbon. and I've been using that this last week, and I've been had that now, yeah, about two weeks now. Oh, I love it so much. Oh, it works. It just works. It just works. I've spent so much time, even with the M five, which I like a lot is fast. It does stuff really quickly, but it's not super reliable.
I do still have to go through a lot, to, I have to baby it, especially those first few layers. The adhesion is not always great. you have to do the auto level. You have the z offset does never quite works as well as I wanted to. Then the next one, carbonation like, here, do this. You got it, boss. and actually, so like one of the things I've been working on from there that I just presented, I haven't done any video on this yet, but, these are the, TF T eggs that we have in here that we, you buy these, they have, champions in them, but like that in three colors.
Wow. How darn crisp is that? Oh, that is so cool. I hope everybody is watching this on the video version so they can see that is cool. [00:27:00] Yeah, so I'm in love. I, I don't, I wouldn't say. It's a lot of money to get it. And if you wanna do like the P1 P and get the ams, the amms is the magic.
and I've seen other printers, I've seen the,the even, reality has been coming out with oh, they're like, they're ver the K one s, they're a version of it. It doesn't have the ams. that's, this is what's really separates it. It's a really great, reliable printer, even just for single color.

But yeah, this is blowing me away in what it can do in multicolor. Especially coming off of the Latinx, which was like, it, everything bled into itself. You had to have a purged tower,as big as like a sewer pipe to not have the colors lead into each other. 
I was really hoping you were gonna come on here and be like, yeah, I got the Exxon carbon. It wasn't all that, but it's all that, I guess I need to break it to you. I know. I wish I could tell you that too. I wish I could tell you like, you know it No, it's a, it's an incredible machine.
Yeah. I,it's always in the back of my mind. I'm just a hobbyist. I don't, I don't sell anything, so in my mind it's a little hard to justify me buying it. But man, they're so cool. I, I might need to add one to the [00:28:00] collection, but touching back to your biblically accurate angel eyes, first of all, loved that file.
around Christmas time I was printing like a tree with all different creators files and you had actually sent it over. It was super fun to me and I just loved that file. But, I noticed it seemed to be that like, You had really grown your collection of printers quite a bit, in that rush that you got from Etsy, for people out there.
I guess how when you're getting these orders, like just flooded in and things like that, like what's the process in your mind of thinking I guess how do you decide expanding your printer collection versus maybe like throttling your orders? What was that whole timeframe like for you? you just think about it in both ways.
if I'm, especially if I'm out of town. I don't, that's a big thing. Never shut down your Etsy shop if you do that. It like, you get your, you get punished by their algo and like never found again. But if you can set your like, delivery times out to a longer period to be like, oh,five, seven days.
And then it shows you pretty clearly oh, this is what you need the order, you need to ship things in. So it's a lot of keeping on top of that. And we like, and yeah. And it got to a point where [00:29:00] I realized, I need to have the next many machines to start keeping up with that.
yeah, I really just figured out like what my output needed to be and what I was pulling in on that, those got to a point like, if I need to, if I over buy a printer, I can return and figure it out. Yeah. From that way or sell, we, at Wright we have a very, lively,selling, wanting to sell board.

So you. I've honestly bought things, knowing, being like, you know what, if I don't like it, I can probably sell it back to my coworkers, for, maybe like 10% off of what I paid it, paid for it, So that's in Oh, interesting. So are, do you have a lot of coworkers who are also in the 3D printing space then? 
Yeah. Yeah. We have a old channel at work that's like of. 3D printing hobbyists, all, kinda like passing back to feedback on stuff. I actually did the thing recently where you, do the paver block to cut down on noise on the, on your printers. Oh. Especially on the X one carbon.
And it was like a guy at work was like, I've got extra paver blocks coming. Who wants some? And so we Share back and forth on that. Oh, that's cool to hear that you have a whole community at work who is also, also into that. you should not be shocking that at a, thousand, many thousand comp, company of nerds.
[00:30:00] We got some more 3D printers, Yeah. I guess that checks out. That checks out. you touched on the under three V two being like a good printer for beginners. I agree. That was what I started on. And you definitely do a lot of tinkering, but I think, at least for me, like I learned.
So much from constantly tearing that machine apart and putting it back together, which is a good thing. of your other printers that you have, do any of them stand I guess any other recommendations of like different places in the hobby where you might suggest one of those machines or not suggest one of those machines?
That's definitely your starter one. I've never used pera, so I, I can't really speak too much on, on those. I know they are well loved in that space as well for yeah. And also her similarly like to what I love about the extra carbon of it. Like it just works. Yeah. And it does not have, does not require the level of maintenance that the, the other machines do.
but,yeah, I've been really enjoying, honestly, I have no issues with my S one s. and I've used two of them now and back to back, and they have given me no trouble. they, their bed leveling works well. Their prints come out nice. obviously they don't have the speed really, although I know if you have the sonic pad, I know you use the Sonic Pad, but supposedly if you have the Sonic Pad, they can go closer [00:31:00] to 200.
they can go a lot faster than, stock. yeah. I haven't done any. I think that might 

be my next, phase of tinkering. I might wanna try out the, the V2 and see if I can get clipper and go faster and everything like that. I've done already Octa print, so I already have some experience with using a,a raspberry pie to like connect in and everything. 
But haven't gone for speed on those devices yet. Yeah. The the Sonic pad, I know, I think maybe I would just was not the right customer for it. I think that there's people who really love to,perfect them and configure them perfectly. And I think for those people it is, it's like an awesome.
Product. And, I was pretty early in like the early phases of getting it. There was a lot of updates that kind of iterated out, in my time of having it and I had on and off issues. But yeah, the Sonic Pad, if, anyone's listening to this and not familiar, it's be essentially like a plug and plate interface for a clipper.
it has like input shaping options so you can speed up your prints and, yeah, it's a really cool little product. It's, I have it sitting, it's been sitting in my closet and I haven't had it plugged in, so I might have to revisit it in the next couple weeks. But, yeah, it's.
Cool. And,, CRE has, its stigma around it, but they do seem to be putting a lot of, development time [00:32:00] into, coming out with these different products to, I don't know if you wanna say competing with these other printers, but,I definitely can say it's somebody who's a CRE user.
It feels like they are. Constantly iterating on new things and putting new things out in the market, which to me, I appreciate. I think that's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I like that too. I like their, and coming in at lower price points and being much more accessible and definitely, but yeah, there's, it's the classic, the triangle of the,speed, quality, price.
Yeah. of where they fall. And yet right now, the X one carbons, the Bamboo Lab machines are just like so high on the quality, but they are much, much higher on the price and much more higher on that certain, same thing with PERA and Crow sits a little bit closer on that space, but having different price points, having different spaces for that really is, makes the hobby much more accessible.
I certainly would never have, had, I certainly would've bought a, over a thousand dollars machine out outright cuz Yeah. to try out a hobby. Yeah. But, yeah, no. Coming in at a, 200, 2 50, yeah, though I can come in on that and 

start, messing around and then, and then I buy a $20 roll of fulfillment and then I buy another 20 film, and then I buy another. 
Suddenly, yeah, I'm like, suddenly [00:33:00] this hobby is many thousands of dollars surrounding me. I know the under three is like the gateway drug of 3D printing. It's so easy to get into and, you, like you said, I never in a million years could have expected when I first bought that printer and spent a couple hundred dollars at.
We'd be here. but that becomes your everything. yes. now with your, 3D printer collection, it's grown pretty significantly, pretty quickly. is your wife ever like enough with the printers, or how do you manage that living with, Somebody else who may be, I guess is she, a 3D printing fan herself as well?
Not necessarily. No. the, I did a video on this, but our sort of long term agreement is I can bring more printers in, as long as you can bring more plants into the house. Oh, okay. Is, is our agreement on that. And actually the, I have been reducing the fleet since I brought in the X onec.
I've been moving more of myself in the anchor. I got rid of one of my S one s I got rid of, I moved the, I paid it forward and gave away my shark to another, to a coworker. Okay. Same sort of thing of here's the issues with it. Here's how we know about it. And pay it forward, when you're done with it.
so that one's been floating around the, the traveling shark [00:34:00] v2. but yeah, and as I've been able to make that leaner and focus more on a few machines over, the fleet has been really helpful. Yeah, is certain and certainly helpful for the shared living space aspect of it as well.
, I'm in a condo though. I wish I would, I, in a dream scenario, I would have like garage with like my own space. Oh yeah. The serious dream. Oh man. I would love to ever be like, successful enough and have enough printers go enough prints going out the door that I could justify like getting like a little studio space uncle Jesse has like, yeah.
That's the dream. To like actually have like my little My label. I am now, I am a small business now. I am now the proud CEO of Joe Mag 3D llc. but yeah, to keep expanding that and actually treating it more like an actual, like small business rather than Yeah.

My little goofy hobby that, that does well around Christmas. Yeah. like I said, you've been, you amass pretty large following, so it wouldn't surprise me in the near future if you have your Joe Mag 3D studio, which that'd be fun. I'd think that would be dream. That'll be the dream. Yeah. 
Now, do you thi I guess like on that [00:35:00] note, If, let's say, let's fast forward five years and let's just say 3D printing blows up for you. Is that something that you could see yourself like doing full-time? Would you step away from a game design or do you think that's something that you would always maybe do 50 50?
Or what do you think that would look like for you? It's tough to really see it at that, that at that lens. It's something that would depend on a lot of different factors. Do, would depend on where I'm at with my game da, game dev career. It would depend on where I'm at with my family. I've got, we've got a, a young kid right now.
Possibly more on the way. So we're,starting to figure out in those sort of terms about where we're going on that. So yeah,I could see both. I could see a world where this continues to just be a hobby and I'm doing more game dev stuff. I could see a space where I'm doing more of my own independent game stuff.
and then also continuing the business here. the great part about 3D printing, there is still a lot of downtime for it and everything. So I could see building my own little studio and then I'm printing and getting stuff out there, and then, Making my own small game projects, which I love doing, on the side, having that being some share of it.
I see a lot for Joe Mag 3D in, in that space, that's exciting. I'm excited to see how it [00:36:00] progresses and then excited to follow along with everything over the next couple years one of the things you just touched on is, developing your own game projects. have you ever, I, maybe you haven't, I don't know, but have you released like a full game I have a few games out on, itch.io, that were like beginning to end personal projects and everything.
that have bitten it. And, they're not like AAA big things or anything like that, but they're fun. little toying around experiments. I think one game that actually, the game that I really did for, there's a couple games that are pretty popular on there, especially around the ho, I don't know what it's around with me and holiday stuff, holidays.

But I made a game called, nuty slash Nice. And it was a, basically it's a game where you're Santa and y you have. Tinder for putting kids on the naughtier Nice list. Okay. And like you swipe left to put 'em on the nay, you swipe right to put 'em on the nice list. And they have this is how long they've been believing in Santa. 
This is what they want for Christmas. And like you have to make decisions based on that. Oh yeah. but you have to manage these resources that are like, you have workshop magic versus like happiness. And so a more expensive product takes more magic and, but if a kid who's been a believer [00:37:00] longer will get more upset and you'll lose that if you put them on the naughty list.
So it's all about managing these like two bars as you're making these decisions. I basically a lot on this game called Reigns, which was like a, like you're a king and you're making those same sort of decisions in that sort of way. Which by the way, another big game dev tip, just. Make other games go through, put your own twist on them.
go, if you really like, a system in a game, try and remake it. If you have the skills in like programming or scripting or whatever, go and try and make it again on your own. And you will learn so much in that process. And you'll probably stumble on new ways to make that. don't worry about stealing or copying or anything like that.
there's a book I recommend to a lot of people called Steal like an artist. Oh. and that it's just a great way of owning your influences and knowing you know what? I'm going to try and build that and I'm going to learn so much in that process. yeah, and that was a game I really liked and I had my own weird take on it and was able to build that out and that was really fun, fun project of mine.
That's so cool. And it's, yeah, it's funny, the holidays really must just be your time to shine, but, that's, it's interesting to hear that and I, I didn't know actually that you had done full projects, is made maiden [00:38:00] jams. that one was made in about a month, and I, other games I've made over weekends and everything.
So it's, I said nothing that I've poured, like nothing. It's like a big project or anything. But definitely like stuff you can play Joe Mag, dot itch, do itch.io. I know what I'm doing later then. Now, with that said, I have to imagine that you have a background in gaming yourself.

Are there, I, maybe it's hard to say, but are there games that you would say were a big influence for you or certain games that stand out as maybe favorites? throughout the years, I would say probably one of my biggest influence games was, psycho knots from a few years ago. from double fine. I think it, it speaks to a lot of the, to my aesthetic to, to, to how I think about games. 
It's got a bit of, it's big sense of humor, a very strange way of thinking about games. it was, I if you've replayed it, but like you go into people's brains and see like all of their like, World, their anxieties, their problems,their outlook and experience it as these sort of, 3D platforming levels, a memorial jumping [00:39:00] around, but like figuring out like, oh, there's a failed actress and like her biggest enemy is her critic.
And he, he uses fountain pens to shoot like criticisms out at you. And, there's just all these different it had, and it was funny, I think this is such a great medium. For humor and comedy that we just don't often get, we take things so seriously. Games are all about having to be this super serious medium because it has to be like cinema, it has to compete or has to be serious.
And, we lose, the fun, the funny, what makes it weird? And, it was made by Tim Schaffer, who also did,the tentacle grim Fandango, monkey Island. Like really and and yeah. And then that. Didn't sell super well. So I was actually surprised when they came out with Psych OS too, like about a year ago and was like, cause I always felt like I'm the fan of that game.
I am the audience for that game. Yeah. And it's like always been definitely interesting seeing it get a little kind of second life and people being rediscovering the original cuz yeah. that's such a huge influence on how I approach game design and how I approach world building. and, yeah.
Interesting. I've [00:40:00] never, I've never played that. It's not the same people who make scribble knots. Is that different? no, no people. Okay. No scribble knot is a Warner Brothers studio. This is double fine psycho kno. Pick it up on steam. It's like they, they give it away for a dollar all the time.
Highly recommend. And, the new one is psycho, not two is really good. it's tough to recommend without playing the first one cuz it just, there's just so much context of the world and the gameplay and everything. they do a little recap and everything, but I struggle to see it is so narratively direct.

I struggle to see playing two without one. Yeah, , I'm gonna have to pick that up it's funny hearing you say you like that, like absurd style and like the comedy kind of portion of it. I know it's I guess like a goofy, people are probably the look down on this. 
But my favorite game, like over the last couple years has been playing Fortnite and I guess it's a game for kids, but I just, I love the. Absurdity of it. I love that you're like running around, there's like bananas running around with you and I don't, it's just and John Wick and, Manda, everything.
yeah. I, I have a lot of friends who work at Epic. and I, I've been always impressed at the sandbox they built with [00:41:00] that game. Yeah. Like that. It is really, it is all things to all people and that has impressed me. You can put. Literally anything in there. And it feels right, like they have such a strong visual style that it does not take much to see oh, that's Spider-Man in, in the Fortnite style, that's Batman in the Spider-Man style and or in the Fortnite style and have it be cohesive, Yeah. I had to get back and playing it. I haven't played it in a long time. I was always bad at the building and I know that's now like they finally got rid of, they finally dropped that for being such a core part of the game. but, But yeah, I'm just impressed at, I also think they have really built what they, when they talk so much about oh, the metaverse and everything, I think they have built like one of the best metaverses out there.
One of the best, like you go here to hang out with your friends. To play, yeah. To enjoy the space, to, to experience. Like without it being an mmo, without having that sort of long-term progression or all that sort of thing. Just here's a fun place to go do fun things like, and that is, Yeah.
that, that impresses me so much as a developer and as a gamer. Yeah I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a 

gamer, but I had always been into gaming. I [00:42:00] never, got super, into playing online, but that was the first game where I really played online.
It was the first time where I was like, it was crazy to me that I would play game and leave, I'd play. 10 matches back to back with somebody. And I like, felt like we were friends at the end. And that was, like you said, it was kinda just a cool experience where it was almost somewhere you could just go to hang out.

and, still have fun playing a game, but it's, it was a fun experience. Yeah. Social experience is just so incredible. Yeah. And yeah, just works out so well to maybe. Play games with your friends. It all, so much of this ties back to like core playground psychology of what do we do when we're kids? 
What do we do when we're playing around on the playground and how we can adapt that experience into gameplay, mechanics, systems and everything. And yeah. And Fortnite has just done such a great job of that, and it is one of those, the great beautiful design is invisible. there have been great pains to,to have that flow where you're just playing with these people over and over again and having a great time and Yeah.
and building those social bonds. that's the dream. Yeah. They, they executed beautifully on it. I love it. I guess a final thing [00:43:00] that we'll leave with today, we've talked, in and out about, your experiences in,working in the industry, formally working in the industry as a hobbyist, as maybe the person who's listening to this and they really.
Really wanna be a game designer or, maybe they're doing a more traditional path, but they wanna lean into some kind of creative field, do you maybe have advice for that person and, I guess how they would start to go down that path? My biggest advice is make stuff, get, start building out your portfolio, start creating things, whatever it is.
If it's art, if it's design, if it's 3D modeling, if it's anything, just get out there and start making it like, and if you don't feel like you have the skills out there, Find the ways to get the skills, to make the stuff you wanna make. And it's, you will through that process, find things you like making, things you don't like making, and that's how you will define your skills, your aesthetic, your design sense.
Like it is all about, centre making, making stuff, and, it will never, and the first stuff you make, Probably would be great, but you will learn so much from it and you'll, [00:44:00] the next thing you make, you will take those lessons and be better and improve upon it and build and increase and iterate.
Like you, you'll learn that. do not dither in idea space. Do not dither in, in conceptualizing, do what you need to do to start putting pen to pencil filament into nozzle, cube to 3D model. Start making. I think that's great advice. Joe, I had such a great time talking to you today.
It was so interesting learning about you and learning about your projects and 

everything that you work on. for people who, for whatever reason aren't following you already, can you let them know the best places on the internet to find you? Sure. I'm Joe Mag underscore games on Twitter. 
I'm Joe Mag 3d, basically everywhere else. I'm Joe Mag 3D on Instagram, on TikTok. That's my main place for everything starts on TikTok. I have now been starting to do the cross post onto on Instagram, onto YouTube. but that is all again with one word. J O E M A g, 3d. Awesome. Find me. Awesome.
I'm about to also launch Patreon, but that's coming in the next like week or so. Where I'm gonna be posting,[00:45:00] the modoc files, I'm gonna be posting a lot of my spinners. I'm gonna be really start getting, it's also gonna be, I'm starting to dabble with you. Like it, this is something that you can sell if you wanna sell it, but, yeah, be on the lookout for that.
That's exciting. I know a lot of, I, again, I see in your comments and a lot of people has been hoping that you were gonna do that. So if you're waiting, this is the time. Joe, thank you again. I appreciate you coming on so much. And with that said, that is our episode of Meet the Makers.