Hello everyone! For those who don’t know me, I’m ‘Wes’, Michael Wesley Stratton, or EpicWesley. I’m a disabled/retired video game industry veteran with a decade of experience working for Activision/Blizzard as a Test Engineer, Database Manager, and Floor Lead. I have experience working on franchises such as Call of Duty, Marvel, Hearthstone, Starcraft, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and more.

Unable to keep up with the demanding pace and requirements asked by employers at the time I was faced with the choice of continuing a career in a field I was passionate about or protecting my health. Seeing how there’s no respawn in this life that we currently know of I chose the latter.

Flash-forward to now a decade later and I’ve spent a good part of the Covid-19 pandemic in isolation like many others. Towards the latter part I took up Unreal Editor so that I could mod Conan Exiles, a game I was playing at the time. Aside from a large amount of cursing and frustration, I found a creative outlet and a lot of joy. Then I had the realization: “Why are you wasting your time modding something you will never own the rights to be able to market?”

With that realization, I turned my attention to learning as much Unreal Editor as I could. I took some online courses and before I knew it I had multiple prototypes that I’d built of varying complexity ranging from classic arcade games to games with online connectivity.

I’m absolutely a mid-level novice at Unreal Editor but by leveraging the experience from my past career experience this is the beginning of me working on my own projects that I intend on using to learn in a working environment with the hopes to release. I’m utilizing the same methods Indie and AAA studios use to organize, manage, and execute the games we all know and love today.

I’m well aware of the massive undertaking I’m embarking on but it’s like the feeling anyone has at the beginning of a great journey. It’s either 90% excitement and 10% nervousness, or the other way around but that’s the exciting part! The Unknown.

I hope to discuss and share as much of that journey with you as possible. I’m planning on hosting live streams when the time comes as well as posting progress reports, and announcements, and keeping all of my friends and family up to date with my progress. So I invite you to join me on this long strange trip and hopefully, we’ll all learn something about the world and ourselves along the way.

Much Love,

Michael Wesley Stratton, EpicWesley
Founder: FRACTURE ● POINT