Andy Maneri

Since Andy has been old enough to answer the question “What do you want to do when you grow up?” there has been only one answer: Make video games!

Growing up in a family of artists and musicians, Andy gained a love for drawing, character design, animation and the like. His grandfather and cousin introduced him to the magical world of computers and soon he gained another type of hobby: programming. While he enjoyed each pursuit separately, he found what truly engrossed him was combining the two, to create video games.

Much of his free time as a pre-teen was spent along this route, creating games with QBasic and programs like ‘Klik and Play’. It was during this time that he started to gain an understanding of both game logic and how to design characters and sprites. Upon entering his later years of middle school, Andy learned C++ and DirectX and began to program clones of his favorite 16-bit games, while also duplicating their art styles. He also began to follow other hobbies like web programming, flash animation, photo editing, and computer building but always returned to his favorite task.

On graduating high school Andy went to a state college to work towards an engineering degree. About a year and a half in, he realized this would not lead to a career in video games and left to go to the school that was made for this: The DigiPen Institute of Technology.

As a freshman, Andy was technical director and lead artist for the Master of Orion style strategy game, Project Jawesome. He was able to stretch his game design legs Sophomore year with the sandbox game Redevilopment. Here he acted as the game designer, main AI scripter, lead artist, and lead musician. While certainly an exhausting pursuit, his skills in each area reached levels they would not have otherwise.

Then one day, while walking back from a delicious teriyaki meal, Joseph Tkach told Andy of his idea for a music-based action game. Knowing this would be something amazing, Andy decided instantly to work with them the junior year. On Synaesthete, Andy has been able to work in many areas, acting as the team’s Lead Artist (alongside Joe) and Character Designer, Physics/AI programmer, and share scripting duties with Zach Aikman.