Levi Southerlan - Battle Creek, MI

 Who are you?

- My name is Leviticus Southerlan and I am a 25 year-old, white male who is perpetually pursuing extraneous college degrees that I will never use. I am currently enrolled in University of Houston’s Digital Media program.

What's in your bag?

- My 17-Inch Belkin Messenger Bag (Jet/Cabernet) contains the following items: 1 custom built IBuyPower laptop complete with power adapter,  1 Wacom Intuos 3 tablet with matching pen, 1 8Gb Microcenter flash drive, 1 MicroSD card-reader with 4 Gb MicroSD card, 2 fingerless gloves (grey), 1 custom printed Dharma Initiative mouse pad, 1 Western Digital hard drive (1Tb) with USB 2.0 cable, 1 Logitech M510 laser mouse, 6 Nintendo DS games (Titles Include: Okamiden, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Korg DS 10 Synthesizer, Pokemon: Soul Silver, Dementium: The Ward, and Dementium 2), 1 pair Klipsch Image ONE Headphones, 1 rollerball Click-pen with grip, 3 0.7 mm  Bic mechanical pencils with grip, 3 0.5 mm Bic mechanical pencils without grip, 1 pair, prescription sunglasses, 1 R2D2 edition Motorola Droid 2.

Favorite game(s) of all time?

- Bioshock or Gladius.

What are you playing right now?

- Mass Effect 3 (X360), Modern Warfare 3 (X360), Gladius (Xbox), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (X360), Team Fortress 2 (PC)

Who, or what, is your biggest inspiration?

- Mostly I’m inspired by the stuff that happens to me on a daily basis. My mind tends to wander and I come up with certain ideas and mechanics based on the exceedingly normal circumstances around me. As far as artists, Doug TenNapel continuously impresses me with everything he puts out and inspires me to strive to get better at my own craft. Several musical artists also inspire me through their songs, the most prevalent being Five Iron Frenzy, Explosions in the Sky, mewithoutYou and Tom Waits.

What made you want to study game design?

- I got kicked out of a university and was forced to start over. Gaming was on the list of majors so I went for it.

Favorite piece of video game memorabilia (tshirts, props, etc) that you may or may not own?

- I have framed copies of maps from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. They’re fully matted behind glass and contained in an intricately crafted, real-wood frame. They are probably the nicest thing I own. They’re also super heavy.

Guilty pleasure of the moment?

- I spend way too much time developing this post-apocalyptic, turn-based, tabletop RPG with class, weapon and skill systems. I’ve sunk way too much time into it and I doubt it will ever see the light of day but it’s been really fun to tinker around with the mechanics and classes. Also, I get giddy when it comes to Game of Thrones.

Any last words?

- Can you imagine if there was a frog with a scorpion on its back and both just filled with hate? Then you get the lethality of a scorpion with the mobility of a frog. Also, the frog is excreting some sort of hallucinogen so the scorpion is just freaking out. Also, the frog has a really high credit score so he’s able to get a house. Also, the scorpion knows American Sign Language so he can talk to deaf people. That’d be scary.