Raza Ahmad
Niantic
Commerce, CA USA
"Equal parts perseverance, hard work, and luck. You need all three working in your favor in order to put the wind in your sails."
Career Roadmap
Raza's work combines: Technology, Design, and Communicating / Sharing Stories
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Always be willing to learn new things. Learn to solve problems, think on your feet and drive creativity into challenges. Creativity is about more than just self-expression -- that's important, but it can be targeted into everything. It's a way of approaching the obstacles and opportunities in life and viewing them in a problem-solving manner. It's a muscle that can and must be exercised.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts, General
Claremont McKenna College
Bachelor's Degree
General Literature
Claremont McKenna College
Graduate Degree
Cinematography and Film/Video Production
University of California-Los Angeles
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
Born and raised in Pakistan—his mother was a social activist and got him involved in the street theater that evolved out of those activist movements.
2.
He continued to study theater formally for most of his life and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in theater from Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.
3.
He then went on to earn his master’s degree in film from the University of California, Los Angeles—says he viewed this transition from theater to film as a natural evolution.
4.
After taking a few game design courses in graduate school, he began freelancing in that field, as well as in motion graphics and web design.
5.
In 2012, he was recruited to work for Niantic Labs, which was a startup within Google, working on Ingress, a location-based, augmented reality mobile mystery game.
6.
In 2015, when Niantic became an independent company, he joined the group of creative directors responsible for developing one of the biggest gaming sensations in decades, Pokémon GO.
7.
His work has mainly become focused on developing the intellectual property that Niantic owns and helping to manage the live-action games that they have become known for.
8.
He is passionate about utilizing augmented and virtual reality technologies to further the storytelling narratives within his designs and explore new ways to elevate them.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
I don't like this game.
How I responded:
Games are inherently subjective. Not everyone is going to love the games I make. I believe in my vision for a particular game and commit to it in order to allow it to come to fruition. At the same time, I value these types of opinions so that I can make the best game possible.