The people who use our boards.

Who are you, and what do you do? What do you like to do outside of work?

Hi, I’m Alexander Murdoch, avid collector of small rocks and climber of larger ones, and a creative director living on the Gold Coast, Australia. I do a bit of everything, honestly. I started out in audio and live events before eventually becoming a 3D artist and Unreal dev in 2016. I had a pretty good run of it and worked with some amazing people and companies over the years. Once the game industry was obliterated however and we all started to get fired, I and a few friends made our own projects a priority and are all helping one another out getting them out the gates. You can check out one of the recent games I worked on that I'm excited I can finally share! I worked with Luke Muscat on Normal Golf Game and had an absolute blast.

I occasionally will freelance in the film and automotive industries however i'm taking a break from those to go all in on my own project, it'll be my second time in the directors chair and I'm very keen to share this game with everyone. I'm currently in pre-production on 'Daisy's Wildlife Adventure', an upcoming platformer inspired by Australian flora & fauna and our rich Indigenous culture. It's still very new and bare bones, but you can engage with me via Discord until I get my website up and running :)

You can also reach out on my ArtStation which is linked to my email.

Outside of the world of computers, I’m a partner, a brother, and an uncle. I really enjoy all things nature, so usually it ends up being lots of hikes during the colder months and the beach during the hot ones. There's a creek nearby that is my partner and I's favourite place to have lunch, swim, and hang out.

I am completely redoing my garden and attempting to learn permaculture. I’ve always been into gardening and my grandad taught me bonsai when I was younger, so I’d like to test myself and attempt a small-scale, self-sustaining forest instead of a standard fruit and veg garden.

I like to make music and write lyrics. I used to be in a band in high school and have been toying around with the idea of making a small EP after I finish my game. I don’t really plan on any live shows, so there's a lot less pressure now on the process and I think it’ll be some fun. Who knows? I might end up animating the EP as well and release a little short series. I’m a big fan of McBess and The Dead Pirates and love how tied together their visuals and music process are.

I enjoy playing games when I have the time and energy. Usually I’m a solo gamer, but this year I’ve been playing a lot of Darktide with my brother-in-law. I kind of gave up on multiplayer gaming around the Modern Warfare 2/Halo 3 era, but he dragged me back and I’m glad he did. It's been a lot of fun! For the most part though I love just getting lost in a world on my own and taking my time to really explore and observe.

I skateboard (rarely nowadays), I dabble in photography, and I absolutely love being an uncle and hanging out with my niece. I’m actually learning Godot at the moment to make my niece her own game and give myself a break from Unreal Engine.

What hardware do you use?

I’m currently in the middle of renovating my office and building a new desk + chair. My partner and I do a lot of creative work and need extra space, so we’ve bought two 2m tabletops, some legs, and some storage and have started to paint all the pieces individually before we assemble it all. It's been a fun project, and I’m very keen to have a proper setup. At the moment I’m using my sister’s old sewing table and an armchair until everything’s complete.

My PC has an AMD Ryzen 9 9950x3D CPU + Noctua NH-U12A fan, Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070XT GPU, two 32GB G.SKill Ripjaws M5 DDR5-6000 for RAM, an ASRock x870 Riptide motherboard, a bequiet! Straight Power 12 1500w 80+ Platinum power supply, and Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB + WD Black SN750 2TB SSD, all in a SilverStone FLP02 case with six Noctua NFF12 fans. I also have quite a lot of old HDDs because I’m a bit of a digital hoarder and back up too much.

The monitors in my dual setup are an LG UltraFine 27-inch and a Dell P2319H 23-inch. Speakers are Audioengine A2+ (I painted them yellow a few years ago, they are due for a touch-up). My headphones are Sony MDR-7506; I use a Shure SM7B mic for audio and a Razer Seiren Mini for gaming and meetings.

Mouse is a Razer ProClick v2 Vertical Edition (Thank you to Luke Muscat, who gave me the suggestion of swapping to a vertical mouse, it's been fantastic.) My keyboards are a ZSA Moonlander Mark I and an 8BitDo Retro Numpad. My tablet is an XP-Pen Artist 13 second-gen, and my camera is a Canon EOS 500.

I also use an iPad for Procreate and Garageband. Pencils, pens, paper, and sticky notes for planning.

And what software?

For 2D art, I use Procreate, Affinity Photo/Designer, and Krita. For 3D, it’s Blender, ZBrush, and Substance Painter/Designer/Sampler. Video and Photo require Blender, DaVinci Resolve, and RapidRAW. I use Audacity, Garageband, and MubLoop for audio, but I’m potentially swapping to FL Studio or back to Pro Tools. The game engines I use are Unreal Engine and Godot.

Then there’s the other stuff. I take notes in Obsidian, organize references with PureRef, and browse with Zen Browser. Utilities include Wallpaper Engine, 7-Zip, and Poem Sync, which is a custom git source control client our programmer made for us since we were getting frustrated with current source control options.

I've finally swapped to Linux as well now that I've wrapped all my windows projects. It has been without a doubt the fastest experience I’ve had with computers; Blender especially! It loads near-instantly, even on pretty hefty scenes now.

What’s your keyboard setup like? Do you use a custom layout or custom keycaps?

I’m still new to the world of ergonomics so I haven’t deviated too much from the standard QWERTY layout on my Moonlander. (I should try getting more custom with it.)

I threw in some useful shortcuts I use a lot day to day, and I keep forgetting where I put the Windows key, so I put the keycap that came with my motherboard on it as placeholder till it’s muscle memory. I plan on 3D-printing my own keycaps or at least painting some I already own.

What would be your dream setup?

A Wacom Cintiq for the desk with a mounted monitor above it, no cables visible and a retro, cozy feel for the actual office space. I’m a huge fan of those 1970s conversation pits, so I definitely would style it like that crossed with a beach house. One of those pricey ergonomic chairs is a must, my days of cheap chairs is coming to a close. For the actual PC though: I’d love an all-AMD build with a Threadripper and a dual-GPU setup. 128GB of RAM would also be lovely.

Can you recommend a few books, movies, TV shows, or games (digital or otherwise) that you’re quite into?

Yes, absolutely! I’m gonna just throw you a bunch that have stood out to me, be it new discoveries or childhood favourites.

Music

This could really go on forever, but I would like to make special mention of Lich King and Aesop Rock in particular. They’re the reason Chris (our programmer extraordinaire) and I became friends in the first place and we usually start our projects through just listening to music together and chatting while we worked remote.

Would also like to quickly shout out some Aussie favourites: DZ Deathrays, WAAX, Dune Rats, Skeggs, Gang of Youths, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Violent Soho.

Books

• Timothy Zahn: Anything Thrawn, but start with Heir to the Empire
• Sarah J. Maas: A Court of Silver Flames was one of my favourites
• Peter F. Hamilton: Pandora’s Star & Judas Unchained
• Osamu Dazai: No Longer Human
• Campbell Walker (Struthless): Doom and Bloom

Movies

Snatch, Flushed Away, Project Hail Mary, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Sorry To Bother You, Swapped

TV Shows

Orphan Black, Atlanta, Solo Leveling, Gravity Falls, Barry, Get Shorty, Final Space, Scrubs, The Midnight Gospel

Digital Games

Warhammer: Darktide, Knights of the Old Republic, Space Quest (4-6 were my favourites), Dave the Diver, Tunic, Cult of the Lamb, Dark Souls, Ultrakill, Dusk, Amid Evil, Skald: Against the Black Priory, Wizordum, Hellblade, Mysteries of the Sith, Age of Empires 2

Physical Games

Catan, Side Effects, Land & Sea, Tokaido, Risk, Rummikub

Artists

Moebius, Ugly Ink, KillerAcid, Ralph McQuarrie, McBess