Video Games Push All the Right Buttons for CSUN Grad

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As a kid, Henrik Markarian loved playing video games, but he never gave the idea of developing his own titles much thought.

“It wasn’t a profession that was readily available and it just seemed like something that was not reachable,” he said. “But once I got into the industry I realized that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

Markarian, 44, who was born in Iran but moved to Los Angeles with his family when he was 15, dabbled in video game development by programming games at home while he got a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at California State University, Northridge. After graduation, he applied for a programmer’s position at the Software Toolworks/Mindscape gaming company, where he would move up the rungs to development director of the entire console division.

In 1997, he co-founded Starsphere Interactive, a video game company that ran for eight years with titles including “Star Trek: Shattered Universe” and the trivia game “You Don’t Know Jack Mock 2.”

After a stint at NovaLogic, Markarian joined AvatarLabs, an interactive marketing company in Encino, where he focuses on services for the mobile market. His latest projects included developing iPhone applications promoting the movies “Race to Witch Mountain” and “Monsters vs. Aliens.”

“It’s a new venture for me because this kind of marketing is also tied with the entertainment business,” he said.

Markarian is still a gamer at heart and has more than 100 titles at home.

“I basically have every console under the sun,” he said. His work schedule doesn’t allow him to play all the games to the finish, though. He cites fantasy-puzzle-solving game “Ico” for PlayStation 2 as his favorite.

Markarian lives in Northridge with his wife, Laura, and their two children, Ashley and Alexander. In addition to gaming, he describes himself as a sports nut. He is a “hard-core” Los Angeles Lakers fan and roots for the Dallas Cowboys during football season.

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