Puget Sound Alumnus Ryan Payton ’03 Levels Up in the Video Game Industry
Payton’s company won Best VR/AR Game at the 2024 Game Awards
Ryan Payton’s career path is a lot like the acclaimed video games he’s spent the last 20 years developing. It’s been a long and winding journey with plenty of obstacles, but Payton has never been one to play on easy mode. Through it all, he’s demonstrated grit, adaptability, and perseverance to get where he wants to go.
Long before he stood onstage at The Game Awards, Payton found his voice as a storyteller in a high school Honors English class.
“I discovered a love of writing in that class that I didn’t know was in me,” Payton recalls. “And because it was an honors class, the expectations were higher. I wasn’t really thinking about college at all, but that experience made me realize that I had the capability to do a lot more. I happened upon the , which I’d heard was a tougher school with a heavy emphasis on writing, and I thought that would be the perfect pairing.”
At Puget Sound, Payton intended to major in computer science, knowing that it was a requirement for most jobs in video game development. But after struggling with the math component, he pivoted to studying foreign language and international affairs with an emphasis on Japanese. He was also on the staff of the student-run newspaper, The Trail, where he wrote video game reviews. Throughout his time at Puget Sound, he dreamed of studying abroad in Japan.
Ryan Payton's liberal arts education gives him a unique perspective when approaching video game development, allowing him to draw on his broad knowledge of history, philosophy, and writing to tell a compelling story.
“My dad did a lot of business in Japan, partnering with Mitsubishi to import heavy machinery to the Pacific Northwest, so I had an interest in Japan from a young age,” Payton says. “At the time, there was a prestigious study abroad program at the University of Waseda. Every year I applied and every year, I didn’t get in.”
Payton thought his dream of living abroad was dead, and he was prepared to accept an offer to work for KOMO Radio as a broadcast engineer after graduation, when he had a stroke of good luck. Recruiters from the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program came to campus and encouraged Payton to apply to teach English in Japan.
“I got accepted, and as I was getting ready to move, I gathered up all the articles I’d written for The Trail and sent them to my favorite video game magazine. I said, ‘If you need a freelance beat writer based out of Japan, I’m your guy,’” Payton says. “So, I’m living in this little fishing village in Japan, teaching full-time, but on the weekends and nights, I was writing articles about video games, and that led to the next stage of my career.”
In 2005, while covering the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Payton was unexpectedly tasked by his editor to interview Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear video game series. The game, which Payton first encountered as a teenager, had opened his eyes to the storytelling potential of video games and inspired him to pursue a career in the industry. Recognizing Payton's fluency in Japanese and deep knowledge of the game, Kojima offered him a job on the spot at his game studio, Konami. Payton suddenly found himself in his first video game development job, contributing to the game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. From there, he rose in the ranks and was eventually hired by Microsoft to direct Halo 4. Then, after three years at Microsoft, Payton was asked to leave the company.
“Getting fired from the Halo project was the worst day of my career, but right then and there, I knew I was done with big companies. I wanted to run the operations, so I decided to start my own game company.”
Payton's company, Camouflaj, is an innovator in VR and AR games, winning an award for their latest release, Batman: Arkham Shadow, in 2024.
Payton sold his remaining Microsoft stock and founded his game studio, Camouflaj, in 2011, with a mission to produce games that could make a positive impact. The company struggled in its early years and faced imminent closure several times. By 2016, with the company in desperate need of a project, Payton took the leap into virtual reality games, taking advantage of a groundswell of investment into the burgeoning technology. Their first demo was well received and eventually became the game Marvel’s Iron Man VR. The success of Iron Man was a turning point, enabling Camouflaj to finally turn a profit, which eventually led to Meta's acquisition of the company. Their take on one popular superhero led to Camouflaj developing a virtual reality game in the long-running Batman: Arkham series.
In 2024, Camouflaj’s Batman: Arkham Shadow won Best VR/AR Game at the Game Awards, cementing the studio’s status as an innovator in the gaming industry.
“Getting up on stage at The Game Awards after so many setbacks was a huge milestone,” Payton says. But he’s not ready to rest on his laurels. “I feel like there’s still more room to grow. I’ve got my sights set on the next prize already.”
As the head of the studio, Payton is able to divide his time between day-to-day operations and creative direction—his true passion.
“I love all elements of game development, but there's nothing to me more satisfying than working on the story with our writers. The best mornings are the ones where I'm working on the story and leveraging the writing skills I learned at Puget Sound.”
Payton’s Puget Sound education comes in handy in developing games and allows him to dive confidently into themes as wide-ranging as private military contractors, state surveillance, addiction, the Cold War, and Jungian psychology. He often finds that he’s able to approach a topic from a different perspective than his peers, helping him discover interesting creative directions for each new game.
“I think back to my philosophy class very often,” Payton says. “Looking back, I'm very thankful that I was able to go to a school that had such a heavy liberal arts focus. That ended up being the safety net I needed when life didn't turn out the way I expected it to and it’s ended up being a tremendous strength.”
