Ever since he was a child, Sena Sarwari has taken an interest in video games.
Some of his best childhood memories were playing video games with his brothers. It was not only a bonding experience between brothers but a source of joy and a door to Sarwari discovering what he is passionate about, now it’s his career.
Sarwari immersed himself in video games and art when life got tough. When he was getting bullied in grade school, they were there for him.
“When I was in high school, I was very much into art and to be honest Civics and Careers really led me down the path of video games,” said Sarwari.
Sarwari decided to dedicate his life to art, even taking an extra year of high school to better his skills after being rejected from Durham College’s game art program the first time he applied.
“School ended at 2:00 pm and he would stay until like 6:00 pm after school until the last minute to get it done. That’s when I realized this guys really in dept with this art stuff,” said Kia, his twin brother.
Once Sarwari got into the game art program at Durham College, he made an effort to be attentive in every class and take every bit of feedback to improve.
His former game art professor, Jeremiah Seiden, praised Sarwari for not only the dedication to his craft but his openness to criticism and advice on improving his skills.
“Sena was always looking for advice, for guidance, for improvement, and he had an open mind about it,” said Seiden, who quickly saw Sarwari’s potential as he made his way through the program.
“As he moved through, he showed strong dedication, a really strong aptitude for storytelling especially, storytelling in his designs,” said Seiden.
Sarwari’s skill and dedication didn’t come easy. He spent many long, sleepless nights working on his projects to the point where he would spend all his time at Durham College.
“I would pick this guy up from Durham College at 4:00 in the morning. He would sleep over at the computer lab because he was working over night,” said Kia.
By the time he graduated, Sarwari still did not think he was quite ready to move into the work field. He enrolled at Think Tank Training Centre where he studied the environment and props for games program.
Despite his dedication and passion, Sarwari had many moments when he questioned his path.
He often found himself feeling inferior to other game art designers, and the field was so competitive he really struggled.
“To be honest, my skills weren’t up to par, but I was like you know what either I continue this path or go down the path of architecture design, but I decided I wanted to continue doing this. This is what I dedicated my life to, so I pushed forward,” said Sarwari.
Ultimately, Sarwari decided to continue as he says his goal was to “bring that same joy video games brought to me as a kid.”
All his struggles led to the creation of Sarwari’s Lord of the Rings inspired Dwarvan Mountain Stronghold design, which ended up being featured in 80 Level, a highly respected and regarded publication in the game art industry.
This design took Sarwari six months to complete. Sarwari said the completion of this project was challenging as he found himself needing to learn how to use programs he never had to use prior to this project.
“I had to spend two weeks learning three different programs on how to sculpt and how to UV it and I was discouraged but I still pulled through,” said Sarwari.
When 80 Level contacted Sarwari to do a feature on him, he was ecstatic.
“I was tearing up because I worked for six months on this project, all the way in Vancouver, by myself, and I finally get recognized by people,” said Sarwari.
Sarwari is proud of himself for sticking to his project and not giving up when it got challenging. His twin brother, Kia, is also proud, saying Sarwari has come so far to get to where he is now.
“Seeing his artwork, seeing how hard he’s worked to get to where he has gotten to now, I see a lot of pride in his work and I feel proud of him,” said Kia.
When asked why he thought Sarwari stood out in his field, Kia said his mindset pushes his brother forward, his dedication to the art and his wish to create something visually stunning.
“He wants to create something that everyone can be visually pleased by. Not only that, he wants to create something that is more outstanding than anything else anyone else has ever created,” said Kia.
Seiden also believes Sarwari will go far in the gaming industry, saying that he sees Sarwari working on some big titles in the future.
“He’ll be working on some pretty big titles I can imagine, I don’t think it will be too long before that happens. Maybe he’ll be one of those really prolific artists of our time,” said Seiden.
Currently, Sarwari is working at Icarus Development, which is a start-up game company based in Vancouver, Canada. He’s working as a project manager, something he has never done before and is still getting used to.
“I’m in charge of like 30 different artists at once and it’s my first time being project manager so it’s hard but I’m getting used to it,” said Sarwari.
Sarwari also continues to dabble in little side projects of his own to keep his portfolio updated.
“I’m still working on little projects on my own, little aspects, just to update my portfolio as much as I can,” said Sarwari.
Sarwari’s love of video games now serves a new purpose: making memories for a new generation of kids who enjoy playing video games.