Hello stranger, and welcome to my site. Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you'll find the contents interesting and maybe even useful. Now that I wrote these few words you're readin', it even's got several swear words in it!:D Initially I planned to have a short and strictly proffesional resume placed here, but no matter how many times I tried to write such it sounded a bit dry, distanced and uninteresting - which it ain't from my point of view:) I realise that it went out longer than was intended, and I sencerely doubt that someone will ever read it - but what the hell, I'm really having a hard time narrating all this constant emotion of working in gamedev, art and design, and about me in general into a couple of lines. Just doesn't feel right:D And besides, when it comes to remembering dates and years, maths'n'stuff - I'm definately not your guy;) I'm not ashamed to declare that I don't remember most of the multiplication table and I'm damn proud of this fact. Anyway, here goes: Not mentioning the whole drawing thing since I was a kid and stuff...I guess it all started with me getting my first computer a millenia ago (while I was still studying electronics in school) - It was an old 64 mhz crate with 16 MB RAM ( Does sound a bit odd eh?: ) We were young and bold back then, Metallica still played heavy metal, the kids respected their elders, and people left their doors unlocked for the night...Sigh.Good ol' times.) and after some time practicing computer graphics pixel by pixel on MS Paint ( :)! ) and my first 3D steps on some early version of Caligari's Truespace, I discovered Adobe Photoshop and the first version of 3D Studio MAX. I dont suppose you're interesting in the details, so I'll try to keep it short: I ( somewhat succesfully ) graduated school, served in the Bulgarian Naval Forces for a generally boring and degenerative year ( though I made a lot of great friends and gained much experience in general - I learned marksmanship with AK47, also to swear and smoke, but somehow unexpectingly quit drinking;) A mean marine, eh?: ), following that I was invited to work for an ad agency in Sofia as a designer. Soon after I started doing some 2 and 3d graphics stuff for Gamers Workshop - an infamous Bulgarian games magazine, wich I was a big fan of to start with...Later - somewhat almost accidentally, thanks to a very good friend of mine I started work in the game industry - Haemimont games was one of ( and the biggest of) the very few game companies back then in Bulgaria. During my more than two years stay there, we completed "Celtic Kings" - a strategy game with an RPG flavour. I am damn proud I worked with those people, wich I still call my friends...The art team was directed by Peter Stanimirov, wich I was and still am a great fan of...ever since I was a kid I loved his fantasy book covers and found inspiration in them, and finding he's the one that's gonna be my art director was an enormous and great surprise:) One of the most brilliant and talanted concept artists ever! I learned a lot from all my colleagues @Haemimont, all of them brilliant 3d artists and animators, and I hope I was able to give them sometihing in return. I am a man of movement though, and I guess I somehow felt that I have spent much time in one place, that my work became too routine...and that is something I can't stand for a long time. The things I do have to be interesting for me, they have to carry some challenge, otherwise I lose my inspiration and am not working at full capacity. I felt I needed challenge - so I left Haemimont and joined Black Sea Studios - a newly formed game studio with poor chances of surwival back then - who were just started work on their new project - "Knights of Honor". Most of the people there were ex Haemimont employees and people I knew very well - my very good friends Veselin "Morgoth" Efremov and Rossen Manchev - the art director - awsome artists, whose constant brainwashing was another reason for me to join BSS:) I had great faith and great hopes for this game and our mutual effort gave a great result - "Knights of Honor" had awsome reviews and won many fans all over the world. At the moment I'm writing this our work here at BSS continues - still, I am available for freelance work, don't hesitate to contact me if you've got something on your mind. So I think that's it for now with my short and proffesional resume, to be continued...Now I suppose I should write something about myself...After all, this site is about me, and I suppose if you are still reading this you'll be interesting in things I love, things that drive me and give me inspiration. If you're not, than you can stop reading now:) I guess I got a little carried away while writing these, and I suppose I could not find the strength to cut some out:) Whatever, here goes: I love fun. I love energy, I hate depressive moods and almost never have ones:) Actually, It's quite easy. Whenever I feel down, I'm just playing some really heavy, positive and energetic music. I dry my hair using the same method. I believe in honesty, and I do my best to never, ever lie. Sometimes it's damn fuckin' hard not to do it, but anyways, the easyest way is rarelly the right one, and I never want to regret the decisions I make and the actions I take in my life. I believe in God, and though I don't know if I can say that I'm religious, I do my best to follow God's lows. I love...to love, though this is an emotion I get very, very rare. Perhaps that makes it so valuable. I very, very much love my friends, and I'm a proud owner of many of those. Above all, I love my family - we may not always get along, but my Mum, Pap, Bro and Sis are the closest, dearest, and the best family someone could wish for. I love spending my time riding my bike, drawing, reading, watching movies, gaming and so on and so on... I love making new friends, both on and offline, I guess you could say I'm a very social person. I love my bike - it's a '96 Kawasaki Eliminator 600cc - powerful and beautifull:) I got it more than a year ago, and since than I crossed Bulgaria many times, crossed Romania twice and went to Ukraine...You can view some of the photos in the photo section, I hope you'll find them interesting. They say that bikes give you freedom - damn right they do!:)Freedom to go anywhere, anytime...And besides, it gives you the opportunity to get to know people - the mere idea of posessing a motorcycle bonds people - I made many new friends all around the country:) I do feel changed in many ways since I got my bike, and changed for good. I never was so eager to travel, explore and give in to the adventures around me. That gives you a hell lot of inspiration, believe me. I also love fantasy and science fiction genres in all their appearances - books, movies, games...Some of my favorite authors are Louis McMaster Budgeold, Orson Scot Card, J.R.R.Tolkien, Stephen King, Dean Kuntz and many many more:) I do ocassionally read some non-fiction stuff, but that is just one of those exeptions that just strengthen the rule - wich is " I never read non-fiction":D Almost the same is the situation with movies, though I often watch non-fiction films (not that I have much choice, not much quality movies in this genre last 20 years) I really prefer fiction, horror and thriller ones. Some of my favourite directors are Tim Burton and Ridley Scott...I must mention that my favorite movies of all time are the Alien series - the first three especially. I have a quite big collection of Alien figures, comics and stuff wich keeps growing slowly, but surely:) I love the "Futurama" series - this is the best animated show ever! Way to go Matt Groening (and shame on you, Fox - stupid people, they cut "Firefly" and ruined Alien VS Predator too)! Games..I love action games, mostly first person shooters - and I love multiplayer actions. Some time ago we used to play Conter-strike every single evening after work, even attended to some CS competitons. Which we of course lost, but it was a honorable loss whatsoever...My sniper was my glory, and my sniping skills were feared of in every corner of the bulgarian game industry...That was a long time ago, and I suppose since than I got a little rusty. Don't take it as an excuse, feel free to challenge me and get your butt kicked;) Anyway - I also love RPGs, that's a much more recent addiction of mine - Gothic I and II, Knights of the Old Republic are some of my favourites. My all time favourites - the Thief series, the enchanting and captivating atmosphere of which has been a great influence. Following my fascination with fantasy and sci-fi books, movies and games I naturally got enchanted by heavy metal in all its forms, and found my inspiration for drawing mainly in squeeling guitars and heroic lyrics.This addiction of mine evolved over the years through classic heavy, speed, power and progressive, classic hard rock and glam, basicly everything that's got ROCK in it:) I found religion in bands like BON*JOVI - the only band i never got tired with, not for a second...for something like 15 years now, which I guess is a serious commitment. This is the band which has a _serious_ influence on my life in general...This is the reason a huge part of my friends call me "Jovi" - it started from my nickname in IRC and kind of spread in real life like a chain lightning or something:) Some of my other all time favorite bands are Gotthard, Queensryche, Megadeth, Iron Maiden and the monumental russian band Aria...I'd really like to list all of the bands I admire, but that'll be a lo-o-o-ong list, you'll probably be bored to read:) But I can't hold it, so here goes: lately Pantommind, Andromeda, Symphony X, Shadow Gallery, Pain of Salvation, Synergy, Skid Row, Edguy, Kamelot, Conception, Enchant. You'll probably notice most of them are prog bands, that's cause I'm not mentioning the classic Europe, Rainbow, Dio, Purple, Whitesnake, Warlock & Doro, Meat Loaf, the less classic Savatage, Circle II Circle and Stratovarius. At the moment I'm writing this - Jorn Lande, Masterplan, Beyond Twilight, Treshold. And believe me, that's just a tiny part of the list:) So I'll just cut the crap and put it this way: If it ROCKS, i LOVE it. I owe hard music my way of life, It'll be probably hard to understand for someone not interested in it...:) I hope you are. Ah, something I forgot to mention...OLD SCHOOL forever!  Well, now you know a lo-o-o-ot more about me...Really, thanx for readin' all that stuff - and I guess you're no longer a stranger. Enjoy your stay here - and be sure to drop me a line or a comment! Hope to see you somewhere along the road... Kosta