BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Former Boston College varsity standout Maarten Kraaijvanger ’92 has traded the game of water polo for video games.
A 2009 inductee to the Rhode Island Aquatics Hall of Fame, he started swimming at age 11 for the South County YMCA swim team. He learned the game of water polo at age 16 playing for Little Rhody Aquatics Club (LRAC). He made a name for himself in the swimming and water polo world after entering Boston College.
At Boston College, he was chosen Most Valuable Athlete for the men’s swimming and water polo teams during all four years of his collegiate tenture. The Boston College swimming all-time leading scorer and holder of four individual school records in the 200, 500, 1000, and 1650 freestyles (1:40.80, 4:30.83, 9:43.03, 15:50.52) at the time of his graduation, he was the National Catholic 200 freestyle champion, a five time New England Champion with titles in the 200 free (one), 500 free (two) and 1650 free (one), he claimed the 1992 Muir Award given to a graduating senior for scoring the most points in New England Championships over four years.
A participant in the 1000 free at the 1991 Junior Olympics, he also excelled in water polo. A 1988 Second Team and 1989-1991 First Team All-New England selection, he was a Junior National Champion with LRAC in 1989. He established Boston College single season records for goals (52), kick-outs drawn (31), five-meter penalties drawn (six) and total points (72) during his time at B.C.
A 1992 graduate of Boston College with degrees in Art, Economics and Philosophy, he added a General Art/Art Studies from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 1997 after tacking on a certificate in from De Anza College in 1994.
He began his career in gaming as lead artist/art director at Cyclone Studios from 1994-to-1998 where he worked on titles such as Captain Quazar, Battlesport, Uprising and Requiem: Avenging Angel.
Kraaijvanger moved over to Nihilistic Software, located in Novato, Calif., in 1998 to serve as Art Director on Vampire: The Masquerade (May 1998-to-May 2000) prior to taking on Starcrat: Ghost (September 2000-to-May 2004). Further, he was named Vice President and a board member of the organization from May 1999-to-June 2004.
From May 2005-to-December 2012 he worked as a Senior Character Modeler and Animator at Nihilistic on titles including: Call to Duty: Black Ops; Resistance: Burning Skies; Zombie Apocalypse; Narnia: Dawntreader; Conan; and Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.
He moved back to the East Coast in April 2013 to take work for Warner Bros. Games in Needham, Mass. During his tenure at Warner Bros., he served as Art Director on Batman: Arkham Underworld from December 2013-to-August 2017.
He transitioned to Wayfair in Boston, Mass., in November 2017 where he served as 3D Viz Senior Manager until October 2020.
He joined Deviation Games in November 2020 as Director of Outsourcing.
