User:Syntaxsorceress/Ryan Hylland

Ryan Hylland was born and raised in Minnesota, spent his college years and early twenties in the Chicago area, and now resides in Seattle. He is best known for his test lead contributions to several acclaimed video games, including Oni, Halo, Halo 2, Age of Empires, and Forza Motorsport 3.

Early Years

Ryan Hylland was born on August 17, 1974, to Mary Suzanne Hylland (now Sue Drury LaGow) and Larry Hylland at Immanuel-St. Joseph’s Hospital in Mankato, MN. The first years of his young life were spent on a farm in rural Minnesota, where he remembers not much more than the layout of the home and his father playing Pong on the front porch. In 1978, his parents divorced, and he and his mother moved to a duplex in Mankato, MN.

Even at a young age, Ryan was logical and resourceful. Once on a preschool field trip to the park, Ryan was accidentally left behind by his teacher and busload of classmates. Unfazed, Ryan found a payphone and reasoned that it was probably okay to talk to strangers in this instance, in order to get a quarter to call the YMCA and talk with the teacher who was supervising the trip to the park. When he called the YMCA and asked for his teacher, he was told she was busy getting the children settled for rest period. Ryan informed them that he was one of the “kids” and had been left at the park, at which point they rushed to his aid. He was picked up and returned home safe and sound, much to everyone's relief and stunned amazement. The teacher is said to have commented to Ryan’s mother, “If it had to happen to any of the kids, I guess I’m glad it was Ryan because he could handle it.”

In 1982 his mother remarried, introducing a new father, Chuck LaGow, and two sisters, Barb and Patti LaGow, into his young life. Patti lived with her mother at the time, but the rest of the family moved into a townhouse together, as construction on a new home—built and designed by Chuck—commenced.

Grade School Years

In the months leading up to kindergarten, Ryan was thrilled at the prospect of going to school, specifically because he had been told he would learn to read there, and that was his greatest goal. However, returning home from the first day of school, his mother was surprised to find him annoyed and upset because they hadn’t learned how to read that day. Sue then had to explain that it was a process that would take some time.

That experience was a good primer for his elementary years. Ryan often learned well ahead of his classmates, much to his boredom and impatience. As a result, he became a common sight in the principal’s office, where his mother was often called in to mediate with teachers on his behalf. Some teachers even proposed prescriptive measures to mellow him out, but mother Sue was convinced that was not the solution. She enrolled Ryan in gymnastics to occupy his free time and provide an outlet for his energy. Shortly thereafter, Ryan also encountered a teacher who would make a significant impact on his life. This third grade teacher, Ms. Lincscheid, recognized that Ryan was simply very smart and very bored, and enrolled him in the school’s gifted program, where Ryan immediately excelled.

High School Years

In high school, Ryan continued to excel both academically and in sports (running cross-country and wrestling). His senior year of high school, he was forced to choose between these challenges to mind and body. He was offered a spot on the school’s renowned Academic Decathlon team—a spot which would require him to relinquish wrestling and a high chance of a state win. Much to the incredulity of his irate wrestling coach, Ryan chose the Academic Decathlon and went on to lead that team to a 7th place ranking in the nation.

Socially, Ryan did not belong to any one “click.” He was equally friends with the jocks, stoners, populars, and nerds. You could find him anywhere people were having a good time—hosting parties when his parents were out of town, gathering with friends for bonfires in the ravine behind his home, making elaborate floats for homecoming, wave boarding in the Spring after half-Fridays, and vacationing to various tropical locales with his family.

On one of these vacations, while suffering from snorkeling-induced pneumonia in Bonaire, Ryan and his family were informed that Ryan’s grandfather and Sue’s father, Herschel Drury, had suffered a stroke. The attack was not fatal, but Herschel did not have much longer to live. Shortly after his 50th anniversary party with his devoted wife and Ryan’s dearly beloved grandmother, Shirley Drury, he passes away, much to the grief of his adoring family. Ryan was especially connected to his grandfather, and that’s why one of the family’s great disappointments is the fact that Herschel never was able to see Ryan graduate. Hersch would also never know that Ryan was headed to Northwestern University, a Big 10 school, of which Herschel was a devoted fan.

College Years

In 1993, Ryan headed to Evanston, IL, to pursue an Engineering degree at Northwestern. His first few weeks of school were spent on crutches, due to a getting-out-of-a-car-in-motion incident that resulted in reconstructive surgery on his left foot and a summer of bed rest. While lying in the emergency room after the accident Ryan was heard to say to the attending physician, “Just patch me up and get me out of here I leave for Cancun on Friday.” Needless to say, that was one trip Ryan was forced to miss—twice as unfortunate for him, as he was the one male traveling with nine fellow female graduates.

At Northwestern, he became quick friends with his freshman year roommate, Roger Torres, who coincidentally had grown up in Rochester, MN, a mere hour from Ryan’s home town. He would remain life-long friends with Roger, along with several other guys on his floor, including Ramsey Lubbat and Jason Ayson, who would later join the Chi Delta Chi independent fraternity with him. Ryan would later meet his future wife, fellow Northwestern student Angela Taylor, through another fraternity member and friend, Jay Zimmerman.

Jay Zimmerman recalls: "Ryan continued his accident-prone lifestyle including one night tripping and falling onto some broken glass, where he severed some arteries in his wrist and bled all over the fraternity house. It looked like a horror movie had been filmed down the hallway of the fraternity house with blood slatters all over the walls. This left Ryan in a cast but did not slow him down. Ryan enjoyed his college days playing poker and having to be carried up the stairs to bed after nights of Jameson."

In addition to his fraternity’s social functions, Ryan spent the leisure time of his college years working at the Bean Counter café, trick rollerblading across campus, and hosting a 3:00am college radio show.

Shortly into his sophomore years of college, Ryan made the decision to change his major from Engineering to Radio, TV, Film. As part of this program, he was required to participate in an internship in this field. He had been playing the Marathon video game with his fraternity friends and noticed on the liner notes that the company was based in Chicago. A phone call and interview later, he had an internship with Bungie Studios, where he edited animation sequences and provided tech support.

Post-College Chicago Years

Upon graduating from college, Ryan was offered a full-time job with Bungie and moved to a small studio in downtown Chicago, near Clark and Addison. He often biked the 7 miles to and from work and spent his evenings and weekends enjoying the nightlife of the city with his fraternity friends, who all lived in relative proximity to one another.

After running into his wife several times on the El (she lived a mere 4 blocks away), he serendipitously encountered Angela at a friend’s holiday party. They began dating soon after.

Two years later, Bungie was purchased by Microsoft. At Angela’s instance, Ryan flew to Seattle to interview for a test lead position with the new Bungie. Both he and Angela were intrigued by Seattle and decided to make the move upon Ryan’s receipt of a job offer. But first Ryan would have to perform a 6-month test lead stint in San Jose, where Bungie’s California team was wrapping up Oni.

Then in November 2000, Ryan and Angela made the move to Seattle.

Seattle Years

Ryan and Angela spent their first three years in Seattle living in the eclectic, buzzing Capital Hill neighborhood in an apartment with panoramic views of downtown, the Olympic Mountains, and the Sound. During this period, they were engaged and then married on August 23, 2003, in an outdoor ceremony on the shores of Seattle’s Lake Union.

In spring of 2004, they purchased their first home, a new-construction townhouse in the quirky, artsy neighborhood of Fremont. Ryan didn’t have much time to enjoy that summer, however, as he was in full-on crunch mode as multiplayer test lead for the original Halo video game. The success of Halo helped establish the new Microsoft Xbox video game system and set new records of success (for both game sales and critical acclaim) in the industry.

Two years later, in the fall of 2006, he once again led the multiplayer test team to the successful launch of Halo 2, which again broke sales record in the industry and attracted a media swarm of attention.

In between working on the Halo games, Ryan provided test assistance for several other Microsoft video game titles, included several games in the Age of Empires franchise.

After the launch of Halo 2, Ryan also made the move out of Bungie Studios into Microsoft’s cross-studio test group and subsequently into Turn 10, the Microsoft studio responsible for the Forza Motorsport racing series.

In April of 2007, Ryan and Angela sold their Fremont townhome to upgrade to a single-family home in the Greenlake neighborhood. Built in 1926 and in need of some love and care, the house required several immediate maintenance projects, which the young couple attacked with zeal. By the end of the summer, they had refinished all of the wood floors, painted the entire interior of the first floor, had the outside of the house painted, built a kitchen breakfast nook, removed a damaged 30-foot tree from the back yard, and completed a laundry list of other maintenance projects.

Since then, they’ve also remodeled their upstairs bathroom, expanded their yard, replaced the backyard deck, and re-landscaped. Next up on the list are completing the upstairs bedrooms and media room.

In April of 2008, Ryan and Angela also added a furry new member to their family. They rescued a 2-month-old mixed Bernese and sable collie from a shelter in Oklahoma City.