Brandon Laatsch is an American game developer,

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

, and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

known for directing ''

Video Game High School ''Video Game High School'' (often abbreviated ''VGHS'') is an American action comedy web series from RocketJump Studios. It was written by Matthew Arnold, Will Campos and Brian Firenzi and directed by Matthew Arnold, Brandon Laatsch, and Freddie ...

'', founding the game company Stress Level Zero, and other online video content.

Early life

Laatsch is from Stillwater,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, where he went to high school with

Corridor Digital Corridor Digital LLC is an American independent production studio based in Los Angeles, known for creating pop-culture-related viral online short-form videos since 2010, as well as producing and directing the ''Battlefield''-inspired web series ...

founders Niko Pueringer and Sam Gorski. Laatsch studied sociology at

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

(USC).

Career

Video work with Freddie Wong

Laatsch met

Freddie Wong Freddie Wong (born September 13, 1985) is an American internet celebrity, filmmaker, VFX artist, podcaster, and competitive gamer. Wong has participated in at least three YouTube channels; with ''RocketJump'', his production company's main chan ...

at USC in 2004. They uploaded their first video ''Aces'' onto

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

in 2006. It was a comedy-action short film about a poker game that turns to gunplay. Laatsch and Wong quit their jobs in 2010 to focus on YouTube full-time. Prior to this move, they did freelance

VFX Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...

and worked on

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

films. They made videos out of a shared loft in

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...

. Their videos are inspired by a variety of video games, such as ''

Mario Kart is a series of kart racing games based on the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise developed and published by Nintendo. Players compete in go-kart races while using various power-up item (game terminology), items. It features Characters in ...

'' and ''Portal'', and employ special effects.

Jon Favreau Jonathan Kolia Favreau ( ; born October 19, 1966) is an American actor and filmmaker. As an actor, Favreau has appeared in films such as ''Rudy (film), Rudy'' (1993), ''PCU (film), PCU'' (1994), ''Swingers (1996 film), Swingers'' (1996), ''Very ...

recruited the pair to help with the digital

marketing campaign Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

for his film, ''

Cowboys & Aliens ''Cowboys & Aliens'' is a 2011 Space Western, space western Action film, action thriller film directed by Jon Favreau and starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Paul Dano, and Noah Ringer in his final fil ...

'' (2011), after having seen their videos from his 10-year old son. Through Favreau, the pair were allowed to use the

Universal Studios Lot Universal Studios Lot is a television and Film studio#Typical components, film studio complex located at 100 Universal City Plaza in Universal City, California, and is part of the entire Universal Studios complex, which also includes the adjacen ...

and props from ''Cowboys & Aliens'' in their short film. They made appearances on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...

'' in September 2011. Laatsch and Wong launched RocketJump.com in 2012. In 2014, Laatsch started a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

to crowdfund a feature film based on ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...

'' for US$600,000''.'' The project was cancelled by

Mojang Mojang AB, trading as Mojang Studios, is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. A first-party developer for Xbox Game Studios, the studio is best known for developing the sandbox and survival game ''Minecraft'', the best-selli ...

over IP concerns.

Stress Level Zero

Laatsch and Wong parted ways in 2013, with Wong focusing on ''

'' and Laatsch pivoting into video game production. Through his game studio Stress Level Zero, Laatsch released the VR game ''Hover Junkers'' in April 2016 on

HTC Vive HTC Vive is a line of Virtual reality, virtual and mixed reality Virtual reality headset, headsets produced by HTC, HTC Corporation. The brand currently encompasses headsets designed for use with Personal computer, personal computers as well a ...

. In 2016, Chinese game publisher FunPlus invested an undisclosed amount of

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

in Stress Level Zero. In 2017, Stress Level Zero published Duck Season VR; an experimental first-person narrative based in the summer of 1988. Where the player has a one-day rental of 'Duck Season' to play on their 'Kingbit Entertainment System'. Duck Season VR includes elements of mystery, horror, multiple unique endings, and various minigames. In 2019, Stress Level Zero published Duck Season PC. Duck Season PC is the full version of 'Duck Season VR', but with no need for a VR headset. Later that year, they published ''

Boneworks ''Boneworks'' is a 2019 first-person shooter game developed and published by Brandon Laatsch, Stress Level Zero. The game is designed to be entirely Game physics, physics-based, with the player controlling a full virtual body that responds not j ...

''; an experimental physics VR adventure developed with the Unity engine. In February 2020, Stress Level Zero published ''

'' on the

Oculus VR Reality Labs, formerly Oculus VR, is a business and research unit of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as the Qu ...

Store, along with a temporarily exclusive level called "Tuscany", a level from one of the earliest versions of the Oculus software. It was then released for the Steam version of Boneworks in update 1.4, released April 9, 2020. On September 29, 2022, Stress Level Zero published ''

Bonelab ''Bonelab'' is a 2022 video game developed and published by American studio Stress Level Zero. It is a sequel to the 2019 game ''Boneworks''. The player controls an outcast that escapes death and explores experimental worlds in a research lab in ...

'' on the

Store and Steam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laatsch, Brandon Living people Filmmakers from California Year of birth missing (living people) YouTubers from California YouTubers from Minnesota People from Stillwater, Minnesota