Ethan got the itch for games and game design when he was modding for games like Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 and Roguespear. He was an avid player of the games and a 3D Artist. In early 2000, he was reading an article and discovered that Rainbow 6 was created with a very familiar tool, 3DSMax, so he decided to venture down that path. Ethan started an online petition to Redstorm Entertainment to release the export plugins for 3DSMax so the community could create custom maps for the game. After a week, he received 1000s of signatures from other aspiring game devs. Thus the Rainbow 6 online modding community was born!
Ethan's journey did not end there; it was only just beginning. From that experience, he started to gain contacts in the "industry." Those new contacts lead him into a new realm of gaming called serious games AKA Gaming for the government. Living in San Antonio, Texas, it was easy to get into the Military / Government space of early gaming. He has worked for multiple fortune 500 companies; Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Booze Allen Hamilton, USAA, and Microsoft, to name a few. Ethan has held numerous job titles from a Lead artist, Marketing Director, Creative Director, and Art Director. With 20 plus years of knowledge, in the gaming industry, both public and private, there are not many things that he has not encountered.
In 2004 a new MMO hit the streets known as SWG (Star Wars Galaxies), he met a little smuggler at the Cornet Starport named Manny in-game and who would have known that they would become best friends for the past 16 years. Taj and Ethan have done a lot together in-game and out. They have worked on countless small projects and even published a few mobile games during that time.
In 2010 when a little game called Minecraft appeared on the scene, he was one of the first to make gameplay videos on Youtube. When his nine-year-old son Ethan Jr. joined in with him, they became Father & Son Minecraft Adventures and found overnight success. A few months later, they decided to add his wife, Heather AKA MrsLuclin, and their channel skyrocketed to early Youtube fame with an overall 500k plus fan base across all of their social media. They became the first family to create Minecraft videos and were known as Minecraft Family Adventures or The Luclin Family! For the next six years, they called Youtube their home. In 2011, Ethan started his Twitch channel and switched from making VOD (Video on Demand) content to a live audience and grew to over 60k plus followers.
After gaining an entirely new skill set as an influencer, he tried his hand in influencer management and working behind the scenes with Youtubers.
Ethan and his family uprooted themselves and moved to Washington state for a significant opportunity in the gaming industry. During that time, they were very closely involved with a new live-streaming startup called Beam. In the fall of 2016, Beam was acquired by Microsoft, his wife Heather was with Beam since the very beginning, and he later joined after the acquisition. During his time at Beam/Mixer, he played a massive role in setting up the business development side of things by forging long-lasting relationships with both Influencers and well known large companies in the gaming industry. His team was a part of some of the most significant acquisitions to take place in gaming history. They acquired multiple notable named influencers, including Ninja, Shroud, and King Gothalion.
During this time, he never forgot his roots. Taj and Ethan have always worked on little projects on the side. Over the years, he's honed his skills in game design; he challenged himself to learn all aspects of the industry from modeling and animation to sound design and light programming. Game design will always be in Ethan's blood. The feeling he gets from creating worlds that only existed in his mind and putting them on screen for everyone is one of the most amazing experiences for him.
In 2019 Black Lotus Digital was founded by his partner/best friend Taj James and himself. The company's first major IP Insula Bounty Royale was created. Truth be told, they started working on Insula in 2017 as a "side project," it has blossomed into the game that you see today. They are very excited to see what the future holds!