James Andrew Mestemaker

James Andrew Mestemaker, 52, of Austin, TX, passed away unexpectedly in August 2023.

James was born on May 30, 1971, to Ginger (VanZant) Hall and Duane Mestemaker in Marshall, MI. After James graduated from Marshall High School in 1989, he went on to study movie production and animation at Lansing Community College.

James was an exceptional artist and set his eyes on making his mark in the new and upcoming video game industry.  After moving to Dallas, TX, James started work at Mesa Logic in 1994 and was an integral part of producing the Area 51, Maximum Force, and Site 4 arcade games.  As the video game world evolved to 3D and the advancement of special effects intensified, James became a force in the industry as a highly specialized lead special effects artist, working on games for the PC, PS4/5, and Xbox in Dallas, Las Vegas, and Austin.  He received NCSoft’s Creative Innovation award in 2008 and his work was considered high quality and “mind-blowing”.  Most recently, James led his own team of special effect artists for Blue Point Games for PlayStation Sony. Some of his career staple games include Starhawk, Star Wars- The Old Republic, Shadow of Colossus, Prey, Doom, Battle Cry, and Demons Souls, just to name a few.

In 2001, James married Angela Woods in Marshall, MI.  While he worked at creating cutting-edge special effects for the gaming industry, during his free time he loved heavy metal music, sharing memories of his high school friends and cousins, a good steak on the grill, gardening, his dogs, his family, and most of all his son, Drew Torin Mestemaker, born in 2006.

James is survived by his wife, Angela (Woods) Mestemaker, and his son, Drew Mestemaker.  He is also survived by his father, Duane Mestemaker, and stepmother, Karen Mestemaker, sisters, Kay (Mestemaker) Billings and Sara (Mestemaker) Burtis, cousins, Russ Beattie and Kelli Pash, and many more cousins and relatives including his in-laws from Marshall, Paul and Donna Woods.

A celebration of James’ Life will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 23, 2023, at Kempf Family Funeral and Cremation Services, 723 US Hwy 27 N, Marshall, MI 49068. Friends may visit with the family at the funeral home from 2 p.m. until the time of the service. Private interment will take place in Oakridge Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Drew Mestemaker Scholarship Fund. Donations may be given at Bank of America and make checks payable to Mestemaker Fund – 4760 or donations may be given at the funeral home for delivery to the family. Online donations may be given through Venmo at https://account.venmo.com/u/ScholarshipDrew-Mestemaker or by searching @ScholarshipDrew-Mestemaker through the Venmo app. Please visit https://www.kempffuneralhome.com to view the online obituary, sign the guest book, and leave condolences to the family.