Ian Grimm

 is the confident, ego-driven creator of Mythic Quest.

As the "genius" behind the game, he refuses to cede control and fixates on minute details to leave an unblemished legacy that he hopes will be remembered forever.

Ian is often at odds with Executive Producer, David Brittlesbee, and Lead Engineer, Poppy Li, over wanting more time to make creative decisions or wanting to add something to the game at the last minute. Ian's need for control puts David in a difficult position as he is Ian's boss, but also but also Poppy she wants more input into the creative process in Mythic Quest.

This battle for control at Mythic Quest Studios is shown at StreamerCon where Ian and Brad Bakshi attend and Poppy sneaks in disguised as the Masked Man.

Specifically with Poppy, it is shown that Ian values Poppy as emotional support as he did with Shannon when he was married. His need to keep things secret to cover up his tragic past in his eyes covers up truths from his colleagues, such as Pootie Shoe being his son.

Influenced by Poppy, Ian accepts her as Co-creative Director on Mythic Quest but this positive relationship soon turns bitter from Season 2 Episode 3 onwards.

Personality
Being the Creative Director of Mythic Quest, Ian is confident, egotistical, manipulative, prideful, and vain. While possessing good coding skills, he is however, nowhere near the level of Poppy Li who graduated from MIT. However, He is a creative genius, which even Poppy can begrudgingly admit. This is seen in how he designed Blood Ocean into a disease and how he repurposed the shovel into a weapon and the design of the Masked Man. He was able to create a concept for turning a MMORPG into one of the most successful video games in the world which, at the start of the series, was at the beginning of releasing a major expansion.

Ian needs to be the alpha, as seen in the way that his office is place slightly above all of his employees so he can watch and rule over his proverbial kingdom. This is also seen in his relationship with equally ego-driven co-worker, Poppy who won't admit that fact as working there has caused her to become more like Ian. Ian and Poppy bicker regularly over the game, Ian wanting to keep his game cool and fresh, and Poppy wanting to have a creative part in making the game. Their relationship is somewhat similar to a relationship older brother and younger sister, however this began evolving into a more husband and wife role from "YumYum" as Poppy became more used to being Ian's equal.

Ian is also the product of abuse, which might explain his vain and egotistical personality as a way to overcompensate for the way that his father treated him when he was younger. He recalls his father putting out cigarettes on his arm as punishment in "Brendan". This difficult relationship extended into adulthood when his father tried to sue Ian into giving up control of his company over to him but failed, thus destroying any chance either had to salvage their relationship ("The Casino"). Ian's relationship with his father is so broken to the point he asked other people to pronounce his name Ian as "Eye-an," rather than Ian so that he could be less connected to his father, who he was named after. This relationship also mirrors the relationship he has with his son, Brendan (AKA Pootie_Shoe), with Ian was an emotionally and physically absent father, despite supporting him financially.

Despite these flaws, Ian is a good person deep down, and cares about his friends. This is seen in "Quarantine" when he noticed that Poppy wasn't showing her face on Zoom, realizing that she was in a state of incredible anxiety and depression over the pandemic, he visited her in person to give her a hug in order to calm her fears.