Here’s the dream: You get a great gig, you travel the world, playing with properties like Shrek and Spider-Man, and, oh yeah, you’re doing it all for Activision. You know, the Activision that made a little game called Pitfall! for the Atari 2600 back in the day, and has been a major player in video games ever since.

And if that’s not enough, they’re so over-the-moon happy with your work, they surprise you with a cool award at an IMAX screening of Spider-Man 3.

Jealous yet? Well, say hi to 3D grad Samuel Tung, because he’s living your dream, and you can’t have it back.

Samuel works out of Santa Monica as a technical artist for Activision’s Central Tech Division. “Our group is in charge of co-developing and outsourcing,” he tells us. “Also, I’ve been doing some real-time shading and scripting, developing tools and improving pipelines for production.”

And all for one of the most storied developers and publishers in the biz. “It’s definitely fun to work in such a big shop. I just feel very proud of being part of it and work with talented people.”

Travel is a huge part of Samuel’s job, something foreshadowed the last time we touched base with him. That was back in 2006, when he set off for the French countryside as part of the VFS/Supinfocom Exchange Program.

This time, it was across the Pacific to help put the finishing touches on the Shrek the Third game, which shipped last week. “I was sent to China to coordinate and do tech support from January to March,” he says.

So the company rewarded Samuel with its No One Fights Alone Award. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to him, but it did. “I didn’t know it until they announced my name,” he says. “I felt like the year’s hard work paid off.”

Art production manager Aimee E. Smith, pictured above with Samuel, elaborates: “Sam was chosen for his contribution in working amazing hours on-site in China at last minute’s notice.”

Activision publishes games based on big-name licenses, which means every job is high-profile and high-stakes.

“The most exciting thing is you have a chance to [work on] big titles from feature films and comic books,” Samuel says. And what’s on tap after Shrek and Spider-Man? “Transformers… and some secret titles.” The tease.