A few posts back I was waxing lyrical (if that’s even what it actually is that I do, perhaps it’s talk shite?) about landing a job in the gamesdev industry!
Tonight I’m posting the usual self-indulgent and attention seeking public announcement flannel on Facebook to tell “the world” how terrible it is that we’ve been put on formal notice of redundancy as the parent company explores the option of shuttering our studio for some reason that may or not be financially motivated.
I shouldn’t really be upset about this but I am.
You see I think I found my home in gamesdev.
In said bookface post I mentioned about a time when I “programmed” on the ZX Spectrum in the 80s
And a lovely thing happened, like a bolt out of the blue, this warm and nostalgic feeling of a past life not really lived. When I made games!
In reality my programming endeavours were little more than moving a block across a screen, making it bump into things and jump over things.
So yeah, a bit of collision detection and simple physics, but that was as far as it went. But hell, back in those days that was nearly AAA (for non-gamers, that’s the good shit) quality!
Then college, programming, but I fucked that up by not finishing the course – and blowing a chance to head off to Wales to have a crack at a University degree, in what? Oh yeah, Computer Stuffs again, more programming and generic stuff back in those days but with a computer science degree who knows what might have happened.
Now I’ve lived my life as a professional geek, but I’ve always loved games, and to you that feel a man in his 40s shouldn’t waste time playing games I do other shit too – I run, keep fit, work in the garden, even occasionally speak to the wife and kids! So yeah, it’s not all comsuming.
I’ve absolutely loved having the opportunity to work in the industry and peek behind the curtain of professional games development, I think a lot of people would be suprised to see just what goes into it, and how much skill they all have, I’ve learned loads and felt I’ve grown with the learning.
And now it’s probably going to go away, yeah, life just isn’t fair at times is it.
I want to say more, but I really can’t right now, I’ll come back to this later, I mean I may just regurgitate some of the stuff I’ve learned about design, or optimisation, or exploring potential candidates portfolios, or how to batch assets, make sound effects, and so much more.
My colleges have, for the most part, been amazing, it’s not been easy working with a geographically diverse group but I think it was handled well considering, I genuinely feel I’ve made friends and shared expirences that will stay with me.
But for now, we’re nearing the end of one chapter, wonder where the next one will take me?