Game Design Geek

Well, for those that have been keeping track, I have moved from San Diego.  After Cars Race-O-Rama was complete I had to make a decision on what I was going to do.  I was considering a lot of options.  One was to go back to school.  I was thinking of programming, in what form I wasn’t  quite sure.  I was thinking maybe for games or for something else.  Maybe tools, AI, I wasn’t quite sure.  I was exploring all those options by talking to friends I know that are in that field and knew what I needed to do.   I applied to a few schools, just to see what I was looking at for costs, etc.  I have still yet to drain all the money from the Army from my GI bill.

One other thing I was entertaining was staying in design.  But if I was going to stay in design I wanted to work on something epic, or work for, or with someone I could learn something from.  There was a lead LD position at ID, working with John Carmack, but I’ve been there and done that.  Plus I really hate Dallas…lol.  There was a Sr Designer spot at Junction Point in Austin working with Warren Spector.  I interviewed there, and all I could say was it was life altering.  I really was motivated after that to make some serious changes in my career and my life.  All of these would be pluses, but I just wasn’t content doing what I had being doing previously.  I knew it was time to make a change, or it was time to get out of the game industry completely.

I also was thinking, well If I got laid off from Incinerator I could just sit at home and design an iPhone game for extra money and the experience of doing it and go to school.   But with the instability of the economy, and the high cost of living in Socal, there is no way I could afford to keep my car, pay my bills and live in San Diego on Unemployment, or as a student.  I just have to many bills and obligations to do that.  Plus I couldn’t live with my brother and go to ASU because his wife could be transferring back to Ontario Ca.  So….man was I in a pickle.

So, where did that leave me.  Well there was an opportunity to do a little of both, go to a company and work as a Sr Tech Designer, and go to school on my spare time.  It did require me to leave San Diego, but it was a good fit for me.  I couldn’t commit until I had taken care of some stuff with home and my family.  But my brother and my mom were in a holding pattern until my sister in law found out where she was going to work, so I left Phoenix and decided to commit early and go to work at this job.

Its a small startup company working on their first game, lots of great guys.  Work atmosphere is very nice, just produce and we will leave you alone to get your work done.  Its a great company, great benefits, pay is competitive, and I was able to talk Rudy to get off the couch and come out here and drop the design hammer on this game.  So this makes game 4 and company 4 for Rudy and I.

Right now I really need Rudy out here as it could get kinda lonely out here in Atlanta by myself.  No more late night beers on the balcony with Ray, no Austin on the weekends, and well there was more I left behind, but Im still coming to terms with that as it was the right move.  I had a lot of mixed emotions about leaving San Diego.  I was leaving a lot behind.  I made lots of friends and close relationships in my short 2 years back in San Diego from LA, and I gotta say it was really sad.  Leaving Austin was the toughest, it was pretty rough.  Ray knows it was tough for me to leave all those things behind, but I had to stay focused and make smart decisions for my life, my career, and my sanity.  Sometimes you just gotta aim and pull the trigger on something.

So, were does that leave me?  In the dirty south, the ATL, hotlanta.  Call it whatever you want, but for right now for what its worth.  It’s home.

Tha Dirty South!

lake Lanier inlet

This pic was from this summer when Terrance came out to interview.  We took him to lake Lanier, then we took him to the mall of Georgia.  After Terrance and Dan, we decided if people want to come out here and work, cool, if not….sorry we aren’t a tourism bureau.  Terrance did end up turning the job down, Dan however took it and started here as our lead environment artist.  Things are going really good out here.  Sad to say that the guys I was working on the iPhone project with parted ways, or at least I decided to go solo.  I think Im going to do something on my own that would require less collaboration with others.  Mostly because for some reason other peoples schedules and expectations dont meet mine.  I think Im going to do something thats a little more complex and interesting.  I thought the other idea was not very solid and I ended up finding another game that has already been released that someone else did that was exactly like the one we were going to do, and it wasnt really selling or rated very well.  Everything is a learning experiance, I guess.