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Peeking In On An Alternative Universe

Apr 252013

One of the things that I dwell on now and then is wondering how different my life would have been if I had made a different choice in my career path; ties in nicely with my love of interactive narratives. According to a couple of different scientific theories (Eternal Inflation and Quantum Mechanics), there are/can be an infinite number of parallel universes around where things might be very different, or very much the same aside from just one simple different outcome in your personal life. This makes for some nice daydreams about being a Hall of Fame strong safety that single-handedly brought the Browns to a series of 10 straight super bowls; according to science, I’ve done that!

Anyway, sometimes we are given a chance to peek in on one of these alternate universes, and I had one yesterday.

Back in October, I was working at Funtactix on a 1-month contract, but was still interviewing with other companies as I still was looking for something full time. I had an interview with another company up in Boston, and it got pretty far; they paid for me to come up for the day and interview with pretty much everyone in the office. Afterward, the word back from the recruiter who set things up was that they really liked me, but wanted someone was more mobile experience (which, fittingly enough, I now have). While I wasn’t a fan of moving, the pay scale and position upgrade would have been pretty favorable. I might not have accepted, but it was something that was definitely on my mind. In the end, I was signed on to Funtactix, and it was settled.

Skip forward to now. I have been laid off as there wound up being no more work for me. Definitely a bummer, but kudos to Funtactix, as they did their best to keep me on, and were 100% professional about everything. A very positive experience, no question, and I don’t regret my time there for a second.

What gets things interesting is that I was speaking with the recruiter that got me that interview in Boston, and I mentioned that while I definitely was planning to stay in the city, another opportunity to land something a step up would certainly be worth a look. She then mentioned that in the end, it was best I didn’t get that position after all: apparently, the company (which had been bought by a larger studio) wound up getting phased out about 3 months after my interview.

“Wow,” I said, a bit surprised. Then I remembered that the Creative Director I had interviewed within had just started, himself, about 2 months prior, and had moved to the East Coast from L.A. for this position. “Did the people working get reassigned or were they just let go?”

“I think that one or two people might have been moved around,” she replied, “but pretty much everyone else was let go.”

So, while my current situation is not ideal, it would have been far worse off if I had actually moved to Boston, only to then be out of a job less than 3 months later, and most likely having to move again to find a new position.

As I always say, this industry is not for the faint of heart.

Touch of Enchiladas

Life in General, Work 3 Responses »

Sep 162012

Enchiladas actually have nothing to do with this post; I just liked the sound of it.

I hosted my friend John over the weekend, mainly Saturday night. We meet up in the city, treated ourselves to some classic McD’s, and then returned to my apartment to partake in a screening of “Touch of Evil.” I have had this film since Christmas, and so I was glad to finally get a chance to see it. And given the rather depressing tone of the past week, I figured that this was just the ticket to a bright, cheerful, and perky weekend! Heh.

Very dark and disturbing in a number of ways, and overall a very well put-together film. There is only one part of the film that I’m a bit confused about, namely why the wife was dropped off at that particular hotel, but fortunately it wasn’t enough to take me out of the film. I enjoyed the debate about the point of the cops and the law, as well as the underlying racial tension that pretty still resonates today.

I saw John off into the city today, and I was planning on going over to Best Buy to get some replacement speakers for my computer, but, well, brilliant ol’ me, I forgot the gift cards back at my place. So, looks like I’ll be working with only 1 working speaker for a while, still. My best guess right now is that I can pick some new ones up on Friday, when I should be going in to the city for a lunch. I could always pick them up before either my basketball or soccer game, I suppose, although then I have to lug them to the scrimmages, and then back home. I’ll play it by ear.

Tonight, it’ll be more Thief: Gold, and then some work on my mobile game idea; I just need to write up the details into my own person GDD, and I will then be all set to use it as the testing grounds for my Unity self-teaching lessons. I’m actually really looking forward to this — I’ve been able to absorb a lot of what I read concerning Unity, and have gotten to the part where I can start seeing how to put things together in order to make the game work. Of course, the coding aspect is going to be tricky to fully learn, but all the same, I’m feeling pretty good about the dive in.

The Power of Matt Compels You To Clear The Lanes!

Games, Interactive, Life in General, Stuff I Made, Work, Writing 2 Responses »

May 112011

You can tell when I am in a zone for basketball these days: I run into, over, or through at least two of my teammates.

Tonight, one of the teams did not show, so that meant our team played the other team twice, in 20-minute games. Which each got 2 wins for the other teams forfeit, but we really needed to work to get any other wins — 20 minutes is quite a bit of a push. The first game we lost as we had a slow start, but more importantly, a slow finish; they pulled away with three free throws to make it 17 to 12. Second game, however, we shut down their drives to the baseline, and topped them by a score of 12-4. Also, in the second game, I really had another good game. I played for about 10-8 minutes at first, and when I can out for my break, I was really tired. Probably the most winded I’ve been in a long time. But, it was great, because I was a monster on defense, using my height and size really well. In fact, I don’t think anyone I was covering ever scored, so that was pretty nifty.

I also jumped into a pick-up game with some guys from work yesterday, and played for about 90 miniutes (60 total playing time, really) and again managed to do fairly well.

It’s worth a thought if I might have missed out on playing basketball in high school, but honestly, I really don’t think so. The big difference between now and then is that I have the motivation to do this, and that only really came about because I was hit by that damn car and broke my leg. As I was grunting my painful way back to recovery, it wasn’t until over a year later that I got clearance to try any sports, and I swore to take full advantage of that. Also, I think a big difference is that rec leagues are more relaxed and fun, whereas playing competitively probably wouldn’t have been quite my thing. Here you can make some mistakes and generally shrug it off. In more structured programs, you get benched — assuming that you even see any playing time.

In any case, summer leagues are signing up, so I’d better grab a few sports. Laura T from work actually is on a soccer team, so I think I’ll try signing up for that. I’d also like to do another basketball season, and maybe football. Just anything to keep playing outside.

[ S H E I L D B R E A K ! ! ! ]

So I finally got my 1st byline! The marketing team at work has put out the calls to writers for articles we could send out to various print and online publications, and after a slow start, I wrapped up a short opinion piece concerning the role of reality within games:

http://www.develop-online.net/news/37615/OPINION-The-designers-need-to-forget-reality

It’s nice to finally get something up and in “print,” and I definitely own Tina at work a big thanks, since she’s the one who is contacting all the possible locations for publication. Now, the trick is whether or not I can maintain a steady pace of articles. I have a couple of ideas for more, but the question is whether or not they pertain enough to the business/industry. I’ll need to write up the basic ideas and bounce them off Tina to get her feedback.

If nothing else, though, this was really nice.

On the move

Life in General, Work Comments Off

Apr 052011

On Friday, there will be another “move” at work, where I shall be moving desks for the 5th time. Good thing I don’t have any desk stuff to move, really, aside from the computer and moniters.

This time, I’ll be going back upstairs, to the “quiet” floor. The good part will be that there won’t be as many distractions. The bad part is that things tend to be not as fun, as, well, there aren’t as many distractions.

At this rate, I will have moved a dozen times when it’s time for my 1 year review. I wonder if there is a badge for that?

On the “not good” side

Life in General, Work 3 Responses »

Apr 052011

On Friday, as I was up in the skies so blue, my friend Coray was “dismissed” from work. From what I’ve gathered, it was a pretty civil affair; the reason for termination was that it wasn’t a good fit, although there are probably other factors involved. Regardless, at least there isn’t any bitterness or anger on either side, which is about the best you can hope for.

I was originally also a bit concerned about this, as Coray is also the guy who hired me. Hence, if work wasn’t happy about how things were working out with him, I wondered if I could be far behind….

Fortunately, during my weekly 1 on 1, I got some reassurances from my supervisor, who happens to be the company president; her words carry some weight.

But still, it’s just a reminder on how uncertain this business can be; remember, the last two jobs I had were dead through problems beyond the power of the company. And other people I know lose their jobs just because when the main project is done, there is no more need for them.

It is not a career for those who enjoy rock-solid stability.

Wow

Games, Life in General, Uncategorized, Work Comments Off

Jan 212011

So, Area/Code has been bought by Zynga, and is being established as Zynga New York. This is pretty big news, on a couple of levels.

First off, this may represent the sea change we’ve been waiting for in NYC, where it becomes an established location for game companies. It’s something we’ve been waiting for many years.

But secondly, and much closer to home for me, this is now the second of the “Big Three” of early NYC game companies to effectively disappear from the map. Gamelab shut down, and now Area/Code has been bought. In my original view of NYC game studios, that leaves Large Animal. Yes, I know there are more, but these were the three that everyone I know worked at, or worked with the people in charge: Eric Zimmerman, Frank Lantz, and Wade Tinney. We may well be looking at the end of the early era of NYC game studios, and the start of a new one, one of growth and depth.

Once Again, Silence

Life in General, Work Comments Off

Jul 302010

I haven’t been posting a lot lately, but not because things haven’t been going on. Rather, a lot has been going on but I’ve been reluctant to mention anything because, yet again, everything seems to be in major flux. Hence, it’s hard for me to comment about things knowing that by the time I finish a post, they will have changed. And then, when I post an update, they have changed yet again. That tends to drag down my enthusiasm a bit.

Currently, the main news is the job. Things continue to be very difficult in terms of the administration side; nothing bad where people hate each other in the office, but just that all of the optimism and hope that was there when I first started is pretty much entirely gone. The real starting point of the spiral into suckiness is when a game project that we had lined up was “put on hold indefinitely,” and we never were able to recover from that. Now, we just have the one project, and it’s been nothing be an absolute nightmare in working with the client. The miscommunication is profound, and currently we are still owed 2 months worth of pay. We “should” have a paycheck next week, but beyond that, honestly, things don’t look good at all. After the Hell that was last year, it looks like I’m just going to be going through the whole thing yet again. Maybe this time I can work some of the contacts I made previously, but offhand, I fear that I’ll be starting from scratch all over again. What’s worse is that because of the lack of paychecks, I’ve already burned through any money that I had saved up from the first few months. The only good thing is that I might have made enough to get back on unemployed.

I have reached out to some of my former contacts with other companies, and will continue to do so. The trick is, as always, nothing is available right now, so I will need to wait for something to open up. I also will be looking at non game-design field jobs, again, in hopes that I can at least land something to pay the bills.

There were plans to move a couple of weeks ago — the idea was to move in with a couple of the guys from work, and the money that would be saved in rent, as well as the money that would be saved by selling the car, would have been substantial enough to make an instant difference in my budget. But, all of that is on hold (and apparently canceled), as the lack of the aforementioned paychecks makes it impossible for us to actually pay the cost of moving in the first place. Even though it would be far cheaper in the long run, nobody has the cash to make the initial move and cough up the money the first month rent, security deposit, moving costs, and possible realtor fee.

Now, technically, I could foot the bill of moving. I finally broke down and transferred money from my small CD to my checking account, so I would have enough to cover my share. The other guys, however, would not. Likewise, I could, theoretically, move into a place of my own, but the rent will then be much higher, and wash out most of the savings generated by selling the car. Still, I should look into it, I suppose, just to weigh my options, as it’s still better to be in the city than out of it.

On the dating front, I had the opportunity to date a lovely young girl who got along with me surprisingly well. Naturally, such happiness cannot be allowed to continue, so she’s going to Washington tomorrow for the entire month of August. Story of my life. Or, should I say, “SOML.” All the cool cats are doing the abbreviation thing. In any case, I am grateful for at least the dates that we have had; one should enjoy the sliver of sunshine that breaks through the overcast sky, not bemoan the brief existence of it.

Also, next week I shall be off for my annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin for the family bash. Ironically, however, on the actual day of the Bash, neither of my parents will be there. Mom will be taking TMG off to Michigan for a shin-dig her side of the family is having, and Dad is off on a canoe trip, which still totally blows my mind. Keep in mind that this is the man who never joined me on an Boy Scout camping trip, but a week-long canoe trip? No problem! I suspect that something else is at play, here, and my Dad is actually a top agent going on some classified mission to preserve peace and stability in the world. Makes perfect sense to me, anyway.

The bright spot in all this gloom is that I have a chance to really get back into one of my projects and start major work on it. I want to get some video work done, I have a number of game ideas, and even some drawings I want to tackle.

More later, I am sure.

Easier Than Expected

Work 1 Response »

Apr 262010

Last night, I finally got around to replacing the texture of the lifts in my UT3 level. I had been putting this off for, well, months, mainly because I just didn’t want to go through the process of recooking and republishing everything. The first time through doing that took quite a long time, and I had little interest in revisiting those aspects.

However, the replacement of the texture went easier than I expected — since the lifts are animated, they require separate “rules” in how they interact within the level, but the static meshes that they are built from are treated like any other static mesh: just place the new material on the base mesh and all instances of it are updated properly.

“Oh. That was easy.”

I then cooked the level, knowing it would take around 5-10 minutes due to the size of the level and lighting, and now just have to make some of those less-fun adjustments to the .ini file and readme info, so that everything is properly updated.

Of course, there are still a couple more things beyond that: I need to upload it all in zip file form to a public FTP site, get Mr. 188 to test it on his computer to make sure it runs properly, and then post a link to the file on the EPIC forums. I’m not expected a world-beater reaction, but it will be very nice to finally get this off my plate, and it also gives a little more ammo for the resume.

Hmm, thought: I have Steam installed on my work computer… I bet I can install UT3 here as well, and then do separate testing without having to bug Mr. 188. That’s handy, eh?

Taxed Out

Life in General, Work 1 Response »

Mar 242010

So, I finally got my taxes done; for those not aware, chasing down my W2 from Rebel Monkey (or, to be more precise, the company that handled our tax forms) was a long, arduous process which probably had a lot more intrigue and drama going on that I didn’t know about. Which, I suspect, is for the best. Since the W2 was the last piece to my refund puzzle, I went through tonight an online tax preparation site to take care of things.

I was surprised to have a refund, as I’ve been hearing from many different sources that the government was going to tax the America population back into the stone age, so I was fully prepared to have to check off the boxes which stated that I did have gold inlays in my teeth, and that some large, burly man would be down shortly to forciably remove them to fund the new health care bill. Amazingly, however, that didn’t happen, so I’m guessing that that part of the legislation doesn’t go into effect until next year.

My refund is bigger than last year, which is what I guessed, considering I made quite a bit less than last year, but I have to admit that I basically finally caved in and paid to have my returns, both federal and state, efiled by the website. This was not cheap, trust me, but in the end I justified it to myself in that the state refunds basically paid for themselves, and the convenience of both getting everything done at once, as well as not having to go back over a vast sea of forms that would need to be tracked down, was worth the price of admission.

I think that it is safe to say that the tax refund will, mainly, be going into savings account; that poor bloke really took a beating last year, and needs quite a bit of help before he’s fully standing on his own two feet. However, I also think that I will allow myself to buy a video game, and, probably even more likely, a gamecube controller to plug into my Wii so I can start into the vast array of used GameCube games that I bought last year.

In both cases, I need to make sure I keep the receipts, so I can plan on deducting them from next year’s taxes. As a game designer, after all, they are considered “business expenses: research.”

Good times, my friends. Good times.

So how’s work?

Work 6 Responses »

Feb 262010

Given that I have now finished a month of work (well, not really, as I started on the 10th, but c’mon — polka with me, here), I thought I’d write a bit about it. After all, defining what a Game Designer does can actually be rather difficult at times.

Currently, however, it’s quite easy: I do a lot of writing.

I mean, a truckload of writing. A busload — wait! A speeding busload that will explode if it goes under 55 mph! And has to jump a bridge! Yeah!

You get the drift.

Pretty much since I started, I having been hammering away at the keyboard, building up the Game Design Document (GDD). This lovely clump of text describes, at a high level, how the entire game operates. It needs to basically be the equivalent to a TV series Bible. Every question needs to have an answer within; every detail needs to be cataloged; every nook filled with a delicious butter.

This is not as simple as it sounds, because what always winds up happening is that as you start writing up the details of one aspect of the game, you begin to discover ten new elements of the game that need to be addressed, ranging from the programming, to the networking, to the UI, to the actual game mechanics, themselves. And, of course, each of those elements leads to yet another ten things to sort out and settle, at which point you realize that having figured them out, now half of your original statements need to be revised and/or updated to keep everything in line, and so on.

Furthermore, when you write the GDD, you also have to keep in mind that probably about 25% – 50% of what you write is going to need to be adjusted and revised once Q&A starts, and people actually start interacting with the entire system. That’s when you get the explosions of bugs and features that need/should be added, and you suddenly understand why pretty much every piece of software made these days needs a series of patches and updates.

That said, I should note that I’m actually having a ball. I’m pretty much in charge of developing the system; there was some ground work in place when I started, but there has been a lot that has been since added and expanded. Others have been sounding boards and have definitely helped, but still, there are large chunks of the game which, as it currently stands, I can point to as pretty much my idea. That’s both really cool, and really scary. The game’s development time means it will be a while before we complete it, but I’m really interested in seeing this thing developed. It’s a really big project — not so big that it’s overwhelming, but definitely something that is honestly right in the sweet spot of “difficulty.”

This upcoming Thursday is my next big deadline; I’m feeling pretty confident about it, but just need to make sure I don’t get to self-assured. As I mentioned, a lot of new questions might need to be answered as we continue to pour over the GDD for completeness.

By the end of March, we should actually see some of the game in action, and I have this feeling that it’s going to be like when you work for days on a 2-second animation piece, and then see it for the first time. So much time spent for such a brief moment, but that moment is so incredibly awesome that you can’t wipe that idiotic grin off your face.

Well, that’s my gut feeling, anyway. Check back in about a month, and we’ll see!

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