Been Ages Since I Updated This...
<rambling>
Long time no talk.
Last time I wrote on here, I had just ended my employment at United Front Games and it had shut down a couple weeks after the release of Smash+Grab. Since then, I ventured into small stints in mobile games and VR/AR.
I started at Bandai Namco Vancouver in January 2017 - I took 2.5 months off after the closure at United Front Games. It was a well-deserved break, I thought, as we had just finished a project and it had been in the marketplace (on Steam and otherwise) for roughly 2 weeks, then it was all gone. No matter what the situation was at the end of the studio's life, it was still a hard pill after working there for the better part of 7 years.
Right, back to Bandai.
Mobile games was interesting and I was in a fortuitous position at the company. I had joined an interesting sounding project where I was developing gameplay and actually building systems, boss battles, and levels. Pretty atypical for a designer in a mobile game studio as most designers working in mobile games are peering over spreadsheets and formulas. The work I was doing was interesting but ultimately it was a losing battle. The core design direction wasn't up to snuff and I was basically handed the limping project and told to run with it. By then the writing was on the wall, and I had decided mobile games weren't for me (at that time anyway). I left the company in April 2018 and ventured into the VR/AR space. Turns out it was a smart choice as the company had closed about 4-5 months after I left.
Enter working at Archiact Interactive - where I was making an AR game which has since been released as Marvel: Dimension of Heroes. It is a mobile AR experience utilizing the Lenovo Mirage AR headset. Your device runs the game and you put it into the Mirage headset where a series of cameras will track your motion controllers and whatnot. It was an extremely interesting, albeit hectic development, but I did truly enjoy working on the game and trying to squeeze every last bit out of this hardware. It wasn't easy. Since early August 2019, my contract ran up and the company had nothing else for use to roll onto so I was let go.
Which brings me to now. I've taken over a month off now and have felt more relaxed than I've felt in a long while. This break has also made me think about my future in games and what I want to move onto next. I think what I want to do is scratch that creative itch that I haven't been able to do professionally yet - narrative and writing.
My experience is mainly gameplay, systems, or level design and, while I love those fields, the reason I got into games in the first place was story, characters, and great narrative experiences. I'd like to return to that in a professional manner.
Luckily I've been able to do a lot of that on the side as I've been playing Dungeon Master for a DnD group on and off for years now. I think I've learnt a lot through doing that and want to get back to writing more (not just DnD) and flex that skill. I believe I have the creativity to do it and would eventually like to try.
It may or may not be in my next gig but who knows. I'll try to do it regardless.
</rambling>
Long time no talk.
Last time I wrote on here, I had just ended my employment at United Front Games and it had shut down a couple weeks after the release of Smash+Grab. Since then, I ventured into small stints in mobile games and VR/AR.
I started at Bandai Namco Vancouver in January 2017 - I took 2.5 months off after the closure at United Front Games. It was a well-deserved break, I thought, as we had just finished a project and it had been in the marketplace (on Steam and otherwise) for roughly 2 weeks, then it was all gone. No matter what the situation was at the end of the studio's life, it was still a hard pill after working there for the better part of 7 years.
Right, back to Bandai.
Mobile games was interesting and I was in a fortuitous position at the company. I had joined an interesting sounding project where I was developing gameplay and actually building systems, boss battles, and levels. Pretty atypical for a designer in a mobile game studio as most designers working in mobile games are peering over spreadsheets and formulas. The work I was doing was interesting but ultimately it was a losing battle. The core design direction wasn't up to snuff and I was basically handed the limping project and told to run with it. By then the writing was on the wall, and I had decided mobile games weren't for me (at that time anyway). I left the company in April 2018 and ventured into the VR/AR space. Turns out it was a smart choice as the company had closed about 4-5 months after I left.
Which brings me to now. I've taken over a month off now and have felt more relaxed than I've felt in a long while. This break has also made me think about my future in games and what I want to move onto next. I think what I want to do is scratch that creative itch that I haven't been able to do professionally yet - narrative and writing.
My experience is mainly gameplay, systems, or level design and, while I love those fields, the reason I got into games in the first place was story, characters, and great narrative experiences. I'd like to return to that in a professional manner.
Luckily I've been able to do a lot of that on the side as I've been playing Dungeon Master for a DnD group on and off for years now. I think I've learnt a lot through doing that and want to get back to writing more (not just DnD) and flex that skill. I believe I have the creativity to do it and would eventually like to try.
It may or may not be in my next gig but who knows. I'll try to do it regardless.
</rambling>
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