Life: An Update
August 29th, 2006So, it appears as though I am around the halfway point of my stint here at Telltale, and while I do not yet hate my job or the game industry, I’m starting to get a little bit bored with my life. The excitement of meeting new people and learning new things that was ever-so-present when I first got here seems to have passed. Now I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with myself.
I do know, however, that my next professional goal is to be a game designer. Programming is fun, but I personally find it fun mainly because it’s a means to an end. Most programmers I know like to program for the sake of programming. I’m not like that, meaning it’s quite possible that I’m not a real programmer. I could have just as easily learned to be an artist or an animator or something; it would have been just as much of a means to an end as programming is for me. My true passion is creating characters, worlds, and things, and making them interact. And just for the hell of it, allowing others the chance to interact with them.
I’ve also been working on designing a new amateur game. That is all I’m going to say on the subject.
On a completely unrelated note, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are excellent movies. I just saw them last week and was profoundly moved. They were directed by the same guy who directed Waking Life, which is also an excellent movie, though a lot wackier and weirder. In a good way, of course.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:47 am
-> Adds movies to list of movies to have in mind for potential watching.
I know what you mean about programming. A game programming forum where I used to be a regular (and still visits sometimes) is full of people that get stuck in the programming details when attempting to make a game, always perfecting the engine but never getting it to a game. I could never do that. While I do enjoy the programming part of it, it is - like for you - means to an end. The game is what matters to me, not the code.
August 30th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
i agree fully with the code thing.
but i do not enjoy it AT ALL.
hah.
anyway.
life tends to have luls,
but you know what?
your moving forewward and growing everyday, so that should at least be something.
August 30th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Aw, thanks Albie! That comment just made my day.
And Rikard is awesome, as usual.
August 30th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
Yeah, I hear you completely. Getting to be the designer is the hard part, I think. Prepare for a struggle! But if I read you right, you’re probably the sort of person who enjoys the struggle as long as it’s in progress of a goal or dream. Good luck and I look forward to your next project!
August 30th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
You have read me right; unfortunately, such a characteristic makes me susceptible to getting really, really disappointed if the goal/dream doesn’t get fulfilled. Oh well, if that happens, as long as I find another goal/dream to chase, I think I’ll be okay.
September 6th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
One way or another, if you keep going for things you enjoy doing, I think you’ll end up in a happy place. At least, I hope so, because I sure ain’t making any money making the decisions I make!
September 11th, 2006 at 11:42 am
I think there’s a larger correspondence between programming and design than a lot of people give credit for. Just in meeting with people and reading job descriptions it seems that a lot of companies see design closer to management than programming, and I find that a bit funny. Then again, I’ve spent a lot of time lately talking about how I think that there is more need for “Design Engineers” than people think, and that right now all we really see are “Design Architects”… I keep thinking that the types of design that I’d love the most don’t exist really as a job category, and I’m curious how best to create it.
So… I haven’t seen Waking Life yet, but I’d like to. Have you seen A Scanner Darkly, yet? I thought he did a pretty good job adapting a tough psychological novel, and it may not have been as possible without that rotoscoped animation style.
September 11th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
I haven’t seen A Scanner Darkly, but would definitely like to; in fact, my brother just recommended it to me a few days ago.
Also, you’re right about programming and design being very much related; many game designers whose work I admire (Tim Schafer, Telltale’s very own Dave Grossman and Brendan Ferguson, etc.) are also/have also been programmers. Plus, from what I’ve observed at Telltale, a lot of the programmers (myself included) get a surprisingly large amount of design input; however, that may just be due to the small teams.
In any case, I hope I don’t have to do anything management related. I know it’s important, and I suppose I would be very much able to do it if the need struck me, but I’d rather do all the fun creative stuff and let more capable and willing people handle the bureaucracy instead.
March 12th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
cool site.