Life Continues

I'm programming at Turbine Inc. now. I failed my new year's resolution, get over it. I started playing games again somewhere around SW:TOR Beta (It is good) and when I started at Turbine. One day I will post to this thing again. Oh yeah I worked most of the year on OregonTrail for 3DS/Wii . The rest of the time was spent working on other things less notable and/or secretive.

Best,
Aaron

New Years Resolution - Stop Playing, Start Making

Last year was all about learning lots of skills that my new job required.  Lets check out a brief bulleted list of what went down:

• Learned a bunch of misc. XBOX360, Wii and PS3 platform tech
• Worked on a game with an external publisher pulling the strings
• Developed some applications/games utilizing AS3, PHP, Java EE, and other web buzz words
• Did some Facebook app development (still doing some of this at work)
• Worked on an iDevice game that got released
• Participated in my first Global Game Jam
• Started working on a secret project for a cool platform

From reviewing what I've done over the past year it is easy to come to the conclusion that everything really was driven by what needed to get done at my day job.  I put all my creative energy into my day job.  When I had free time I would use it on spending time with friends and family and/or playing video games... and researching tech for my day job :-D.

It was still very rewarded and I feel I've grown in my craft from it, but something has been missing.  I still plan on putting as much energy into my day job as last year, but something needs to change.  I really miss working on my own projects.  I haven't really created something that wasn't driven by a publisher, customer, or a boss in three years (since college).  I've started hobbyist projects, but they never make it past the early stages.  That's kind of sad and I'd like this year to be different.

I've been thinking about it for a long time and I'm going to try something that I still think is kind of crazy...

I will not play video games for a year.

Sea of Chaos

Its been a long time (almost 9 months!) and life has been pretty crazy.  Since March I have been working At DoubleTap Games on a game that just came out today.  It was a wild ride and I grew so much from it.  The game may not be my cup of tea, but I am proud of what we were able to accomplish with the small amount of time and resources we had.  That game was "Deadliest Catch: Sea of Chaos".

The game released today for PS3, XBOX 360 and Wii.  Our studio developed the game for all three consoles at the same time.  We also did most of the tech for the platforms ourself, so I got to play with all three at a low level.  Since this was a three console release with a small team (less than ten people on average) and an 8 month development cycle you can imagine that it was kinda crazy.  Nine months of radio silence should tell you something :-D.

Towards the end I was bouncing from issue to issue across three different platforms so my station started to look like Megadesk.

MEGADESK!

New Job! Two Week Notice Reflection

My first week at my new game dev gig is coming to an end and I just wanted to reflect a bit.  For those who do not know I have moved on to newer and more interesting work (in my opinion).  This means I have been busy resolving loose ends at the old job and prepping for the new (reason why little to no content is being posted).  The new job is great, really can't talk too much about what I'm doing specifically (at least I am not sure I should), If you really care just ask me in real life or something.

This was my first game dev job change so I wanted to take a bit to reflect on the transition.  The last three weeks have been rather interesting.  When you give your two weeks at a job it is kind of a big deal and I didn't want to screw it up.  Burning bridges was part of it, but it was mostly because I honestly loved the job and didn't want to be that guy.  I don't think anyone really wants to be that guy.

Shout Out

If you're interested in other posts from me, or updates about the company I co-own check out the Binary Solo's development blog.

First Post

Hello,

I will be using this blog to express the many thoughts and ideas I have in my head. Too many of these thoughts and ideas get expressed over IMs and impromptu conversation with my friends. while I love to hear their thoughts, I believe I could be getting a larger variety of feedback if the world could give me its 2 cents.

Before I begin I would like to set some things straight. I am no Guru of any sort, but I like to think I am at least a newb++. I will probably say things that are either wrong, right, controversial, mis-spelled or boring, but I will only apologize in advance for the last two. That means if you got Beef, I want to hear it. I like to think Beef (AKA feedback) makes us all stronger if we care to listen and dig into it. I would prefer constructiveness, but to be honest if you just want to take the time to say "you suck", I will be happy you even care.

The content focus of this blog will be in the area of Game Development. Sub-content focus will consist of: Programming, Development Tools, Managing and Misc. I may switch it up with a post here and there about random thoughts about music or life, but they will not be the main focus.

Stay tuned.