The End of the Beginning

Well, that went quickly! About a year ago I was traveling to Brunel University for the first time, ready to start my MA in Digital Games and now all of a sudden it's over. I haven't got the grade yet, that doesn't come until November-ish but my dissertation is in and now... What?

Dissertation Games Design Document

 

Well, it's time to start job hunting again. It's a daunting prospect. I haven't looked for a job for about 8 years and before that I was lucky enough to cascade from one thing to the next. I've never really used job-sites and this whole linked in malarkey is new to me as well! None the less it's an exciting prospect and was always the aim - that I would do the course and then try to find work... And here I am!

 

So my LinkedIn profile has been spruced up (I can be found here) and I've updated my cv as well. Knowing where to start is a bit more tricky but I've done some website trawling and I suppose we'll see what happens next...

 

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Of Whether Pigs Have Wings

So the course is going well, it's deeply enjoyable, although I wish that I had 17 more days in the week to study everything that I'd like to get my head into! Life continues to be a little manic, I'm trying to get to some conferences when I can as well as the lectures, and am constantly on the look out for more games-y things I can do - if you have any suggestions then I would welcome them!

Lectures range from narrative in games to character design, from project management to how to deal with programmers (I am beginning to feel a bit sorry for them as they seem to get a hard time of it!)

I am reading more than I have for some time as I am trying to devour the essential reading and get in some reading of various texts that people describe as being 'really good read' (so far nobody has suggested any Mills and Boon).

There has been essays and presentations and at the moment the daunting task of designing our own essay title.

Everyone on the course is pretty great, there's been a lot of interesting talk about all sorts of games and general geek-ery. Still no karaoke but I haven't given in yet... It's a slight shame we only get to do one real piece of group work but I guess there's always the opportunity to do more during / later.

We have to learn how to use a game-making program called MMF which is absorbing and very user friendly, I am pottering around making little bits and pieces, and I might try and upload something here at some point (if that's even possible, if not then somewhere similar to here (I have no real idea how to upload a downloadable file to a blog so if there's a simple way then I'd welcome the advice!)

We see a lot of all of our lecturers which is great and they are all very approachable and helpful during times of lack of faith or just with generally helpful advice.

We had a visit from some old students which was both inspiring and practical - all of their advice was absorb as much as you can, make the most of everything and other similar sentiments. It was great to hear from people who were in our position a few years ago and are now, in a very real sense, 'doing it'.

As a list of things I am trying to learn a bit about that are not things on the course I'm learning how to use Microsoft Visio & Project, Maya and a bit about UDK, I am practising my photoshop skills (which are measly) and have learnt how to use Keynote and Presi, although Powerpoint remains a staple favourite. I'll probably practise a bit with some sort of art program at some point although it's never going to be my strong point. It's a lot about being a Renaissance Man it seems, and so anything I can pick up I will value. Suggestions welcome!

I've avoided buying Skyrim, because even though I would love to play it I fear it is just too much of a time sink at the moment. RIP Skyrim, see you some time next year...

The Whys and Wherefores

So, I'll start with a post about what I'm doing here, and a little background. This is, if you like, the exposition! I was born in the year Star Wars came out. I played make believe games where I was Luke Skywalker on Tatooine when I was at the beach. I graduated early onto the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books and from there went on to D&D style games - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and GURPS featuring heavily in my portfolio. I moved into Live Roleplaying and did a lot of it. Playing it and running it, even as a full time job for a while. It captured my passion and I loved the possibility of living out the games I had made up before.

All the while I was playing on computers. I started with an Amstrad 6128 and lived through the time when you could buy magazines with games you could programme in yourself using basic. Hours and hours frittered away! I then got a PC and slowly progressed through PCs to this day.

I have served my time as a Warcraft addict.

In more recent times I have played a lot of Xbox and gave up my PC for a bit (mostly after my laptop was stolen!) but have now returned to the PC. I also have an iPad and I love it and an iPhone.

In my other life I've worked in the theatre a lot. Mostly as a stage manager but I've done my time treading the boards as well.

Same years ago I decided that I wanted to get into the computer games industry. I gave it a crack, but I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know who to apply with and, although I was ok at writing table top games and pretty good at running LARP games I didn't know where to begin with computer games. I was, understandably knocked back at every point. I was told that not being able to write C++ meant that I had no chance. I went back to working in the theatre and in production management.

Now, some years on, I am trying again, but this time with rather more fervour. I have a desire and an intent to get into the professional computer games industry. My writing skills have improved and I have learnt some more about what works in games. Now though I am focussing a bit more on my background knowledge. To that end I am taking an Open University course called T151 Digital Worlds. It's fantastic. It's begun the process of teaching me about games and how they work - how you go about programming them and making things happen. About the background of some of their elements and all sorts of other bits and pieces. It's great. I'll probably post some bits of 'wisdom' there at some point. It's a 10 week course and feels like a wonderful introduction. After that and beginning in September I am starting an MA in Games Design. I'm going down to working 3 days a week in a gamble to learn more and get a job.

I'm 5 weeks into the OU course and I thought I would keep a blog of the process. I'm not quite sure why but I hope that it's vaguely interesting to read and a place for me to keep note of some of my thoughts and bits I didn't want to lose. On top of that I figured I might one day look back and think about how I got to where I am 'today'. This will hopefully be that record.

Wish me luck!