Life: Upgrades.

So it's been a long time since I last posted. I feel I should get back in the habit of posting my challenges, reviews and progress in getting a game career. Lately it's been getting hectic as I get trained to be a floor supervisor at HMV for christmas. I've only been at HMV since June, so this might be the fastest I've moved up at any of my jobs. I'm also realizing just because I've moved up at every job I've worked at, it literally means nothing. It's great for if I want to work retail for the rest of eternity, however it gives me no edge in any other aspect.

I can manage teams of up to forty people, I can delegate, manage tasks, work with deadlines... yet my resume apparently does not commnicate this, or these aren't worthwhile skills. I believe they are, but I'm also outside the industry staring in. I feel like I'm at the zoo, but I have been feeding the lions, now I want to be one. I said once I would literally kill a man to work at Bioware and then my friend stabbed back with "Well, they're only asking for a module... much easier." Sadly a module requires a lot of time and focus. I have focus, but very little time. I also find myself getting stuck on the most rediculous things (I just want this guy to automatically talk to the player when the module loads, why is this script not working?! ARG!) and it just taking forever. The last module I made was deep, intricate and well layed out, but for some strange reason I didn't have the problems with that one that I am currently plagued with! Perhaps it might have been because I was fresh out of my Computer Science stint and programming was still fresh. Now, I'm rusty at coding and frustrated by the little things. It only makes me more determined to finish it, but I feel like I've become limited because of my rusty coding skills.

Anyway, I just thought I'd post on here to perhaps get back into the habit and give an update to the family and friends who are curious! Thanks for the support!

Update of 12.

Well my updates come further apart, although they seem to be feeling close together. I find myself consistantly looking for a new position so I can get the money worries out of my face so I can worry about the things that really matter. I've been feeling unproductive as of late mostly because of the bills rolling in and me having just enough to cover expenses.

The module has sadly taken a backseat as I reprioritize and try and get some extra sleep and hopefully an interview. 12 days have passed since I last updated here and I just feel like I'm lost in the shuffle of my own life. I have even begun taking less of a role in the Game Design Challenges where I found myself weekly. I leave every day at 7:30 and get home around 6:00. That's almost 12 hours gone to work alone, leaving me with 8 hours to sleep and 4 hours to get things done. It almost seems like my entire week is about to be come scheduled from waking moment to pillow time. We shall see, maybe that will make me more productive... also, should I schedule free time?

Branching Out...

I have been busy as of late thinking about a new job and currently working at HMV. Sadly I love the people I work with, but it's not paying the bills. I am currently looking into a tech support job at Telus, while I work on my module, portfolio and my resume. I've also taken up jogging, because I am apparently in good shape on the outside, but rotten on the inside.

I just got my Module Making book in the mail and hopefully this will give me a bit better of an understanding of scripting. The part of my module I'm at right now involves creating the city layout in the toolset, but there are certain triggers and things I need to understand before I go further. Also, as much as I want this to be my career I still want to enjoy Edmonton a bit more anyway before getting into it. I mean don't get me wrong, if they called tomorrow and asked I'd sprint right over for the interview. But I know that once I get a position in there I'll pretty much move in and learn from as many people as will allow me. I plan to learn as much as I can about every aspect of game design once I'm in a company. I want to especially know testing, marketing, design, and the whole implementation phase. But for now I will deal with the jobs I do have and work towards my goal of working at Bioware... some time soon hopefully.

Burnout.

So I've been working, busing, sleeping and generally in that order for the past few weeks. I kept coming up with story ideas, discussing them with my friends and coworkers and they've been a great help. Sure at the time a comment like "That sounds like Lord of the Rings" doesn't seem helpful, but it was very helpful and made me change the scope of my project. The project has been revised many times already and in each revision I have learned something new. Revision 1 was I knew nothing about the module editor, 2 was understanding the conversation editor, 3 was to cut the scope of my story down, 4 was what order I should do things in and now I'm on to the 5th chapter.

Currently my story is about your character who is charged by the fates to help overthrow a crazed king. You meet 3 others along the way and they will all help in your battles. The only thing I want scripting wise is to figure out a way to enable automatic healing. For example, instead of having to rest between battles when it's safe, I want it to assume you would and just heal you back to full mostly to keep the story going between battles instead of stopping and wasting a minute or two per battle.

Either way the newest story is short, to the point and action packed. I just need to figure out how to actually start it off once all the characters have been completed and the areas finished. Anyway that's it for now, back to work for me!

The Sacrifice.

After passing up many hours of gaming today, I have become active once again in my moderator duties on Game Career Guide's forums. I also wrote out my revamped idea for a Neverwinter Nights module and ordered a book on NWN Scripting. For the moment I know exactly how I want things to go, it's just a matter of transferring it into Neverwinter Nights. Also, I'm trying to figure out a way to make a script that will allow for more freedom during play.

The concept? I want a list of people for you to kill and you get to choose the order, but it will have to increase in difficulty as you progress through the game. Hopefully the forums will help me out and if not, maybe my engineer friend can lend a few ideas. Also, I want a random event that can alter who you're targeting almost like confusing, but messing with the view so that you the player chooses to attack the wrong person! I'll let you know how that goes... Back to the module making, oh and my musical choices this week consist of three things: Stratovarius, Richard Cheese and Powerglove. Look them all up if you've never heard of them!

Till next time!

A Rock and a Hard Place.

I am currently on the fence with where I am currently in life. I received a 3D Animation degree which right now feels like an $8600 piece of paper. I am considering returning to school, but this time at the University of Alberta for a Computer Science degree. I keep hearing it's easier to break into the games industry and right now that is my largest hurdle. I can see the rest of the hurdles and by comparison, they're only lines on the road ahead.

Everyone keeps telling me how much work it is, and I don't think they understand that I am up for the challenge and have a better grasp of what the industry has to offer than most applicants.

Anyway I just thought I'd post here since I've been neglecting it since I started learning scripting in Neverwinter Nights. I don't have much free time, my schedule most days consists of waking up at 7:30 am, busing to work, working 8:30 am to 5 pm, busing home, arriving at 6 and then eating, showering and trying to fit as much learning and module making as possible into the few hours I have left. It's rough, but as my best friend put it, "That's Life". He's right, and that's what makes it all the more frustrating. I have almost no time to spit and polish my module but refuse to submit something I can't enjoy. Also, there's still so many little things I want to do that I need more scripting for. Ah well, hopefully this weekend I will have all the scripting tutorials read and tested so I can start into the meat and potatoes of the actual story and module.

Anyway, until next time... wish me luck!

Insanity.

Bioware has posted the Quality Assurance position once again to their glorious website. It is unfortunately routed through the EA job bank, which makes me wonder who is hiring for this position. I am considering walking a resume in just to set myself apart from all these other submissions. I have already applied through the internet, but can you apply too many times? I mean after all, I moved 3000 kms to be closer to them because I want to start my career there. I definitely don't want to harass them, but I do want to maximize my chances.

Also, on top of that I have a multitude of projects I am working on at various stages of completion. It's kind of terrible because I find myself torn between multiple projects like this all the time. I am reading two different books as well, one on storyboarding and one on scriptwriting. Perhaps I should focus on one thing at a time but I feel like time is disappearing into oblivion. Also this way it keeps everything fresh, exciting and I never feel like I have to work on them, I just feel like I want to work on them all at once. Too much passion might be getting me in trouble! My XNA subscription ends next month and I have done nothing with the previous year. I might indeed leave it for the coming year, so I at least have the option of going to it whenever I want. Living with a computer engineer helps in this respect, although we're toying around with many ideas at the moment.

Anyway I am heading off this is just a quick update, but I'll write again soon.