Funemployment Week One

4 weeks ago I left my job as a games producer at a large, AAA game developer. 3 weeks ago I was hurriedly tidying and emptying out my apartment ahead of a looming move out date. 2 weeks ago I moved back in with my very understanding and accommodating parents. 1 week ago I started on a number of tutorials/courses in things that I hope will lead to a job closer to something that I enjoy doing.

After flipping and flopping for some time I decided to end my role in games production. Although I had enjoyed it and found great satisfaction in some of my work over the years, it was becoming clear to me that it wasn't what I wanted to do going forward. Design is where I wanted to be, and design was what I had always wanted to move into one way or another.

Focusing on what design exactly however was the problem whenever I thought about this switch. Level, systems, technical, narrative, etc. There are so many different design disciplines (and going into larger companies it gets very specific) that I never knew exactly where I wanted to aim. In the abstract I knew what I wanted to do. It essentially boiled down to:

• Tell a good story
• Provide a memorable experience

With those things in mind I restarted my tutorials/learning of the following software:

• Unreal Engine 4 Blueprints
• Adobe Xd
• Twine 2

This was in addition to my continued use of GameMaker Studio 2, which I am already familiar with. I'm still not entirely sure in which direction I want to go in or what kind of role I want to end up in. But I've at least now got the headspace, energy and opportunity to be able to pursue these potential avenues for me to go down.
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via GIPHY

via GIPHY

​In summary, I managed to achieve the following this week:

• Created a basic level in UE4 using Blueprints
  • Setting up geometry, applying textures and using a bit of visual scripting for some interaction
• Created a number of mock ups using Adobe Xd following the Udemy course
  • Got to the stage of creating interactive prototypes
• Started the Will Wright Game Design MasterClass (thoughtfully gifted to me by my coworkers upon me leaving)
  • It's a very high level type of class (so far) but it does present a number of interesting ideas and approaches to design, with a focus on player choice, freedom and community

Not too bad for the first week, but a lot of this was basically going over stuff I had previously learnt when I first started some of these tutorials. I'm hoping to provide another update the same time next week to keep myself accountable and to help motivate myself to keep pursuing this direction.