[sorry if this arrives multiple times... I've got way
too many email accounts... and I figured that the list rejects messages if
they're not from subscribers]
Just wanted to do a
quick roll call... the last person I saw in person was Colin MacDonald when he
came out to do some wheeling-and-dealing with Microsoft... so I was wondering
what you all were doing.
Moi? Just got
married and bought a house in Redmond (near Seattle - hey, it's cheaper than
living in Seattle proper, but without the 45 minute commute to get anywhere). My
job is becoming interminable.
Sierra laid nearly
everyone off in 2001, then in 2002, they laid nearly everyone who was left off
including me and some close friends.,.. more recently - i.e. this month - they
laid the rest of them off, packed up the tents, and moved to LA to become a
brand name and not a real software company. After I left Sierra, I started
working for a startup in downtown Seattle doing scientific instrument stuff...
but I need to get out of there. It's a career dead-end, and it's not something
that I'm enjoying doing any more - because after 2 and a half years, we're still
not ready to manufacture the damn thing.
So I want to get
back into games, but my experience with games programming is officially the
stuff I helped out with on - you guessed it - the SAM. So people look at my
resume kind of funny when I apply for those jobs. Even though I can tell you how
to implement nearly ANYTHING you can think of in a game, they still don't trust
that my experience will transfer. This is not the dot-com bubble days where HTML
programmers were being snapped up and taught to program C++.
Anyway... that's
what I'm doing. I managed to quit smoking, stopped drinking coffee, and am now
working on getting into shape. I've been weight training since May or so, and am
beginning to see some nice results. Still have a long way to go before I get rid
of enough body fat to be happy, but hey, it's better than dying at age
45.
Oh, and I'm also
currently editing a short film that we put together (http://www.popcornfilms.com/projects.html)
called "The Good Samaritan"... I produced this one, rather than writing it or
directing it... which was an interesting experience in and of itself. Provided I
can finish editing it, there are plenty of people who want to work with me on
stuff again. So that's nice :)
So... what are y'all
up to?
BTW: I'm thinking of
trying to set up a software company doing primarily games, but also other
consumer apps, in the not so distant future. If anyone has any idea whatsoever
how to go about doing something like that, please let me know. The biggest
problem I'm seeing right now is getting together enough capital to start my own
firm.
Cheers!
Si
