New Job Achieved!

It's been three years since I was laid off from my factory job. Three years since I decided to refocus my life and get back to working towards a career - not a job that was just a paycheck. Three years since I made the commitment to follow my dreams.

And now, I am at the threshold of achieving those goals.

As previously mentioned, a couple weeks ago I had a phone interview with Demiurge Studios concerning a QA tester position. Well, the short of it is, I didn't get that job. But, you don't close a door without opening a window (or something like that), and I discovered another QA testing job, this time at Quick Hit, Inc. I previously applied there for a programming position, and so I had a connection with someone already there. So, I asked to pass along my resume.

A couple whirlwind weeks later, and now I've landed the job of QA Tester at Quick Hit!

There are some provisions, however. This is a temporary contract, but that's to be expected with most QA jobs. And QA isn't precisely what I wanted to get into. But, the important things to note are that

• QA is a very popular way to break into the game industry,
  
• my background in programming lends itself very well to QA in regards to close attention to detail, being able to find and diagnose problems, and in a more direct sense, as part of my job will entail writing automation scripts,
• I might come to find I enjoy QA,
  
• this is giving me the industry experience I'll need later on to get a more permanent job,
• and perhaps most importantly, I'm being paid to work at a videogame company.

As I write this, I've only worked one full day. It's been a little bit crazy, since I'm being subjected to a baptism by fire. I'm jumping right into a busy schedule while I haven't quite gotten my bearings yet. But, it's only the beginning. Perhaps more details to come (if I'm even allowed to give them).

Status Report

I feel a little bit guilty about not updating my website, or anything else really, lately. What's been happening is that I've been focusing more on temporary work in order to secure some kind of income, for two reasons.

One, I'm very near broke, and student loans are looming over the horizon. I opted to sign up with a temp agency, and they've been pretty good about finding me work. I spent almost a month working at the Wrentham Premium Outlets at the Nike Factory Store in the backroom processing inventory. They had a lot of inventory coming in, and a few other associates and I were tasked with taking apparel out of boxes, pricing them, adding security pins, and hanging them up. It's repetitive, sure, but actually I like that sort of work. I enjoy it where I have a known amount of work and do it until it's finished (or at least get to a point where I feel comfortable leaving it for the next day). I've had another assignment since then, doing a similar thing but with auto parts.

I also have an interview later this evening for another position for quality control for a medical supplier, but the most important news is that I have a phone interview this Thursday with Demiurge Studios for a QA tester position. I'm super pysched about that...wish me luck!

The second reason is, I simply haven't been aware of many game job opportunities lately. Announcement at the Boston Postmortem have been very sparse the last few months, and those that are looking are looking for artists, mainly. I know I should hit up the contacts that I have and get a feel for how things may have changed since the spring.

So, unfortunately, I've put my personal game development on hold because of all this. Also partly because I seem to have gained writer's block...not only for my game but for my comic as well. Plus, what I'd also like to do is prototype in idea or two, and at the same time familiarize myself with some other technologies. But of course, that takes time, some of which I can hopefully muster up soon.

Renewal of Resolve

I've fallen into a rut, and it's not the good kind of rut. Or else it'd be a routine. Anyway, I've fallen back into bad habits, and I haven't made much progress lately toward my goal of getting a job in the videogame industry. Part of that progress involves staying on top of videogame trends as well as my own personal development. Both of these things I plan to keep updates on my website and this blog, which I have been neglecting lately.

So, here's the plan.

Step 1: Work on my own games.
Since I'm not employed as of this writing, technically I could consider myself an independent game developer. And as such, I should be making games. I've had a couple ideas floating around in my head, and now is the time to put them into practice. And for accountability purposes, I'm going to blog about the process.

Step 2: Play more MMOs.
I attended the Boston Postmortem again last night, and talked with some people from Turbine, one of the major game companies in the Boston area. It seems like if you hold a game job at a company in Massachusetts, chances are that you worked for Turbine at some point. And I realized that I'm not as well versed in MMOs as I probably should be, considering a) if I want to work at Turbine, and b) given the plethora of free-to-play MMOs that are out there. Granted, most may not be of the best quality, but then, one could argue that for a majority of games. Anyway, my point is that I'm going to try some more of these MMOs, and write some of my experiences about them.

Step 2a: Write about casual games.
Another thing I had planned, related to the previous paragraph, was to write about some of my more favorite casual games that I had found online. I probably won't go into a detailed review, but I wanted to show off some of the games I thought were fun, and maybe provide a little insight into the kinds of games that I enjoy.

Hopefully this gives my blog here a little more focused purpose, and maybe you and I can both learn something from all of this. There's a strong chance I'll even make Twitter updates when I update here, for added pressure on myself. Wish me luck!

Job hunt now in full swing!

Okay, here goes. I fired out a bunch of emails today to a bunch of local game companies I'd like to work for, plus some that I know that are hiring, plus one long shot, Naughty Dog. It's a long shot, since I'd have to convince them to help relocate me to California, but their Twitter said they had positions available, so I thought I'd give it a try.

So, wish me luck!