Career Update
A couple months ago, I stumbled across a low-income lottery for a complimentary pass to GDC. Much to my surprise, I was selected to be a recipient and will be granted access to attend. In preparation for the event, I wanted to post an update on my journey these past several months, and a general roadmap of what's to come.
After graduation, I began putting in applications to employers that I felt would be a good fit for me. The job hunt started off strong, and I received a few responses, but none have yet lead to a position in the industry. A common hurdle that I find myself facing is my lack of professional experience in game design, and a scarcity of introductory positions needing filled. While I've continued applying to positions that catch my eye, I found myself needing part time work to support myself, and the busier schedule caused the job hunt to slow down a bit.
But rather than letting this time go to waste, I've also been working on a project that I'm quite passionate about. It began as two separate ideas, the desire to create a procedurally generated game based on the first Legend of Zelda, and the urge to blog about ethics in game design. After spending a couple weeks thinking about each of these, the concepts for the blog began to greatly influence the theme of the game. The result was a procedurally generated adventure focused on empathy. After creating a few successful (though very basic) prototypes, I have spent the past couple months researching and studying various topics and games for reference material. This phase of development is likely going to last at least a couple more months, but this means that I don't have much to show for the work I've put into it thus far.
That being said, I would hate to attend GDC without having anything on my portfolio to show for my recent studies and research. As such, I want to challenge myself this next month by taking on three different tasks:
Task 1 - Having never been to GDC, I want to look deeper into what the event offers so that I can create a tentative schedule for myself while I attend.
Task 2 - I want to revisit the blog post that I intended to write before it was absorbed into my current project, but focus it on empathy in the games industry.
Task 3 - I want to create a basic procedurally generated clone of the first Legend of Zelda. This one may not be 100% complete by the time GDC comes around, but I want to put forth as much effort as I can to have something playable.
It is my hope that these three tasks will assist me in making the most out of the networking and career opportunities available at GDC, and will be useful practice for my current project. I'll be sure to continue updating this blog on my progress over the coming weeks, and the results these efforts provide.
See you then!
