It is pretty evident that the last half year has kept me pretty busy work wise and as such the number of blog posts as come to a standstill for the most part. This is partly due to my work being confidential and I can't always share details. But mostly it's because my personal projects feature more dominantly in my blog and I just haven't been doing them lately.
So I suppose my first bit of news is that I am no longer working at Bearded Pixel. As expected the company only had a set budget for various members of staff up till March. As they were unable to secure additional funding, they are now operating with the bare minimum sized team. I have at times assisted with problems related to my field, but for me it's time to move on.
To summarise my experience at the studio I would say I am grateful for the experience, though for large segments of time, I didn't really enjoy it. I developed my skills to a level of a more than competent junior. Mostly in rigging, but the last few months saw me crank out a large amount of animation. Nothing I'm overly proud of, but it was valuable practice working to specification and deadlines.
The nature of games work often means very little time off. As a result I've found myself craving other activities now I've finished my position. For me the experience was a partial answer to the big question. "Do I really want to work in games or animation for the rest of my life?". Initially I would say no, but this is based off the experience of one small studio on its maiden project. I would say at times I really struggled having to work close quarters with 3 other people and always at a computer. But the main distraction was not always having enough work to get on with. Either that or having so much piled on at once the stress would make my eyes throb. I enjoyed having so much to do the hours would fly by on the odd occasion it would reach that middle ground. I've discovered there were few problems in rigging I wasn't able to solve on this project no matter how long it took to figure out, I would always get there. Working in unity however proved a little tricky with the programmers and my limited knowledge of unity/ max synchronisation. We always got there in the end, but I still have many unanswered questions and problems is love to tackle once more! There was a lot of good that came from my position at BP, but in general I really didn't enjoy it. I owe to myself to try another studio or two before I can get a definitive answer.
If nothing else, I am very happy with the question I have answered this year... "What's it like working in the games industry?". That is one thing I will never have to wonder again and thankfully, will not be hanging over me the rest of my life! I would hate to think back 10 years from now and regret not trying hard enough to get where I am now, future is bright and to anyone who may see this. Push on, don't stop working, you are your only obstacle the rest is only a matter of time.
Work hard! It's all worth it. Take care.
