Has anyone ever successfully kept up a blog? I don't believe it. Maybe I should have set up days to post, but without real work hours or class times, I can't keep a very tight schedule anyway. It was a learning experience for me: I struggled to keep up a consistent work schedule when I create my own hours. I got everything done, but I think I could have done better and completed things more efficiently. I didn't meet my expectations this summer, but I tend to set unrealistic goals for myself (another thing I should work on this semester). A part of me is okay with it though; when I returned from Germany, I realized I really needed a break. I was lucky in that I was always working on my portfolio and gaining career based experience because I was working an industry-type job, and I am thankful for that. I hope that a more consistent schedule from classes will allow me to set aside time to work on personal projects, something I didn't do as much of this summer.
I have mostly finished up my job with Ardin Interactive, but this is only the beginning with them. I grew to really love my teammates, and I'm really excited that some of them will be joining me for my junior film this semester. (More on that later.) Getting to work with my producer in person really helped, and he did a great job helping me stay organized and outlining what I needed to do as the artist. We were also able to hire new people for sound and UI design; we were told by our professors that our game still seemed like a student project, but with these new elements I think we can really set ourselves apart. We officially established our LLC as a real studio, and soon we will have our app up on the google play store. I'm so excited to tell everyone I know to go download and play it. (If you're reading this, go download and play it.)
The big thing for me was the environment skins. They look cool as heck. I think if I have time I would like to go back and fix small things with textures and meshes, but I'm still really proud of the work I did. I also feel like my teammates really liked them and I can't wait to see them implemented.
We have future plans for the next game about cat fostering, and I'm taking a lead on the design and decisions for it. I'm afraid we won't get to work on it during the semester, but I'll still try to do some stuff for it over the semester when I have free time (haha.) We also have a few conventions coming up where we get to show off our game and get more playtesting. I enjoyed the other play tests a lot; I went into game design because I wanted to entertain people. I can't sing, dance, or act, but seeing people enjoy a game that I worked on for so long really solidified that reasoning and reinvigorated my desire to work in video games. I'm ready to tackle this semester head on.
My second job with DBcreations hasn't fit the timeline like we had hoped. There was a lot of back and forth in the beginning to decide on style and get into a flow that worked for the both of us, so even though classes start tomorrow I still need to finish up my work with them. I became way more familiar with the Magicavoxel program and the final towers came out really well and I'm really excited to see them in game. I still have rigging and animating and there's a lot to figure out with the exporting tool and textures; it just means I have to work on this project along with my other ones.
Speaking of! It's time to get ready for Return to Otter Space. (Ahhhh!!)
I have team members from Ardin Interactive joining me, and I was contacted by one person after posting on the IGME facebook group who's a fifth year and looking for a long term project to join. I also just saw an old roommate at a party who is also a game design major, and he said he was interested in joining the team as well. I'm determined to take the game the German students started and really knock their socks off at the end of the semester. I'm also ready to put my heart and soul into this game; last semester was a shit-show and I ended up hating my film so much. I still worked incredibly hard on it and I can only imagine what I can do with that type of energy and focus doing something I actually enjoy. We'll see as I keep blogging and slowly devolve into madness as the weeks go by.
I'm also taking a ton of classes and TAing three sections of 3D animation and asset production for IGME. I LOVE 3D and I LOVE TAing; my boyfriend says it seems like too much work for me, but I think I can push through because it's in a subject I'm so passionate about. My other classes are art history, game design 1, creating the 3D character, and of course my production studio and animation production workshop II. You should see my schedule for Tuesdays and Thursdays; I'm going to have to sneak lunch into one of my classes, AND I have a three hour lab at 5 on Tuesdays with a rough professor. Pray for me.
All of my animation friends came back to Rochester and I realized I was missing them so much over the summer. Our designated party planner friend threw a house warming party and everyone was really impressed with my summer work; I didn't want to brag, but I was so proud of what I accomplished! I think I was struggling to work on projects during the summer because I was so removed from that kind of environment; all of my friends and classmates are so talented that just hearing about their work over the summer and plans for the semester made me less nervous and more excited to get back to work. The summer was a refreshing break that still prepared me for the work I must do for this game.
Man. I missed my friends a lot. My cat Indy can only respond so much. My adviser and the professor I worked with over the summer for DBcreations is being loaned to SOFA from IGME, so there was a lot of talk about him and how no one knew what to expect at the party. I made sure to hype them all up; he's everything I want to be in the future and every student absolutely loves him. When they heard he worked on Guitar Hero and DOTA and had a very successful short film, they all said they were really excited to meet him. He's the professor for my Animation Production Workshop II so I will get to work closely on my game with him advising me; I'm also TAing one of his 3D animation and asset production classes. I'm sure he will get sick of me REAL quick.
So here's to the new semester! I'll be blogging about my progress for Return to Otter Space here, so look forward to that (as if anyone is reading this and it isn't just a digital diary of incoherent rants about my school work). I wish I had started blogging sooner; later on I can go back to these and check on my progress, which I think is really cool and having all my projects in one place helps as well. It also shows employers my process and hints at my personality, though they might also be thinking, "This girl is a train wreck." I promise I'm fun to work with!
Like I said. Tangents.
*Insert some cool one liner to wrap up the post here*
Here are the environment skin props and alternative textures. If I pointed you to this post because I wanted to show you these, I'm so sorry for what's above here and I hope you just skipped it.
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