Changing Things Up

Hello Everybody,

I hope you guys had a good week. With the new year and new feedback, I’m going to be editing this website. I’m going to update the pages and flow of the site to make it look cleaner. This will also update the content a bit and provide more updates on my current work in addition to my previous work. I’m also going to be changing how this blog works. I’m going to try and make it where I reflect on things I’ve learned and try to give more lessons on the industry. I’ll be sure to still include updates on my life, but they won’t be the centerpiece of my blog posts anymore. I want to try and help people with these lessons as well as provide a look into my life. Hopefully, with these changes it will lead to discussion and maybe critique.

All that being said I’m also trying to change up how I’m currently spending my spare time. I want to spend more time on hobbies. I’m starting to learn how to paint models and miniatures. I’ve been 3D printing more which helps me with giving me things to paint. With this I’ll also hopefully get my license and a car soon so that I can get around easier and actually use the things I’m working on. That will take away from my ability to work while on the bus though. So, I’ll have to spend more time at home writing. Also, once I get more settled into this new routine I want to see if I can fit in being more active and maybe get back into working out. All of these changes will make my life busier, but for the better. I spend a lot of time not doing a lot. So, with these changes I’ll have to work on a new schedule and how to balance my work life, social life, hobbies, and game time. I want to be better about bettering myself and my work. We’ll see how long I last at this.

Well till next time you guys. Keep an eye on my website as I change things up over time.

Starting and Hunting

Hello my friends,

I hope you guys had a wonderful week. My week went pretty well. I spent a lot of my week working on stuff for Tales of Mahabharata’s expansion, job hunting, and starting work for some other games. The stuff for Tales of Mahabharata was wrapping up the last few quests and editing. The rest of the writing should be in editing and finished soon. The rest of the expansion will hopefully move smoothly along, but the studio was having some issues. I also applied to some jobs this week and I’m hoping to hear from them soon. It’s always nice to hear and see the people that have been willing to help me. It’s heartwarming and humbling. I hope I can make them proud and get a good job.

The rest of this week I spent working on different side projects. A friend I helped in college reached out and asked me for help on a story. So I created a basic outline for the story I have planned for his game. It’s an interesting concept and I look forward to seeing the story I could make in it. I also further expanded my Game Design Document (GDD) for my personal project. I’m giving the game the title “Order of the Forest.” I’m having a hard time staying focused on it with everything else going on. I’m excited about the game though and I hope to learn a lot making it.

Well till next week you guys! I hope you do awesome and I look forward to letting you guys know what happens.

PAX and the PAX Pox

Hello my friends!

          I hope you guys are doing great! I apologize for not posting last week. PAX was amazing but kept me very busy. Another thing that happened was I got sick and am still sick. Luckily I'm not super sick it's only a bad cold. It's just a pain in the butt and making it harder to do stuff. It just reminded me of the need to bring hand sanitizer. Even though I got sick I had an awesome time.

           PAX was a blast. I was lucky enough to be invited to help out with a booth for a company named Ybryd Games. They're a small indie publisher for games titled YIIK, World of Horror, She Remembered Caterpillars, and Va-ll Hall-a. It was awesome to help them out. The only downside was the week of 12 hour long days. Those were countered by the great people and the exhibitor pass I had. These all helped me greatly when it came to networking with people and exploring the show floor. I played all sorts of games and got to expand the list of game companies I'd like to apply to. Hopefully, I'll be able to get guidance from my new compatriots that I met at the con.

           Well till next time you guys! I hope you have continued health and success. Next time we'll chat hopefully I'll be all better.

Brief Moment of Rest

Hello everyone!

           I apologize for the late post I was very busy yesterday. This past week was my first week being back in Seattle after graduation. It's been a fun week and it was a great way to show off the city to my friend that came up with me. We went to all of the different tourist destinations that we could. We also ate at many of the different restaurants in Seattle. We went to a Funko store in Everett. We also checked out Pike Place Market and the Piers. For food we went to Dick's Drive-In and Ivars. It was nice to just explore the city for a week and relax.

           This week is going to be a week of job hunting and meeting with people. I'm going to be fixing up my different platforms, including this website. I've been in contact with different people form around Seattle and I'm attempting to setup different meetings. I'm hoping these will help me get a better understanding of the job market and possible job opportunities. I'll also be updating my resume. I also have plans to help a friend at PAX West and I can use that to help meet more people.

           Well till next week you guys! I hope you have a wonderful week and I look forward to all of our futures.

Graduated and Back Home

Hello my friends!

           I'm sorry for the late post I was very busy yesterday with family. This past week has been pretty exciting. I got to hangout with family and go to Disney and Universal. I packed up all of my stuff to ship to Seattle. I also got to graduate from my degree. It was an awesome and fun week. I'm now back in Seattle and spending the week with my family again. My roommate also came up to Seattle with me. It's his first time up here so we're going to do all of the classic tourist things before he returns to Florida.

            As for my graduation it was bittersweet. I'm excited to have walked and am now free to go into the world. However, I'm sad to have left my family in Florida. I'm looking forward to pushing myself hard in the industry. I want to return to the Florida, and Full Sail, to see my Florida family and help students. It is time to move forward with my next set of goals. First is to get a job of course. The second is to then return to the school and help the students. Then third would be to become a Hall of Famer for my school. I want to be someone my school and people can rely on to help and work as hard as possible to push them forward. It's exciting and new, so the future is bright.

            Well til next time you guys! I look forward to keeping you informed of everything. I hope you have a fun week and an exciting future.

The End of my Masters

Hello my buddies!

           I'm sorry for not posting last week. I've been super busy. Last week I had my final BTS. It was very bittersweet. It was so much fun. I was a stage manager again, but this month had a special twist. We had a guest for the months career development panel. Our guest was Tionne "Tboz" Watkins, the head singer of TLC. She was really cool and fun to hang out with. It was also pretty funny when Garry Jones, Full Sail's President, found out it was my last one. He started joking about foreseeing a course failure in my future. He also would call me out during the panels for graduating soon and other stuff. Then it was really cool because I got to hear how many people were interested in helping me after graduation. The experience was really heartwarming and it was an honor to work with these different people. I look forward to returning for BTS in the future, but next time as a speaker.

           This was the end of my Masters program. Now I move forward into the world. I have graduation this upcoming Friday and the next day I fly home to Seattle. The entire program was without a doubt amazing. The ups and downs, the new experiences and a great way for me to grow my portfolio and network. The program led to me going to GDC and being able to expand my skill set. I'm so happy with my experience in my program. I may have faced all sorts of issues or problems in my experience, but they were all worth it. I learned so much via all of these problems. I'm excited but scared about my next steps. Who knows what will happen next, but without a doubt it'll be exciting.

           My studio also released the game I've been working on. It's currently in early access on steam for $4.99. The game is named Tales of Mahabharata. It takes an ancient Indian epic and gamifies it. I had a lot of fun working on it so check it out and tell me what you think.

           Well till next time you guys! I hope you have a great week and are ready for the future.

Practicum and a Game Jam

Aloha everyone!

            I hope your week has gone as well as mine has. This past week has been very productive. I was able to push forward with so much of my work. I also started my Practicum test. If you didn't read my last post Practicum is basically the final exam of my Masters program. We get to pick one of three tests that are meant to gauge our skills in the game industry. I chose the production test. This allows me to explain my production philosophies and the different ways to approach risks. I'm also required to create a task list and capacity plan. I personally love creating the capacity plan and schedule for a project. I like to coordinate the intricacies and uniqueness. It's almost like when you move into a new house and are setting up your room. The different levels and seeing the plan be put together is exciting. I'm confident in my answers for the test and I am excited to see my scores on it.

            As for the other reason I had a great week. The studio hosted a game jam for the game I am producing. We gathered the different team members and spent the entire focused solely on the project. We were able to come up with different plans and strategies to complete the game. We were also able to move forward with combining our different levels and art. The game is quickly coming together and moving forward. We have a lot of plans for the future, and I'm super excited for you guys to see it. The game is my pride and joy right now. We keep hearing great things from everyone who plays it. This makes me very excited to see what reviews we get on Steam. I'll let you guys know when we're ready to release.

            Well till next week you guys. I hope you guys have a great week and wish me luck on my Practicum!