Continued Expansion of my Hunt

Hello Everybody,

I hope your last week has gone well. This last week was a strange one for me. There’s been a lot of family drama and craziness. It’s not fun and has been adding onto my family’s stress. It’s something that we must push through and make changes for, but it is what it is. I know I’m stressed about it and most of it isn’t close to me in particular. I’m hopeful that everything will move towards the better, but realistic about it as well. The rest of my week has been spent working on my typical stuff. I’ve also made progress on some of my side projects and I’m excited for it. My D&D stuff is moving forward so far and I’m excited to run people through it.

My job hunt however has hit a bit of wall. Several of the jobs I’ve applied to I simply haven’t heard back from. It’s frustrating as the job is still up and I’m still not hearing anything. I’ve had the help of some amazing recruiters though that are helping me out greatly. I may have some new opportunities coming soon. I’ve also been expanding my hunt to more areas. To try and improve my chances I’ve been continuing to expand my portfolio and skills. Slowly I’ve been learning more of code. I’m hoping that I’ll be hearing some good things soon.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have an awesome week and I have some good news for you all.

Progress Towards Employment

Hello my friends,

I hope you guys are doing well this week. My week has been very interesting. I continued working on my side projects and applying to different jobs. A big thing that happened was I heard back from my recruiter for the job I had interviewed for. Sadly, they turned me down. They told my recruiter that I was a great candidate but they were worried I’d be leaving them soon. I’m just happy to have feedback and have actually been in an in depth interview. It was a great experience to go through that process and learn more about the interview process for a QA job. Now I’m just waiting to hear from some other companies.

All of this has helped me greatly with my job hunt. I’ve been slowly making progress on my job search. I’ve also been gaining more feedback over time on the different aspects of my application and interview process. I’ve received tons of great feedback on my resumes and I’m now at a point were I’ve heard my resume is great from different recruiters and people in the industry. Now, I’ve gotten feedback for how well I interview. I’m super excited and happy about this progress and I’m looking forward to the future.

Till next week you guys. I hope you all have an awesome time and I hope to have good news.

Post the GDC Craziness

Hello my friends!

I hope you guys had an awesome week. My week went extremely well, I had a lot of fun at GDC and working as a Conference Associate. I got to meet a ton of new people and make new friends. I also got to try out a ton of new games. I also got to take part in the CA tradition of Witch Hunt. There were a few games I played that really stuck out. Those games were Cobra Paw, 5-Minute Dungeon, and The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls. All of these games were a lot of fun to play and learn. Cobra Paw and 5-Minute Dungeon were quick to learn and play. They made playing them with new people great and they’re a ton of fun. The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls was a lot of fun but is a bit complex and is a longer game. It plays a lot like Munchkin but it has a bit more to it. The rest of GDC was also fantastic.

This week was an amazing experience. I was able to have my first interview out of school. It was awesome to finally learn more about my prospects when going into an interview. I learned that my resume is good and that I have the proper skills and experience to perform in the jobs I’ve applied for. This means that the jobs I’ve applied to my reason for being denied could be due to my portfolio, cover letter, and/or the company chose someone else. I won’t ever truly know but at least it was a step. The other aspects of GDC were fantastic as I’ve said. I got to see a ton of my friends from last year which is my favorite part while also happy to meet new people. It’s great to have a family that continuously grows and is making new connections.

Well till next week all of you! I look forward to delivering any news to you all next week. I hope you guys have an awesome week!

Game Writing a Unique Type of Writing

Hello everybody,

I hope you all have had a great week and that it was filled with excitement. My week was pretty good. I continued with making steps towards finishing a side project. I’ve been making progress on my story bible, sadly not as much as I’d like. I also have decided to sell a bunch of my old trading cards. I’ve never actually sold trading cards before with the mindset of actually making some amount of money. It’s weird to go through the process as I’m also not sure what the best way is to sell them. I’ve been told eBay but I’m not well versed in selling on eBay. I was also looking into TCGPlayer but they were a bit more convoluted. I decided to sell my more expensive cards on eBay while seeing if I can sell my cheaper cards at a card store for good money. I felt the need to get rid of my cards so I can clear space and maybe someday I can start a new collection. I’m keeping some cards for sentimental reasons, plus I have some cards that are hidden somewhere that I’ll have to find.

I had fun last week talking about story bibles so this week I thought I’d talk about how game writing differs from screenplay, animation, and prose. Game writing’s key point of difference is the way it is consumed by the audience. With game writing the audience is a part of the story unlike almost all other forms of writing. This means that often game writing is more in depth as you have to account for the different possibilities that a player might come up with. It also is very heavily influenced by the form of game you are writing for. In a more linear game like a Call of Duty your story will be very straightforward with very few extra story moments. While a game like Fallout is very expansive and will often have a much longer story or expansive story. This isn’t always the case but it tends to be like that. You also have to create what are called barks. These are the various random bits of dialogue that a character might say. These can be exclamations of pain or a joke or a ‘hello’. These are the simplified ways that define game writing versus other forms of writing.

Well till next week you guys. I hope that you have a great week and that I have some good news next week. I also like giving these little lessons on writing, and I hope you guys are enjoying them to.

Continued Career Coordination

Hello everybody!

I hope you guys had a great week. My week went pretty well and was relaxing. I spent the week working on my resume and applying to various jobs. So far I’ve heard back from one company asking me to fill out a test. I did the test and sent it back so I’m hoping to hear from them soon. I’ve also seen more writing jobs which is very exciting so I’ve been applying to those as well. I’m just so excited for everything coming up. All these jobs that could be my next steps and GDC coming up. I’m hoping that nothing comes up that may set me back.

I’ve started trying to work around some of these set backs. I’ve begun using new things to help me stay on track. Such as Screen Time on my phone. This app is helping greatly. Often times when I’m supposed to be working I find myself getting distracted by my phone and having Screen Time on while working has been huge. This has also helped me finish tasks faster so I can spend more time job hunting or working on side projects. I’m hoping to find more solutions to set backs and issues I face.

Well till next week you guys! I hope that I’ll have some really good news for you, and that you guys have a great week.

New Years and New Goals

Hello everybody!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great time bringing in the New Year. Mine was pretty subdued and relaxing. We watched Star Wars: A New Hope and tried to time the Death Stars explosion so that exploded right at midnight. We were really close to hitting it on the dot but we were maybe a minute off. The rest of the week was a lot busier. I’ve had to work a lot more Tales of Mahabharata in order to prepare for its upcoming expansion release. We’re in a phase where we are fixing any mistakes or issues with the game so that’s going to be my week other than job hunting and portfolio work.

Speaking of the ever present job hunt and portfolio work I’m setting out on a few new goals. I’m going to start uploading every week or so the updated version of my D&D story bible. This will be a way for you to see the progress I’m making on it and get an idea of the process I’m taking. Keep in mind it is a work in progress so right now it’s a little unorganized and a bit like word vomit, but I think it’ll be fun to show the progress. As for the rest of my portfolio. I plan on working on some more personal projects and other things to beef up my portfolio. I’ll also probably be expanding my job search soon as well to try and get a job to make money while I work on my game goals. It’s all very exciting and anxiety filled I’m excited to see where it goes.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you have an awesome and exciting week. I hope to have good news for you all next week.

A Week of Building

Hello my friends!

I hope you guys have had a great week. This week has been fairly easy going for me. I heard back from the company I applied to that had me take a writing test. Sadly, they said no to me and have decided to go with someone else. It’s disappointing, but I am still confident that I’ll be hearing good news soon. The most difficult part isn’t he no for me, the most difficult part is the lack of feedback. I want to know why I’m not being accepted into these positions. I email after each denial asking for feedback, but have yet to hear a reply. Otherwise the week has been spent working on other things.

This week has been spent working on various different things. I worked on the game I’m making with a few friends. Which has been going fairly well. I’m excited to see how it turns out and how people like it. I’ve also been working on developing the world for the D&D campaign I’m running my dad and brother through. Since I haven’t been able to work on the side game I started this has been my area to world build, and I’m hoping to return to my side project in the future. The only other things would be the job hunt. It’s getting harder for me to think of places to look. I’m still hopeful and reaching out to different people.

Well till next week you guys! I hope you all have an awesome time and I wish good luck to you all.

Projects New and Old

Hello everyone!

I hope you all have had a great week. For me my week went pretty well. I’ve been working on different things and keeping pretty busy. This last week I applied to some more jobs. I’m still super excited about one of the jobs I applied for and I feel like it’s Christmas Eve. I’m just waiting to see what happens. Will I be turned down? Or will I get a call back? I believe that I will get a call back though and I’m very hopeful, but if I don’t at least I have another thing to strive for. It’s all very exciting and scary still. I just want to work, my time at Full Sail kept me busy and all of this downtown is messing with me. I’m ready to be back to working I want to flex my creative muscles in a studio environment and learn new skills.

I will say I am happy to be working on projects. Currently I’ve been splitting my time between two projects. One is and old project while the other is my new one. sadly I haven’t had time to work on my side project, but I downloaded the latest version of Unity for it. These projects are exciting though. I’m pumped to see where these take me and I’m excited to have you all check them out. I can only keep expanding my portfolio and skill set.

Well till next week my friends. I’m looking forward to seeing where the future leads and I hope to give you all good news about that job soon.

Dreams

Hello my friends,

I hope you all have had a wonderful week. This week has been pretty exciting for me. I can’t say anything exciting such as getting a job happened, but I did apply to a dream job. I applied for a Game Designer position that is at a dream company of mine. This is a job I saw it and knew it was the perfect job for me. I nearly jumped out of my chair reading it. This is a job I have never wanted more in my life. I will say it made me very paranoid. I’ve been very uneasy about the whole thing and worried that I messed up parts of the application. I’m very hopeful though and I’m ready to give it my all if I get the job.

Other aspects of the past week were exciting as well. I got to play D&D with my dad and brother. That was a lot of fun as I haven’t been able to in a long time. It’s been very nice to explore a world I created with them. I’ve been watching a lot Critical Role as of late to try and figure out more ways to story tell. The Podcast/Twitch show has helped me gain a better understanding of the rules and different strategies. I’ve also been reading the different handbooks to better understand the gameplay. It’s been very exciting for me. This is helping me better understand my craft and how to create stories. I’ve been having a lot of fun making new maps and stories.

Well till next week you guys. I hope you all have a wonderful week and the our dreams continue to move forward. I hope that this week brings wonderful news and more exciting times.

LA Career Event and old friends

Hello my friends,

I hope you guys had a great week last week. My week went very well I had a lot of fun at the career networking event. I also got a chance to see a bunch of different people I hadn’t seen in a long time. I also had a lovely time exploring LA. My first day down I met up with a friend, her fiance, and a few of her friends. We went to little cafe in Hollywood and just hung out for a good hour or so. It was nice seeing them as they moved to LA before I moved back to Seattle. After that I went to my hotel to prepare for the event.

The event itself was awesome. I got to wear my new suit that was my graduation gift from my mom. When I got to the event it started off well as I saw one of my old bosses was working the event, so we chatted for a good amount of time. While walking around the event I ran into a lot of old friends from school and hung out with a close friend and his uncle for lunch. I also met a lot of new people. It was very exciting. The event was lacking in gaming companies, but I still gave my resume’s out to a bunch of cool companies. After the career fair part was a mixer. At the mixer I was able to chat with a lot of different people. I also will be working on a new side project with my close friend, and I look forward to telling you guys more about it in the future.

Well till next time my buddies. I hope you guys have an awesome week and I look forward to telling you guys all about what else is going on.

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.

Bollywood & New Kittens

Hello my buddies!

I hope you guys have been having a good week. My week has been pretty relaxed. this past week I put the job hunt on hold for a moment. I instead had to focus on editing and working on the story for Tales of Mahabharata expansion. I enjoy working on it the research itself is very fun. I tend to watch Bollywood shows and read a lot for my research. Some of the old Bollywood episodes are amazing. They also have really good music. So it’s been nice to dive back into it a bit. I’ve also started making a GDD and Story Bible for a game I would like to make in my spare time. Right now the game is more than likely going to be a 2D platformer so that I can encourage myself to learn code and basic art. It should be a lot of fun!

My mom also got two kittens this past weekend. One is a boy and the other is a girl. They’re siblings so they love to play together. The boy is named Moonpie, he’s a very mellow cat. The girl is Soleil, she’s very energetic. They’re quite the pair. Moonpie loves my feet and legs for some reason so he tries to climb them or play with them whenever I sit down to eat. He’s scratched me up quite a bit. They’re cute and fun like babies, but I’m more of a dog person so it’s been interesting.

Well till next week you guys. Have a fun time and enjoy the beginning of Fall!

Pushing Forward

Hello my friends!

           This past week has been pretty lax. I spent most of it just looking for jobs and talking to my connections. I also met with some friends that I haven't seen in a long time. It's pretty stressful, but I'm pushing forward and keeping my hopes up. I've met a lot of awesome people and have a lot of people who have been kind enough to vouch for me. I'm hoping to hear from some of the companies I applied to soon. Whether it is a yes or no this will allow me to have a better idea of where I'm going.

           This upcoming week is also PAX West. I have been allowed to help at a booth of a friend from GDC. I'm super excited to be at the convention and explore. Who knows I may also be able to meet more people that can help me out. I'm also looking forward to seeing what games and panels will be going on at PAX. All in all I'm sure it'll be an awesome event and I look forward to further exploring it. I'm super excited to check it out!

           Well till next time you guys. I most likely won't be posting till Tuesday as PAX goes until Monday. I look forward to telling you guys about how it goes! Have an awesome week!

Networking and Meetings

Hello my friends,

           This past week has been relatively easy. I spent the whole week traveling around the Seattle area. I've meeting with different people to discuss the industry and possible employment. I was lucky enough to have different people from Full Sail reach out to their contacts for me. Now I'm in the boat of waiting while I continue to improve my portfolio and apply to jobs. I have a few more people I will be reaching out to soon. This upcoming week is going to be a bit more of the same. I'm excited and looking forward to this week.

           This past week two games I worked on were released. One was Fury Strike 80s Beat Down. The game is currently on Steam. I'm proud of the story I wrote for the game and I'm excited to see the game move forward. I've been monitoring it's reception and I'm curious to see how the team reacts. The second game was Tales of Mahabharata. I mentioned it being in early access and now it's in full release. I'm still working on the games story as we have an expansion coming out soon. We recently showed it an event named OrlandoiX. I was told we got a great response and a ton of people want to play. I'm excited for it's progress and to see how it moves forward.

           Well till next week you guys! I hope you have a wonderful week and future!

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.

Editing my Resume and a Busy Week

Hello Everyone,

             This past week has been pretty easy. The most difficult part was just wrapping up my Practicum. The other part has been studio work. With wrapping up Practicum the last part was an Excel spreadsheet where I had to make a feature list, master task list, and capacity plan. It was fairly simple creating the documents, but I had fun. As for my studio work we're in major crunch and it's pushing my time management skills. I feel though that I'm able to balance everything that's going on. I'm just at  a point where I have a lot more on my plate than I was expecting. I'm currently formulating my schedule for the week. My friends may be a little disappointed because I won't be playing much Civilization VI, but it's much needed.

           The other portion of this week is trying to improve my resume. I'm trying my best to make a resume that shows my work ethic and abilities. I currently lack in the experience that most jobs would like, so I need to make my resume impressive. I also need to create awesome cover letters. There are also other ways I'm trying to improve my resume. I'm trying multiple formats and I'm trying to get different people to read my resume. I feel I'm close to a good looking resume I just need to keep pushing. I also need to keep updating my website and showing off the stuff I'm working on. I'm ecstatic and want to move into the industry soon. I know it is difficult, but I'm hoping to get into it quickly after graduation. I've been lucky so far and I have a lot of great friends and connections that are willing to help me. I just have to make sure their faith is well founded. I'm confident I can deliver, and I'm hoping to grow more and more as I push forward.

            Well I look forward to talking to you guys next week. I hope your week goes great and you find success.

Memorial Day

Hello my compatriots!

            This past week has been pretty boring. I haven't done much that's too exciting. Over this past week I've really only had class and work. It's been a lot of working and hanging out. I will say I did something that was fun this week. Five of my friends and coworkers, along with myself, started a game of Civilization VI. That was really the most exciting part.

            With today being Memorial Day it's nice having a day off. It's rare for me to have day to relax and just sit around. It allows me to make different changes to my schedule and work on things I haven't been able to. I'm still moving forward with job applications, but it's a little difficult. I'm having a hard time with figuring out what to do. I'm also having a hard time finding the motivation to fully go forward with the job search. I'm hoping to continue and find a way to show my skills.

            Well wish me luck! I hope you guys have a good week and can continue to be awesome.

Beginning the Job Hunt

Hello my friends!

            This past week has been very busy. I've had a lot of work going on for my studio. Its made everything more exciting and a bit stressful. I'm luckily getting to a point that is less busy. It's worth it though. This amount of work and stress is simply going to help me be more prepared for the future. I need all of the experience and skills I can get. This will push me further into the future and forward to a place where I can meet my goals.

            Going based off of my experience and busy week. I've begun to start looking for jobs. This has been a little daunting. I keep encountering jobs that I feel may be a bit out of my league. I'm trying to find the best path towards my future. Luckily, I've had a lot of help from all sorts of different people. These different things have combined to lead me to believe I can meet my goals. I am excited to push forward, but I'm intimidated at the same time. 

            Well I look forward to talking to you guys another time. I hope you guys have a great week and all of the best luck in the world.