The Puuk Files

WHOA thar pardnar...!

2008-09-22T09:59:00.001-05:00

Money is a strange thing. It can bring happiness in the form of stability for the family and the acquiring of needful and not-so-needful things. But it can also be the fuel for most evils (just check out the greed of the current administration for PLENTY of examples). No matter how you look at money, though, it is a necessity of modern day life and dictates one’s standard of living.

Where am I going with all this money mumbo-jumbo? Well, it was the money factor that has led me to ultimately turn down the job offer from Trion in Redwood City, CA. It’s not Trion’s fault, for the money they were offering was very reasonable for most areas in the continental US of A. It just wasn’t doable in the overly expensive region known as the Bay Area. And here’s why:

After extensive research, my wife and I found that in order to send my daughter to a good school in CA, we would need to rent a place for $3,500/month within one of the good school districts. That’s $42,000/year basically flushed down the toilet for a ~1,400 sq.ft. house, more than half the size of the house I currently live in AND own (and has a pool), not to mention we’re currently paying a combined mortgage and home insurance of $1,200/month – that’s tough to give up. This is on top of losing ~$25,000 upon selling our Austin TX home in a very poor housing economy. To add to this, because we would no longer have a tax write-off from mortgage interest payments, we would have to shell out an additional $7,000/year come tax time. And the cherry on the money cake is that there is a state income tax in CA, so add another ~$4,000 to that. In sum, we’d go bankrupt in the Bay Area and, consequently, our quality of life would go down the drain.

This saddens me greatly since the project and the people at Trion are both top notch and I wanted to work there like there’s no tomorrow. But I need to think about my daughter, first. It’s a parent’s responsibility to put their children first, and if I moved us out to the Bay Area, I would have flushed our quality of living down the commode – period. Yes, I would have had great job satisfaction, but not home satisfaction, and that is more important.

So, we will continue to have Dianne work full time at her job, (which makes about $7,000 less than what I was making at NCsoft), but it is plenty for us to stay in our house and live comfortably, though a little lean. I will continue to seek out game design employment in the Austin, TX area, in the hopes that things will eventually pick up again in the near future. In the meantime, I’m going to start taking programming courses to make myself more valuable as an employee, as well as get back to one of my passions – writing. I already have a couple of novels/novellas started, so now’s a good time to get back to them. The Mr. Mom gig has been rather enjoyable, too, so I’m not feeling bad at all. I get to know my little girl even better and we have lots of fun together.

So, despite me being bummed that Trion was the right job in the wrong area, life is still good. In fact, it’s all good right now.

Inspiration

2008-08-28T09:09:00.000-05:00

Life has a habit of throwing all kinds of things our way. Sometimes life throws chocolate covered strawberries in our direction and we savor everything it has to offer, unless of course you’re allergic to strawberries, then it’s a quick trip to the hospital and adrenaline shots straight in the ticker. What I’m trying to get at here is that whatever life has to throw at you, it’s comforting to know that there is someone there to help you through it – good or bad. For me, that someone is my wife, Dianne.

As the two or three of you who accidentally stumble upon my blog and force yourself to read it might have known, I’ve had a rough year employment-wise. It’s been very rough, in fact. But despite all that roughness, I would not have been able to get through it without Dianne. She has been more than supportive, understanding and just plain awesome through and through. She went back to work in her marketing profession full time in order to make ends meet while I continue to search for a game design position and, in the meantime, also do some freelance work in between my Mr. Mom duties. Taking care of the wee-one has been great and I love spending the extra time with her, but our ideal situation is me at work and Dianne being home to run things. But sometimes roles get reversed, and that’s what marriage is all about – love, support and teamwork. We are a team, and Dianne has been so supportive that it gives me a warm fuzz whenever I think about it. Whenever I have doubts about my capabilities, my future, my part, etc. (the male ego is a fragile thing), she’s always right there to set me right and lift me up. We communicate very well to each other, though sometimes she has to coax me to get out what’s bugging me (guys have a hard time figuring out their emotions sometimes – it’s a clinical fact, I think), but it is that ability to communicate with each other that makes us strong together. Dianne is the best part of me and I am thankful each day that she is in my life and helps me get through it – the good times and the not-so-good times.

I love you, Dianne, and thank you so much for always being there for me.

Time to move on...

2008-08-13T09:30:00.004-05:00

Austin as a game development Mecca is a fish out of water, flopping on a hot deck, baking in the Texas sun. There have been so many layoffs and developer closures out here that I've now completely given up on ever finding game design work out here. If I'm to continue my career in game development, I must relocate.

I would love nothing more than to become part of a stable studio that makes great games and has its act together. When I first got to Austin and started at NCsoft, Austin was rapidly growing as an MMORPG Mecca, but that's far from the case anymore. I just want to help make fun, compelling, great games and get paid for it. And now I'm just going to have to suck it up and relocate to do it.

I'm actually flying out to the Bay Area in CA tonight to interview at a dev company tomorrow, so wish me luck!

Time Keeps Tick-Tick-Ticking in My Head...

2008-01-21T11:58:00.000-06:00

So yeah, I'm still an unemployed bastard. And yeah, it's only been two weeks, but it seems like two months. I've pretty much applied to everything that's available in the Austin area, so now it's a waiting game for bites. I hate waiting. And I don't want to move again. I would have reapplied at NCsoft Austin (where I worked prior to Spacetime), but they're not hiring designers. It could be because TR isn't taking off as fast as hoped, so they're not interested in replacing those who've left (like me). Oh well.

So with my extra time in searching for employment, I’ve come across amusing stuff on the intertubes.

Central Park is weirder than you think.
Pandemic makes the best game related movies EVAR.
I might be the only person on this planet who thinks Guitar Hero and Rock Band are about as exciting as clumped cat piss, but this game looks like a definite winner!
BAHAHAHA!
Rockstar playing it safe.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky and he’ll die.”

That’s about it. Now I’ll resume with becoming the world’s greatest super villain (I have my work cut out for me). First I have to dig my secret underground lair, so that might take a while. Then I’ll have to find henchmen… I suppose I can wrangle up the corner spare change beggars – they’ll work for cheap. Anyway, I obviously have a lot of work to do, so cheerio!

I got laid off - HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2008-01-07T18:38:00.000-06:00

Nope, I'm not BSing, I really got laid off. NCsoft pulled funding and unfortunately that meant Spacetime had to cut several positions. Here's the poop from Spacetime's website:

Welcome
We know it's not the norm but at Spacetime Studios we've always been about communicating when we can. For two years this has been in good times but we want to put out a message to the community before the rumors start.
Our project has been cancelled by the current publisher. Yeah it sucks, and we don’t believe anyone who says otherwise at a time like this. Regardless of how you look at it, we won’t be entering production in the immediate future, so we are retrenching and unfortunately had to let 12 folks go. There are always wild rumors at a time like this so we wanted to be as specific as possible to the number and circumstance. All 12 employees released were given extended benefits, severance and will be supplied letters of recommendation. These were good folks and we are not happy about it. We’ll do anything we can to help them land somewhere else. If you are a developer and are looking for good folks, drop us a line at jobs@spacetimestudios.com.
The cancelled game was our primary project and we have a complete MMO engine w/ networking infrastructure, tools suite, and next-gen rendering engine. The company remains extremely committed to the IP and once all mutual obligations have been completed between the publisher and ourselves we intend to explore every possible avenue to see that our team’s collective vision come to fruition.

We want to stress that there are no bad feelings with NCSoft. There is a tremendous amount of mutual respect between our companies. They have conducted themselves with honor and integrity, and we would work with them again in an instant.

We are still here, stable and strong, and running a little bit lighter while we figure out our next move. What does not kill us makes us stronger said the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. That may be true, but it isn’t pleasant. Wish us luck and good fortune.

Even though I'm known as a grumpy sucker, I bear absolutely no ill will towards Spacetime. They are great people and it's a goddam crime the game we were working on got the proverbial axe (though I'm hopeful it'll see the light one day since it's a kick-ass game).

What can I say, it's the nature of the business and shit happens - a lot - in this industry. I'm sure I'll find something out here in Austin. And if I don't, I'm more than happy to let the wife go out to be the bread winner while I become Mr. Mom. We've gotten through rough patches before and we'll get through it again. That's life, have a cookie.

Peace.

p.s. Oh, if you know of any game companies in the Austin, Texas area that's looking for senior game designers, lemme know, please.

Happy (Gregorian) New Year (and stuff)

2008-01-03T14:20:00.000-06:00

(Gregorian Calendar)

So, did everyone have a good holiday season? I hope so. I know I did.

For X-Mas this year my wife and I decided to come up with a new plan that will guarantee we each get what we want. My wife went out and shopped for the items she wanted (mostly clothes – blech!) and I wrote down exactly what I wanted – an Xbox 360 Elite with an extra wireless remote, wireless network adaptor, and a wireless remote recharger for two (evidently she wanted to shop around to get the best deal rather than “trust” me to hunt for the best deal, insinuating I might not be a patient man!). So between the two of us, we each got exactly what we wanted for X-Mas. Yeah, it’s not romantic, but it beats the hell out of getting a pink bunny outfit and having to pretend that I like it! And thanks to my mom giving me a gift certificate to Gamestop, I bought several good, used games at their “BUY 2 GET 1 FREE” sale. The list of 360 games I acquired are:

Bioshock
Dead Rising (I get to kill zombies in a shopping mall – how frakin’ cool is that!)
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Burnout: Revenge
EA Sports: Fight Night Round 3 (yes, I hate EA, but this was a used game and EA didn’t get any of my money for it, so suck it. Besides, it’s the best and only boxing game on the 360 and the knockout replays are epic… and my meathead heavyweight fighter is named Mallet “Bam Bam” McBride – I gotta play it!)
Crackdown
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (great coop for the wife and me, and Chewie can wear a top hat – A FRIGGIN’ TOP HAT – WOOT!)

And the kid? Well, let’s just say that Santa must’ve played favorites looking at all the loot she got. Meh, she’s an only child and dammit, if we want to spoil her a bit here and there, then so be it. She’s a wonderful little tyke, anyhoot!

All-in-all, this was a great holiday season. Even my mom visiting was very pleasant!
But alas, I’m now back at work, but that’s a good thing. For one, the paycheck allows me to pay for stuff, and for another thing I actually like it at Spacetime and I love the project I’m on. Nice change of pace, I gotta say.

Aside from playing with my Xbox 360 in the evenings when nothing’s on the boob tube (writer’s strike and all), I’ve also been indulging in the fun that is EQ2. I cancelled my WoW account (again) since I just wasn’t interested in playing another character up to 70 and besides, since I already had a hunter at level 70 that means I won the game, right? At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

As for EQ2, I discovered the joy that is the Bruiser class. I made a Barbarian Bruiser by the name of Tohr (good, tough guy name from some non-descript fantasy book/game/LARP/PnPRPG/taking-a-crap-moment/etc) and I’ve been enjoying beating the crap out of the indigenous wildlife and non-agreeable locals of the land. It’s even better since I don’t need to use a weapon, so I save a bunch on not having to constantly upgread weapons. The visuals are a mixed bag, with questionable art direction and the game engine still runs like a gimpy old man with an enlarged prostate running through wet tar. But the game play is really first rate and there are a bunch of things to do. Plus there’s no Barrens Chat of any sort, which is a plus to anyone who knows what the hell I’m talking about.

I also took advantage of Turbine’s payment “sale” of sorts for Lord of the Rings Online. It’s basically $9/month if I sign up for 3 months, which I did. I liked it the first time around when it came out, so I figured I’d give it another shot. It’s still fun and not too much has changed, but I’m having a much better time in the Monster Play PvP area than before, thanks in large part that there are now more than enough level 50 players for me and the other “creeps” to shoot at. The thing is, the “freeps” (what the good guys are called) are so much more powerful than any of the “creeps” (the monster fellows) that it makes it very difficult for an up-and-coming monster to make their mark in Middle Earth. But it’s fun regardless, and kills are extra special because it is so hard.

I also saw Live Free or Die Hard over the break, and I have to say I liked it as much as all the other Die Hard flicks. It’s over-the-top-John-McLain-has-way-too-many-hero-points fun that just can’t be beat.

Anyway, I’ve rambled too much as it is. Perhaps I’ll update this here bloggy thing again within the week. Not that I’ll have anything MORE interesting to say, but whatever. It’s good typing practice.

Holy Bat-Coolness!

2007-12-17T10:50:00.000-06:00

The Dark Knight trailer has officially hit the intertubes and OMG! it looks amazing! With the Dark Knight, Ironman and The Incredible Hulk all coming out for 2008, it looks like 2008 will be VERY good for superhero flicks.

And speaking of superhero movies, I recently saw Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (I know, "way to keep up-to-date," but after seeing the first one in the theater, I refused to pay for the second one - fool me once, shame on you, fool me again... well, you can't fool me twice, again... uh...). Anyway, I rather enoyed the movie, much more than the first one. Granted, it doesn't hold a candle to Batman Begins or Spider-man 1 & 2 (3 doesn't exist, it never happened!), but still, I enjoyed it very much. So if you haven't seen it in the theaters, I reccommend that you Netflix it or rent it by some other means - it's a good popcorn and beer movie.

Ramblings and Stuff

2007-12-16T10:23:00.000-06:00

So yeah, as the one or two of you that actually look at my page may have noticed, I'm no longer at NCsoft working on Tabula Rasa. I've moved on to Spacetime Studios to work on an as yet unannounced game of space fighting greatness, or as quoted from our website, "Spacetime Studios' unnamed project is a massively-multiplayer online game that features a unique combination of space flight and role-oriented (RPG-style) combat." Yep, that's about all I can say about the game, other than I haven't been this excited about working on a game since I started working on Fallout 3 back during the Black Isle days (it still pains me that BIS effectively shut down and the project was canned, but life goes on and I'm in a much happier place, now. *playfully grabs at imaginary butterflies*).

Check out the Spacetime Studios website for updates and developer blog posts.

Now onto part deux of this blog – the Step Off Fat Bastard section. The one or two of you might know from my previous, infrequent blogs that during crunch time on Tabula Rasa there was a weight loss challenge at NCsoft (yeah, great time to watch calories, during crunch – BRILLIANT!). I lost 20 lbs. and have been successful at maintaining that weight. Now it's time for me to lose another 20 lbs., so I started back at watching what I eat and upping the intensity of my cardio and weight training at the gym. It's kicking my ass, but it's supposed to, right? We'll see how that goes with the holidays coming up and all the sweets that come with it, but I'm feeling pretty confident about all of it.

Speaking of games, in particular MMORPGs, I've re-upped my World of Warcraft account after taking a few months off, and I've been playing Everquest 2 during that time off from WoW. With WoW I've put my level 70 Night Elf Hunter (no Mohawk) on indefinite leave until I get the urge to grind for gold, faction, or whatever, and am now leveling up my Orc Warrior named Puuk (naturally enough). There's been enough fixes to the beleaguered and often ignored Warrior class to warrant me another try at this character, which is level 51 at the moment. It's been fun so far, mass murdering the indigenous life in the Blasted lands, but I can't wait until Puuk is 58 so I can get into the Outlands. Plus the gear at 51 is pretty non-existent, so I can't wait to get some good gear from the Outlands, as well.

EQ2 has been surprisingly fun these past few months. I've got a level 25 Ogre Shadowknight (also named Puuk) which fits my criteria for a tank-mage quite well. He does good damage and can take a lot of punishment, plus the heroic opportunity attacks really makes the combat seem more involving. Granted the art direction and engine performance in EQ 2 still leaves a lot to be desired, but the game play is solid and there is always something to do. I think I'll be playing this for a while.

That's about it on the game front. I haven't had much time to play anything else, though I will eventually get the Orange Box and play TF2… eventually.

Lastly, as for the Austin Game Conference, there really isn't that much to say. It was interesting and sometimes amusing to hear other developers speak about their trials and tribulations at their studios and during their careers, but all-in-all it really wasn't very informative. However, I consider the experience to be extremely beneficial for two main reasons; 1) I ran into a friend of mine from Raven Software, so we hung out for the conference and 2) I got to meet with the Spacetime crew and it helped launch me into my new position. Two great outcomes that go great together!