Auf Wiedersehen
I am sitting here on the floor of my apartment, my room is pretty empty with just a few last bits lying around. It's cold, Villingen is covered with snow and ice, and I have just finished eating. I now face a few last things to do before I depart on Tuesday morning. My apartment needs to be cleaned and I have to disassemble my bed and PC for my friends to pick up tomorrow. I have left the last 40 odd computer games with Jeremy, who will adopt them until I can either pay to have them shipped elsewhere or in the event that I cannot, then I said he can keep them. Everything else is sold, I think I did pretty well considering everything as I have minimal debt in the UK, a new laptop, a plane ticket which cost the same as my laptop hehe, a fair amount of cash to take to Ausralia with me and 9 days with my girlfriend from Christmas to New Years in the Sunshine Coast. We are staying in my sister's two bedroom apartment which is a 15 minute walk from the beach. Then I have two interviews in January with studios both in Sydney.
But first, I will leave this Tuesday morning and fly to the UK via Dublin and stay with my parents for a few days before leaving on the 11th to Australia. Whilst in the UK I shall do some Christmas shopping, as I have a few gifts picked out for people and know where to get them there. Oh, and last night was the Acony Christmas party. I took some pictures with my camera phone, and I will apologise for the poor quality now. It was to the say least, much fun!
We had a Christmas Buffet at a very nice restaurant just a few mins walk from the town centre.
There were four large tables like this spaced out around the room.
This is Andre the office manager who takes care of the payroll and other office'y things. Also you can see how nice the restaurant is in this shot, the girl on the right is Dan's wife who's name escapes me. She's really cool though.
Here you can see Dan, I managed to catch him right as he was blinking. As you can see I am a total pro with my phone cam. Dan is a totally cool guy, a real gamer and deals with our animations at work and does a fair whack of modelling and asset control too. I am going to miss talking to him during our free moments as we got on really well, he also bought a lot of my games, so I hope he enjoys them and I am glad they found a good home. :)
This handsome fellow is our Russian Lead Coder Andriy. He is responsible for telling you simple bits of information in the most complicated way possible. For example:
Me: Hey man, which coders will be in the playtest today?
Andriy: All of us can play today, but I don't think Bart wants to.
Me: Ok, so you, Cyrus, Rado and Marius?
Andriy: Rado left earlier.
Me: Right. So you, Cyrus and Marius?
Andriy: Marius isn't here today.
Me: ... so you and Cyrus then?
Andriy: Yes.
The gentleman you can see here with a beam of pure energy erupting from his forehead is August, our uber-modeller. I remember sitting down after getting some food and hearing, "5 MILLION POLYGONS" coming from August's table. He is rather passionate about his work, he is also incredibly talented, Chinese and funny! :D He is responsible for keeping Jeremy in shape too, as they often go for runs together to stop him from turning, as August would say, into a, "Fatass!" :)
Here we see our French coder Bart. Bart also speaks coder language like Andriy and is often most amusing to talk to. I remember one day Frank came in and asked Bart something to which Bart replied that he had finished it already. Frank then said, "Wow... the French are good for the something!" I believe it was that day where relations between the two broke down a little. ;) But Bart's a totally awesome guy too and can give as good as he gets. On his right is Jane, August's wife and August himself minus the beam of pure energy.
Here we see Chris and Chris. :) The left hand Chris is our 19 yr old British peasant who I affectionately call Mittens, because when he types it looks like he is doing so wearing mittens. In Chris's defence however he is actually just like the normal British kids, except he is intelligent and it goes a long way. He came here from the UK as he wasn't learning anything in his job and studies and decided to jump in the deep end. I remember asking him why he wanted to work in Germany and he bluntly said, "I don't." hehe. He just wanted experience and so far he's doing ace. The right hand Chris is a German Chris who joined just recently. He is most amusing to be around and works in our Art Department, he is also a fair shot at gaming and gave us all a run for our money on several occasions. :p
This very German looking person is Cyrus, my old work colleague from Wings who came down to work here in Villingen when that studio closed. He was also my house mate until just recently and is an uber-coder too. He deals with all our vehicle code at work.
This was a giant platter of ice cream they brought in and promptly set on fire with sparklers. As you can see my camera doesn't handle extreme light very well. Oh well, I tried.
The guy at the end of the table with the fuzzy hair is Frank, the guy I've been bitching about for what seems like eternity. This is a rather unfortunate shot as he looks a little sad and down, when he actually wasn't at all. I actually went and sat at Frank's table, I like surprising people and Jeremy looked like he needed moral support. Frank gave a little speech and also thanked me for my motivation, work and enthusiasm whilst at Acony which I thought was nice. We have had our differences but I thought it's far too easy to end on a negative note, so I also went and found him a little later in the evening and shook his hand, said thanks for everything at Acony and said I believe the game will end up being great, and wished him all the best. I think he was a bit surprised, but I think it was for the best. Regardless of what happens we are all learning, and some mistakes cost us more dearly than others. It's not easy in his position and I kinda felt like giving him a break. On the right is Rado and his wife... who's name escapes me. Rado is our shader guru and a rather quiet, but still very nice guy.
This is Jason. Jason is our Texan, Assistant Art Director, or Assistant to the Art Director as most people jest. ;) I walked by his table late in the evening and remember hearing, "It doesn't matter how many nipples we've had in our mouths, HOW MANY TONGUES... WE ARE STILL MEN!" from him. I think he was slightly drunk. He was explaining the 'still men' concept to Sandra and John's girlfriend.
Here we have Sandra our other office manager who deals with the HR side of things and Maik. Maik is also leaving on the 20th of December and was Acony's effects artist. He also made the most popular level for the Battlefield Eve of Destruction mod.
This is my good friend Jeremy, a talented American artist who knows way more than he should do at his age and has taught me many a thing since I've known him. One of which is how much he truly hates America hehe, but also exactly what makes up a good character and how to tell a good story. He introduced me to some of the most exceptional anime series ever and without him during the last few months of my time at Acony, I would of gone totally crazy. He is also responsible for showing me the true power of a laptop and how much he appreciates his, thus spurring me to buy one for myself. :) Thanks buddy, we will most definitely stay in touch.
Here is Jeremy again and Ryan. Ryan is our Canadian concept artist and his work is just unbelievable. I will try to remember his site later on, for now it escapes me like all the names of peoples wives and girlfriends hehe.
Johannes is an open-minded German. At least that's how his write-up on a gaming site starts off. I don't know why he has stars on his head. I think it's to counteract August's beam of pure energy maybe. Johannes introduced me to Munchkin, and totally brilliant card game. Johannes also just plain rocks, and is one of our modellers.
Maik again... I was in a snappy mood, so sue me! >_>
Hahaha, Marius is farking awesome! He is our Romanian Technical Director. Steve, ie captainwinkey once told me Marius knows everything. Marius told me last night Steve was the worst coder he had ever seen hahaha. Marius loves you really Steve. Actually the whole Marius knows everything thing freaked me out a few months ago because Marius called me downstairs to talk to him. He told me he understood I was leaving, and he wanted to know why. My brain spurred into action and started wondering how the hell anyone could know?! I was like, omg... Steve was right, Marius does know everything! It turns out he misheard John talk about Luo Lin, another coder who was leaving hehe. I told Marius all this last night and he almost died laughing. :p
This is me and Johannes. He has lost some stars... ;)
This is Norbert. He is the IT Systems Manager at Acony and also does so much more than that. He helps all the non-German-speaking people do things that need doing around town when their language skills are insufficient. I would not have survived without Norbert to help me out and call up all those dirty Germans for me. ;) The guy in the back is Rado again. Norbert will be missed sorely, I think he is taken for granted a lot at Acony, and that place would totally fall apart without him and not just the IT systems either.
This is Paul. Paul is from Bavaria and is a very talented level designer. He has won the make something unreal contest and is busy making kickass levels at Acony. Paul is also very, very amusing. In this shot is about halfway drunk.
They make a beautiful couple no? :) This is Paul about three quarters drunk.
Paul in 100% drunken glory. Despite this he still managed to kick Chris' (Mittens) ass at learning Chinese from August. Apparently according to August there is a new comic store opening here in Villingen, and the owner has employed a totally smoking hot Chinese girl to work there. She knows zero English, so Chris is basically fucked, and not in the good way. ;) She can speak passable German and of course Chinese, so my money is on Paul as he is mighty charming and was picking up Chinese in his drunken Christmas hat state almost flawlessly. August was saying stuff like, "You are totally sexy, oh my God! That's brilliant" and so on. :p I was pissing myself laughing as Chris wasn't coping and I went away and returned about 40 mins later and he was asking August the same question still while, Paul was sitting quietly nearby and practising talking Chinese to his wine glass.
The drinking hat moved on to Pedram, our Iranian character artist and the guy that bought a fair whack of my stuff including my hand-made human skull. :p
Another one of the duo. I think Pedram was guarding the giga-star from Johannes in this shot. :p
This is PJ and that's Paul's arm in the shot. He's an attention whore that Paul. ;) PJ is probably the most experienced level designer in the company and is usually the life of any party or event that Paul isn't at. ;) PJ is a total character and I honestly don't know how he puts up with Acony considering his experience and the solid mind he has on him, but he does and much respect to him for it. :)
The drunken hat passes to Zoran our art director and also a total character. Zoran bought many of my games and is an amazing artist, he does probably some of the best work I've seen at Acony, especially his character painting work.
Zoran and his lady friend. :D
I remember last night realising how many awesome people I have met here. How many friends I have made and how I never realised it until last night when I had to say goodbye. I've seen a lot of people come and go whilst here, and nothing really prepared me for how it would feel to say goodbye, despite everything I have thought up to this point and said. I liked Acony, mainly because of the people and I think that's the one thing about the games industry, no matter where you work, in what country, what company and on what product you are surrounded by people you have an instant connection with from the moment you walk in, and it's hard to walk away from that. I hope to keep in touch with all of you and I wish you all the very best for the future as you deserve no less.
Frank's granddad and the owner of Acony gave a speech before dinner, and one thing he said was that he was from a time when people were not so understanding of each other, and as he looked around tonight at all of us he was filled with hope he said as long as we work together we will be fine. :)
Digit.
2121.
Edit: This entry has been set to public so those friends without an LJ account can view it. :)
But first, I will leave this Tuesday morning and fly to the UK via Dublin and stay with my parents for a few days before leaving on the 11th to Australia. Whilst in the UK I shall do some Christmas shopping, as I have a few gifts picked out for people and know where to get them there. Oh, and last night was the Acony Christmas party. I took some pictures with my camera phone, and I will apologise for the poor quality now. It was to the say least, much fun!
We had a Christmas Buffet at a very nice restaurant just a few mins walk from the town centre.
There were four large tables like this spaced out around the room.
This is Andre the office manager who takes care of the payroll and other office'y things. Also you can see how nice the restaurant is in this shot, the girl on the right is Dan's wife who's name escapes me. She's really cool though.
Here you can see Dan, I managed to catch him right as he was blinking. As you can see I am a total pro with my phone cam. Dan is a totally cool guy, a real gamer and deals with our animations at work and does a fair whack of modelling and asset control too. I am going to miss talking to him during our free moments as we got on really well, he also bought a lot of my games, so I hope he enjoys them and I am glad they found a good home. :)
This handsome fellow is our Russian Lead Coder Andriy. He is responsible for telling you simple bits of information in the most complicated way possible. For example:
Me: Hey man, which coders will be in the playtest today?
Andriy: All of us can play today, but I don't think Bart wants to.
Me: Ok, so you, Cyrus, Rado and Marius?
Andriy: Rado left earlier.
Me: Right. So you, Cyrus and Marius?
Andriy: Marius isn't here today.
Me: ... so you and Cyrus then?
Andriy: Yes.
The gentleman you can see here with a beam of pure energy erupting from his forehead is August, our uber-modeller. I remember sitting down after getting some food and hearing, "5 MILLION POLYGONS" coming from August's table. He is rather passionate about his work, he is also incredibly talented, Chinese and funny! :D He is responsible for keeping Jeremy in shape too, as they often go for runs together to stop him from turning, as August would say, into a, "Fatass!" :)
Here we see our French coder Bart. Bart also speaks coder language like Andriy and is often most amusing to talk to. I remember one day Frank came in and asked Bart something to which Bart replied that he had finished it already. Frank then said, "Wow... the French are good for the something!" I believe it was that day where relations between the two broke down a little. ;) But Bart's a totally awesome guy too and can give as good as he gets. On his right is Jane, August's wife and August himself minus the beam of pure energy.
Here we see Chris and Chris. :) The left hand Chris is our 19 yr old British peasant who I affectionately call Mittens, because when he types it looks like he is doing so wearing mittens. In Chris's defence however he is actually just like the normal British kids, except he is intelligent and it goes a long way. He came here from the UK as he wasn't learning anything in his job and studies and decided to jump in the deep end. I remember asking him why he wanted to work in Germany and he bluntly said, "I don't." hehe. He just wanted experience and so far he's doing ace. The right hand Chris is a German Chris who joined just recently. He is most amusing to be around and works in our Art Department, he is also a fair shot at gaming and gave us all a run for our money on several occasions. :p
This very German looking person is Cyrus, my old work colleague from Wings who came down to work here in Villingen when that studio closed. He was also my house mate until just recently and is an uber-coder too. He deals with all our vehicle code at work.
This was a giant platter of ice cream they brought in and promptly set on fire with sparklers. As you can see my camera doesn't handle extreme light very well. Oh well, I tried.
The guy at the end of the table with the fuzzy hair is Frank, the guy I've been bitching about for what seems like eternity. This is a rather unfortunate shot as he looks a little sad and down, when he actually wasn't at all. I actually went and sat at Frank's table, I like surprising people and Jeremy looked like he needed moral support. Frank gave a little speech and also thanked me for my motivation, work and enthusiasm whilst at Acony which I thought was nice. We have had our differences but I thought it's far too easy to end on a negative note, so I also went and found him a little later in the evening and shook his hand, said thanks for everything at Acony and said I believe the game will end up being great, and wished him all the best. I think he was a bit surprised, but I think it was for the best. Regardless of what happens we are all learning, and some mistakes cost us more dearly than others. It's not easy in his position and I kinda felt like giving him a break. On the right is Rado and his wife... who's name escapes me. Rado is our shader guru and a rather quiet, but still very nice guy.
This is Jason. Jason is our Texan, Assistant Art Director, or Assistant to the Art Director as most people jest. ;) I walked by his table late in the evening and remember hearing, "It doesn't matter how many nipples we've had in our mouths, HOW MANY TONGUES... WE ARE STILL MEN!" from him. I think he was slightly drunk. He was explaining the 'still men' concept to Sandra and John's girlfriend.
Here we have Sandra our other office manager who deals with the HR side of things and Maik. Maik is also leaving on the 20th of December and was Acony's effects artist. He also made the most popular level for the Battlefield Eve of Destruction mod.
This is my good friend Jeremy, a talented American artist who knows way more than he should do at his age and has taught me many a thing since I've known him. One of which is how much he truly hates America hehe, but also exactly what makes up a good character and how to tell a good story. He introduced me to some of the most exceptional anime series ever and without him during the last few months of my time at Acony, I would of gone totally crazy. He is also responsible for showing me the true power of a laptop and how much he appreciates his, thus spurring me to buy one for myself. :) Thanks buddy, we will most definitely stay in touch.
Here is Jeremy again and Ryan. Ryan is our Canadian concept artist and his work is just unbelievable. I will try to remember his site later on, for now it escapes me like all the names of peoples wives and girlfriends hehe.
Johannes is an open-minded German. At least that's how his write-up on a gaming site starts off. I don't know why he has stars on his head. I think it's to counteract August's beam of pure energy maybe. Johannes introduced me to Munchkin, and totally brilliant card game. Johannes also just plain rocks, and is one of our modellers.
Maik again... I was in a snappy mood, so sue me! >_>
Hahaha, Marius is farking awesome! He is our Romanian Technical Director. Steve, ie captainwinkey once told me Marius knows everything. Marius told me last night Steve was the worst coder he had ever seen hahaha. Marius loves you really Steve. Actually the whole Marius knows everything thing freaked me out a few months ago because Marius called me downstairs to talk to him. He told me he understood I was leaving, and he wanted to know why. My brain spurred into action and started wondering how the hell anyone could know?! I was like, omg... Steve was right, Marius does know everything! It turns out he misheard John talk about Luo Lin, another coder who was leaving hehe. I told Marius all this last night and he almost died laughing. :p
This is me and Johannes. He has lost some stars... ;)
This is Norbert. He is the IT Systems Manager at Acony and also does so much more than that. He helps all the non-German-speaking people do things that need doing around town when their language skills are insufficient. I would not have survived without Norbert to help me out and call up all those dirty Germans for me. ;) The guy in the back is Rado again. Norbert will be missed sorely, I think he is taken for granted a lot at Acony, and that place would totally fall apart without him and not just the IT systems either.
This is Paul. Paul is from Bavaria and is a very talented level designer. He has won the make something unreal contest and is busy making kickass levels at Acony. Paul is also very, very amusing. In this shot is about halfway drunk.
They make a beautiful couple no? :) This is Paul about three quarters drunk.
Paul in 100% drunken glory. Despite this he still managed to kick Chris' (Mittens) ass at learning Chinese from August. Apparently according to August there is a new comic store opening here in Villingen, and the owner has employed a totally smoking hot Chinese girl to work there. She knows zero English, so Chris is basically fucked, and not in the good way. ;) She can speak passable German and of course Chinese, so my money is on Paul as he is mighty charming and was picking up Chinese in his drunken Christmas hat state almost flawlessly. August was saying stuff like, "You are totally sexy, oh my God! That's brilliant" and so on. :p I was pissing myself laughing as Chris wasn't coping and I went away and returned about 40 mins later and he was asking August the same question still while, Paul was sitting quietly nearby and practising talking Chinese to his wine glass.
The drinking hat moved on to Pedram, our Iranian character artist and the guy that bought a fair whack of my stuff including my hand-made human skull. :p
Another one of the duo. I think Pedram was guarding the giga-star from Johannes in this shot. :p
This is PJ and that's Paul's arm in the shot. He's an attention whore that Paul. ;) PJ is probably the most experienced level designer in the company and is usually the life of any party or event that Paul isn't at. ;) PJ is a total character and I honestly don't know how he puts up with Acony considering his experience and the solid mind he has on him, but he does and much respect to him for it. :)
The drunken hat passes to Zoran our art director and also a total character. Zoran bought many of my games and is an amazing artist, he does probably some of the best work I've seen at Acony, especially his character painting work.
Zoran and his lady friend. :D
I remember last night realising how many awesome people I have met here. How many friends I have made and how I never realised it until last night when I had to say goodbye. I've seen a lot of people come and go whilst here, and nothing really prepared me for how it would feel to say goodbye, despite everything I have thought up to this point and said. I liked Acony, mainly because of the people and I think that's the one thing about the games industry, no matter where you work, in what country, what company and on what product you are surrounded by people you have an instant connection with from the moment you walk in, and it's hard to walk away from that. I hope to keep in touch with all of you and I wish you all the very best for the future as you deserve no less.
Frank's granddad and the owner of Acony gave a speech before dinner, and one thing he said was that he was from a time when people were not so understanding of each other, and as he looked around tonight at all of us he was filled with hope he said as long as we work together we will be fine. :)
Digit.
2121.
Edit: This entry has been set to public so those friends without an LJ account can view it. :)