It's Happened...
So I won't bore you with stories of all of the interviews I've done. Suffice to say it's been a very busy few weeks of wearing shirts and pretending to be slightly better at my job than I really am. I spoke to 5 companies in all, 4 of which whom made me offers. The guys who didn't offer annoyed me a bit, because they had the job I really wanted, in Brighton. But Steve (Maverick games developer extraordinaire) is going to (name changed because I think it's funny) Popstar Games in Leeds. Popstar terrified me like a rabbit in the headlights of their annihilating scepticism for a couple of hours, during which time it was all I could do not to run screaming from the room. Apparently I survived the ordeal well, and they offered to match my highest offer that day (with the unusually aggressive stance that if I waited til the next afternoon to accept, they'd probably give the job to the guy they interviewed the next day cos his CV seemed good too).
These guys are the Best Of The Best Of The Best, in a way which Evil Amateurish Games would like to believe they are, but can never be, and Popstar are bloody proud of that. They use this to impress and scare any candidates until they're sure that the guys they're talking to are the guys willing to give several million percent to live that dream and (apparently) earn the kind of bonuses which people outside the industry always think we earn but we don't. Suddenly in combination, Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar" (tracks I'd previously thought were a bit weak) now make sense...
I provided what is (in her words) "A Steve-shaped spanner in the works" to a friend of mine who lives in Leeds. I don't know if she should have an amusingly false name yet, so I won't name her at all for now. She's been my mate since College, she is one of the most lovely people I have ever had the good fortune to meet, and this morning she was meant to sign the lease on a one-bedroom flat. After a couple of drinks with her yesterday, she decided not to (with a tiny bit of persuation on my part). Instead she went hunting for 2 bedroom places today, and will pay her half of the deposit on an apparently rather nice place tomorrow. Quite how the logistics of paying my part will work is unknown right now, but Popstar have made it very clear that such trivial issues as relocating and salary are of little consequence to them, so long as I can work and thrive there. Something will get sorted out.
So, I'm moving to Leeds, apparently a lovely city with a shockingly (at least in Woking terms) low cost of living. I get to live with one of my old mates, who (if I hadn't mentioned) is lovely. I get to work with a company who could not look better on my CV if they tried, and they made no bones about the fact that (a) they liked me and (b) They would push me in a way which Evil Amateurish just didn't seem capable of doing. All told, pretty scary shit, but pretty good shit too. Top this off with a lovely night I spent in Guildford tonight with a bunch of local game developers, and a bunch of guys from a hardware manufacturer talking about the possibilities of indie games on their Shiny new handheld console*, and it's all been a rather good day.
* (For what it's worth, the possibilities are slim, but they ARE possibilities - If this thing can be worked out properly, the floodgates could be opened for a totally new business model for game development. That's totally dull to the non-geeks reading this, but to the geeks even a slim possibility is like Mana from Heaven).
So, dear reader, how was your day? What's your news? I need to get SOME comments on my ramblings, if only to alert me to the fact that people actually read this drivel.
These guys are the Best Of The Best Of The Best, in a way which Evil Amateurish Games would like to believe they are, but can never be, and Popstar are bloody proud of that. They use this to impress and scare any candidates until they're sure that the guys they're talking to are the guys willing to give several million percent to live that dream and (apparently) earn the kind of bonuses which people outside the industry always think we earn but we don't. Suddenly in combination, Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar" (tracks I'd previously thought were a bit weak) now make sense...
I provided what is (in her words) "A Steve-shaped spanner in the works" to a friend of mine who lives in Leeds. I don't know if she should have an amusingly false name yet, so I won't name her at all for now. She's been my mate since College, she is one of the most lovely people I have ever had the good fortune to meet, and this morning she was meant to sign the lease on a one-bedroom flat. After a couple of drinks with her yesterday, she decided not to (with a tiny bit of persuation on my part). Instead she went hunting for 2 bedroom places today, and will pay her half of the deposit on an apparently rather nice place tomorrow. Quite how the logistics of paying my part will work is unknown right now, but Popstar have made it very clear that such trivial issues as relocating and salary are of little consequence to them, so long as I can work and thrive there. Something will get sorted out.
So, I'm moving to Leeds, apparently a lovely city with a shockingly (at least in Woking terms) low cost of living. I get to live with one of my old mates, who (if I hadn't mentioned) is lovely. I get to work with a company who could not look better on my CV if they tried, and they made no bones about the fact that (a) they liked me and (b) They would push me in a way which Evil Amateurish just didn't seem capable of doing. All told, pretty scary shit, but pretty good shit too. Top this off with a lovely night I spent in Guildford tonight with a bunch of local game developers, and a bunch of guys from a hardware manufacturer talking about the possibilities of indie games on their Shiny new handheld console*, and it's all been a rather good day.
* (For what it's worth, the possibilities are slim, but they ARE possibilities - If this thing can be worked out properly, the floodgates could be opened for a totally new business model for game development. That's totally dull to the non-geeks reading this, but to the geeks even a slim possibility is like Mana from Heaven).
So, dear reader, how was your day? What's your news? I need to get SOME comments on my ramblings, if only to alert me to the fact that people actually read this drivel.