IT lives !!!

..or rather, I live.
Howdy, long time no see !!

After 2 years completely out of the game, I'm bootstrapping myself back into action and the game.
I'm starting a quest for employment or contract work as a game developer, albeit in a relaxed fashion, on my own terms, especially regarding employment at a studio, for all the usual reasons for someone who's been there, done that already, and doesn't want to sell his soul to the job anymore...
But more importantly, I've started working on my own designs again, in a field of gaming that's been always dear to me, and that in many ways brought me to computer gaming and programming :
wargaming

I've recently acquired a copy of each of the two current PC incarnations off Larry Bond's Harpoon, the table or miniatures based game of modern naval combat, now in its 4th edition, those two being Harpoon Commander's Edition, the community maintained and updated version of the original PC/Mac version of Harpoon released back in 1989 and Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare, itself based on the Harpoon 2 core, with which it still shares UI layout, data structures, etc.

So, not even new games, and no flashy graphics, much less 3D, even after the updates.
Why buy those two games, or arguably, two versions of the same one ? Well, apart from being an all time favorite of mine, Harpoon is probably one of the oldest serious games around, and has always been used by the professionals of armed forces and navies from around the world as a training aid, on the PC and Mac as well as the original paper and miniatures version and its subsequent editions.

Nowadays, there is even a Pro version, specifically tailored for the military with additional features (some of which made it back to the gaming version, like multiplayer) and leveraging classified information in the assets database, unlike the gaming version, which is obviously built from publicly available information.
Speaking of information, one of the reasons the game has appealed so much to grognards is the fact that the game is in itself a tremendous technical reference library on all sorts of naval warfare assets.

This has been mentioned as a selling point for both paper and computer versions : among others, Tom Clancy used the miniatures version to test out the engagement scenarios from the Hunt for Red October, and in conjunction with the author himself, Larry Bond, mapped out and played out the convoys from Red Storm Rising.

Why do I talk about Harpoon so much ?

Well, I'd rediscovered what got me into the whole mess of gamedev in the first place : wargaming (well, and rpgs, but let's not go there, hehehehehehe) got me interested in computers, as much as arcade video machines from the late 70s, and as a precocious fan of tabletop and miniatures wargaming, I rapidly saw the possibilities offered by computers, especially the personal computer in playing wargames, even if just as managerial aids to start with, so we could concentrate on tactics and strategy and not spend so much time looking up combat tables, odds, etc. And rolling dice, hehehe.

Consequently, I've picked up the mantle of the wargame designer as well as that of software developer to bring something hopefully quite good to the personal computer wargaming scene.
That said, I'm also going to be looking at employment and contract possibilities, especially ones pertaining to the development of wargames, as I would rather earn my living working on such projects than only do it in my spare time.

Anyhow, that's all for now, and I also wanted to pop by to simply say :
I'm back !!!

Look forward to hearing from many of you and catching up with your doings and all...
Cheers !!!
Nic