Out of touch...
by Matt Fairfax · 05/09/2001 (11:50 am) · 2 comments
My wife is moving into our new apartment tomorrow (packing is not fun). She is taking almost all of the furniture with her. I will be left with a couch that we are giving to Goodwill, my computer (of course =), a card table to sit my computer on, a 14" TV/VCR combo, a trunk to store my clothes in and to sit the TV on, and the microwave we are selling. I will have all this set up in one corner of our living room. I figure that I should be able to get a lot of coding done during the 2 weeks of living like this since I won't have anything else to do =)
So I will be out of touch tomorrow (Thursday) and will be gone this weekend (spending it with my wife). I am leaving straight from work on Friday so I won't be reachable Friday night either.
Not much news on the job front. I haven't been seriously searching yet, just shooting off resumes. I have been playing phone tag with a recruiter for a Novell Network Engineer job. My current boss is also going to set me up with a recruiter he is really good friends with. Hopefully, something will pan out not long after I stop working where I am (May 25th).
There is an interesting article in Game Developer Magazine this month about level design. It talks about drawing on much of the tried and true architectural philosophies that exist. Even though we aren't limited by real physics in our level design a lot of the things that architects learned ages ago are still very applicable to our computer generated worlds. I only made it halfway through the article before I had to get back to packing (we have too much stuff =) but it was quite good. I might also look into learning some more architecture stuff. All of the aptitude tests I have ever taken have listed Architect as the best job for me (game developer wasn't an option =). I have never been interested in architecture but I do really like level design which is down the same track.
For me there has always been a conflict of interests. I really enjoy analytical things like science, programming, and computers. I love to solve problems! But I have also been drawn to creative things like music, art, and literature. Throughout my life, I have tended to cycle back and forth between these two but I have never been fully satisfied with either. I feel that this is one reason that I am drawn so strongly to game development. It is the ultimate combination of science and creativity. I love programming but I find myself cycling back towards creating things also. I think the ultimate job for me is where I have a choice of how much of either I do in a given day. Where I might spend the morning working on level design and the afternoon programming. As I grow older, I may find myself tending towards one side more than the other but I haven't found the right combination yet. Only time and experience will tell.
So I will be out of touch tomorrow (Thursday) and will be gone this weekend (spending it with my wife). I am leaving straight from work on Friday so I won't be reachable Friday night either.
Not much news on the job front. I haven't been seriously searching yet, just shooting off resumes. I have been playing phone tag with a recruiter for a Novell Network Engineer job. My current boss is also going to set me up with a recruiter he is really good friends with. Hopefully, something will pan out not long after I stop working where I am (May 25th).
There is an interesting article in Game Developer Magazine this month about level design. It talks about drawing on much of the tried and true architectural philosophies that exist. Even though we aren't limited by real physics in our level design a lot of the things that architects learned ages ago are still very applicable to our computer generated worlds. I only made it halfway through the article before I had to get back to packing (we have too much stuff =) but it was quite good. I might also look into learning some more architecture stuff. All of the aptitude tests I have ever taken have listed Architect as the best job for me (game developer wasn't an option =). I have never been interested in architecture but I do really like level design which is down the same track.
For me there has always been a conflict of interests. I really enjoy analytical things like science, programming, and computers. I love to solve problems! But I have also been drawn to creative things like music, art, and literature. Throughout my life, I have tended to cycle back and forth between these two but I have never been fully satisfied with either. I feel that this is one reason that I am drawn so strongly to game development. It is the ultimate combination of science and creativity. I love programming but I find myself cycling back towards creating things also. I think the ultimate job for me is where I have a choice of how much of either I do in a given day. Where I might spend the morning working on level design and the afternoon programming. As I grow older, I may find myself tending towards one side more than the other but I haven't found the right combination yet. Only time and experience will tell.
About the author
I am a Game Designer at PopCap who has worked on PvZ Adventures, PvZ2, Peggle Blast, and Bejeweled Skies. I am an ex-GarageGames employee who helped ship TGE, TGEA, Torque 3D, and Constructor.
#2
05/10/2001 (4:57 pm)
Yeah I feel much the same. There have been 2 overwhelming passions in my life. Art and computers. Finally they merged a coupla of years ago. I do 3D art, but I coded a few circlemuds (using c) and found that programming is extremely creative. I consider programming just as much of an art as drawing, music, and literature, and have a high respect for programmers as creative people. They are the alchemists, and sages of our time, performing miracles that many people will never understand. Someday everybody will have some sort of programming ability as we get more technological every day. Many of you guys just happened to be there first :) Too bad that cant be said about drawing or painting. Think of the artists Heironomous Bosch (sp?). He was one of the first artists to use perspective in his work. From then on the face of painting and art in general was never the same. I am waiting for this to happen in software. In fact I think it might happen several times. What do you guys think? 
Torque Owner Luc Jordan