Grown Men and Video Games
What?! I haven't posted anything in almost two weeks?! Wow, I did not even notice. Right now, I am a man with a deadline. In a week my resume is going to spam every single game company in the area (and beyond!). Am I ready for this? Hell no. It is just like having children. You can never be ready. You just do it (or they do it to you, whatever). It has been two months already, reality is knocking on my door. I have stopped my daily workouts and all other non-essential activities. I talk to the wife and kids because they will all walk around wailing and crying if I did not, otherwise... I am stuck to my computer. My mission: to make my crappy little demo look more like a game both inside and outside. I can not think of a time in my life when I have put so much effort into something or tried to squeeze as much juice out of my brain. It has not been easy by any standard. And yet, my little mini-game will not be anything more than a simple bow and arrow wolf hunt. Move around with the cursor keys, point at the wolves with the mouse and click to shoot. When they are all dead (and they deserve it, but please do not ask why), you win. The poor things can not even fight back. I know, it will not change anybody's life. Except perhaps mine if I get lucky. One thing is for sure, I have learned to appreciate the amount of work that goes into professional games. It is an awe inspiring feat.

Meanwhile, my poor wife did not get much in the way of gifts for mother's day. Normally I let her loose on a shopping rampage while I keep the kids safe, then pay the bill. This time the old clothes will have to do for a bit longer. What have I done to her? :( She got some good stuff, however. My five year old spent days making a book for her. She taped some construction paper pages together and drew and wrote her heart out. She spent every waking moment at her art table, skipping all of her typical games and activities and just worked and worked until it was finished. Nobody told her to do it. It was her own original idea. The title of the book is "Things" because, she said, she still does not know how to write a proper story. It is full of original drawings and original word spellings, let me tell you. It is just beautiful. If I had a tenth of the drive and creative energy my daughter has, I would be done with this thing already. I hope I grow up to be like her.

By the way, if you have a bunch of coin filled jars in your pantry, you should consider cashing them in. My wife and the kids did just that at the local Stop and Shop and came back home with over two hundred dollars. Not too shabby! That's grocery money for two weeks. Man, you do look at everything under a different light when you are poor! :)

So, what is left to do? The project now has its own web page (check it out here http://hunter.sf.net) and a version of my resume is online. I actually already sent it to one company (Harmonix) through a friend of mine (name starts with A, ends in urelio). He actually harassed me for more than a week to get it. I certainly did not feel I was ready for that yet, but yielded under pressure. I hope it was a good idea, but anyway, it has been done. My friend Kieran, a UI designer (among other things) and ex-colleague, shed a couple of tears when he saw my menus and buttons and offered to help me. The game now has a spanking new skin. Thank you Kieran!!! Now I need to make it feel like a game as much as I can in a week. I am not planning to stop working on it anytime soon, whether I get the job I want or not. And then, interviews (or total rejection and plan B, who knows). It would not be a lie to say that my stomach is in a constant giant knot. Can I actually do this? Can I really? Stay tuned and wish me luck! And download the game and hunt some wolves if you have a minute! (click on the "Download the demo" link at the top of the page on the right)