Distraction on a New Level

There's a lot going on right now. The things on my plate are many and easily half of those things I can count as distractions.

Well you've probably heard by now that the 2010 Winter Olympics are in full swing. My city of birth and hometown is host to this circus and despite some resistance I've gotten wrapped up in watching sporting events I would never be caught dead watching otherwise. Men's and pairs figure skating has been unusually gripping -- I think all the nasty spills have something to do with my fascination -- and I was ecstatic to see a Canadian skier bring home our first gold at the men's moguls.

And of course, there is the ice hockey. Canada vs. Switzerland is going down as I write this. I've been checking in with the tube and playing some newly-acquired cheap games from Steam (the Shadowgrounds Pack). I've also been keeping myself busy on the Xbox, trudging through my love/hate relationship with Dante's Inferno as well as reacquainting myself with Civilization Revolution.

But what I'm really trying to do is prepare for game design school, or as I like to call it, "pre-studying". Beginning last week I've been diving back into the early pages of Learning ActionScript 3.0 by Rich Shupe and Zevan Rosser. Having not touched Flash in a remotely professional capacity since mid-2005, you could say it's been a very long and drawn out acclimating process. The ironic thing is, I may not even use Flash to build any games during my program. It's going to be a year-long group project and the scope of your student game can be as grand as your time, skill and sanity will tolerate. I hear the Unreal Engine 3 modding tools have been publicly released for a a few months now, so that sounds like a much more appealing option. Then there's the tried-and-tested Source engine and a plethora of other modding tools built around existing retail products that could be utilized. I don't know why but a large part of me does not want to create a "mere Flash game" for my portfolio.

I suppose the fact I am even going back to school is a big change for me. The sequence of events went something like this: I started writing for NextGen Player last February, I then got media passes to cover GDC Canada in April and while visiting the company booths I happened upon the friendly recruiters from the Vancouver Film School. In hindsight I think I was swayed more by the vibe of being around so many game developers than anything the VFS reps could have told me.

I told one of the instructors in attendance flat out that I didn't want my ship to sail. Here I was, 31 years of age with a stuttering career, a love for games and still unmarried. If I was going to dedicate a year back in school for a career that I could see myself finally committing to, the time was now. So you can see the very fabulous job I did of convincing myself to drop the job (okay, so I was eventually laid off anyway) and drop a bundle on tuition for a chance to be behind the curtain of an industry notorious for breakneck change and deadly crunch times.

About a month later, I was accepted into the VFS Game Design program for the March 2010 term. My journey back to being a full-time student begins in about 3 weeks. To prepare... well, I've done very little to prepare so far aside from buying a netbook (who writes notes in a notebook anymore?) and half-heartedly teaching myself the ins and outs of Flash scripting. Oh yes, and I've been playing as many new games as I can stomach before the time to figuratively hit the books arrives.

My god... what am I even good at? The program is supposed to give you a broad base of skills for approaching the games industry from a design perspective; wannabe programmers are highly recommended to get a real Comp Sci degree. I've dabbled in graphic and audio design as an ex-web monkey and bedroom DJ. I love to write as shown in my hobbyist writings for NextGen Player... but I guess the worry that keeps persisting is where I will fit in within the realities of the game development world? Will I excel at level design? Maybe I'll enjoy and become good at programming or modelling. Then there's the job of a producer, which is a sort of catch-all role that describes anyone who makes games without actually having hard skills in anything... except perhaps Microsoft Excel use and leadership. There's this huge unknown out there as the school term approaches that is both exciting and scary.

Entering VFS as a more mature student, I like to think that I will be a kind of "elder statesman" among the throngs of eager high school grads and twenty-somethings. Aside from work ethic and a realistic approach to things, I doubt my experience will play a huge factor. I just want to make games and I hope this passion will help me get everything I can from this program.