·:[ Stuff and Nonsense ]:·
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Couple of quick updates from the past few weeks:

• We (sorta) finished the last project I was working on. We’re currently waiting on translations, but in the meantime all work on our side has stopped aside from bug-fixing. Since no scripting bugs have been found, that means I’ve been able to take a bit of time off to rest and recoup from the final crunch. I haven’t gone to work at all this past week except for a bit on Thursday and Friday, and that was more for fun than for work. I’m hopeful that the translations will come in soon, we’ll get them implemented, and we’ll get this thing outta here.
• I had a thing going on with a girl for a time, but I don’t anymore. It’s fine… these things happen, y’know?
• I was asked on Thursday to help out with a project that’s just getting off the ground while I’m waiting for my team to be assigned our new project. The cool thing about it is that it’s a big Top Secret deal. Apparently studio-level NDAs don’t apply to this project, so I’m not even allowed to talk about it with most of my coworkers; one of those “I can tell you, but then I’d have to kill you” sorta things. It’s not a project that I’d really like to be on for the duration, but I’m excited to be working on it for this short time.
• For that matter, I’m excited just to have something to work on again. As much as I loved taking time off, I was really getting bored. I know it sounds strange to have a paid week off and WANT to go back to work instead, but that’s how it goes. I love my job, but it’ll also be nice to be working regular hours again (or at least as regular as my hours get ).

CIMG0046

Originally uploaded by Russish.

Tonight we’re submitting Beta on my current project. At this point I’ve got everything in that needs to be in for the build, and am doing the oh-so-glorious “hurry up and wait” that I love so much. It basically entails sitting around, playing the game, and waiting to hear back from Test when they find a bug or problem that needs to be fixed.

At this point I’m really worn out (see the picture at the beginning of this entry), but we’re definitely in the home stretch and I’m really looking forward to next week (for various reasons). I’m excited to finish this project and get it on shelves (which actually isn’t going to happen until the end of the year, I think), and I’m excited to take some time off, rest up, and begin afresh on the next project.

I’ll likely be on a DS project, which is exciting and a welcome step. It’ll be a lot of learning (there’s a new scripting tool to learn, plus I’ll probably have to learn Maya to be able to white box levels), and I’m eager to take the lessons I’ve learned from this current project, which was my first project as a solo designer.

The last several projects before this one were taken over from other designers, either because they quit or moved on to something else and I was the natural choice to fill that role. It’s been different being on a project from the beginning to the end, with a new team, with all that entails. I learned a lot from this particular game, and I can’t wait to go and put it into action.

But first we gotta get this thing out. And it sounds like the new build is done, which means I’m back to testing…

(See the PhotoShopped version of the picture that my coworker sent around to our Spam e-mail list in my studio after the cut.)

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