Starting in mid-2014, I’ve made a serious attempt at going independent with the funds I’ve gathered from work. Naturally, it follows that my goals has been to become self-sustaining. The theme for 2020, however, is stability in a different way: I’ll be dedicating a significant portion of my time improving my online presence and seeking for a full-time position, such as fleshing out this portfolio site, updating my résumé and LinkedIn profile, etc.
As one can probably guess, things haven’t gone as planned over the last 5 years. I’ve lost a significant amount of resources, including finance, health, and mental energy. It’s unfortunately been a significant contribution to my seasonal depression early this year, and has forced me to reevaluate a number of responsibilities I’ve accumulated over the last few years. It’s time I start pivoting to other more urgent priorities, and bowing out other duties to give way for other.
First, I have resigned from Tech Valley Game Space (TVGS). A non-profit game-making community and coworking space founded back in October 2014, I’ve been one of the key people to help grow the organization since it first started as a mere Meetup group. I’m incredibly proud of what I was able to achieve as the elected Executive Director during my tenure from April 2017 to, well, this month (February). Some notable accomplishments includes:
- Executing the New York Digital Gaming Hub grant subaward for 2018 and 2019
- Help execute New York state’s goal of encouraging more game makers to work in the Capital Region by improving TVGS benefits, establishing new events, and promoting the local region abroad.
- Budgeting equipment, outsourced tasks, travel, and other business development tasks to build a more stable non-profit and providing more meaningful benefits to members.
- Lift Off: Diversity Incubator
- A six-week long program dedicated to mentoring underrepresented minorities and women to learn how to make their first game. Up to seven applications are accepted by the event organizers to be paired by a mentor that’ll meet weekly.
- My involvement includes research, documentation, gathering resources (both people and materials), finding speakers and mentors, budgeting, preparations, and conducting the event.
- Protostar Prototyping Pitching Contest
- A one-day contest of teams pitching their game ideas to a group of industry experts on an opportunity to receive cash prizes to fund their project. The program is intended to both provide funding to deserving projects, as well as give an opportunity for local indie developers to receive expert feedback on how their pitch went.
- My involvement includes budgeting, setting up necessary technical framework for the judges, preparations, and conducting the event.
- And so much more!
I did this, while still working as an unpaid volunteer (by choice), not unlike my original co-founder role. While I still believe in the TVGS goals of making game development accessible to everyone, and remain optimistic they’ll grow beyond their grassroots origins, alas, I still need to put food on the table. As sad as it sounds, it’s time I leave the community to better hands, as well as improving my own well-being.
Second, I’ll be working on creating a more focused online presence this year. This includes establishing new online profiles, having a better content creating schedule, and deleting a number of profiles that either have been a serious source of stress, or I have not had the time to dedicate to. I’ve been aware that my time at TVGS has made it look like I have “disappeared” off the face of the internet, which I hope to start amending this year. First, I’m redesigning this website to put a stronger emphasis on the portfolio and (eventually) its videos. I also hope to start setting up a weekly development live-stream this year, both to encourage myself to keep a steady game development schedule, as well as slowly build a community and audience. For the profiles I will be deleting or removing myself from, I’ll be posting a prior notice on when that will happen. For example, I’ve already posted I’ll be closing my Patreon page sometime this month.
My final goal for this year is to return my focus to game development again. As much as I love networking and speaking with people, I’ve had a strong itch to finish a few projects I left hanging for quite a long time now. My first goal is to split up the Template Unity Project to smaller Unity Packages, both to make it more versatile, and reduce the size of future game projects. I then hope to return to Air Flip Drive, and re-examine some of its game design flaws and technical debt. In the meantime, I am indeed looking for paid full-time position. If you’re in need of a gameplay programmer or a Unity developer, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Here’s to a new and wonderful year!
Categories: Retrospect, Updates
