Aren't you going to buy me dinner first?

First thing about me as a designer/student, I’m a perfectionist. For most my life I’ve figured if you’re not going to be the best there’s no point in trying at all.(link pessimistic) This is both a good and bad quality to have as a designer. Good, because you’ll never settle with what you’ve got, you’ll always strive for the impossible even when you know you’ll never reach it. Bad, because I’ll never take pride or satisfaction in the work I’ll do. I will always look back and say it could have done better.

I've always made sure that for better or for worse, my work is different. Whether it’s awful or brilliant as long as it’s different that’s all that’s mattered. Good design is subjective. People can argue whether being original is necessary in good design and I’m well aware that originality is obviously not the only component in good design. Plenty of good games are derivative of other games that came before them. 

Take Uncharted 2 for example, receiving overwhelming acclaim from critics and gamers alike claimed by many to be the benchmark for all 3rd person shooters to come.  No doubt few games since have even come cross to the production values and gorgeous design of Uncharted 2 but for me at least, a ‘benchmark’ is all it is. Uncharted 2 is just an accumulation of every good 3rd person shooter that came before it. I could not find a single unique mechanic in the game. From Tomb Raider’s platforming to Gears of Wars cover based combat every piece of the game that ‘worked’ is derivative from another successful title.  To its credit, Uncharted 2 imitates those titles to perfection but the game just stands on shoulders on the giants that came before it.

Needs more chest high walls.

At times I find the games industry in a bit of a sorry state.  So many games these days are obsessed with their aesthetic and graphic power instead of actual innovative compelling game design. Every time a new Call of Duty is announced or spoke about I roll my eyes and feel all the motivation in my body sucked out of me. I’m not having a go at quality and skill gone into making those games...but; with an industry as exciting and potential filled as video games it’s just a tad disheartening the most popular and best selling game to represent the medium is ‘another’ military simulator. 

So my stance has always been to create something a bit different. To break away from the incestuous mess forming within the industry. Whether or not this will be a desirable or off putting state of mind for an employer to hire me in the future? Who knows.

As of July 2010 I have been employed under an internship for ‘Flash Bang Science’, a company determined to make science more fun for school children. I and Dan Startin (another M.A. student) were recommended to Flash Bang Science by our course leader Bev Bush for our success on winning the Mobile Bullets Contest in Summer 2009, successfully having a game (Cabbin’ Frenzy!) published on iTunes. Without going into too much detail our job at Flash Bang Science has tasked me and Dan the job of bringing the ‘Fun Stuff’ section of their website to life through interactive mediums like flash games. It’s been great being able to apply our skills to industries other than just the games industry and I’m sure in the coming months some of our work will become visible on the site.

Anyway I think it’s time to wrap up this lengthy introduction, hopefully I’ll update this more than twice a year but time shall tell.