I haven't blogged here in half a year. Blame the onset of my midlife crisis, but you won't find me out buying any convertibles. In fact, you won't find me buying much of anything extravagant for a while since a few weeks back I resigned from my previous job. After years of flirting with chasing a videogame-oriented job, I've finally left my cushy audio engineering position to study iPhone game and music application development. Everything I want to do for a career seems to either smile upon or require this type of experience, and I wasn't going to get it without cutting myself loose for a bit.
Yes, a risky game. It's jumping off a cliff and counting on sprouting wings on the way down. Like I said, blame the onset of my midlife crisis. I call it brewing the antidote to self-doubt.
In five years of audio engineering, I had never written a single application with a user interface. I'm used to writing software that runs whether you want it to or not -- software that never gets noticed unless something goes wrong. I'm used to debugging with remote connections and copious print statements. It's highly specialized work that pays well, but it's not for me any more. On the other hand, since I kissed my regular paycheck goodbye, I've completed the game logic for my first iPhone game. It's more of an academic exercise than anything else, but I've decided to treat it like the accomplishment it represents for me. It'll get an original soundtrack and some fun artwork. It'll be my game when I'm done with it.
Anyway, as I'm wrapping up development on game #1, I'm already planning the next project. My friend Rodin came up with a brilliant idea for an application that, while being neither a game nor a music app, is something that I simply must write for the iPhone. It also stands the chance of making a little bit of money given how useful it could be. That's all I'll say about that.
For my birthday, Rodin came to my place at 8:00 AM to make eggs benedict, one of my favorites. We beat Portal (again), watched trailers for Portal 2, watched the mind-blowing demo of Limbo on Giant Bomb, and then did a big screen TV code review of my iPhone game software.
Nerd-out bromance complete, Vincy came over looking smoking hot for our weekend trip to Carmel. We headed down to 17 Mile Drive, stopping to walk the dog at Spanish Bay and to take a few pictures at the Lone Cypress. Then we headed to Casanova for dinner; let's just say that I have a new favorite restaurant.
We wrapped up the evening relaxing in a friend's hot tub in Pacific Grove. The next morning I was up stupid early to rent scuba gear and hunt halibut on the ocean floor with a spear gun. We never saw any "flatties," but it was still a good excuse to spend an hour and a half underwater on the fourth of July.
Anyway, it's back to everyday life for me. I need to compose an original soundtrack for my iPhone game so I can wrap up development and then start on my next big programming project. Aside from that I've got things to sell, a house to clean, a dog to walk, a girlfriend to love, and a career to build.
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