Stormy's road to a full time game, animation and surf dream.

StormyStudio

Evening world...

After being inspired by @BoomshackBarry 's own blog post about how he's planning on working towards becoming a full time game designer. I've finally put the time in to write my own blog on a similar subject...

Family, surf, animation and game design dream … PART 1

Please check it out if you've got a spare 5 minutes, grab a cuppa tea and leave a great insightful comment at the end.

Hope you like it...

Either follow this link to the article:
http://stormystudio.com/blog/2013/08/05/family-surf-animation-and-game-design-dream-part-1/

Or go to my website and press 'BLOG'.
http://www.stormystudio.com

Dues

Inspiring

jonmulcahy

best of luck!

jamie_c

Best of luck, the beach photo on the page looks incredible!

8BitAvrin

Nice post, best of luck with everything!

LeonardDeveloper

Just checking it out Jon! Awesome. BOOKMARKED. I'm loving these new indie developer blogs! Keep em coming!

UtopianGames

Great read and best of luck with option A or B

Darren.

beefy_clyro

Nice to read Jon .. Would love to live by the coast one day! Good luck with everything

Socks

Good luck Stormy, just remember us when you are drinking champagne with high class hookers in your gold plated roller.

StormyStudio

Cheers to everyone for the positive comments....

Strangely satisfying writing it all out like that... don't know if I wrote in enough about the sense of panic that built up before the move... but on the other side... it is good.

Another day of normal work at home today... probably making a 3D showreel today (for my full time employers), whilst I await for a well known Beer company to feedback on their videos.

@Socks ... Sorry my memory is getting a little hazy.. currently drunk on babycham and swimming in low class hookers... the only was is up...

imGua

I've recently quit my job and now I'm a fulltime indie

StormyStudio

@imGua ... well your just gonna have to spend an hour and write a blog post :-) ... how is it going so far?

matarua

Nice story wishing you all the best with fun, family and some of those other nice f words out there that we might attain if we follow passions and not pockets!

imGua

@imGua ... well your just gonna have to spend an hour and write a blog post :-) ... how is it going so far?

I love it. Even if a don't manage to build a business out of it. I still will have a couple of awesome years when I was working on interesting projects and growth a lot as a developer.

IsabelleK

Good luck Jon! You are one of my favorite GS devs, and I wish you all the best!

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Welcome to the club stormy! I've been full time for almost a year now. loving it.

MillionairApps

Good luck surfing, once you start you find yourself there when ever you get the chance. The only time work is ever going to get done are on those flat wave days. Great new journey, wish you all the best with it.

Also sorry to hear about Barry

BoomshackBarry

Great post Jon, thanks for mentioning me I just wrote a comment on your blog after my wordpress told me I'd been mentioned, and then I visit the GS forums and see this thread!

I can only mirror what I already wrote on your blog but all the best with this, I'm already jealous of how much time you get to spend with your family whilst working for somebody else. Your blog is right at the top of my bookmarks list so keep blogging away, I find it really inspiring to follow other peeps in a similar situation.

@imGua I'd love to hear your story, maybe you should be blogging too!

Also sorry to hear about Barry

For anyone who hasn't read Jon's blog yet, this isn't a reference to me, but Jon's dead chicken, who I like to think was named after me

PS Jon you spelled my name wrong in your blog post, but I can forgive that, you were probably surfing and picnicking at the same time you wrote it

StormyStudio

@MilllionairApps - fortunately I'm in South Devon so the waves are pretty intermittent, good waves for 3 days then flat for 2 weeks seems to be the norm. So hopefully that'll keep me working.

@BoomshackBarry , thanks for the comment.. I've fixed the spelling of your name... you crazy guy with your double b's.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Not much surfing here on my side of Capecod as we're buffered by the islad of Martha's Vineyard. Growing up as a motor head and motocross kid I do more beach combing here than surfing. My rig when I first had it built.

StormyStudio

Ooooh car envy.... that's it the old Family Ford Focus CMax is going I'm off to buy something suitably cool and beachy... VW camper perhaps?

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Ah you need something without a top.

StormyStudio

Something like this?

BoomshackBarry

@BoomshackBarry , thanks for the comment.. I've fixed the spelling of your name... you crazy guy with your double b's.

We just got a letter in the post today (snail mail) from my father-in-law, and even he spellls it with one b - maybe I should just change the spelling...

Ps that car is awesome you totally need one!

firemaplegames

Thanks for the shout out Jon! I wish you all the success in the world!

I saw your kickstarter campaign, and in my honest opinion, you don't need the 20K to make a game. You just need £100 in coffee ;-)

You already have the art skills AND the GS skills. You even have the inventory system!
You just need to carve out some time. If you spent an hour each day working on an adventure game, you'll be surprised what you'll have done in a few months.

Also, the haunted asylum game you started is a tough road to go down imho. I find things that are gory, scary, etc. have a much more limited market on mobile devices. Older people don't want all the blood and violence - and they won't buy those games for their young children. So you're left with angsty teenagers - who don't buy anything anyway ;-)

In addition to the smaller market, it's also tough to be surrounded by your family, young kids, the beach, etc and then go chain yourself to the computer and try and get all gloomy to work on the game. It can become a chore.

You have this cool new house, a beautiful and interesting beach, and all these new areas to explore. You should incorporate all of that into a new game. You will find that it fits into your life better, and is so much easier to work on and actually finish.

A strange keyhole embedded into the cliffs overlooking the beach, a small mysterious island just offshore, a bottle that washes ashore with a note and a key inside, buried treasure, etc. etc. etc.

The possibilities are endless! And you have all that raw material nearby to take photos of, or whatever you need. You can record the ocean and use it in the game. Plus it is a nice excuse to go exploring.

Anyway, good luck with your new life, and I look forward to playing your games!

Joe

beefy_clyro

Spot on that from Joe!

BoomshackBarry

@firemaplegames great words, very well put!

StormyStudio

@firemaplegames

Thank you for the detailed reply, I really appreciate and value your advice.

I remember you saying before when I first started Dark Asylum about how a dark theme limits its potential audience... I knew you had a very valid point back then but the game was already in development and I had the Urban explorer photographer connection so I stuck with it....



That was until life got in the way for a while and then despite numerous attempts I never quite got it up and running again. That coupled with limits on loading times at the time kept me from working on it then or in the future.



The kickstarter project was an interesting time and as you say I could make the game with the simple aid of £100 of coffee and a lot of evenings, I was obviously hoping to be able to do it full time but it wasn't to be... Though I did get some interesting and surprising opportunities off the back of it.

Your 110% right that I can now (and should) take advantage of the fantastic environment I now find my self living in. I'm already looking forward to the fun walks I can legitimately take myself on (or with the family) with a camera and a sketchbook, to go and get some exciting photos to work with to create some compelling game visuals.


I started down that route a little when I made my recent GameSalad Universal Inventory template, mixing photos and photoshop skills to create the templates imagery.

The title page is actually from my now local beach (I took the photo back in New Year when we house hunting).



The island you can see actually used to be used by smugglers, and then later became a prison and then a shooting range for the Navy... it's now a bird sanctuary.... so would love to head over there and see what interesting items I can find... My current employers bought me a sea kayak as a sort of leaving present, so I'll have to get that in the water soon (once the surf dies down).

Massive thanks for the comments, and expect an email in 6 months time seeing if you want to test drive a new game...

StormyStudio

Just realised another bonus on the new location..

No surf today to drown in, not enough spare time to try the kayak again so instead a cuppa tea and a sketch book on the beach... Planning the next game... perfic.

jamie_c

Showoff!

Sounds wonderful!!!

StormyStudio

I know.. but I had to.