Career Blog - Part 30

Year 14 - 2013

Hi, everyone, got a small update to my career blog.

So, a month after my lastcareer blog entry, I got laid off at Infinite Z. A couple months after that, the rest of my team were laid off as well. Not sure what it means to be first of the group to be laid off, but whatever. It was a shocking development, one that I did not see coming at all. Did not bode very well. The method I learned of my up-coming departure from the company was kind of interesting:

So, the company used Gmail at the time, so we could set up meetings in the Google Calendar and so forth. These meetings were visible to everyone in the company, so that you could schedule meetings around people's availability. Well, I happened across a meeting between my boss that was entitled "Mike M Separation". I was the only "Mike M" at the company. So that was how I learned about it. I was given a 2 week notice and laid off. Sucked pretty hard. When I called out the fact that I found this meeting in the calendar, I noticed later that all of my boss' meetings from then on were simply entitled "Meeting".

For almost 5 months I was unemployed. Luckily, Zombie Studios (the place I worked before Infinite Z) had an opening and I was able to get it. So, now I'm back at Zombie again!

If you've read my previous career blogs, you might wonder if I was all that happy about this. Since I left Zombie, they had a huge management shift in the company. The fine fellows who headed the team making Blacklight Retribution, essentially took over the company. Now they're working on Daylight and more stuff I can't say.

And to be honest, my time at Infinite Z taught me a lot about finding enjoyment in my job. No matter how bad I thought it was previously at Zombie working on games like SAW, or the worst-reviewed Xbox game ever, Blackwater, it was nowhere near as bad as it was at Infinite Z. At least I was making games. Bad games, sure, but games!

I came back to Zombie with a fresh perspective. I can't talk about what I'm working on now, but I can say that it's actually not a game, in the obvious way. I know, weird! It's in the Serious Games department, creating game-like things for the government.

But what I can say is that I'm having more fun NOW in my career, then I have since about 2005. I've only been here a couple months at my new position, but it is amazingly good! I hope I get to keep doing this and feeling this way about my job for a long time.

Great to see you enjoy what you do. Are you an Artists? Programmer?

I have been trying to get into making games with some friends. We made a flash game and right now I'm trying to make something with UDK.

Glad you're back to something you enjoy doing. Hope it works out for you. But please don't make any more Blackwater games.

Thanks, Eder. I'm a 3D Environment/Prop Artist. For example, I made the traps in the SAW games and the guns in the Blackwater game. Stuff like that.

Thanks, Jams. Believe me, Blackwater would have never been made if it had been up to me! :)

Hey Zombie Studios, I applied there last month. I will say this, feel lucky that you have a job (especially one you enjoy)- I've been trying to get into the industry for over a year now with little luck. With all the studio closures and layoffs it is ultra-competitive.