I've been working in the games industry since 2002 and in that time I've shipped five titles across seven platforms. Some have been well received while others were critically panned. All I can say is thank god as a programmer I could rely on technical expertise for applying to new jobs; designers & artists have a much harder time shaking bad titles. Still, I have had a lot of fun so far and look forward to a lot more!
First job I ever had; I worked at Spark for a little over two years. I came on just after the initial group left EA and got to witness first hand the level of batshit insanity possible within this industry. Still, I loved every minute, right up until I stopped getting paid, which was when I scrambled to find a new job at...
Black Ops! The shortest of job stints in this industry. While a lot of people can find a great many negative things to say about the company, this job provided a lot of value for me. While at Spark I was always surrounded by really smart, experienced people, Black Ops gave me the chance to be the big fish in a small pond. It is also where I met (and shared an office with) my now fiancée, so no complaints there. Though it was not meant to last, and soon I found myself working for...
Climax! (not the porn company) This was a great job for me. Going from working on big console titles to a smaller team on a portable project showed me just how flexible and nimble production can be and how fun it can be to have a big voice in what happens. I headed up the PSP SKU side of things and got work with some of my favorite programmers to this day. We were an awesome Fantastic Four of Functionality. Oh and my friend Peter (designer). Sadly the other projects at the Los Angeles studio were not as well run and literally the day before they closed their doors I accepted a job offer at...
Naughty Dog! (not the porn company) This was quite the dream come true for me. Climax LA was literally down the block from the gleaming white towers of the Water Garden where the Naughty Dog office was. I had friends from my days at Spark take offers here and I would hear stories about what a wonderful production environment they had, especially for programmers. It was all true, and being able to work with the smartest people I've ever seen was incredible and still amazes me to this day. Immediately I went into sponge mode trying to soak up and absorb as much of the wealth of knowledge that surrounded me as possible. Working on this game was amazing, surrounded on all sides by best in class talent and watching the final product crystallize as we neared completion made me quite proud to have my name attached to it. The best part was when Christmas came around I still had a job, which meant I then got to work on...
The most critically acclaimed and best selling game on my list. Being able to stay for a sequel was a shockingly new experience for me and man am I glad I did. The mood at the company was one of pure "make it better." Everything we could think of to make the game better we took to. The immediate and savage gutting of whole systems went into full effect to make room for new and improved methodologies. One of the things I've learned from my career thus far is that game development is by nature iterative, and being able to truly iterate on a whole title in a deep and meaningful way was not only rewarding to us as developers but ultimately shown through in our product. For that and all the people I've been able to work with I am very thankful.
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