Developer in the Making - Episode 1

This will be my on-going series, that will chronology my efforts to gain employment in a MMORPG development studio, and in this case CCP. (Crowd Control Productions)

First, a bit of history about myself.
Ever since I was a wee lad, I have been a gamer, and since I can remember I have been interested in the production of said games.
I often dabbled in modifying code and level design to see what would happen if I switched this with that. I was a very curious lad, which would often lead me to breaking the game one way or another.

I was never satisfied. I could always imagen things better.


Flip forward to today, and I'm as insatiable as I have ever been.
So what to do, what to do.

Well, over the last couple of years, I've gotten right into MMO's, with Guild Wars being my first love. Now, even in the beginning there were aspects of the game that just irked me so, and as I looked around the MMO sphere, I saw overwhelming lack of innovation. Just the same game, reinterpreted.
I thought it might get better, but it hasn't. Any progress made seems to be made with equal helpings of fail, and fall backing on the status quo. It's, disheartening to say the least.

So what am I going to do about it? Well, I've never been one to stand on the sidelines and look on helplessly, so they only real option to jump into the machine and rip it apart from the inside.


So at the beginning of this year, I began planning to get my foot in the door of a development studio. Now there are several options available to you at this point. You can:

A) Broad brush your resume or portfolio and send it out to any development studio you can spell, and hope for a bite. But I found this to be a colossal waste of energy, so I went with something a little more..... direct.

B) Goto a meet-and-greet MMO/gaming expo, in order for networking and try and develop connections with developers. This may also incidently help narrow your selection criteria, so you can focus your resume/portfolio. I found this undoable, as I'm poor, and live in fucking New Zealand, and airfair cost is a bitch.

C) Select your favorite development studio, or one which gives you the most probability of success, and cater your resume/portfolio specifically for them. (ie, don't try to get a job at a development studio that has recently had layoffs)
My pick.


Now, at first I was going with option B, and I was thinking of saving up so I could go to PAX in September 2009, and try and make connections with Arenanet, as I love them so.
But at the beginning of March, I saw some insider videos put out by CCP, and decided on them instead for several reasons.
They were independent, carefree, and most importantly of all, growing. (meaning they were hiring)

So I made plans for how I would get in their good graces, and hopefully gain employment, mean while putting away whatever money I could to pay for airfares and other travel expenses should it come to that.

My plan, research CCP and subsequently Iceland and figure out what makes them tick, and build a portfolio catered specifically for them, and set a workable deadline for all this.
Now all of this happened back around March or so, as to the results..... well I'll get to that in another episode.
Waffled on for long enough already.

Until next time.... I am the lord of waffle.

~Yoh