Find Your Bliss
Didnt think Id post one every day did you? :) My friend Brian Donoho drove his old trainer bike all the way from Sunnyvale to loan it to me so I can practice. He says it has as much pickup as a lawnmower, but it should get me around the parking lot just fine. Brian joined Nonsequiter studios a little while ago and we got to talking about the game industry over Zacharys and some more on the drive back.
Nonsequiter is a group of guys in the Bay Area that follow the game industry and discuss game design for kicks. A few of us have been thinking about making something which was part of the impetus for researching the SS3 idea. I think SS3 may be more than we should bite off as a first project, but it’s put some good issues on the table and its brought some focus to the discussion.
So, Brian and I are eating some of the best pizza that money can buy, and we get to talking about my new campaign to get a gig with EA. He asks me about how much fun I’m having, and I evade and basically say that I’m not having much fun looking for a gig, it will be fun after I get there. And Brian asks why I want to work in the industry.
Why Do I Want To Work In Games?
I love that question. I talk about all the reasons Id like to work in the industry. Its creative. It incorporates the cutting edge in AI, physics, sociology, and other areas of academic study. Its a business. Its software. I’ve been a gamer, a software creator, and an entrepreneur my whole life, but I’ve never combined all of my passions together. I can hardly believe I hadnt thought of it before…it has the potential to be just incredible. But getting in, well, I have never particularly enjoyed the process of looking for job opportunities, I figure its just part of the price to play!
Brian asks me why I’m not enjoying the process. And I tell him the challenges of not knowing whether I’m going in the right direction are the hardestthe blood and sweat required to attain a goal has never been a problem for me (heck, I founded 3 companies so far), but not knowing if my work is even contributing toward that goal can be tough! No one likes to spin their wheels and waste effort. Thats when Brian brings me back to reality–he points out that my trouble is that I’m not enjoying the process, not what I do or dont know. I’m treating this too much like work.
Light Bulb Turns On
Holy shit, exactly. The whole reason I want get into game production is because I really believe it may be ‘my bliss.’ I dont know where I heard the term ‘finding your bliss’ first, but the way I think of it is this: if you are doing what you love, you will enjoy your life AND kick ass at what you do. I need to take a deep breath, take myself out of mission impossible, take the hill mode, and have some fun here. Thats what I’m doing it for in the first place! I’m a workaholic, take the hill person by nature anyway. I dont really need to focus on working my ass off, I need to take care of keeping inline with what I’m really passionate about so that my work isnt just productive. I’ve already got that in my current line of work. I’m shooting for worthwhile, fulfilling, and fun too…thats the whole point!
So now the question is, how do I have fun with this? I think first thing I’m going to do is throw my internal timeline out the window and focus on just enjoying the industry and who I meet in gaming as much as I can. Id like to land a gig someday, but if I focus on that I think it can be self defeating. Screw that. I’m going to have a good time.
Updated on October 2nd, 2013
Some of the links were broken. I replaced them with working links to pages with the same or similar content as before.