Well, It’s 2014. Some old projects have ended, and some new projects are about to start. It’s an exciting time, and things have been happening. Unfortunately this blog has been the thing to be put on the back burner. Thanks for sticking around, I have not abandoned writing about games and gaming. There are exciting things coming up, and I want to share them.
The most rewarding endeavor for the year was trying my hand at game development. Cofounding Dormouse Games was an amazing experience. Getting to help Eric start a company, and learn about the nitty gritty of more than just the design of games was well worth every minute of time spent. It was also the convergence of two things which up till 2013 have always been a bit divergent in my life. Games and Business. Then again that is what this blog has always been about, so in the context of this blog that divergence might not be as obvious.
An experiment in sales went well. Although being in sales (real sales, not marketing) was not my thing, it was an amazing learning experience. Working in the highest grossing office of the highest grossing mutual insurance company was an amazing experience. I got to rub elbows with some amazing sales people. And I learned that I am just not suited to that environment. So it went well in the learning sense, not the monetary compensation sense.
The day job goes well. Working in financial services operations during the day is a great way to support my family and pay off the loans I took for that business degree. Attending BU and furthering my degree (adding Business Administration to Computer Science was a good idea), was personally very rewarding, and informative. Paying that back without a reliable source of income was extremely stressful. But working at the new company brings that stability which lets me advise Eric and help with Dormouse. It has all been worth it.
And I survived a merger. The new firm is a bit more strict about working at outside companies, which meant having to step away from Dormouse Games. But Eric and I continue to meet regularly for games, mechanics discussions, inspiration and bouncing ideas back and forth. Eric is also going to check out the new project.
Looking forward to the future, a longtime friend has asked me to assist him with a project. While also business development in the game space, it’s an entirely different medium of games. Steve Lafond asked for input on starting a larp. My suggestion was a nonprofit subscription based business model. Larp is a labor of love. The returns of which are emotional, not monetary. It’s been about 5 or 7 years since the last game we helped run ended. And it’s well past time to get back to an old passion.
There are two trends which indicated that LARP may become interesting to a slightly wider audience. The first are the fitness activities people are doing these days. Cross Fit, Tough Mudders, Bootcamp, these things are all two steps away from being a larp. Additionally the general population is tuning in and enjoying Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings in huge numbers. There are plenty of folks looking to get healthier and live a less stressed life. More people might be interesting in getting healthy while being crafty. We’re going to run a little experiment and find out.
So despite not posting, things are pretty interesting around here. News might be sporadic, but I want to write some posts about helping run a nonprofit game development company.
