I am a free-lance designer/producer now November 25, 2006
A mere 6 months after announcing that I had been laid off, I am glad that I can finally say that I am working again. I am a free-lance designer/producer now.
As you may have read already, I am currently working at Replay Studios in Hamburg, who are hard at work on Sabotage, a PC World War 2 stealth game for the PC. This was arranged via game agency ML Enterprises.
It’s fun. I am doing some design work, some organizational work, some
process improvement work. A game about World War 2 made in Germany has
some piquancy all of it’s own, but beyond that it has a very interesting main character and setting, and it looks great.
If you’ve ever been on a project that kept moving it’s final deadline by a month… then another month… then one more, you kinda know what the last 6 months were like for me. I’ve been interviewing and applying for jobs almost constantly, and several times the ball was in my court and if I said yes it would mean moving to another country in a few weeks at most.
I said no every time. I have said no to some very good offers. It wasn’t easy. I don’t regret having done so, but I am not quite sure how I feel about it yet. I think I have become more risk-averse than I used to be. I have been at enough companies to have a feeling for what can go wrong. I have also been working in this industry long enough that I just won’t accept certain things anymore, like unnecessary overtime or lack of strategy. But perhaps I am now too averse to risk, and too picky in my choice of employers?
Free-lancing solves some of those problems. My investment in each company I work with is a lot lower. It’s for shorter periods, and it does not involve moving to a different country. Well, in this case it does, but it’s just temporary. And hey! I live right in the middle of a red-light district. How appropriate! I am for sale now! Hire me baby! I need customers! You need something designed or produced, you need some consulting on your design or plan or company, come to me and I will show you a good time!
Alright, so my marketing strategy still needs some work.
Congrats! You’ve been through the fire, and obviously know that it is to be feared. I’ll be really interested in how you find freelancing - I’m sure it’s its own kettle of pirahnas.
That said, best of luck!
Welcome to the ranks! My favorite moment as a freelancer was on one of my early jobs, when I realized the company was unlikely to ever finish and publish the game (I was right) and I caught myself thinking that since the bulk of my work and pay was up-front, the best thing would be if they cancelled it shortly after I’d done most of my work, letting me out of the boring part of my contract. Then I realized I was actually looking forward to the prospect of a game being cancelled while I was working on it, and I had finally arrived at a way to make the most frustrating parts of the industry work in my favor!
Hey Jurie,
Glad to hear things worked out after Vienna. The cutscene team here, in R*North, really enjoyed working on your project. I second the motion for being “risk adverse”. I find that I as get older, even if I do have the means to move to another country, another culture, and another company, I am becoming less likely to do it. It just grinds on you to have to uproot every two years after a project is completed - and those are the good memories. The bad ones just leave that industry taste in your mouth…Yeuch!
Cheers,
-=Stitched=-
Thanks all for your kind wishes :)