Going freelance again

After all that’s been happening at Realtime Worlds, I’ve decided to give another stab at going freelance for a while.
I’ve been pondering it for a while, but faced with the recent events (APB’s lackluster sales, Realtime Worlds going into administration), I’ve pretty much decided that’s the way to go, at least for a while.
Main reason is that I’m pretty much done with APB. I do love the game, and at this moment I have >200hours, but on a job perspective it doesn’t offer me the satisfaction it used to, like when I was designing and implementing the Music Studio sound system, or designing and implementing the sound prioritization we have on top of Wwise.
Also, I want to gain more experience in other areas (other than Audio).
With the hiring spree that happened here in Dundee after the news about Realtime Worlds, I did had to turn down a few interviews with some interesting Studios, but I feel it was the right thing to do.
I want to step back a little and decide where to go from here, instead of rushing to another job.
Like for example, I did enjoyed working on my lastest hobby project Weston Westie, developed with my friend and CEO at BitRabbit, for the brand new Samsung Wave, which is the first device with the Bada OS.
I did all the coding myself, except for the thin framework BitRabbit provided ( RabbitFactory ) which abstracts all the platform details, and was a nice way to play around with things I normally don’t, like OpenGL ES, basic AI, UI, Gameplay, etc.
Although Weston Westie was launched in July, we’ve done basically no marketing, as we want to polish it for the first update (improve textures, put some eye candy, experiment with a different control method).
At this moment, I have some work lined up with Jenkins Software, whom I’ve worked with in the past.
I get to work from home (like I did before), which is nice bonus. 🙂
The job itself is to revise,update and improve RakNet’s documentation.
This particular contract doesn’t actually involve much coding, and some programmers at heart might find it dead boring, but personally I see it as great opportunity to get paid to learn something valuable.
Positive things I see coming out of this:
  • With the high demand for multiplayer games, knowing RakNet library inside out will surely stand out on my CV. I can always say… “After all I wrote the documentation. ;)”
  • I get to practice actual writting, since English is not my native language. I think it’s ok, but there’s always room for improvement.
  • Working from home does have some benefits. I can work any time I want, as long as the job gets done. That helps when I need to so something within typical business hours.
  • With the knowledge I’ll get from RakNet, I can write some Raknet code samples, and post them here, generating traffic.

On top of all this, since I’ve decided to go freelance, some funny synchronicities happened recently.

  • Bitrabbit might have some more freelance coming up my way
  • Today went to a workshop for videogames startups, and some interesting things happened:
    • Lots of good tips on running a business, PR, Marketing, etc
    • Some old friend from Realtime Worls is planning a startup, and since we’re both planning on staying in Dundee, some work might come my way.
    • One other friend was there, and reminded me to join him and a few other developers for an apparently weekly Wednesday talk (in a local pub), which I knew about, but never actually attended.
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