Every New Year, friends and I gather at a local bar in Grand Rapids to talk about the year that was and the year that is to come. It's become a powerful tradition in our lives, giving us an opportunity to reflect and vision cast as a community. We each set a theme for the year, sometimes shared, sometimes not.
2012 was the year of being invested. Every decision I made about how to spend my time was all about that one theme. Being invested. Overall, I think it went well.
This year, I sat and thought quite a lot about the past few years. Pretty much since graduating college, I've been planning on going to graduate school for games. I've applied several times over the last couple of years to different schools around the country, but haven't made it in yet. Currently, I have an active application at the University of California at Santa Cruz. I don't feel especially great about my chances.
If I don't get in for fall 2013, then, clearly, the last couple years have not given me the experience I need to get in to grad school. How, then, do I get that experience?
I present to you, Creation Year. This year, my goal is to create something every month and present it for critique to those that know more than I do. That way, I can both add to my portfolio and gain a better perspective for my abilities among my peers. No more of this big fish in small pond business.
I spent January teaching MDA 480 - Video Games Theory and Criticism at Cornerstone.
February has given me this:
This is my first experiment with Source Filmmaker, Valve's cinematic creation toolset. More thoughts to come on that business.
Feedback is welcome. More Creation Year products to be displayed here.
3 comments:
This is a most provocative sequence. I find the brooding warrior quite intense. Is he remorseful at the end? Quite a range of emotion there.
I'm glad to see that your "Creation Year" is progressing so well! Can't wait to see what March holds :)
Keep it up. Do what you can while you can. I started writing about game design every day 5 years ago. Being able to show people what you think or what you can do is important. Through your work they see how dedicated you are.
I also found the TF2 video strangely gripping. The only thing I would change is a bit snappier editing. Some of the back and forth scenes are a bit long. At least, that's a hard lesson I had to learn from an old friend of mine who went to film school.
It was great meeting you at GDC 13.
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