...And so it was with some ambivalence that I began a new gig this last week as Art Director on a VC funded mobile game. It certainly pays much better than my previous job; but there's a certain emptiness to it. Allow me to explain...
So the last job I had (from February '14 to November '14) was with my good friend and associate whom I've known for almost 20 years now. We met on our first job at Black Ops Entertainment waaaay back in the PS1/N64 era, and have dreamed of the days we would make our own games ever since...
In February he and another associate of his hit me up and asked if I wanted to Art Direct on their little tower-defense-like project. I said, "Hell yeah!" Alas, it was to be a labor of love on all our parts for 9 months +...working day in and day out at my buddy's apartment and basically funding the entire thing all on our own. I believe I mentioned this before, but I'm giving a quick primer. In any event, they paid me $500 a week out of their own pockets, from their own meager funds, as compensation. A nice gesture, but hardly anything to actually live on when you have a mortgage in LA, two furry daughters, and a wife who is busting her very sexy ass as a big AP to make most of the household income. But as is the case with all labors of love, it was a glorious and enriching experience overall...just...not very lucrative (at least to start). Now my role on the project has all but come to a close - levels are built, characters animated, UI er UI-ing, and all the pretty things you look at are all in their pretty little places. Now it's up to my two friends to take it to the finish. We have 12 levels built and running (with a boss even!) now they just need to iron out and complete the last 12. It will be a very nice offering in terms of premium single purchase apps, and I'm dying to see how it does when it finally goes live and into the wild.
In any event, I had most of December off to enjoy a visit from my parents and watch the last of my funds slip through my fingers like sand. The new year started off with a couple punches to the gut, primarily a broken water-heater and a surge of bills that left us pretty upside-down in our finances. It's pretty grim really. We've literally been without hot water since New Year's day. We either bathe at the gym, or we boil water and bath in the tub with a sponge. Rugged and old-timey, but really no way to live.
So that all said, I've had this CEO whom my friend Swift knows barking up my tree since July '14. Swift recommended me to him, and since then he's been hitting me up and asking me to come on board as Art/Creative Director for his mobile game company. It really is your standard game-dev-to-be pitch. "We've got so-and-so on our board, we've got such-and-such as our gameplay, we have this celebrity or that celebrity for endorsements/tie-ins...etc." It's a song and dance I've seen...ugh...lots of times in the industry, so needless to say I was leery for quite a while. But sitting in cold water and trying to wash your hair is a bracing reality that leaves little time to be choosy especially when the dog who's barking is barking out big numbers in terms of pay.
So here I am. I have a job, and I'm making almost 4 times what my friends were paying me on a weekly level. Not bad, but...
You see, there's a huge difference between a couple of guys who love games making a game together from their apartment and several VC execs and trustees giving money to a business entrepreneur with zero games industry experience. The former is (as stated before) a labor of love on something close and dear to you; it's an effort by those who care and are knowledgeable but sadly under- or even unfunded save by their beloved wives and partners who are the sole capitol of the entire endeavor. The latter? Lots of money from lots of people with money who all want to stick their dicks in the pot to stir the soup. They all have plans and opinions (and none of them are usually applicable to game development) and you have to listen to them because they have the money and they're paying your $2000/week paycheck. It's emptying and somewhat sad really. That those who love and care the most about the form are the ones who struggle the hardest to create for it. You realize that the major reason for the mountains of free-to-play is mostly due to execs and business people planning out revenue strategies that best serve their interests and the interests of their shareholders. Small businesses, lean little operations with just a handful of people, are hard to get off the ground and even harder to deliver to the masses in a sea so glutted with (mostly) shit and rip-offs and creatively bankrupt copy-cats that it's really quite depressing.
So yeah, I'm making money and the project will most likely end up being successful in terms of profit and such; but I definitely miss working with my friends. C'est la vie, and everyone's a slave to the Almighty Dollar to one degree or another. /shrug
Ultimately I've got some cash rolling in, I'm getting another Art Director (possibly even a Creative Director) credit, and I'm leaving the days of the cube-farm-animation/art-drone behind. At last I can call the shots and form the vision, and at last I can bring my skill and sense of style to the teeming masses of consumers and the world.
Not too bad a way to start 2015 (despite not having hot water yet), and perhaps my plans for world domination aren't as far away as I thought? ;) :P
Be good all you sexy people.
~B-) Fishy