Decisions.

So I made a scary decision. I have decided that grad school is not for me, and that what I really, really want to do is go into the games industry full-time. My reasoning?

The original plan was to go to grad school, get an MS in EE as a safety net, and then jump into games. But I have realized that the whole concept of a safety net is based on the assumption that there is a good chance I won’t succeed. And it’s horrible to make a huge life decision based on underestimating myself. I know I’ll be wildly successful in this industry. I have no doubts. So I should just jump in. Even if the grad school thing worked out in the end, I do not want to look back on my major life decision and say, “That was the safe, cowardly way to do it.”

Getting a job in the video game industry isn’t hard for me. I already have one offer, and if I applied for more shitty jobs, I’d probably get those, too. Getting the right job is the problem. Fortunately, I have contacts coming out the ears, and lots of people willing to help me–in fact, lots of people already have helped me. I have one standing offer as a code monkey. But I’m not the best coder in the universe. I’m a good programmer, a good designer, even a decent audio guy, but my skills that really shine are in communication, organization, and networking. And I know way more people in this industry than a someone my age with my limited experience rightly should.

So… here we go!