Thursday, August 16, 2012
Extra Life 2012
This year I will be embarking on a journey that I have made before, but this time around it will hold more meaning than anything I have ever put even an ounce of effort towards. As a lot of you know I take part in an annual charity event called Extra Life that raises money for children's hospitals across the country. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the event, participants sign up and play video games for 24 hours and wonderful people make donations in their name to cheer them on. In the past I have done this simply because I thought it was a good cause and it is a hobby I enjoy. This year my reasons are much much different.
In December of last year, my wife and I welcomed our first child into the world, a beautiful baby boy named Lucas. Like most new parents we were simultaneously overwhelmed and overjoyed to start this new chapter in our lives. Two days after he was born, as we were getting ready to take him home, Lucas' pediatrician heard a heart murmur and had him transferred to Akron Children's Hospital.
By the end of the day we had learned that Lucas was born with a rare congenital heart defect called Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return, a very serious, and if not corrected, fatal heart problem. He was scheduled for open-heart surgery on the following Monday and the surgeons gave him a pretty good chance, so all we could do was wait and hope.
The following night Lucas' condition became much worse and he started to decline pretty rapidly. The decision was made that his surgery couldn't wait and he would have to go in the morning, which happened to be Christmas Eve. Things started happening very quickly and our only option was still just to wait and hope.
The doctors told us that due to his condition getting worse his chances of making it through the surgery were about 50/50, but they still seemed optimistic. As they wheeled him off to surgery we kissed him goodbye and went out into the surgery waiting room for a long day.
Before too long we were getting updates from the operating room that things were going well. Every update brought more good news and more relief. Finally the surgeon came out and told us that everything had gone well, and now we would just have to focus on getting better.
I can't put into words how great of a Christmas present it was to get that kind of news after such a trying time. Lucas still had a long road ahead of him to recover, one that included a second open-heart surgery to fix a complication that arose due to his TAPVR, as well as a tracheotomy and a ventilator to help his lungs recover while his heart caught back up. After just 10 days shy of four months, we finally got to take Lucas home from the hospital.
The entire time we were at the hospital the doctors, surgeons, and nurses worked tirelessly on helping Lucas get better. They honestly cared about his well-being as well as ours. The caliber of people they have working there is beyond any other place I've ever known.
One of the things that got me through the beginnings of our tough time was Extra Life. I took some small solace in knowing that I had helped the place that was helping my child. I knew I couldn't fix him, but in some small way I helped facilitate those who could.
So the reason I will be doing Extra Life this year is really simple. Inside of those hospitals are people who give children a second chance at life. I cannot honestly think of a more noble pursuit than that.
If you would like to help me say thank you to the people who helped us and gave our son a second chance at life, and help them continue what they do, please visit my donation page here and make a donation. Also I would greatly appreciate it if you passed this story along to friends, family, and co-workers.
Thank you for reading,
Dave Paskiet
Xbox Live: ThirdshiftMcgee
PSN: ThirdshiftMcgee
Steam: ThirdshiftMcgee
Monday, January 30, 2012
Lucas Update
So my last post was a big long monster of an update to explain as much as I possibly could. I will do my best to make this a practice in brevity and keep this simple and sweet.
How did his procedures go?
He did wonderfully during his procedures. He got a tracheotomy to allow him to keep his ventilator support more comfortably over a longer period of time. He got a broviac line, which is just a safer IV because they run it under the skin. Last, but not least, he got a G Tube (which is a tube that allows them to give him his feeds and medicines directly to his stomach).
Also while they were putting in the G Tube, the heart surgeons wanted to see if they could find his extra vein. They were successful in doing this, and put a small band on it to partially close it off. The idea behind this is that the band won't grow, but he will, so it will gradually close off his extra vein over time.
How has he been since all of this?
So there was some concern from some of the doctors that he hadn't really made forward progress before going and having these procedures, and without that forward progress were the procedures the best answer. In the end they felt they were, so they did them. Since the procedures though, he has made "tremendous forward progress".
He's already gotten off of several medications or switched to ones that can be given in doses instead of through an IV. He no longer has his one chest tube. He is entirely off of his paralytic, so he is moving and awake like a normal baby now. Today he is getting out his PA Line, and they think he'll be able to get his other line out fairly soon. They've even talked cautiously about him getting to go home in little over a month (though we've learned not to be too optimistic and jinxing ourselves).
So overall how are things?
Very good. We've made a lot of progress and couldn't be more pleased with how far we've come in the last week. We know we still have a long road ahead of us, but it's getting easier the more we get to play with him and the better/happier he is.
WARNING: I'm going to post two photos to show where he was, and where he is now. The first you may find unsettling, so by all means, turn back now if you think you might.
As always feel free to leave a comment or email me at dmpaskiet@gmail.com
How did his procedures go?
He did wonderfully during his procedures. He got a tracheotomy to allow him to keep his ventilator support more comfortably over a longer period of time. He got a broviac line, which is just a safer IV because they run it under the skin. Last, but not least, he got a G Tube (which is a tube that allows them to give him his feeds and medicines directly to his stomach).
Also while they were putting in the G Tube, the heart surgeons wanted to see if they could find his extra vein. They were successful in doing this, and put a small band on it to partially close it off. The idea behind this is that the band won't grow, but he will, so it will gradually close off his extra vein over time.
How has he been since all of this?
So there was some concern from some of the doctors that he hadn't really made forward progress before going and having these procedures, and without that forward progress were the procedures the best answer. In the end they felt they were, so they did them. Since the procedures though, he has made "tremendous forward progress".
He's already gotten off of several medications or switched to ones that can be given in doses instead of through an IV. He no longer has his one chest tube. He is entirely off of his paralytic, so he is moving and awake like a normal baby now. Today he is getting out his PA Line, and they think he'll be able to get his other line out fairly soon. They've even talked cautiously about him getting to go home in little over a month (though we've learned not to be too optimistic and jinxing ourselves).
So overall how are things?
Very good. We've made a lot of progress and couldn't be more pleased with how far we've come in the last week. We know we still have a long road ahead of us, but it's getting easier the more we get to play with him and the better/happier he is.
WARNING: I'm going to post two photos to show where he was, and where he is now. The first you may find unsettling, so by all means, turn back now if you think you might.
As always feel free to leave a comment or email me at dmpaskiet@gmail.com
Friday, January 13, 2012
Lucas
I've been sharing a lot of information about Lucas and what he has been/is going through on Facebook and Twitter in sort of short bursts. It serves well to keep family members and friends informed about what is going on, but it can be a bit disjointed. So I wanted to take a minute and kind of put a number of things in one place, as well as where he is headed, so anyone who is interested can be on the proverbial "same page".
We found out on the day we were supposed to take Lucas home that he had a congenital heart defect called TAPVR (Total anomalous pulmonary venous return). So the first question everyone generally has is "What is that?".
TAPVR is when none of the four veins that take blood from the lungs to the heart is attached to the left atrium (left upper chamber of the heart). This sounds bad, and in all honesty it is, but luckily his body compensated for this and he has an extra vein called a "vertical vein" that helps his blood somewhat get to where it needs to go. Unfortunately this isn't an effective system, and if left uncorrected, would prove to be fatal.
The next question just about everyone asks is "Why didn't they catch this before he was born?"
TAPVR effects how the blood flows to and from the lungs. When a baby is in utero, they don't breathe oxygen, and therefore don't really get or need the blood flow through the lungs. So in essence it just doesn't show up on an ultrasound. Also, if it is diagnosed in utero, they have no way of correcting it until after birth. In Lucas' case, he looked like a healthy baby, so at first there was no concern. Fortunately for us, his pediatrician heard a heart murmur while checking him before sending him home with us and had him checked out.
While I'm answering questions I will follow with "How did they diagnose him?"
To figure out what was going on when he came to Children's Hospital to be checked out, they did what is called an echocardiogram. This is essentially an ultrasound on his heart. This allowed them to look at his blood flows, the structure of his heart, as well as a number of other things.
And lastly everyone wants to know "How do they fix this?"
To keep it simple, they cut an opening on the pulmonary veins that came together behind his heart, and they cut a hole in his heart where they were supposed to go and sewed them together. Technically there is a lot more to it than that, but that's the short and sweet version.
So now with a little background, here is what went on with Lucas a bit more specifically. Like I mentioned previously, he appeared to be a perfectly healthy baby for the first couple of days after delivery. We were getting set to take him home when we were told that he had a heart murmur and would have to go from Akron General to Children's Hospital to have it looked at. After a number of hours of tests, we sat down with the cardiologist who explained to us about the TAPVR and that he would have to have open heart surgery.
Initially they put him on the positive end of the spectrum since he was healthy, decent size for his age (8 lbs, 9 ounces), and just so darned cute. We were told that the thought was that he had about a 90% chance of success with the surgery, and though it was scary we were optimistic. They were planning on doing the surgery the next day, Friday morning.
Lucas wanted to make us worry a little more though, so he developed some issues with his kidney function. The doctors decided since he looked healthy otherwise that they would postpone the surgery until that Monday in hopes they could get a better grasp on what was going on with his kidneys. That Friday night, unfortunately his condition seemed to worsen and his breathing became very labored. After some more xrays, ultrasounds, and tests they found out that one of his extra vein structures had become obstructed. This is a very bad thing, and what determines whether a child with TAPVR falls on the "healthy" side of the spectrum, or the "very sick" side.
So the surgeons were called and he was scheduled for emergent open heart surgery to correct the TAPVR first thing Saturday morning. The operation was about 6-8 hours long because it require a lot of prep as well as a lot of steps after the surgery. So we waited in the surgery waiting room with a lot of family and friends (whom we can't thank enough by the way), while getting periodic updates from one of the doctors that watched over the operation. After sitting down with the doctors that morning it was made clear to us that he was no longer in that 90% range, and could very well be in the 50% range of coming through the surgery. To say that thought made this a long day is an understatement.
Luckily every update we got was good and he made it through his surgery without any complications. By about 7 pm that night we were back in his room hanging out with our baby boy and enjoying pretty much the best Christmas present we'll ever get. When they do open heart surgery, the person's body generally retains a lot of fluid and they swell up so they leave their chest open. This sounds a little gruesome, but it really isn't. He had a patch sewn in place and some dressing over top of the area, so you really couldn't tell. After about 5 days his swelling had gone down and they closed up his chest. He just has a thin line now with a couple of really tiny stitches.
At this point I realize I left one question unanswered that may be fairly important, and that is "Why is his recovery taking so long?"
So since his blood didn't flow through his heart how it would in a normal baby, the left side of his heart isn't as big as it normally would be. So once they did the surgery, it had a lot more blood flowing to it than it had previously had. This means it has to work harder than before. Along with this the condition causes pulmonary hypertension. This basically means the vessels in his lungs are really constricted and need time to open up. So now that the surgery is over his body basically has to grow to adapt to the changes. The good side of this is that he is a baby, so growing is what he does. The down side is of course that it takes time.
After the first time going back on the ventilator, the doctors decided to do a heart catheter on him. This basically means they run a wire through one of his arteries and into his heart and use it to get a better look at everything and how his blood flows. This showed them that his heart still had high pressures and needed more growing time. It also showed them that one of his four pulmonary veins connected a little lower than they had previously thought. They think it will need to be corrected at some time, but not until he is bigger and healthier.
To help his body make this adjustment the doctors have put a number of things in place. Some of these are drugs that help his heart work easier, as well as Viagra that helps his vessels in his lungs relax. The main thing is the breathing tube they have him on, which does his breathing for him so he doesn't have to work as hard as he would if he was doing it on his own.
Obviously one of the goals is to get him off of the breathing tube and breathing on his own. Before they do this, they do what is called a CPAP trial. This is just basically them turning down the ventilator support for a short period of time to see how he handles it. A week or so after his surgery they decided he was doing well enough to take out the breathing tube. The first day he did well, but then he started to get worse again, so after a couple of days with it out they had to put it back in. After doing this he started to get much better again and the doctors were very pleased. So at the beginning of this week with the thought that the breathing tube would be coming back out they tried again. He did alright with his first CPAP trial, but on the second one he had some trouble.
So this brings us up to now. Over the past day or some we've had some discussions with doctors about what they think on his progress so far and his path going forward. Their general consensus is that they gave him a short period of time to let his heart adjust, but it hadn't grown enough to handle the load. So would giving him another short amount of time see much change, probably not. So what can be done?
The answer we have been discussing with the doctors is a tracheotomy. Basically they cut a hole in his throat and insert a more secure breathing tube there. This of course sounds bad, but when you weigh everything it seems like the right answer for a number of reasons. First of all, this will allow him to be more mobile. That means mom and dad will be able to hold him, and he will be able to come off of his sedation and be able to act like a baby as well as get treated like a baby. Secondly it gives us an avenue to eventually take him home. The doctors said most likely once he gets it we can expect to take him home in about 4-6 weeks. Of course nothing is set in stone, but just the idea of finally taking our boy home is a huge thing.
The other plus side to this is it isn't permanent. It is something that can be taken out, and will leave just a small scar. Along with the tracheotomy they are going to change how they run his IVs to reduce the risk of infection. So as parents we never want the best option to be "another procedure", but weighing everything it just seems like the best thing to do for Lucas. We're excited to see him awake and able to move around, even if it means a little bit of extra hardware.
So that is Lucas' journey so far and where he is at. I feel like it is worth saying that the staff at Children's Hospital are not only responsible for saving our child's life, but also for saving our sanity. They are some of the nicest people we have ever had the pleasure to meet, and we owe them more than we could ever give. This has been the hardest time in our lives, and I honestly hope no one ever has to go through anything like it. Even once you make it through the phase where you have no choice but to take things day by day, you enter a phase where you're constantly unsure of what the future holds, and when the future holds it.
We've been in the hospital for a little over three weeks now, and it is hard to stay positive, but it's something we have to do. Again we owe a lot to friends and family who have helped us carry this since it all began.
The best thing to remember, is at the end of all this it will be worth it.
We found out on the day we were supposed to take Lucas home that he had a congenital heart defect called TAPVR (Total anomalous pulmonary venous return). So the first question everyone generally has is "What is that?".
TAPVR is when none of the four veins that take blood from the lungs to the heart is attached to the left atrium (left upper chamber of the heart). This sounds bad, and in all honesty it is, but luckily his body compensated for this and he has an extra vein called a "vertical vein" that helps his blood somewhat get to where it needs to go. Unfortunately this isn't an effective system, and if left uncorrected, would prove to be fatal.
The next question just about everyone asks is "Why didn't they catch this before he was born?"
TAPVR effects how the blood flows to and from the lungs. When a baby is in utero, they don't breathe oxygen, and therefore don't really get or need the blood flow through the lungs. So in essence it just doesn't show up on an ultrasound. Also, if it is diagnosed in utero, they have no way of correcting it until after birth. In Lucas' case, he looked like a healthy baby, so at first there was no concern. Fortunately for us, his pediatrician heard a heart murmur while checking him before sending him home with us and had him checked out.
While I'm answering questions I will follow with "How did they diagnose him?"
To figure out what was going on when he came to Children's Hospital to be checked out, they did what is called an echocardiogram. This is essentially an ultrasound on his heart. This allowed them to look at his blood flows, the structure of his heart, as well as a number of other things.
And lastly everyone wants to know "How do they fix this?"
To keep it simple, they cut an opening on the pulmonary veins that came together behind his heart, and they cut a hole in his heart where they were supposed to go and sewed them together. Technically there is a lot more to it than that, but that's the short and sweet version.
So now with a little background, here is what went on with Lucas a bit more specifically. Like I mentioned previously, he appeared to be a perfectly healthy baby for the first couple of days after delivery. We were getting set to take him home when we were told that he had a heart murmur and would have to go from Akron General to Children's Hospital to have it looked at. After a number of hours of tests, we sat down with the cardiologist who explained to us about the TAPVR and that he would have to have open heart surgery.
Initially they put him on the positive end of the spectrum since he was healthy, decent size for his age (8 lbs, 9 ounces), and just so darned cute. We were told that the thought was that he had about a 90% chance of success with the surgery, and though it was scary we were optimistic. They were planning on doing the surgery the next day, Friday morning.
Lucas wanted to make us worry a little more though, so he developed some issues with his kidney function. The doctors decided since he looked healthy otherwise that they would postpone the surgery until that Monday in hopes they could get a better grasp on what was going on with his kidneys. That Friday night, unfortunately his condition seemed to worsen and his breathing became very labored. After some more xrays, ultrasounds, and tests they found out that one of his extra vein structures had become obstructed. This is a very bad thing, and what determines whether a child with TAPVR falls on the "healthy" side of the spectrum, or the "very sick" side.
So the surgeons were called and he was scheduled for emergent open heart surgery to correct the TAPVR first thing Saturday morning. The operation was about 6-8 hours long because it require a lot of prep as well as a lot of steps after the surgery. So we waited in the surgery waiting room with a lot of family and friends (whom we can't thank enough by the way), while getting periodic updates from one of the doctors that watched over the operation. After sitting down with the doctors that morning it was made clear to us that he was no longer in that 90% range, and could very well be in the 50% range of coming through the surgery. To say that thought made this a long day is an understatement.
Luckily every update we got was good and he made it through his surgery without any complications. By about 7 pm that night we were back in his room hanging out with our baby boy and enjoying pretty much the best Christmas present we'll ever get. When they do open heart surgery, the person's body generally retains a lot of fluid and they swell up so they leave their chest open. This sounds a little gruesome, but it really isn't. He had a patch sewn in place and some dressing over top of the area, so you really couldn't tell. After about 5 days his swelling had gone down and they closed up his chest. He just has a thin line now with a couple of really tiny stitches.
At this point I realize I left one question unanswered that may be fairly important, and that is "Why is his recovery taking so long?"
So since his blood didn't flow through his heart how it would in a normal baby, the left side of his heart isn't as big as it normally would be. So once they did the surgery, it had a lot more blood flowing to it than it had previously had. This means it has to work harder than before. Along with this the condition causes pulmonary hypertension. This basically means the vessels in his lungs are really constricted and need time to open up. So now that the surgery is over his body basically has to grow to adapt to the changes. The good side of this is that he is a baby, so growing is what he does. The down side is of course that it takes time.
After the first time going back on the ventilator, the doctors decided to do a heart catheter on him. This basically means they run a wire through one of his arteries and into his heart and use it to get a better look at everything and how his blood flows. This showed them that his heart still had high pressures and needed more growing time. It also showed them that one of his four pulmonary veins connected a little lower than they had previously thought. They think it will need to be corrected at some time, but not until he is bigger and healthier.
To help his body make this adjustment the doctors have put a number of things in place. Some of these are drugs that help his heart work easier, as well as Viagra that helps his vessels in his lungs relax. The main thing is the breathing tube they have him on, which does his breathing for him so he doesn't have to work as hard as he would if he was doing it on his own.
Obviously one of the goals is to get him off of the breathing tube and breathing on his own. Before they do this, they do what is called a CPAP trial. This is just basically them turning down the ventilator support for a short period of time to see how he handles it. A week or so after his surgery they decided he was doing well enough to take out the breathing tube. The first day he did well, but then he started to get worse again, so after a couple of days with it out they had to put it back in. After doing this he started to get much better again and the doctors were very pleased. So at the beginning of this week with the thought that the breathing tube would be coming back out they tried again. He did alright with his first CPAP trial, but on the second one he had some trouble.
So this brings us up to now. Over the past day or some we've had some discussions with doctors about what they think on his progress so far and his path going forward. Their general consensus is that they gave him a short period of time to let his heart adjust, but it hadn't grown enough to handle the load. So would giving him another short amount of time see much change, probably not. So what can be done?
The answer we have been discussing with the doctors is a tracheotomy. Basically they cut a hole in his throat and insert a more secure breathing tube there. This of course sounds bad, but when you weigh everything it seems like the right answer for a number of reasons. First of all, this will allow him to be more mobile. That means mom and dad will be able to hold him, and he will be able to come off of his sedation and be able to act like a baby as well as get treated like a baby. Secondly it gives us an avenue to eventually take him home. The doctors said most likely once he gets it we can expect to take him home in about 4-6 weeks. Of course nothing is set in stone, but just the idea of finally taking our boy home is a huge thing.
The other plus side to this is it isn't permanent. It is something that can be taken out, and will leave just a small scar. Along with the tracheotomy they are going to change how they run his IVs to reduce the risk of infection. So as parents we never want the best option to be "another procedure", but weighing everything it just seems like the best thing to do for Lucas. We're excited to see him awake and able to move around, even if it means a little bit of extra hardware.
So that is Lucas' journey so far and where he is at. I feel like it is worth saying that the staff at Children's Hospital are not only responsible for saving our child's life, but also for saving our sanity. They are some of the nicest people we have ever had the pleasure to meet, and we owe them more than we could ever give. This has been the hardest time in our lives, and I honestly hope no one ever has to go through anything like it. Even once you make it through the phase where you have no choice but to take things day by day, you enter a phase where you're constantly unsure of what the future holds, and when the future holds it.
We've been in the hospital for a little over three weeks now, and it is hard to stay positive, but it's something we have to do. Again we owe a lot to friends and family who have helped us carry this since it all began.
The best thing to remember, is at the end of all this it will be worth it.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Happenings
A lot has been going on, so unfortunately I haven't had much of a chance to keep up with it here. My apologies. I should most likely change the name of this blog from My Daily Pause over to something a bit more appropriate like, My Maybe Once Quarterly Pause (If You're Lucky). Please though, let us put this lack of attention behind us and carry on shall we?
First of all you should check out the podcast that I take a part in. Our latest, Episode 27, can be found for free here: Nothing too specific, we just chat about games and tech and the usual stuff. If you happen to listen let me know what you think.
Aside from that I have gotten back into working on level design stuff. I'm currently about 40% done with a map for Team Fortress 2. The map is laid out, just have to apply textures and put props into place. It's been a lot of fun so far, can't wait to have it done and playable.
Still a long way to go, and some stuff has already changed, but this should give a general idea of some of the look/feel of the map. If you have any feedback/suggestions I'm always willing to hear them. Can't grow without feedback. Also some of the outdoor pictures are a bit on the bright side, this has already been fixed.
First of all you should check out the podcast that I take a part in. Our latest, Episode 27, can be found for free here: Nothing too specific, we just chat about games and tech and the usual stuff. If you happen to listen let me know what you think.
Aside from that I have gotten back into working on level design stuff. I'm currently about 40% done with a map for Team Fortress 2. The map is laid out, just have to apply textures and put props into place. It's been a lot of fun so far, can't wait to have it done and playable.
Still a long way to go, and some stuff has already changed, but this should give a general idea of some of the look/feel of the map. If you have any feedback/suggestions I'm always willing to hear them. Can't grow without feedback. Also some of the outdoor pictures are a bit on the bright side, this has already been fixed.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Looking Ahead
So this may very well be the cliché beginning of the year blog post, but I want to take a second and look ahead at what’s going on this year. The biggest thing is that I will be attending my first GDC in March of this year. To say I’m excited would be a terrible understatement. Unfortunately I only have room in my budget to attend as a student, but the career day should be a great opportunity to network and to learn a thing or three.
Being a Game Design student, you hear a lot of tough things about getting into the industry. A quick Google search will probably turn up a number of articles on how to do this, what avenues to take, and personal tales of how many have done it before. Other than school and schoolwork I am trying to immerse myself in a number of projects and pick up extra information outside of the classroom. Ideally I would like to get an entry-level QA position somewhere to not only get some experience, but also have the chance to see how a team operates firsthand. After that I would like to move into a Junior Design position and work my way up.
When I started my Game Design degree, one of the first things I decided to do was to come up with a list of studios that I would like to someday work at. I wanted to do this to be able to better focus my efforts to “break in”, and because it has allowed me to have clearer goals overall. Every time I found a studio I was interested in, I would ask myself a series of questions about the studio to see if it in fact fit on my list, and if so was it high on the list. These questions included location, does the studio put out games I would be proud to have worked on, does the company have goals and standards that align with my own goals and the standards I set for myself, does the studio have high turnover or do they seem to keep people, etc.
As I made this list one studio kept popping up, and not only met my expectations on a lot of things, but more often than not, it far exceeded them. Those of you who know me and have spoken with me recently know that this studio is none other than Insomniac Games. It also turns out that Insomniac Games will have people at the GDC career event. Knowing that I may have a chance to get in front of someone and at least talk to them has put me into overdrive. I know I won’t be the most qualified person they talk to, but I do know I will be the most determined. I am making it a point to be as familiar with the studio and their games as I possibly can before I go in March. Any game they have out that I didn’t already have I went out and picked up. I’ve been playing through them fairly constantly and will probably have over 300 hours in by the time GDC rolls around. I’m also downloading all of the podcasts and listening to them on my way to and from work every day. It makes for a rather hectic schedule on top of school and work, but with any luck my dedication will pay off in some way.
The best part of this is the simple fact that the worst-case scenario is I get to spend a ton of time playing some excellent games and I will game some insight and information if I do get the chance to talk to someone. So I’m rather content in the simple knowledge that I’m going into a no-lose situation.
Being a Game Design student, you hear a lot of tough things about getting into the industry. A quick Google search will probably turn up a number of articles on how to do this, what avenues to take, and personal tales of how many have done it before. Other than school and schoolwork I am trying to immerse myself in a number of projects and pick up extra information outside of the classroom. Ideally I would like to get an entry-level QA position somewhere to not only get some experience, but also have the chance to see how a team operates firsthand. After that I would like to move into a Junior Design position and work my way up.
When I started my Game Design degree, one of the first things I decided to do was to come up with a list of studios that I would like to someday work at. I wanted to do this to be able to better focus my efforts to “break in”, and because it has allowed me to have clearer goals overall. Every time I found a studio I was interested in, I would ask myself a series of questions about the studio to see if it in fact fit on my list, and if so was it high on the list. These questions included location, does the studio put out games I would be proud to have worked on, does the company have goals and standards that align with my own goals and the standards I set for myself, does the studio have high turnover or do they seem to keep people, etc.
As I made this list one studio kept popping up, and not only met my expectations on a lot of things, but more often than not, it far exceeded them. Those of you who know me and have spoken with me recently know that this studio is none other than Insomniac Games. It also turns out that Insomniac Games will have people at the GDC career event. Knowing that I may have a chance to get in front of someone and at least talk to them has put me into overdrive. I know I won’t be the most qualified person they talk to, but I do know I will be the most determined. I am making it a point to be as familiar with the studio and their games as I possibly can before I go in March. Any game they have out that I didn’t already have I went out and picked up. I’ve been playing through them fairly constantly and will probably have over 300 hours in by the time GDC rolls around. I’m also downloading all of the podcasts and listening to them on my way to and from work every day. It makes for a rather hectic schedule on top of school and work, but with any luck my dedication will pay off in some way.
The best part of this is the simple fact that the worst-case scenario is I get to spend a ton of time playing some excellent games and I will game some insight and information if I do get the chance to talk to someone. So I’m rather content in the simple knowledge that I’m going into a no-lose situation.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Learning Hammer
I've started learning Hammer. So far it's been fairly easy to pick up and there is a ton of info online, which is always helpful. After a little bit of fiddling around I've decided to try my hand at making a TF2 map. Here is my progress thus far:
Feedback, tips, and encouragement is of course always welcome!
Feedback, tips, and encouragement is of course always welcome!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Extra Life 2010
So I did the Extra Life charity this weekend a long with a bunch of friends and classmates. I did it a day early on Friday due to things going on over the weekend, but it was still a hell of a time. I wanted to start it off with something a little special, so I fired up an NES emulator and played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was never able to get past the level after the dam, so I wanted to finally beat it and be done with it. After putting in a few game genie codes I was ready to go and finally got to see all of the game.
After that I jumped into a personal favorite of mine, Day of Defeat: Source. I've sunk countless hours into this game, and on this occasion I dropped in another 8 hours. I got 3 more steam achievements out of it which was also pretty nice.
Then I hit up the Red Faction Battleground beta as Volition was having a server stress test. The game is quite fun if you're wondering and I recommend you pick it up when it comes out, along with Red Faction Armageddon, which I also have to assume will be fantastic.
Then it was on to Red Dead Redemption to do some co-op with some friends who were also participating in the Extra Life event. Four hours went by here pretty quick I must say.
Next I spent two and a half hours getting my ass handed to me by Resistance 2. That game is unforgiving. Got to do the Chicago level finally though, and there is a moment in it that just worked so well.
Of course the night wouldn't have been complete without some Halo: Reach, and I put five and a half hours into that one. I finished the campaign, got the "If they came to hear me beg" achievement (which took about an hour), and rocked some multiplayer. I also put a rather funny video up from that.
To bring it all home I finished by starting Batman: Arkham Asylum on hard, and also got pretty tore up in that. Might have been due to my severe tiredness though, we'll see when I get back to that.
All around it was a fun time and I can't wait to do it next year. Hope everyone else that participated had as much fun as I did, and thank you to everyone that supported us!
I raised a total of $212 and the team I was on ended up with a total of $571.
After that I jumped into a personal favorite of mine, Day of Defeat: Source. I've sunk countless hours into this game, and on this occasion I dropped in another 8 hours. I got 3 more steam achievements out of it which was also pretty nice.
Then I hit up the Red Faction Battleground beta as Volition was having a server stress test. The game is quite fun if you're wondering and I recommend you pick it up when it comes out, along with Red Faction Armageddon, which I also have to assume will be fantastic.
Then it was on to Red Dead Redemption to do some co-op with some friends who were also participating in the Extra Life event. Four hours went by here pretty quick I must say.
Next I spent two and a half hours getting my ass handed to me by Resistance 2. That game is unforgiving. Got to do the Chicago level finally though, and there is a moment in it that just worked so well.
Of course the night wouldn't have been complete without some Halo: Reach, and I put five and a half hours into that one. I finished the campaign, got the "If they came to hear me beg" achievement (which took about an hour), and rocked some multiplayer. I also put a rather funny video up from that.
To bring it all home I finished by starting Batman: Arkham Asylum on hard, and also got pretty tore up in that. Might have been due to my severe tiredness though, we'll see when I get back to that.
All around it was a fun time and I can't wait to do it next year. Hope everyone else that participated had as much fun as I did, and thank you to everyone that supported us!
I raised a total of $212 and the team I was on ended up with a total of $571.
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