What a Shame!

As some of you (that eventually show up here) might know, I code - both for work, and for fun. Anyway, I've been doing training this week for work, and I won't say what it's for, but wow.. where's the challenge? The only thing that's put my brain into a gear above neutral this week (beyond trying to understand my wife), has been working on the TM Blender scripts. Generally it's that or writing (either my endless attempt at a novel, or film script, whether intended for "real", or for TMO).

One of my biggest problems is that when I get bored, my mind wanders. I generally laze around, or eat. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for what's coming up, but hear me out :)

Over the years, I've done a lot of game-related stuff, and it's been not only an interest (Simply put, I'm a games fanatic), but I've often gone into some form of making them. It was rare that the interest held long enough for a number of reasons (when I don't have the tools, I think up all my ideas, and when I get the tools, I forget them), when it did hold I did some killer stuff. Even when I made nice progress, it was more of a question of "Well, what should I do with it?", and it rarely went beyond that point. I've always been more of a one-man show unfortunately. One of my best achievements was the 'mushcode' I used to write, which was in a softcoded scripting language for some online text roleplaying games. Character creation, space systems, etc etc... That was fun stuff, not to mention challenging.

Recently, it's been digging into The Movies - learning my way around modding, Blender and python. It's probably a bit more complex than I'd like, but it's a challenge. It plays on my mind. Not to mention TM's been like a rocket under my seat with regard to my writing, and it's clear to make a connection: Job-related stuff is mind-numbing, Lionhead-related stuff is interesting.
Usually whenever I investigate any game industry stuff, I end up disappointed, because I've been using a programming language for the last 9 years that nobody else in the world seems to use. Anyway, despite this, I had a look, and found the following for the Fable2 team.

Standard Gameplay Scripters

Experience:
Essential

• Some coding background, preferably either a degree in a related subject, or a year or so in the industry
• Both a logical mind and a creative side
• An interest in this genre of game

An advantage

• C++ or lua experience
• Any scriptwriting/story writing skills (Dialogue etc)
• Any film making skills, camera work and shot selection.
• Familiarity with world building tools.

Coding experience, yes. Degree, yes. Logical and creative, hell yeah. An interest in the genre --- Above and beyond yes. Modern-day RPGs are almost like successors to the great adventure games of old, (which I've also dabbled in). C++/Lua -- Not exactly. I used C++ back at uni, and a little after. I've done other scripting, though, have recently played with a little C#, a lot of Python. I'll skip ahead to world building tools: In a nutshell, yes. I've used the Morrowind/Oblivion tools, and various other ones going from Half-Life 2 back to Doom. Nothing awesome, mind you, but it's familiar.

The rest, though, is... wow. Film-making, camera work, shot selection: Yes. Even without taking into account TM (which I'm going to, because it's relevant to game stuff), it's a yes. Always been into film, I get compliments on my camwork when I'm videoing my son (though he's so cute he probably makes up for any errors on my part), and I see shots in my head.

Writing... Yes. Double, Triple, Quadruple yes. It's so yes, I'd make it my life if I could, but I don't have the guts to take a chance.


So, why is it a Shame? Because it's not in Australia. I can't imagine my wife being willing to move to England, and since we have a kid, I couldn't bear to be away from him for a huge length of time. Oh well...

What a shame.