You may have noticed some of my last few posts have been ‘filler’; not stellar resources.  Well an unfortunate thing has happened recently.  I have maxed out the time that I can spend searching for the ‘dream job’ in game design.  I have had to spend time getting ‘a job’.  Fortunately a great career came along at just the right time.  I have accepted a job with New York Life as a Financial Adviser.

Most of my professional experience has been in financial services.  First as a Credit Analyst, and later working in the Transfer Agent at a mutual fund company (for those not in the know, a transfer agent is the department that processes buy and sell orders for brokers, dealers, and shareholders).  Being a financial adviser would be a great opportunity to talk about money with people who need advice…  And these days everyone seems really willing to talk about finance in ways they were not in the past.  The recession has opened the culture to want to discuss personal finance.

Additionally I found a volunteer program at Action for Boston Community Development, where I would be taught how to file taxes and volunteer to help low to low middle income families file their tax returns.  Both positions would add value to the other and are really great opportunities.  So much great stuff to learn with much potential to be lucrative in the long run.

What does this mean for game design?  Well for the next five years or so I really will not be able to focus on the industry that I am passionate about.  I do intend to keep going to the conventions, the un-conventions (GameLoop), the community events, and keep making games…  Just a lot slower then before.  I still want to be a part of the community of game development.  Networking with folks in the game design industry and just generally being helpful is fun in and of itself.  I do not intend to stop doing that.

The Contracts signed by my new employer state that I shall focus on learning their trade.  I should have no other job (it’s going to be at least a 40 hour a week job, maybe more).  None of my contracts say that I have to stop blogging.  I feel that it’s within the letter of the contract and the spirit of the contract to keep the blog open and keep writing, but to turn off adsense and to stop the affiliate program.  In other words this blog is going ad free!  You might also notice less frequent posts, and some changes in content.  For example it might become more about game reviews.  Or more about reports from the various events in the Boston Scene.  I want to keep bringing information that helps developers, but talking about game design when you aren’t actually experiencing it is not truthful.

For now this blog is going to change to better suit my current career.  Who knows, five or seven years down the line I might make a really great Chief Financial Officer at a start up game company.  So you all better get cracking making a kick ass company to entice me away from Financial Planning.  😉  In the short term it also means that my day to day activity be involve advising small business about financial concerns.  I would rather build my business helping this industry…  because I love it, but also because quite frankly game designers need a lot of help when it comes to long term financial decisions.

I’m clearing out a couple blog posts that have been sitting around for a while.  A piece on RTS eSports, then a book review on “Headfirst Java”.  After those two posts comes one that I’m really proud of.  I had a chance to sit down with Dave and Ralph at The Tap Lab and talk with them about the wire frame version of their game TapCity.  Paper Prototyping of games was on my mind a lot before my interviews with New York Life and I put together a great post on wire frames and paper prototypes.