Digital Dave

2007 is gone and a few things happened in 2007 that I’d like to point out before I write about 2008.

• March 2007 saw the transition from being serviced by a full service broker, to managing my own stock portfolio via Scottrade.  This has worked pretty well.  As of yesterday, I am up 17.41%, which could have been much better if it wasn’t for n00bish faults.  However, I am still very happy because this beats anything else I could have got into and ends up beating the market indices — S&P500(+4.7%) and the Dow Jones (+9.0%) — from when I started.

• 2007 brought me to board games, largely to thank from a blog post by Brenda that listed favorite board games that her visitors play.  I never had a huge influence from board games back when I was younger due to not having a mom willing to buy them (due to the outflow of money for NES, N64, and other games), or many friends that played them.  Now I have a girlfriend that is eager to try new games and her family is interested in playing them, too.

• 2007 also brought me to start this BLOG!  I used to post regularly at gamedev.net, but I wanted to come out to form my own domain space.  The reason was to have a professional looking website that would also give me a place to express myself to future employers by providing any game development related things that I worked on.  Some might argue that this could be a bad idea, but I don’t agree.  I have nothing to hide, and If I post on this site, then I openly accept the consequences.

• 2007 introduced me to Vanguard: Saga of Heros, which was quite a rude realization that a 20 – 30 million dollar game project can flop just as easily as an independent development project.  I studied this game hard, because I was incredibly interested in working for Sigil Games Online to help build this vision.  Unfortunately, due to mismanagement of the project, a month after release the company was bought by Sony Online Entertainment to recover the disastrous start (firing 50+% of the staff). I really want to go back to this game, due to my passion for fantasy MMO games, but I’ll have to wait longer while Sony attempts to fix it.  Sad, but I won’t be working for Sigil and I hope that the entire staff that didn’t make it into SOE are doing well.

• 2007 saw a lag in my independent development due to the concern of if I would have enough skill to directly enter the game industry.  That lag led me to think about entering the software industry first, and then moving over to the game industry.  Well, I’m now driving full speed at the game industry.  I can’t see myself growing anywhere outside of this industry.  I love games, and I love building things that give back to many people – young and old.

• 2007 has also given me the opportunity to attend the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in 2008!  This will be my first experience being around game developers, and I’m getting increasingly more excited as the time approaches.

• 2007 brought Calix into my life.  The Siberian Husky that I always wanted, but never had the opportunity to get until now.

• December 2007 brought my relationship with Megan to another level (engaged).  After 7 years, that seemed to fly by, it’s time to get married and run out to California.

So, now that 2008 is here, I have lined up a few goals that I will be working toward this year.   While I always have goals, it really does help if you write your goals down… Really.  Go do it and post it on your refrigerator or next to your monitor.  Be sure to put numbers to your goals, otherwise you are going to continue to manipulate them during the year.  Even if it seems far fetched, set the bar high or else if you manage to meet your goal, you might shut down and not continue to push yourself. Write 5 – 10 goals.  Don’t be afraid if you don’t think that you will complete them ALL, just get your thoughts out and work toward fulfilling them.

• Increase my stock portfolio between 25 – 50%.
• Read more Books! Complete between 2 to 5 books!  (I’m not an avid book reader, so this would be good for me!)
• Play more Board Games!
• Earn a Game Development Summer Internship, doing anything that I might be qualified to do. Programming, Design, Management.
• Complete 2 small, likely casual, Independent Game Projects (must use DirectX)
• Improve my Mathematical and Logic aptitude
• Write 1 or 2 short stories.
• Go to the GDC, learn and network.
• Continue to work with Maya to improve my modeling skills.
• Find a game development job to start my career!  Finally!

And…. HAPPY NEW YEAR! Stay motivated, healthy, and continue toward your goals and ambitions.  Never give up.