sonofableep

one year ago today was my first day at Zenimax.  one year ago today i was trying to put eight great years of Mythic behind me, and come to terms with how complete a fresh start this was, and the magnitude of the opportunity that lay before me.

i was reconnecting with peers i’d worked with off and on for more than a decade.  i was sitting in a bare office, looking at a fresh windows install with no audio software or hardware whatsoever.  i was trying to remember where the bathroom was.

twelve short months from then ’til now.  and here i am, sitting in front of a game-in-progress that has interactive music, voiceover, and combat & ambient sound effects integrated to a suprisingly complete degree.  and we’re just getting started, folks.

one year later, and my initial optimism and enthusiasm has not been abated by months of actual work.  quite the opposite – the past year of rubber-hitting-the-road has *raised* my expectations, not lowered them.  that’s a nice change from the kind of situation where the reality on the ground forces you to make compromises, sacrifices, and deals with the devil until that high bar you had once set for yourself is nothing more than a wistful recollection.

a long time ago, the Professional Objective on my resume arrogantly proclaimed i was out to “realize the unrealized potential of game audio”.  after a few years and a few games that fell short of that lofty boast, i struck that from my resume and replaced it with something more sensible.  but the past year has got me thinking about that turn of phrase again…and that this is the best chance i’ve had yet to actually back up the bluster with substance.

so i blow out the single imaginary candle on my imaginary cupcake (chocolate), and make a wish to finally fulfill that original Professional Objective.  :)

i seem to have a lot of posts that follow the format “ah, i remember when… / so, nowadays…”  or sometimes the other way ’round.  so in that fine tradition…

ah, i remember when.  working at Kesmai with a relatively small team of a few dozen folks, there were two ways of getting your pet feature (or desperately needed functionality) into the game.  The Right Way – having an approved design, getting your tech docs in order, getting implementation on the schedule, and let engineering take its course.  and The Ninja Way – ascertaining the programmer’s favorite scotch, procuring a bottle, and presenting said bottle in exchange for getting the work done after hours (and not while consuming the scotch…that part is key).

so, nowadays.  we’ve got a pet feature that we want to get in, and we’re really psyched on it.  thing is, Zenimax is a much bigger studio, working on much bigger projects, with much bigger development processes.  almost everything has to be done The Right Way.  it’s much harder (and more frowned upon) to do stuff The Ninja Way.  loose cannons are bad for well-oiled machines, to mix my metaphors.  but our pet feature is of such a nature that one almost has to see the finished version in the game to be convinced it even belongs on the feature list.  that is, we have to get it done before we can get it started – the best way to build momentum for design approval is to actually show the damn thing to people.  holy catch-22, batman.

hm.  what’s even more stealthy than a Ninja?