One year (and change) after finishing College and One year in the Gaming industry

So this post was long overdue, for several reasons, so I guess I might as well make it an update of the past sixteen months.

The first four months after college are easy to describe, I didn't do much (hehe). Aside from working on little quirky side projects on Windows Phone 7 of all things, I took the four months pretty easy hanging out with friends, relaxing and generally taking my summer off. This was with the idea that, once I started working that was it, no going back, so I wanted to enjoy the last long "summer vacation" I'd probably ever have. Then an opportunity with THQ Montreal came a long. My good friend, Nico Corsale put in my resume to HR for positions as QA Tools Programmers and they were interested in hiring me.

This was a very interesting opportunity as I felt that I didn't have experience to dive straight into Game Development yet would be exposed enough to actual Game code and would get to work with actual game developers that I could gain some valuable experience. Not to mention, I liked what I saw from THQ. I was a fan of Company of Heroes and was intrigued by the upcoming South Park title.

I was fortunate enough to also have another good friend Joel Daignault join two weeks later as a fellow QA Tools Programmer. Five months later it, we had some interesting working prototypes that involved automating some QA tasks of a few of THQs titles.

But THQ was in dire financial trouble and had been for a while and despite having confidence that our company President Jason Rubin could turn the ship around, things didn't turn out good for THQ. The company attempted to have all its debt wiped with a $60M stalking horse bid but that ultimately failed as THQ stockholders believed that they would make more money in a piecemeal and to my chagrin they were right.

As news started trickling through of the ultimate demise of THQ, there was an unease at the studio. Everyone was working diligently as if it was business as usual, but we all knew that it could all end at any minute. Finally we all got news the Ubisoft had the winning bid for THQ Montreal and everyone working at the studio.

Fast forward through what was a three week transition period and Joel and I got word that we would no longer be working on QA Tools, which wasn't surprising given that some of our prototypes were now properties of other publishers, but the biggest surprise is that we would be working on a game (joining another good Friend Stephen O'Connor) rather than being merged into another Tools team.

I remember being told the news and being a bit shell shocked. Here I was five months removed from a time where I wasn't sure if I could get into Game development and now was going to be thrown into the fire. Was I going to pass up such a golden opportunity? Hell no! But was I a bit apprehensive? Of course! But new challenges are what makes someone improve and grow as a person and this was a big challenge.

Fast forward another 7 months and here I am today, working on a game, something I thought I wouldn't be able to do until I got a few years under my belt and things are going pretty well. We've been moved up to the Main Ubisoft Building on Saint-Laurent Blvd and we're working hard on our game.

Looking at the opening post of this Blog, I mention being an "Aspiring Game Developer". I guess I can check that off the list thanks to a series of very unlikely events (and a ton of luck). The past year has been quite an interesting first twelve months in the gaming industry, hopefully it won't be that long before my next update.