Retirement… A year later

A little over a year ago was my last day of work at BioWare.

I had always planned to wrap up my ten year summary of my BioWare career with a one year ‘life after BioWare’ post.

Since leaving BioWare I’ve sold several stories, finished writing a dozen new stories and a sci-fi novel and managed a first place finish in the Writers of the Future contest. The contest win had been a goal of mine for over ten years and one I was not certain I’d ever achieve… I had kind of assumed I’d eventually disqualify myself with a novel sale.

Boy am I glad that didn’t happen.

Had I not won the Contest I think I would have missed out on something very special. I’ve posted about the Contest a bit recently and I have one more summary post planned for later this week so I won’t go into much more here but being around such talented (and generous) authors and illustrators, both established and upcoming, has really filled me with drive and inspiration both of which I think I’ve been lacking the last few months.

In all honesty being part of such a group really reminds me of what it was like working at BioWare. Every day surrounded by creative and quirky designers, artists, programmers, qa… constantly challenged, constantly inspired. If anyone out there is considering a job in the videogames industry I’d definitely recommend it just for that — the people. There are few occasions (outside of winning a major writing/illustrating contest) where you get to hang out with dozens of other people who spend their lives dreaming about imaginary worlds, and who love to share those worlds with you. That interaction, I miss.

Anyways that’s it, my last direct post about BioWare (though I’ll continue writing the Lazy Designer game design articles once I get caught up on my second novel and can free up some time). Thanks to all my former co-workers for your support, past and present! Planning to continue enjoying the games you are making and hoping you have the chance to read my stories (and soon, novels) and enjoy them as well.