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My passion has always been in game design, my natural skills have always been in animation, and my current opportunities are in web development. But which do I pursue?

Games

See my post on Indie Games

So my passion has always been in game development, I love creating an idea, I love imagining it, I love designing the experience the player will have, I love thinking of ways to fill the gaming void of what’s been done, what need’s to be done, and what hasn’t been seen. And I just love making it and seeing what I’ve created.

The only problem is, I don’t believe I’ve actually fully created a game from start to finish (besides the odd pong or space invaders type lol). I would really like to see myself developing DoubleJump fully, but I know its going to be a lengthy process.

At the same time (and I have no experience with this, but I believe that) I don’t think I want to be in the “Games” industry, simply for the fact that if I chose to pursue this, that I would be restricted to only one path, be it modelling/animating, programming, or designing. The issue is that I want to be doing all those things! All at once! In order to create a game that has pure symbiosis. This is the reason why I love indie games so much, because you can subtly tell that the designer, programmer and artist, all had the same idea/goal/intent in mind.

So I guess the question is, Is this really what the game industry is like? Can all my passions be satisfied through normal game studio’s? Or will I only ever achieve satisfaction through the indie scene?

Animation

I’ve always had a natural urge to animate things. I love how a thing, when animated properly, can be given life, character, emotion, and even change your perceptions of that thing, simply by it’s motions and actions.

Maybe it started at an early age when I was making those animated GIF stickdeath animations (wow that brings back some memories of awful animation LOL), or when I watched Toy Story as a boy, subconsciously marveling at how these toys were made to be alive, or maybe it was when I was given a copy of Macromedia’s Flash, giving me the tools to accomplish pretty much anything I desired to create as a kid. Together with growing up watching as many animation/cartoons that I could, always analysing the motion, timing and characterisms, all I know is that, today, I absolutely love animation, all forms of it, as well as the whole process, and finding out how I can use these skills is the next step.

I like designing a character, giving it attributes, features, emotions and a back-story. I love visualising it, drawing it, modelling it, bringing it from conception to reality, taking an idea, an imagination, and making it tangible, visible, something that someone else can see and begin to understand. But I mostly love animating it, and finally being able to express to someone else, the initial character that I designed, and letting them form their own opinions and relationships with them. I love that animation alone, can be used to touch people’s emotions, whether you want to make them happy or sad, comfortable or frightened, it can all be controlled by the way you animate something.

I was inspired by watching the Toy Story 3 DVD and all its special features, and it sort of rekindled my desire to start animating and modelling again. But what is the industry like? Are animators treated like the arse-end of development chain? And as much as I love seeing my creatures come to life, at times it can be a real tedious pain. And there are so many animators out there, is PIXAR always just going to be a fantasy?

Web

So I’m currently working as a Web and Flash developer, and it’s a great job, but I can’t help but feel I’m really neglecting my other two passions. I’ve learnt so much in the last year that I’m grateful for, and I can appreciate how important HTML and the web is going to be in the coming years (integrated into almost every aspect of life?), it’s going to be a handy skill to have.

But how far can I go with it? And with the time its consuming, I’m afraid its hindering my progress, passion and skills from my other two interests. But should I risk the great opportunity that I currently have, to follow dreams that may just flop?

I guess for now I just have to find the time to work on all 3, and eventually find out what I really love or don’t want to do. Either that, or there is always MotionX Dice to make my decision