TLDR - I was gone, Then i dealt with bullshit for few years, now i'm kinda lost
So i've been active on HBGames under two names. One was zi0808 ( When i was a little kid that didn't know anything ) and this one, which i made later and used more, Because previous account was actually IP Banned permanently for my uhm... cringe
Anyways. I'm kinda thinking of getting back here. Lot of things happened in few years. I finished my army duty ( because being in South Korea means you have crazy neighbors that cries nuclear war, Though recently things are getting better ), I got into a small development team i started with one of the person i know and failed hard to the ground, now i'm unemployed and just barely making it through.
But anyway.
It was literal mess of my life in 2016~2017.
I was *doing* army duty but i didn't went to the actual ground/air/navy/or marines, Because i was diagnosed with Aspergers - Nobody told me i had one, I didn't get any treatment for it for almost my entire life but then suddenly when i start hurting my self from stress my parents finally told me and took me to the psychiatrist. So good thing is, i get to do a Civil Service. 9~6 work, then go home. Bad thing is, i was shocked and confused as ever because known symptoms of aspergers kinda explained all of my weird behaviors that just comes out of me. Felt a bit betrayed too, because whenever i say i want help, and want to see a doctor for my mental pain my parents would say no, thinking that by just going to the psychiatrist will leave a permanent damage to my future, saying that the medical record will be saved and companies that i might apply later will look into those records and assume i'm insane and will drop me off from the list without interview.
Well turns out some of it is true, my country treats mentally ill people like a criminal ( Even though the law does not state it, just the social culture of it ) and will not try to understand the difficulties or differences that person like me have.
But why it was messy was, before getting into that duty, i was already doing game dev business with my partner - who is my dad's friend that worked on multiple IT companies and Game Companies as PM(Project Manager). And when he first offered me to make games with him and told me i'm going to get paid for it, i got suckered in hard. Because holy shit, Do what i like and earn money? Sign me up right now. But then duty came. So now i have to juggle army duty and the "job" at the same time which is hard. Basically i was working 9-6 at the duty, and 7-12 for the game dev, then sleep, wake up, rinse and repeat. I had no personal space, my health started to degrade, i was constantly tired.
Then as time passes i sniff some anomaly. First off, there was nearly not enough time to do anything everytime. We had to get some kind of investment alright - Then my partner , without discussing with me told the investor that we'll release 4 games a year. Which is bull. that's 3 months rationed for each project. 3 months is not enough time to make anything that's remotely decent. And as mentioned previously, I had to juggle army duty at the same time. Then, another problem is, we started this as "team" but there was no member other than me and him, and he was not directly involved in development but was more of a "Manager" as his previous title was "Project Manager". It was like, i eat money, and shit out games. It was bad.
To make things worse, coworkers at the duty were being the biggest dickwads in the world. And as i kinda start to have argument with my partner my stress meter was off the roof.
After 2 years of duty i was finally done, so that's good. I thought i can now fully work on the dev team, we also had a bit more members ( even though, some members we hired before were really shitty ). But then, i had a plan to visit Europe since December 2017, and i informed everyone about it. And so i went to Poland for 3 weeks, and when i returned, My partner told me that everyone is disappointed in me including him.
U fucking wot.
I asked him why. And he said it was because i left for 3 weeks. But the thing is, if this was a regular company, i would have no words even if i got fired for this. But this is a small indie team, i informed everyone in advance, and they didn't said much before i left. Then suddenly, this. Then i didn't get paid properly. Because of that, and my partner mentioned we are running out of funds. Of course, i knew this was coming. When i have to "shit out" games, not "make/craft" one. Also the aimed market was really wrong - Which was Android. I haven't seen anybody who calls themselves a gamer and jerks their fat fingers on a tiny mobile phone. And worse, i 've seen what's the hot stuff on Google Play. Games with a shit ton of content, made by bigger company with much more budget. That was not possible for us, at all.
So i suggested we change the market to Steam instead. Because i dunno how many of you tried making a mobile game, but you have to build it on your computer and test it on your phone. Of course, basic things can be tested on fly in editor, But Platform-specific APIs or Functions has to be tested on actual Android/iOS device. And then because i was the only dev there, i had to do dev and testing at the same time. And then even more frustrating thing is, My partner tells me every time that i should send builds every day, so others can test it. Guess what. Other than him, the people on team didn't even open the mail.
Eventually after all the bullshit i had to deal i told them i'm done. And here i am. And yet i still have to deal with some bullshit such as returning my Cintiq Tablet, because my partner bought them to me to use while i'm on the team, But since i finished my business in whole with that team, I am not eligible to use it anymore. He gave me few more months before i have to return it though. But Since my current income solely depends on art commissions, This is some big spike on my back.
So that was a big boring post about what i've been up to while i was gone. Just wanted to share some shitty life story i guess. Currently i'm working on more art commissions and planning my next move on game development.
This is probably not really a discussion, But if you have story to share game-dev wise , do tell.
So i've been active on HBGames under two names. One was zi0808 ( When i was a little kid that didn't know anything ) and this one, which i made later and used more, Because previous account was actually IP Banned permanently for my uhm... cringe
Anyways. I'm kinda thinking of getting back here. Lot of things happened in few years. I finished my army duty ( because being in South Korea means you have crazy neighbors that cries nuclear war, Though recently things are getting better ), I got into a small development team i started with one of the person i know and failed hard to the ground, now i'm unemployed and just barely making it through.
But anyway.
It was literal mess of my life in 2016~2017.
I was *doing* army duty but i didn't went to the actual ground/air/navy/or marines, Because i was diagnosed with Aspergers - Nobody told me i had one, I didn't get any treatment for it for almost my entire life but then suddenly when i start hurting my self from stress my parents finally told me and took me to the psychiatrist. So good thing is, i get to do a Civil Service. 9~6 work, then go home. Bad thing is, i was shocked and confused as ever because known symptoms of aspergers kinda explained all of my weird behaviors that just comes out of me. Felt a bit betrayed too, because whenever i say i want help, and want to see a doctor for my mental pain my parents would say no, thinking that by just going to the psychiatrist will leave a permanent damage to my future, saying that the medical record will be saved and companies that i might apply later will look into those records and assume i'm insane and will drop me off from the list without interview.
Well turns out some of it is true, my country treats mentally ill people like a criminal ( Even though the law does not state it, just the social culture of it ) and will not try to understand the difficulties or differences that person like me have.
But why it was messy was, before getting into that duty, i was already doing game dev business with my partner - who is my dad's friend that worked on multiple IT companies and Game Companies as PM(Project Manager). And when he first offered me to make games with him and told me i'm going to get paid for it, i got suckered in hard. Because holy shit, Do what i like and earn money? Sign me up right now. But then duty came. So now i have to juggle army duty and the "job" at the same time which is hard. Basically i was working 9-6 at the duty, and 7-12 for the game dev, then sleep, wake up, rinse and repeat. I had no personal space, my health started to degrade, i was constantly tired.
Then as time passes i sniff some anomaly. First off, there was nearly not enough time to do anything everytime. We had to get some kind of investment alright - Then my partner , without discussing with me told the investor that we'll release 4 games a year. Which is bull. that's 3 months rationed for each project. 3 months is not enough time to make anything that's remotely decent. And as mentioned previously, I had to juggle army duty at the same time. Then, another problem is, we started this as "team" but there was no member other than me and him, and he was not directly involved in development but was more of a "Manager" as his previous title was "Project Manager". It was like, i eat money, and shit out games. It was bad.
To make things worse, coworkers at the duty were being the biggest dickwads in the world. And as i kinda start to have argument with my partner my stress meter was off the roof.
After 2 years of duty i was finally done, so that's good. I thought i can now fully work on the dev team, we also had a bit more members ( even though, some members we hired before were really shitty ). But then, i had a plan to visit Europe since December 2017, and i informed everyone about it. And so i went to Poland for 3 weeks, and when i returned, My partner told me that everyone is disappointed in me including him.
U fucking wot.
I asked him why. And he said it was because i left for 3 weeks. But the thing is, if this was a regular company, i would have no words even if i got fired for this. But this is a small indie team, i informed everyone in advance, and they didn't said much before i left. Then suddenly, this. Then i didn't get paid properly. Because of that, and my partner mentioned we are running out of funds. Of course, i knew this was coming. When i have to "shit out" games, not "make/craft" one. Also the aimed market was really wrong - Which was Android. I haven't seen anybody who calls themselves a gamer and jerks their fat fingers on a tiny mobile phone. And worse, i 've seen what's the hot stuff on Google Play. Games with a shit ton of content, made by bigger company with much more budget. That was not possible for us, at all.
So i suggested we change the market to Steam instead. Because i dunno how many of you tried making a mobile game, but you have to build it on your computer and test it on your phone. Of course, basic things can be tested on fly in editor, But Platform-specific APIs or Functions has to be tested on actual Android/iOS device. And then because i was the only dev there, i had to do dev and testing at the same time. And then even more frustrating thing is, My partner tells me every time that i should send builds every day, so others can test it. Guess what. Other than him, the people on team didn't even open the mail.
Eventually after all the bullshit i had to deal i told them i'm done. And here i am. And yet i still have to deal with some bullshit such as returning my Cintiq Tablet, because my partner bought them to me to use while i'm on the team, But since i finished my business in whole with that team, I am not eligible to use it anymore. He gave me few more months before i have to return it though. But Since my current income solely depends on art commissions, This is some big spike on my back.
So that was a big boring post about what i've been up to while i was gone. Just wanted to share some shitty life story i guess. Currently i'm working on more art commissions and planning my next move on game development.
This is probably not really a discussion, But if you have story to share game-dev wise , do tell.