I'm Chargin my Resume!

About 3 years ago, I stood in front of one of my first classes @ SMU, and told them a very, very important piece of information. I explained to them the fickle, odd nature of the games industry, and described that they should get used to the fact that sooner or later, the company they are working for would close, and they would be cast out into the cold wilderness to handle things themselves. At the time, TKO had just closed, a company I had hardly worked at for more than 3 months, and to be honest, I expected the stability of Microsoft, coupled with the history of Ensemble to have less of a chance of that same problem.

I was wrong.

Which I suppose most everyone has heard the news : Upon the completion of Halo Wars, Microsoft is shutting down Ensemble studios, and Laying us all off.

I had a number of reactions when i first heard the news Tuesday morning :
My first thought was "HA Called it!" To be honest, the past 3 years haven't been a cakewalk @ Ensemble. The Halo Wars development has been increasingly difficult , ad we've had numerous prototypes all shut down by Microsoft. In short, there was a massive difference in vision between the Ensemble and Microsoft management, and that divide grew larger once we added a large amount of people to the company, and wasn't producing any new titles.

My second thought was "Oh shit, I'm out of a job!" This thought lasted about 30 seconds before my third thought : "Oh, wait.. I've got like 10 job offers in the last week..I should be ok."

Which brings us to the 4th thought, the one that still rings my head to this day (and until Jan 1st, when MS officially closes the doors.) "Wait.. My first child is due January 30th...."

Needless to say, this week has been difficult on my expecting wife..

I can't lie, the work-life balance at Ensemble has been getting pretty harsh in the past 8 months; where I found myself less and less interested in sticking around. Decisions made by management made less, and less sense, and multiple slips and lack of progress on Halo Wars was getting intolerable. I can't lie, I'd been debating leaving after the ship of halo wars for many months; At which time, I realized a crucial trend in my career : I'm dedicated to the project, not the company. In other words, I have no love for the management and decision makers behind the title of the company. I no loner feel that I owe them for signing my paycheck and handing out company perks. I've been sticking it through the ship of Halo Wars for two reasons, #1 to get a title that I started, and brewed the original code base into the wild. and #2 to stick with the other developers whom have shed blood over this project in the past 3 years. Much akin to a soldier in the trenches, dealing with flying bullets, feeling more loyalty to the others in the pit with them, than they do to the government that assigned them the standard issue boots they have to wear.

I think I'm more so hurt by the mental ramifications of this separation. In any relationship, it's usually better for it to be terminated on your terms; and I'd much rather move forward saying "I'm leaving Microsoft for reasons X,Y,Z" than "Microsoft laid my company off for X,Y,Z" I know that the company closing had nothing to do with me personally, but the sentences above have their own stigma associated with it. I expect every interview to ask those questions, to which I unfortunately must give the 'not as nice to my ego' response of the two.

So what's next for the Roach? Well, there's never a shortage of head hunters in this industry, and there's never a shortage of positions available for a balding graphics & systems programmer. So, if my wife and I are willing to relocate, we've got more options that we know what to do with. Staying local is difficult, as the DFW game development community is very, very small, and the probability of getting in at one of the local companies is even smaller.


Maybe I'll start my own shop.. Hmmm....


~Main