The unknown's scary.

This is a big "think about career" post. As tends to happen when I start another quarter of school, my productivity for any sort of long-term project temporarily stops until about two or three weeks in when I get into the swing of things again. This is OK with me, it's a good break and I get some time to think about the long-term future.

The main thing I'm worried about, I suppose, is that my production skills aren't really strong in any one particular area. I do some drawing, and I do some tracked music, and I do some programming. It's sufficent to make a certain quality of game, something 2d that doesn't try too hard to be fast-moving or shiny. So in theory, I could strike off on my own and try making something to sell immediately, but right now I don't feel comfortable starting a business the moment I graduate, or while still in college for that matter. Plus what I can do with those skills is more likely to drive the games I make towards the casual end of the market, which is getting quite intense right now.

So the alternative is to get employed. Which brings up the skills problem again. The reason I took the time working on each of these different areas was to be self-sufficient in producing my own designs. I like the design part, but it's also the position that requires the smallest amount of manpower since it's not about implementation. But after a certain point my interest in the production aspects drops. Finding any sort of foothold in the development market looks like it will be very challenging from this starting point.

This QCS project of mine which I've been logging in previous plans is intended in part as a portfolio-builder exercise, but I keep getting the nagging feeling that it might put emphasis on the wrong parts of my skillset - building this thing into something resembling a working product has been mainly a tremendous programming challenge. I don't doubt that some people will be enthusiastic about it, and the end(or rather the beginning) is in sight, if still a bit too distant to make me want to crunch the rest of the way. But nonetheless I worry that it won't be enough to get me into a position somewhere, some place where I can work on games without having to worry as much about income or sanity.

I've still got about another year-and-a-half to work things out, at least.