Well, it's been quite an rollercoaster of emotions and happenings which have happened since the last journal entry. Really, it's been a mixed bag of stuff which will benefit greatly by, what else? A list!

Wheelman was released.
The game I worked on for over two years was released to the public around March of this year. It came out to a mixed response - people either loved it or hated it. I think the people who loved it enjoyed the nifty handling, the arcade event modes and the like. The haters wanted it to be GTA4, and it wasn't even trying to be GTA4. What didn't help Wheelman's Metacritic - which appears so, so important to brainless gamers these days - was the hateful IGN review. Weighted averages suck. The game was published in part by Ubisoft, whereas those aforementioned brainless gamers thought it would be a better game now that Midway wasn't publishing it. Idiots.

Necessary Force - New IP!
We worked on a new IP of a game called Necessary Force while we were waiting to see how the Midway bankruptcy stuff would play out. Eventually we brought out a teaser trailer of the game using the rather lush concept art, which was adored by many people. We also got ourselves a nifty write-up by Edge Online - who were the only journalists to ever play the game. The studio played host to many studio reps who came in to possibly buy the studio/IP/etc.

Midway Newcastle shuts up shop.
July 14th was a pretty horrible day - it was the day where Matt Booty came to surprise us all and shut up the studio. We had pitches for another project we were working on, which could have saved the studio - that fell through, and our boss informed us to get our shit together. I could go on about it here, but I suggest you check out my blog post about it. This blog post was soon reported as a news item on many news gaming sites, and I was and still am extremely glad that we got our side of the story out after the dust had settled.

Our studio was the only studio to be closed down - the other studios were bought up and saved by various parties with some reduncancies across the board. I don't think many people were fussed that Midway died - some might even have been joyous, but the company had a strong gaming heritage. Gamers these days are mostly fickle and spoilt, and maybe I'm glad I'm no longer directly related to working on videogames because of this.

I now have a new job!
Our art director managed to create a start-up company from the ashes of Midway Newcastle - he has recruited myself, Corlen Kruger and Pete Thompson - two exceptionally fine concept artists - to work for a marvellously-named company called Atomhawk Design. There's a placeholder site with our artwork on that link, but check back in a few days time for a sexy makeover site which I was a major part of. I also now have mad .css skills and can actually understand the very .css which makes up this journal. Very tempted to come up with a new style soon!

Cult of Karl is in production!
Awesome musician Chris Merritt is paying me some monies for working on the Cult of Karl fan video I'm wrangling. You can actually check out OnDemand recorded videos of me working on the video at the Livestream Cult of Karl page. I broadcast live on my Livestream from 5-9PM GMT - check me out!

My eyes still suck
I have crummy floaters, one mass of floaters in my left eye, much smaller one in the right eye - I'm reminded of them a lot when I'm in the Atomhawk office; it's the purest, whitest place you've seen, and acts as a lightbox for them. I've been reading about how sinus irrigation could help get rid of them(!) rather than LASIK treatment. Or maybe they'll go away. I do remember when I first got them was when I was living at my ex-landlord's place and was particularly stressed. Cheers, ex-landlord. I sometimes fret a bit about possible retinal detachment, but that's the joys of getting old. Kids, don't take your vision for granted!

I hitched up with a potential Mrs. Pick!
Hello, Suze

So it's been quite a crazy mix of adventures and things which have happened to me. Losing my job sucked, but I was so happy that I got myself back into gainful employment so quickly - there was the danger of being cabin-fevered in this place, but now I absolutely love listening to podcasts while walking to work through the lovely surrounds of Saltwell Park. Atomhawk is a very promising company - I love being part of it and I'm sure there's a great future ahead of us as a company. I look back on the Midway stuff and it does make me sad - seeing the photos of the empty studio was quite a depressing thing. If I think of that as one chapter ending and another one beginning, my mindset is in a much more shinier place.

Thanks for reading!