Friday was my last day at Page 44 Studios, and I don't think anything I say in this post can capture the prism of feelings over leaving those awesome people. It was kind of like the last bite of the most delicious hamburger in the world before starting on the sumptuous molten chocolate dessert… yeah like that. I like to think that I did everything I promised to do before I left, and that the last dinner I had their wasn't BBQ ribs on accident 😀 .
The project I worked on there, High School Musical: Senior Year Dance, was almost finished. I like to think I, and of course all hopelessly driven folks at Page 44, gave it our all to prove that a game based off a wildly successful IP didn't have to suck. This is a game that would have sold at least 2 million profit-laden copies without us lifting a finger, but there's no dignity in that for gamers like us. Not everyone gets to work on a triple-A title, but as Henry Heinz (of ketchup fame) once said: "To do a common thing, uncommonly well, that brings success."
Imagine how ecstatic I was when I saw this IGN preview that actually said our game was fun! And I quote:
Now for the scoffers out there that are quickly writing the game off, I'm going to throw this out here. High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance played better than Samba de Amigo. The game was overall more responsive with the controls (albeit far simpler controls) and there was a bigger connection to what we were doing and what was going on in the game. Granted, all the songs are from HSM, but hey it was Ricky Martin and Lou Bega in the Samba game, so it seems like a lateral move to me.
There's still plenty of months before the release of either of these games, but HSM3:SYD (ugh I'm just calling it Dance from now on) is shaping up to be a fun, active Wii game that fans of the movie can actually have fun with.
Tomorrow I start a new job at EA Redwood Shores, and hope to bring every ripe, tasty ounce of "uncommonly well" I learned at Page 44 to all projects on the table, common and uncommon. That, with luck, brings success.
TJ writes:
Damn, man. It's one thing for me to get an award from my squadron. But getting a good preview from IGN is you being awesome at what you do. Congratulations on that.
I was just thinking, I think you're one rung ahead of me on the career ladder. You had heavy involvement in this title, whereas that hopefully I'll have that kind of project involvement in a few months. I guess we've both wished sometimes that we were on the other side of our fence.
Anyway, I don't think I have to say this but I just wanted to let you know that I wish you and Cookie the best with your jobs. Each time you've gone to a new job, that to me is an act of bravery. It takes guts to jump into a new situation. I did it just once, and I'm about to do it for a second time… you've done it going into ESC, Berkley, Page44, EA, and whatever else that I'm forgetting.
It's funny. I'm always praying to God, asking for guidance and hoping I'll be able to hear His voice when he talks to me. It just seems sometimes that you're getting more of that guidance than I am. But I really think that He is guiding all of us oh-so-subtly, it's just that often I am paralyzed from taking action because I'm afraid to fail, and you hear and act because your survival depends on it. I think if I got over my fear of failure, I'd be alot further along in my life like you are.
Grüß dich, klasse Post. Ich liebe dieses Themengebiet und warte gespannt auf mehr Beiträge zu dem Thema.