MatthewDoyleArt.com Blog

I recently flew into the D.C. area to interview and hang out with the guys and gals at Scaleform. I had a great time, and ended up getting the job. I’m very excited to get started, and have been spending my days refreshing my Action Script skills.

I start on Dec. 1. The company is full of talented and passionate people, and the Scaleform product is an impressive UI solution.  The most appealing part of the job for me is the knowledge that I’ll be able to travel around to some of the biggest studios in the business to help them develop UIs for their games.

Please accept my apologies for not posting in quite a while.  Times have been a bit tough, and I’m sure the rest of you out there will probably agree.  I’ve had several contracts and a few jobs over the past few months, most of which have fallen through for one reason or another (funding, bad timing, etc.)  And I’m sure the economic situation we all find ourselves in right now isn’t helping things out.  I’ve heard of several studios laying off large numbers of developers in Austin and Canada (those two places I can confirm anyway).  Finding a job right now is becoming increasingly difficult.  Many studios are freezing hiring until next year.  On the plus side, my drawing tablet issues have finally been rectified.  I got a new one thanks to an unexpected and greatly appreciated gift.  Same size and everything.

I’ve been concentrating on updating my portfolio for perspective employers and contract work.  I have a few possible jobs on the horizon, and am waiting to hear back from them.  Regardless of where I end up, I plan to plant my flag firmly in the ground and hopefully, despite the way things are, buy a house to raise my family in.

I’ll have some new artwork, and hopefully complete some of the old stuff this month and post it.  Be on the look out for links to design docs and an Unreal 3 test map as well.  I also plan to post screenshots from my old game Cleric and a few other items from my older stuff.

I recently received an email from a young college graduate, asking for advice on acquiring a game development position. While there have been many books and web articles written on the subject, I thought I might present my readers with a small bulleted list of tips that were of great help to me when I was the person asking for advice. The year is 2000 A.D., I’m 27 years old, working at Comp USA, recently married (and still happily so), and living in a crappy apartment in Houston, Texas. I had dropped out of Art School, had no direction in my life beyond my marriage, and was living from paycheck to paycheck. One day, I was playing one of the games on display and thought to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to play a game where the goal was NOT to kill people? Maybe something where you play a priest? Oh, and what if that priest had lost his faith? And what if there were multiple gods he could choose to follow?’ Suddenly I had a premise for a game that sounded intriguing. I mentioned the idea to my friends and my wife, who all began to tell me I should make the game.

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