The last post (of the year)

2009 has been yet another remarkable year with some step changes. It's been invigorating, though and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. In some vaguely topical/chronological order...

Work

I started the year working at Distribution Technology, where I had worked through the Christmas break so that I could attend the January Fishcon. I worked stupidly hard to get my part of the project back on track - which had been thrown off by a management decision to keep old code branches open (every code merge would screw my branch). In the end, they cancelled my holiday with days to go, claiming that they had never agreed to it. Then they asked me to work the weekend I was supposed to be at Fishcon. Did it make any difference to the project? No. The Client wasn't ready for another 2 weeks. Thanks for that. No, really. As the Devs would often say "Fucking Thank you".

In September, it was announced that we being made redundant. The cuts were humorous in the extreme. Only 4 of the 4 developers remain. Good luck to them. I enjoyed working there when things were going well, although I didn't like the full-tilt rush alongside expectation of quality. You can have rush or quality. Not both. It also taught me that if the company you're working for goes offshore, leave. It's not worth the aggrovation.

I'm now working for Prisym ID and have been dumped with the web project, a ridiculous deadline, no spec and little resource. I have no idea what the expectation is (although documentation people have told me when they are expecting all this to be finished) but I do know that the people that have been coding thus far have not been as diligent as they should have.

Hobbies

Chom Isis 3 finally graduated to the point it was playable. There were some terrific bugs but the Beta games really showed how strong (if a little complex) the new system was. I do want to run another Beta, probably in the new year, of the new system. I have a couple more operative pictures to get and a little more testing on the job system and we should be up and running again. There is a horde of people who would like to play the next game, so it should be a bun fight. Not bad considering I coded loads of it on the bus. I've had to cut back on the development a bit so that I can finish off other projects (such as Icar).

Along with the chaps at 1KM1KT, I ran The 24 Hour RPG Competition and we got some superb entries (30 in total). I did it as a impetous to write my own 24 hour RPG, which I did. I'm rather proud of Cloudship Atlantis although I have no idea if I will ever get to run it. Loads of people really threw themselves into the competition and I think it really helped get free RPGs out there.

My blogging has continued a pace, with a custom domain and a new design I did all by myself. Two of my favourite posts are where I tell free RPG authors to stop writing generic, lite fantasy RPGs and where I tell them to sort out their organisation. They are precursors to a larger partwork I have half-penned where I go through the entire process of writing a free RPG: from inspiration to print-on-demand. In the new year I will be unleashing a series of 60 second free RPG podcasts as guerilla entries in other (longer) podcasts. After that - I am considering taking a small break from blogging - only to get my next topic finished.

Icar Version 4 is coming along well but not at a fast enough rate. I have rewritten loads of the setting, creating new (simpler) hacking rules and a new (more player oriented) space combat ruleset. The background is vastly expanded and the example setting is now bursting at the seams.

I ended my Icar campaign, too. It was a planned affair that ended as well as it could. It was a great campaign and although I might not run another Low-Fi one, we skirted on the edges of a sandbox beautifully. At the end, I produced a graphic novel - which doesn't seem to be online anywhere. Bollocks. I'll upload it.

20 Years with the Air Training Corps came to an end

Makes me feel sad that I am not connected with the Air Cadets anymore. It's been a big part of everything I've done but it is best that I moved on. I have dreams to follow and they just aren't compatible with that sort of time sink. I miss everyone at the VGS terribly. It is more like a family up there.

Felix

In January the delightfully surprising news that Kate was up the duff. It was planned but we were surprised (in a good way) at how quickly it all happened. Dear Kate suffered hugely from morning sickness over those few months and although it did eventually end. As pregnancies went, it was all pretty standard, Felix was in the right position and everything.

His arrival was an ordeal but he's here and fit and healthy and immensely cute. Even for a baby, he's very cute. Some babies look fugly for months. I'm going to post a state of the Felix post to chart his development another time.

A fitting place to end.

Merry Christmas all!