My 2017

Filed Under: Personal

I did a some really cool things this year.

For one thing, I settled into my job. I have a long way to go and so much more to learn, but I feel like I’m in the swing of things now. I still find it amazing that people are willing to pay me to write code for games, surrounded by awesome people in a lovely office. I’m very excited about what I’ll get to work on in 2018.

In February I visited San Francisco to attend Game Developers Conference (GDC), an amazing opportunity to rub shoulders with people from all across the industry. I wouldn’t have gone if Connor hadn’t invited me along with him, so I’m very thankful to him for that. You can read all about my GDC experience here and my time in San Francisco here.

In the summer I took a few days off work to attend two short courses at Edinburgh University. The first was “Scottish Politics in Context”, which was a whirlwind tour of Scottish politics from the early modern period to the recent upheavals. The second was “Introduction to Solar Power”, a one-day course that explained the many ways we can use solar power, from heating water to the various kinds of photovoltaic cells. We also got to make our own PV cells using blackberry juice as a dye, which I didn’t know was even possible. I’d recommend both courses. I’m definitely going to do some more short courses this year coming.

In October me and Natalie went on holiday to the South of France, my first actual holiday out of the country for years. It was excellent.

My Mum moved house, so I had to say goodbye to the house I grew up in. I felt sad, but the process made me realise that I’ve well and truly moved out – her house hadn’t felt like my home for several years. Her new place is great, anyway, so it’s all worthwhile. (It also made me think about the Edinburgh housing market (Holy shit! (What the fuck?)))

In the latter half of the year I reached out and became an attendee of C++ Edinburgh, the local C++ usergroup. Everyone who attends is nice, works on cool stuff and has a lot of knowledge to share. In December I gave a short presentation at the meetup about my game engine, Quiver, which was quite good fun. I hope I can fit in some other meetups in 2018.

Speaking of Quiver, that project chugged along a fair bit, although I struggled to commit enough time to it. I finally came up with a good name, so it’s no longer just “the Quarrel engine”, and I made it open-source. You can check it out on GitHub. I look forward to continuing to tinker with it next year – there’s a lot of work to do! Maybe I’ll actually make Quarrel into a playable game! (Ha ha!)

In short, my 2017 was a blast. Just about everything that could have gone well went well. I have a lot to be thankful for. I live in a lovely flat with a lovely flatmate, I have excellent friends and a wonderful girlfriend, I love my job and it seems to like me. I know that 2018’s going to be a tough one (both professionally and personally), so I’m glad I get to begin it on the best possible footing.

Thanks for reading. I hope your 2018 is productive and peaceful.