🐣 Rebirth

I'm back! For the last 2-and-a-half years I've been working at Epic Games as a UI Programmer to save up enough money to go indie full-time again. I mostly worked on the LEGO Fortnite games: Odyssey and Brick Life. In the last few months I was unceremoniously transferred to a new unannounced project. I'm still curious to see how that one turns out.

I enjoyed the day-to-day work at Epic and met a lot of great people, but I found it pretty stressful. It seemed like every day, in addition to my regular tasks, there were 2 or 3 minor emergencies that were very distracting and needed my full attention.

I didn't have time or energy for my side projects and I was also very restricted in how I could work on them.

They were also starting to encourage generative AI use which I found very uncomfortable (I'll have to do another post about my thoughts on AI).

Anyway, I had saved up a comfortable amount and I was preparing to quit after a dentist appointment in mid-April (so I would still have dental insurance). But then on Tuesday March 24th I was unexpectedly laid off along with 1000 other people! Unlike many others this was pretty much the best outcome for me, as now I have additional severance pay and health insurance on top of my savings.

I'm still processing everything, but it now means I can dedicate myself to my indie games full-time again. I consider myself very lucky. I'm also getting more exercise, reading more, and going to bed earlier (because I no longer have to claw back precious personal time after the kids are asleep!).

Now I have to sort out my new priorities.

Business Priorities

Personal Priorities

In addition to working on my "big" games Spaceteam* and Blabyrinth I'd like to cleanse my palate by making some small games.

*somehow Spaceteam feels big now due to all the baggage and spin-offs it has accrued over the years.

I've had a bunch of weird experimental games kicking around in my brain for the last few years that need to come out.

I also have an idea for a cooperative board game about exploring an alien planet, but that's a longer term project.

I'll be posting a lot more here now that I have time, and things to share! I'll go into more details about my experiments and document how I'm building everything. I want this blog to be useful for other creators and not just a way to promote my own stuff.

🎁 Gifts

I'm bringing back my tradition of including some free Steam keys at the end of my posts, as a thank you to my supporters. If you see one you like just send me an email and if it's not already taken: it's yours!

⚠ Caveat: some of these codes are quite old and might have expired. If you get an expired one I'll offer you something else.

Contact Me

~ Henry (aka Captain Spaceteam)