Welp, the quarter here at SCAD ended just a little while ago, so I figure I might as well take a look back and reflect.

One of the key developments was that I found myself not to be much of a character modeler--not without a significant amount of practice which I don't have the time or interest to put in. I'm pretty much only interested in characters as a hobby, and only if they're my own characters. While there's nothing wrong with wanting to see one's creations come to life, "only if they're my own characters" doesn't get one very far in the job market. Plus, it's not like there's a huge demand for character modelers anyway.

What I HAVE discovered is that I have an aptitude for hard-body modeling, which, combined with my really really gameplay-centric mind, makes me really well cut-out to be a level designer--which is just as well since some of the top professors here are environment artists/level designers.

In other words: I've pretty much come full-circle BACK TO WHERE I WAS when I was 8 years old, tinkering around with the Duke Nukem 3D BUILD editor. It took me 13 years going from level design to writing to misc. game design to maybe a character artist to misc. game design again before finally--FINALLY--I ended up BACK at level design. It just goes to show you that SOMETIMES your childhood dream is actually the right one.

Meanwhile, I've been getting back in touch with the roots of why I enjoyed games in the first place, and I've come to form some strong philosophies and observations which I'm hoping to document in a couple of papers for Gamasutra soon. This is a long story in and of itself which I'll spare for another time, but I've never had a stronger resolve to make some much-needed waves in the now stagnant and complacent industry. How I'm going to do it is another question, but this is only one quarter out of eight, and I've got a ways ahead of me.

Overall, the quarter's gone well. I've gotten strong positive responses from my professors and my peers about my work and my ideas, I've nearly managed to land myself a tutoring position, and my grades (well, most of them) came out top-notch. It hasn't been a quarter without defeats, though. Socially, I had a rough time getting off the ground. I never made quite enough time to get to Gamer's Guild (tabletop gaming club), though part of that I attribute to the NIGHTMARES of parking in Savannah on a Friday night, and I was only JUST starting to develop my circle of friends when the quarter ended. Silly as it is for me to mention this, I also never really found anyone I felt like dating, though that's gotten less and less distressing as time's gone on and I've grown more content with myself.

I had doubts for a while, but this is the first time ever that a school period's ended and I haven't felt like my school just chewed me up and spat me out.

Life is good.