All good things...

First, I feel I should apologize to anyone who reads this blog about not updating more. I could make a bunch of excuses about being too busy, but that doesn't make up for the fact that I had intended to more thoroughly document my little experiment.

With that out of the way, the big news update:

I decided to take a job working for Amazing Society.

There are a number of factors that lead to this decision:

• Medical bills can be very expensive. Some might say that bringing a baby into this world without medical insurance may not have been the wisest choice. While it did involve an unexpected surgery (emergency c-section), we got relatively lucky with not requiring any ICU time or emergency airlifting. In the end, it's debatable as to whether it would have cost more or less with insurance, as any insurance that would have covered the expenses we did have would have been very expensive anyway.
• I didn't start out with a large enough bankroll. Most advice that I found online advised having 6 months of net pay saved up. My liquid savings were closer to 4 months when I started. (My savings got closer to 1 month at the end thanks to the medical expenses.) If this had been the only factor, I might have been able to get by and rebuild my savings, but life is rarely that simple.
• The market turned out not to be as strong as I had thought. While it seemed like the entertainment industry wasn't going to be significantly impacted by the economic down-turn, it was not that simple. Funding dried up for a lot of developers, and a lot of teams got laid off. Video games are turning out to be a strong industry, but some belts got tightened, and it became more common for my clients to cancel on planned engagements than it was for them to follow through. (Thankfully, I did have a few very strong clients that were happy to pick up the slack.)
• Christmas is a very bad time to lose a major client, especially if the following client falls through as well. Combined with the other above factors, that meant I was looking at the prospect of a very bad end to the year, and no prospects for turning it around in January.
• Being independent can be very stressful on relationships. While I started this whole journey with the intent of being able to focus on my family more, I focused more on work instead. As I was entirely accountable for my own success, I felt compelled to work at my maximum potential 100% of the time. Mix 1 part mental fatigue with 2 parts colic, and serve chilled for maximum stress levels. Even further than that, I had completely overlooked the impact that not having a stable income would have on other people in my life. Even if it would work out as a net positive on the financial balance sheet, it can lead to a lot of extra worrying. (Especially if some of the income gets delayed by 6 months due to bankruptcy filings...)
• I wasn't in a position to take full advantage of my independence. As it worked out, I didn't realize early enough that I needed to invest more in my own future. Part of the appeal of being independent is that you also have opportunities to profit directly from your own efforts. Without that, you're still entirely dependent upon your clients. Not realizing this fact lead to this dependence ultimately being the downfall of the whole idea.

In summary, it turned out that my little business plan was poor timing, both for the market, and for me personally. I still think it's a good idea, but next time I try it, I'll be taking these factors into account.

Annual Review

It's September again, which means this little experiment has been going on for about a year. In that time, I've had 4 contracts with three different clients, most of which have been for a total of 16 weeks. It seems that the general pattern is to work for a client for the 8-week scheduled time slot, and then have my next client cancel. At that point, searching for a backup can be a little bit difficult, leading to an extension with the previous client.

Also, I took 6 weeks off for paternity leave along the way. Having a son was definitely a joyous experience, especially considering the client I was working with before I took the time off preferred to have me work from home. (Dealing with a birth without medical insurance, however, was exceptionally expensive...)

As far as business models go, I am encountering a mixture of acceptance and outright refusal. It is very difficult to communicate how my services differ from a standard contractor, and there seems to be a growing policy against the use of engineering contractors in the game industry. Unfortunately, mercenary work tends to get caught in the wake. In a few cases, it's prevented me from even being able to talk to anyone on the actual development side, and in one case, a change in policy caused me to lose a client that I was hoping to work with on a regular basis.

To further the point a little bit, I am also finding that the 8-week time slot is a very important feature of the business model. (One that I have unfortunately had to extend in every case.) After the first 8 weeks, it appears to be inevitable that my clients will tend to treat me more and more as an employee, leading to integrations into processes in which I don't belong. On my side, I find myself tending to take too much ownership over systems, and in the process, offer features that were not requested. Sometimes that turns out for the better, but often it will lead to more complicated solutions, which introduces instability, both in my results and the workflow of my clients. In the end, I may have to find a way to communicate the benefits of having me go away for a little while and return later with a fresh viewpoint.

With respect to experience, I have gotten much more exposure to technologies than I would have otherwise. I now have PS3 and Unreal experience under my belt, as well as a little more Xbox 360 exposure, and some time with Unity. (Incidentally, if Unity matches your feature requirements, I would highly suggest investigating it. It's a very good solution for small projects on PC, and my productivity level with it was very high.) I even had a chance to do a little bit of iPhone development on the side, and while it wasn't anything technically impressive, it was a learning experience. (I'm also proud to say that I have 0 known bugs and have never had to release a patch.)

Looking forward, my prospects aren't quite as rosy as last year, as my potential client pool has thinned out quite a bit. I should have a new client coming online next October, however, and a couple possibilites are lined up for the beginning of the year.

All in all, this has been a good year. Hopefully I will be able to continue this process, as I feel it has allowed me to grow both professionally and personally. Also, I still feel that my services, and this type of service, are valuable to the industry in general.

Popularity

Well, it seems that this idea at least has potential. So far, I've managed to find enough clients that I'm booked for the next 9 months or so. (That's actually become my main problem... Having to tell people who are interested that they have to wait.) My first contract starts in about a week.

Unemployment

"Funny thing about weekends when you're unemployed -- they don't mean quite so much, 'cept you get to hang out with your workin' friends." --Les Claypool

I effectively lost my job about 3 weeks ago. As of today, however I am now officially in the same category as about 6% of our nation's population. What's different about my situation, however, is that it's on purpose. I'm planning to NOT get another job.

Instead, I'm planning to work for myself. As a result of a long period of employment (about 16 years at this point), I've decided the incentive structure of full-time employment doesn't match with my long-term goals.

I'm not planning to run a game company, because I've decided that's way too much risk. It has become very rare for a start-up game company to become a profitable venture. Besides, I'm really only good at a small portion of what might make a game company successful. That means I still need to do my job for another company.

I'm not planning to become a contractor, however, because that term doesn't match what I have in mind. Companies tend to think of contractors as a sub-optimal stand-in for employees. Their contract terms are generally in the 6-24 month range, and companies often think of this as a loss of investment.

I'm planning to become something closer to a mercenary. I'm planning to offer services in the 1-8 week range instead. I'm expecting it to work out like this: companies will have a short-term problem, contact me, we'll work out terms and scheduling, and then I'll drop by and fix their problem. Then I'll move on. I think this will be a good fit between my skill set, my goals, and the needs of companies in the market.

We'll see how it works out.