Zarf Updates

I don't mention my day job much, but here's an update. As of today, I am signing on with The Molasses Flood as a Narrative Systems Engineer.

If you recall the news from a few months ago, that means I am employed by CD Projekt. That's the Polish studio responsible for the Witcher games, Cyberpunk 2077, and GOG.

What am I working on? Everybody's favorite, the Unannounced Project! But to quote the press release:

The Molasses Flood [...] will be working on its own ambitious project which is based on one of CD PROJEKT’s IPs.

So, um, count up CDP's IPs and pick one.

This is less of a jump than it seems. I spent a good chunk of 2020 contracting for Molasses Flood, working on a narrative/dialogue system for a different game. That game wound up shelved -- but when Molasses and CDP started cooking up this project, the Molasses narrative engine was a key component. So Molasses brought me back on as a contractor last August. I've been working on Unannounced Project for the past six months, adapting and updating the engine for the new requirements. I like the Molasses folks, they like me, I want to see the game through -- so now I'm wearing the hat.

(And getting the health care benefits. The ACA has been great for me as an indie, but who knows what happens the next time it lands before the Supreme Court.)

Anyway, the upshot is that I'm still doing all the same stuff for IFTF; I'm still selling Hadean Lands and Meanwhile; I'm still writing game reviews and stuff here.

This is a strange moment for me. Everybody knows me as a games guy, but the last time I started as an employee of a game company was... 1995. (Working on the Mac port of Icebreaker.) And that lasted less than eighteen months.

I won't reiterate my career, but it's involved a lot of boring ordinary software-dev work. I took a few years off for HL and Meanwhile, but that wasn't self-sustaining. Then I fetched up at SpiritAI, working on game-related tools, but it wasn't a game company per se. Then I did contracting here and there, which led to Molasses, and now... I'm working on a game. An "ambitious" one, according to the press release. Not what I expected!

But my job title is "Narrative Systems Engineer", and that's pretty darn cool.

More news when there is news.

(The Molasses Flood is hiring, by the way.)