Continuing on the path set yesterday I will talk a bit about a strange period of my life, not a lot of game development during it so slow in some sense, however so much other things going on so really hectic in other ways.
After Colossai I moved back to my home town where I played a lot of World of Warcraft, and the only programming I did were mods for World of Warcraft. I made one mod which tried to calculate threat for dps (and tanks) to help out in raids, for the curious you may have a look at it Here. I also had a more fun-project which were an virtual arcade machine of sorts I implemented a version of the classic game Breakout complete with level-editor ^^ again the project can be found Here.
I had other small development projects but mainly I worked flipping burgers and raided in World of Warcraft. It actually was a great time and I would argue it were exactly what I needed at that point in time. I have always had the ability to understand my own limitations and my own needs, which in many ways been a bliss. I have also always been impulsive and done everything I wanted or got the chance to do. And many times I have created the needed conditions so that I may do what I want while knowing where my limitations are. So I am lucky in that way having an exceptionally aware insight.
However during the years to come I moved around a lot. First I moved to Gothenburg and attended Chalmers University where I studied algorithms and took some other classes. I moved to Brazil where I did some web development, but mainly worked on things for searching other jobs. After a less lucrative career in Brazil with a short stop in England I returned to Sweden and studied some more in Luleå. After a year I moved to Stockholm where pieces started falling into place.
I will stop there for today and provide you another anecdote from when I did my military service going on university.
I did my military service in Boden, north of Sweden. I did for ten months and for me at that point in time it was actually quite rewarding! I met people which believed in me and helped me starting to do so myself. I also learned something that I didn't really get before that and it might seem simple but basically the idea that if there is work to be done, your mind wont rest until you've done it, sure there will be other work to take on, but it won't haunt you once you put it behind you. As I said, to others it might seem trivial but for me this was an eye-opener.
I finished my military service and with the help of a fellow I had found this education I wanted to attend, however my grades weren't good enough. So I decided to take a year to improve the grades. And so I did. I took classes to improve my grade, among them Mathematics A, B, C; Swedish A,B; History A; Nature science A; some computer hardware course, some c++ programming and I believe that when I add it up I almost did what normal people do in three years of high-school that year. And sure enough my grades were improved a bunch. I applied to a couple of schools but I really were only interested in the video games education and I really had it in my grasp now. But my grades were still not great. I didn't get in on my grades.
I spent the summer contemplating what to do next, I knew what I wanted and anything else didn't really seem attractive at all. I decided to not go to another school but keep working on my grades for another year and try again.
However something happened, and a reserve spot became available and I happened to be next in line. So one Thursday or Friday, I can't remember, the telephone rang and it was from the school. They told me they had a spot for me if I wanted it. At first I thought it was another school where I had been admitted so I started off saying that I had thought about it and I was going to try to get in to computer games next year so I didn't really want to enter another education. The woman calling sounded a bit confused as she said: "I .. well, I am calling from that education, we do have a spot for you." After a little more confusion my stomach felt like a professional crew of somersaulters. She continued to explain that it would be preferable if I could come next Monday and my stomach sank once more. I asked to have the day to figure it out and to call back the next day to give my answer, because I just couldn't see how I could move to basically the other side of the country without any money, without anywhere to live and so on. I basically didn't even have the money for the train ticket to be honest. She agreed to it but stressed the importance of getting the answer soon as they had to offer someone else if I couldn't attend.
I went out of my room, explained to my dad which assured me he'd get the money I needed to get started, hinder #1 out of the way. I called the local housing host and they answered that they had one quite big apartment to let. However the price were pretty good even if it were much bigger and therefore a bit pricier than I wanted, but it was the option at hand. I said I'd take it and we arranged for me to pick up the keys coming Sunday, hinder #2 out of the way. I called the train company to get a ticket which weren't any real problem, hinder #3 out of the way.
I remember hanging up after that last call, knowing that I had one more call to make and I was so scared that it would be too late. Perhaps I should just have said yes, and figured out the rest perhaps they had already filled the spot.
I called back and asked if I still could have the spot as I had solved everything and could be there on Monday. The spot were still mine and I packed up some stuff and sat down all night to finish the last couple of hours of Final Fantasy X which I were playing, because who knows when I could have done that with all that was going on, who could know when I would even have a TV, I couldn't really bring anything like that as it was more then 1000 km away and I would be going by train. I mean a semi-big bag with a survival kit were more or less what I could bring. I didn't even bring a computer. I went on the night train, as it was the cheapest alternative and when I went out from the train I remember two specific thoughts: "what is these magnificent trees!? (I later learned that it was willow-trees)" and "I am in some place which is magical, the nature is beautiful, the town feels like something completely new and exciting and I really, really wonder where I live!"
Next up I will talk about some really fast changes in my career in a period where I tried different things.
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