A mere 6 months after announcing that I had been laid off, I am glad that I can finally say that I am working again. I am a free-lance designer/producer now.

As you may have read already, I am currently working at Replay Studios in Hamburg, who are hard at work on Sabotage, a PC World War 2 stealth game for the PC. This was arranged via game agency ML Enterprises.

It's fun. I am doing some design work, some organizational work, some process improvement work. A game about World War 2 made in Germany has some piquancy all of it's own, but beyond that it has a very interesting main character and setting, and it looks great.

If you've ever been on a project that kept moving it's final deadline by a month... then another month... then one more, you kinda know what the last 6 months were like for me. I've been interviewing and applying for jobs almost constantly, and several times the ball was in my court and if I said yes it would mean moving to another country in a few weeks at most.

I said no every time. I have said no to some very good offers. It wasn't easy. I don't regret having done so, but I am not quite sure how I feel about it yet. I think I have become more risk-averse than I used to be. I have been at enough companies to have a feeling for what can go wrong. I have also been working in this industry long enough that I just won't accept certain things anymore, like unnecessary overtime or lack of strategy. But perhaps I am now too averse to risk, and too picky in my choice of employers?

Free-lancing solves some of those problems. My investment in each company I work with is a lot lower. It's for shorter periods, and it does not involve moving to a different country. Well, in this case it does, but it's just temporary. And hey! I live right in the middle of a red-light district. How appropriate! I am for sale now! Hire me baby! I need customers! You need something designed or produced, you need some consulting on your design or plan or company, come to me and I will show you a good time!

Alright, so my marketing strategy still needs some work.