Joining Microsoft

This is a weird thing I never thought I would write in my career, but I'm joining Microsoft.  There is a new games studio called Lift London and I knew someone working there.  So my CV (well, Stack Overflow Careers profile) winged its way to their desks, and before I knew it I decided to join them.  It helps everyone I spoke to was impressive, sincere, humble and have the same hunger for learning and doing things right.

Then the paperwork started to come through for me to sign, and it suddenly dawned on me I was joining Microsoft(!)  The logos were a dead giveaway.  This is extremely weird for me because although my work at Bromium was predominantly Windows I spent a long time working on Linux (and Mac OSX in some shape or form).  I also totally believe in open-source because whenever I can I tried to make sure (things I felt were) important were properly released.  Github makes that easy.  So you could argue I'm not a natural fit for Microsoft.

I have faith after meeting my interviewees at Lift London that those things I read about working at Microsoft will not be an issue.  It's a very exciting game studio in a very exciting place doing special things within the Microsoft portfolio (going places that will be controversial).  I never did work for appraisals, ladder-climbing, etc.  I did it to learn more, to improve, and to most importantly help others and the team to achieve.  Nothing satisfies more than exceeding a customer's expectations and delivering work on time.

24th June I will begin my brutal commute to London to start a new and exciting adventure.  My role will be on server-side tech, and with a security remit.  It will be interesting to see where this goes.  If you're interested in working for a game company trying new things contact me through Twitter @garrybodsworth or email or check out the vacancies here.

Leaving Bromium

Yesterday was my last day at Bromium.

I joined when the UK office was a little one on Castle Park, Cambridge.  I've now seen it expand to over 30 people of the highest calibre.

As a parting gift to the office I sourced a couple of rare games for Bromium Games Night.

Star Trek The Next Generation Monopoly

Risk - Halo Edition (this looks really awesome and I may have to buy my own - a 5 foot ring game board!)

And finally, I sourced the original art for the first issue cover of Malware Comics, which featured the first appearance of Bromium Man!

Now onwards to new challenges!

Philip Su - Engineering Process And Philosophy At Facebook

Last week I was representing Bromium at the Hacker News London event, and there was an excellent talk by Philip Su from Facebook's London office.  It was about the engineering culture at Facebook and how they have kept it working up to their current 1000 engineers.  Whatever you think of Facebook this is a great window into how they have kept the engineering culture thriving and fully operational despite the issues of engineer numbers and the scale of their operations.

Also, Philip Su is a really great speaker.

 
Philip Su: Site Lead at Facebook - Engineering process and philosophy at Facebook from HN London on Vimeo.

More Creator-Owned Comics - Genocide: Duostar

Before I gave up drawing around 17/18 (nearly 18 years ago) I was working on a strip that I was hoping to be published in a new Lee Davies (he of the old UK fanzine Mondo) publication.  So I came up with a whole series bible and a set of comic strips in this universe.  Unfortunately part of the reason for giving up on comics was the publication never started and I didn't think I was good enough (looking back I was a little harsh on myself).

I had all these pages gathering dust for nearly 20 years(!)  Noone else has seen them apart from me when I was drawing them.  Apart from Transformers fanzines I seem to have not successsfully managed to publish any comics, so I have loads of strips in varying states of completedness.  Please bear in mind this was done in 1995-ish so such wonders of computers I was using but manually pasting up because it was another year before I had a suitable DTP package.

For Creator Owned Day I've decided to scan them in.  Without further ado is Genocide: Duostar unleashed on an unsuspecting world!



This is the original version that I completely re-wrote and re-drew when I wasn't happy with it and after getting a script critique.  This is a lot splashier and influenced by US comics, but the version above was much tighter and more 2000AD which is far closer to my sensibilities.



Ping me on Twitter @garrybodsworth if you want to see any more - but noone is that mad surely ;)

Creator Owned Day - Science Park - The Comic!

Creator Owned Day was started by Stephen Downey here and its primary purpose is for creators to start new ideas and not simply dream of working on corporate owned comics.  You can follow it by on Twitter @CreatorOwnedDay or the hashtag #CreatorOwnedDay.  Also check out the great list of creator owned comics here.

Since I am off work I decided to participate this year, which is great synchronicity otherwise I'd never get around to drawing again.  And for some reason rather than just creating a character I went the whole "high concept" route, nothing like over-stretching.  Seems I have finished more or less by lunch time.

So here it is....

Science Park

A technology park just outside Cambridge located in a hollowed out mountain and deep towards the Earth's crust.  Rental rates are pretty good and there are a wide choice of office sizes.  The park is privately funded by The L Corporation and their mysterious CEO who lives and works in the penthouse suite at the top of the mountain.

Tenants include:

Immutable Corporation
Motto: We've Always Been Here
Employees: 4000
Specialities: Computer equipment
CEO: Dr Monolith

B.I.O.
Motto: Recreating The Past
Employees: 10,000
Specialities: Bio-tech
CEO: Mr Silence PhD (please contact his PA Mr D Lackey)

Rival Science Parks:

Giant Robo Science Park
Advantages: Mobile
Disadvantages: Mobile, you might lose your office.
Giant Robo Science Park is the latest state of the art giant robot with an attitude problem.  Loaded with weaponry enjoys spending its days blowing holes in the hollowed out mountain.

Ignore the giant hands, I'm sure that it is just a cloud formation.

Why Did I Do This?

This is always a case of stick to what you know, and my intention was to do something based aroud the technology industry.  Judging from what I have created it is not necessarily based on real-life, and the irony of a mountain in Cambridgeshire is extreme.  I apologise for the Kirby-isms, the dinosaur was not supposed to look that Kirby-like, I promise I have never read Devil Dinosaur (something I do plan to rectify).  The giant robot is also my way of shoehorning my addiction to Transformers in there.

What do I want to do next?  I hope I can find the time to work on this as it has given me focus for ideas.