Choices... Choices...

Gnomon in Hollywood, CA

The time of choosing my path is looming ahead and getting closer.  I want to work in the video game industry, but I know my skills aren't honed towards the job and position I am looking for.  So for the last 3 - 6 months it has been a search for classes or a school that I can afford to attend.  I've narrowed things down a bit and if you read my previous blogs you'll know at least two of the schools: VFS and Gnomon.

VFS in Vancouver, Canada

Both are pretty well respected, but both have differing ways of getting to the same result - the result being a job.  I like them both and think that I would gain a lot from either one of them should I attend for the year or so that I would be required to go through their programs.  Both have excellent placement percentages (%95 - %99) and both have great facilities and teachers at their disposal.

Of course, should things work out to afford attending either, I would have to move.  The cost of the schools set aside, I would need at least a year of living expenses to afford a place to live and food to eat as well as water and heat as neither school has any kind of housing or dorms available.  Because both are very intense programs, I would be unable to do part time work to help with the cost of living.  That is a pretty big issue considering how expensive it is to live on your own these days.

This leads to another school that I found nearby called The Art Department.  The pluses for that one are that it is nearby and I can drive there if necessary and the classes are held online AND I can do part time or full time.  If I do part time I can still work.  And I don't have to worry as much about my living expenses because I wouldn't be moving to a whole new place.  A lot of pluses. 

Yes, it would all just be easier if I could just get hired I suppose, but without the necessary portfolio and skills, I can't move forward.  The modern Video Game industry is still in the earlier phases and they know what they need and what they are looking for - I just have to present myself as what they need and what they are looking for. 

The prospect of returning to school is rather daunting.  It elicits a sense of fear and excitement.  I still worry that I won't be good enough or won't do work that is good enough to get me to the next level.  I suppose that those are normal things for an artist and probably good because it means I'm not content to sit on my rear end and just fall back on what I got now, but that doesn't change the worry.  I also worry that I will have spent the money to go to school and then STILL won't be hired.  That is a big concern and fear of mine.

I know this is an important step in the next chapter and I know I am looking for signs that the choices I'm making are the right ones...  Things seem to be falling into place in certain ways, but the image hasn't come together fully so I can't really see how this will all work out just yet.  As always I have to keep moving forward and making the decision I think is best.

Of course it would be easier if someone else would make all the decisions!