1/30/2009

And that's all she wrote.

The day is here - and it somehow managed to sneak up on me. The last day of Ensemble Studios.

It's certainly been a crazy trip - I wandered around the virtually empty office one last time before leaving, recounting the first time I walked through those halls, during my final stage of interviews. Almost three years to the day. And for the first time during this whole mess, I started to feel nostalgic regarding the place. It's (or rather, it was) by far the best place I've ever worked - but I've been so preoccupied with something every moment of every day that I honestly didn't have a chance to realize what I had found there. Completely by accident, at that.

I remember coming for that on site interview - knowing that I would never move up to Dallas and leave Austin, but was entertaining a friend who really wanted me to at least see the place - fine, at least I can see it, know that I had the knowledge, and go back to Austin. Things never seem to go how they expect, huh? I remember walking in and talking to the programmers on the team I was being interviewed for, seeing the studio, and my attitude immediately changed to, "I have to convince these people to hire me!"

I always said that Ensemble was going to be my last job - that I had found the top of the ladder when it came to game studios. I'm sad that wasn't true - but also thrilled about what comes next.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.