Late last year I was talking about helping the rest of the BioWare team be more productive, and I feel like I took great strides in that direction. Although I wasn't hired to work on the build system, I was tasked with making some minor improvements here and there, and I quickly realized it needed someone's full attention. By the time I left, I was able to expand the single build machine managed in spare time to a multi-platform build farm managed by a team, which is the right way to approach builds for a project of that scope.
I accomplished what I wanted - I expect to leave a lasting positive impact on the productivity of the team - and I got to work at BioWare while doing it. They're a great group of studios, and it seems like they have had a big effect on what it means (and what it's like) to work at EA. However, I came to realize that core game development was what I really wanted to be doing, and another studio was the perfect storm for me: KingsIsle Entertainment is small, but they've got a successful live game.
I like small, because it means I have more of an impact and risks are lower. However, after my time at 2K Games on a small team making a game no one will ever see, having a live game (or, admittedly, the kind of studio support that The Old Republic has) is also important to me. If it's an already successful live game? Well, that means I'm less likely to be writing this post again in a year, and I'm ready to settle down now. I started at KingsIsle yesterday, and as I get back into game dev I'll try to have more juicy posts up here. :-)
