Time for my annual...ish update to the journal. Once again it's about my job, which I don't have anymore! As I wrote last time, I started working on a game based on a crappy license that I knew would fail... the game was ment to be a kids game, but the crappy license was from a crappy TV-series that aired in the sixties! I doubt many kids born the last 10 years, OR their parents cares much for that show. So why the hell make this game for them!? The guys in charge of that decision should loose their job, and they probably did, but so did I. Eidos decided to shut down the studio I worked for, among many others lately.

So, freedom to do what I want for a while! The plan is to rebuild my portfolio and find a new job. Either continue in the game biz, or see if I could make a living as a freelance artist.

Oh well. Started working on a new game about 11 month ago. Pretty cool game and all, but it was for the Sony PSP, a console that could have been a mighty fine machine... if Sony wasn't stupid. So, I had the feeling from the beginning that PSP wouldn't be worth developing for much longer, but as usual the dudes in charge thinks otherwise. Now, 3 months before the release of our game, the dudes suddenly realize that the PSP ain't worth it. So, game canned, right before it's finished. As usual... 11 months work thrown away... again. Been in the stinkin' game biz for more than 6 years now, and almost 4 years of that hard work has been thrown away. Starting to loose my motivation...among other things...

Anyway, new game is up, this time for the Nintendo Wii. So, cool console at least. Too bad the game is based on THE crappiest license I ever saw... just hope the dudes in charge realize that sooner rather than later.

On the personal art front, not much new. Working a little on some old projects, and trying out some new software. It's not easy, since I feel I've fallen behind a few years. My skills ain't what that should be, and that's no fun at all when one is a perfectionist.

Might be a good time to let you know that I'm not unemployed anymore, haven't been for quite a while now. The Gizmondo disaster is just a memory one looks back at and laughs at now. Too bad I never got a dime of all those wasted millions though...

For the moment I'm working at Eidos Studios Sweden, developing a PSP title (don't ask, can't tell ya). One thing's for sure, I'm dead tired of developing for handheld consoles. I can hardly remember the days when I was allowed more than 100 triangles and a 64x64 texture for an object...

Oh, and since no one ever bought any of my prints I created here, I found it necessary to buy a couple of them myself, just to keep me from crying when watching the sales statistics. The Templar and Snake looks mighty impressive, but the Cheetah print has a little aliasing on the grass in the largest print when examining close up.

And finally, haven't done much art lately. I want nothing more than to start working on a nice image, but I still haven't come up with a decent enough idea for one. So...until I do....

Ok, I'm unemployed. Unemployed and very very happy about it actually. The year or so I've worked at this company have been rather interesting. It all started out great as usual, you worked on great projects, you delivered great work, had lots of fun, you got payed, you were promised a nice bonus... but soon enough those nice projects got canned, and your bonus are nowhere to be seen. Hell, you don't even get your regular pay, and to top it of you notice that your bosses are the frontpage news in the morningpaper with a not so flattering headline. So, I'm very happy this is all over now. Time to look for a new job!

Also, I finally managed to make my Knight of the Temple available as a print now. The other images will follow, sooner or later.

Thought this might be a good opportunity to tell you that I'm available for commisions, wheter they be images in the style featured here on DeviantArt, lowpoly realtime art, or pretty much anything in between. I've been working in the game industry for 5 years now, so I have experience with lowpoly modelling and texturing even though I haven't showed any of it here. Speaking about work, I'm not hesitant to a new full time employment either, given it's an interesting project with lots and lots of art to be created.

Fredrik Alfredsson