Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Year in Review 2017

January seems as good a time as any to reflect on the past 12 months of progress and growth, both personally and professionally. 2017 was a tough year for many with uncertainty surrounding political and regulatory changes. For me and my studio, the sociopolitical climate has had minimal impact, and overall 2017 was quite a success.

Astire Games made a reasonable profit from contracts and consulting work, and most of that profit was converted into hardware at the end of the year. We had several small contracts that went well and ended on a positive note, and one large project that continues into 2018. The contracts and consulting work find our ongoing development of Cosmos Arena, which has been a slow and arduous project but I am optimistic it will perk up in 2018.

Cosmos Arena itself saw some exciting updates in 2017 as we pushed hard to make it a presentable demo for the Intel Showcase at the Austin Game Conference. Some new gameplay elements have emerged, and we've made strives towards better player feedback and overall UX improvements.



I also finally was able to afford to bring on a concept artist to help us work towards our own art direction (up until now we've been relying on the Asset Store, but with the new art direction we can begin internal development of our art assets to better match the style and feel of the game).



On a personal note, I was thrilled to accept an Adjunct Faculty position at the University of Texas for Spring 2018 teaching a course on AR and VR for games. I continue to teach at the Art Institute of Austin, but UT brings new and exciting challenges to the academic side of my career.

Here's hoping 2018 is filled with progress for everyone! Thanks for reading!

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