Dear Diary

I live in a village called Drayton St Leonard, one of three that make up a district I call Three Villages Country. Drayton St Leonard is tiny and has no shops and half a pub, but it’s okay because twenty minutes’ walk away is Stadhampton, a slightly larger village with a fantastic pub and a general store. The general store is open until 10PM every day and has almost anything you might need, though with slightly odd brands of such things and at fairly inflated prices. But somehow I prefer that – if I need to walk half an hour because I’ve run out of whiskey and beer I should have a somewhat less-than-perfect experience. It’s more enjoyable that way.

The general store is being sold. Who knows what will come of it, but it almost certainly won’t be the same. It’s leaving marks the end of an era – not just any era, but a pretty important one. The era that started when I was sixteen and lasted until I was twenty-five. The era of living in a village with my mother, near some friends. Really the first properly awake era of my life.

I’m moving out of Drayton St Leonard. This September I move in with friends to a house in the center of Oxford. I will still be working in DSL – a large room in my house is becoming Mode 7′s offices, and my esteemed colleague and I will be working there from midday to eight (at least) every weekday for a long time to come.

Determinance is done, and now I’m an adult. While I was making Determinance I was really a student. I lived like one, worked like one – my dissertation just happened to be really large, really complicated, and something I could sell at the end.

I’m not a student anymore. I’m in a gap-few months and when I start working at an office, one separate from where I live, I will be an adult all the way.

I’m ready. I stayed as a student for longer than most, and achieved more than most. It’s time for it to finish.

And Determinance is growing up with me. It’s maturing, and by the time the retail version is released in August it will be an adult too. Very similar, but more assured, more relaxed.

I still have a lot to say about what happened to me during Determinance’s long, long development. I hope I say it before it becomes too distant.

Share this gibberish!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 12:57 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Dear Diary”

1. Paul:

   § May 29th, 2007 at 6:19 pm

   Just to add a little to Ian’s very candid post from my point of view…I may have mentioned to some people that my full-time tenure at Mode 7 will start in July. Ian and I have recently tried to work out a few long-term ideological things about what we want to do in the medium term and how we’re going to divide up our responsibilities as we transition from an embryo to a baby company. I truly believe that today, we’ve got it nailed and that we can be a strong unit going forwards, making good games and getting them out to you lot. We know the thing you guys want right now are new things to do in Determinance and new guys to play against – we will deliver both over the summer. We are going to prove to the industry that creative, efficient small-scale development is commercially viable and innovative product can thrive. I want to publically thank Ian for getting us to this point and make a commitment to our current and future customers that we’re going to rock your world.

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