Just a quick post. I gave my notice this week at Ready At Dawn, and my last day there will be Friday, June 23rd.

Here’s the deal, really… I hate living in California. I love the company, love the team, and especially love RAD’s next project (which will totally fucking rule), but I’ve been really, really unhappy living in this place the entire time I’ve been here. I’m just not into the people, the culture, the cost of living, the weather… nothing. I’m really just not a California kind of guy.

I’ve had a very, very hard time of living here after living in a truly horrific apartment complex, the crunching on Daxter, marrying my fiancee \ best friend of six years during crunch, gaining thirty pounds, then two months later having her get fed up with my crunch and leave me for our best WOW guildmate during the week of beta, driving her to the airport that same day and shipping all of her stuff to Connecticut, trying to ship a game and sort out a divorce at the same time, losing thirty pounds, getting stuck on an expensive lease I can barely afford, and generally just trying to keep my head above water for a few seconds at a time. Considering the amount of stress I was under, I’m pretty amazed I didn’t just have a heart attack and fall over dead.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m proud of what I did on Daxter and I’d do it all over exactly the same way if I could, without hesitation. But frankly, once I realized that I had completely stopped caring if I woke up the next day or not, I realized it’d probably be for the best if I washed my hands of California, severed all my ties no matter how painful and got the fuck out. :)

I told the RAD founders about this a couple months ago before I had anything lined up, and they’ve been gentlemen about it. They’ve been totally understanding, they gave me as much time as I need to find something else, and said I’m welcome to stay on board if I change my mind. They’ve been completely thoughtful, understanding and accomodating about all this, and I respect them even more for it.

So it’s the best terms you can get, really. I’d still recommend Ready At Dawn as a place to work to anyone, in a second. Everyone there is a fucking badass that knows what they’re doing and is committed 110% to their craft, and I know their next game is going to be universally loved. I’ve got nothing but respect for the management there, and willingly followed them into hell to get Daxter done because I knew they were just as committed as everyone else to shipping it. And I’m damned proud of it. Just, fuck California. :)

So I’ve accepted a position at a company in Austin, Texas, and I’ll be starting there in two weeks. I’m INCREDIBLY excited about it, and I’ll announce who it is soon. The crazy part of the new job? I will no longer be a mere artist.

More to come soon!