February 11, 2007
Heatwave lights up the East Coast
Since my previous post, Heatwave has already passed some very important milestones. We've made an offer to our first employee and landed our first business contract, all in the space of a few days!
I can't discuss our first client, but I have to say, I'm pleased to see Heatwave already in the black. Assuming our first offer of employment is accepted, I think Heatwave is off to a solid start.
I'd like to thank all the well wishers for their thoughts and advice on this new venture. I know some people may have felt a little "left out of the loop" because they didn't know what I was up to, and I'm sorry for that. I'm also flattered, as I didn't know so many people cared :). Allow me to explain. We have a very specific business plan that focuses on our first client and then bringing on a more sizeable staff. My experiences in the past have made me extremely aware of the affect my actions can have on other people's lives, and I'm going to make damned sure that we're only getting people excited and involved if I'm supremely confident that the time is right. That might seem like an obvious thing to say, but I've learned that even the slightest hint or indication can be taken by some as reality or a promise. Maybe that's because my enthusiasm is so infectious, but nevertheless, I've had to very carefully keep my expressions of excitement limited to a close group of trusted people.
However, now I can talk about it! So, if you're interested in working with me at Heatwave or just talking about what we're up to, you can always drop me a note at anthony ||at|| heat wave interactive . com. While we're not aggressively hiring at the moment, I'm always happy to talk with people who are passionate about making games.
Today, I'm in Philadelphia, PA. I've never been to the city of brotherly love before. So far it's been great. We came in from New York on Friday night, having completed some business there. We took the train from Manhattan and arrived in Philly about an hour later. The 30th street train station is an amazing structure. I'm staying with my business partner and Heatwave Co-founder, Donn Clendenon, in his very cool converted fire house.
The weekend has been spent working on business plans and taking care of miscelleanous corporate details, such as a failed attempt to open up our corporate bank accounts. I suppose that's a tale worth retelling...
We went to an American bank here in Philly on Saturday. The lobby was a little busier than expected, but that gave us the opportunity to watch Barack Obama's speech while we sat in the waiting area. It was very interesting to watch the other bank patrons watch the speech. Regardless of your political bent, or your thoughts about him as a candidate, Barack is undeniably an interesting person to watch. As Senator Obama delivered his speech, the bank, which had been blubbling with the hubub of tellers and customers doing business, grew noticebly quiet. Donn looked at me to get my attention and then pointed over to the teller desk where everyone in line had turned to watch Barack talk about his entry into the presidential race.
I have to wonder if that will be something worth remembering, or just an interesting mote of experience, soon forgotten.
Oh, and it was a failed attempt because after all that waiting, the computer systems went down and never came back online. We'll have to try again on Monday...
Anyway, the "big thing" we've been discussing this week is the Heatwave Interactive Inc. logo.
More on that tomorrow...
Posted by SunSword at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2007
I feel a Heatwave comin' on... (holy cr4p, what have I done???)
The past two or three weeks have been incredibly busy and because of the nature of that bustle, I really haven't had much opportunity to talk about what I'm up to.
Last month, I blathered on about how I was going to make some big changes and things are going to change. I was serious.
Last Friday was my last day at Codemasters. I've started a new company called "Heatwave Interactive, Inc.", as a vehicle to bring great games to the masses and "right" some of the "wrongs" in the games business. Currently, Heatwave only has a few employees, but we've already landed our first contract for a major client. What are these great games you ask? How about those wrongs? And can I really do anything about them?
I'll get to that. But first, let me give you a little context for what my life is like in this transition.
Codemasters & England. My family and I really are very sad to be leaving England so soon. We firmly expected to be there at least three years. We've had an amazing time. We've travelled all over the UK and parts of Europe. The kids have been exposed to a very different way of life, and as a family we've had to adapt to some pretty significant lifestyle changes (family of six with no car for 5 months...). The people at Codemasters are fantastic. Along with some great professional contacts, I've made what I hope are lifelong friends. In particular, the Codemasters Online Gaming (COG) division are an inspiring group of people, weathering very difficult conditions for a vision they believe in (not to mention holding up the banner for online gaming's "forgotten continent").
I'll miss you guys.
Heatwave & Austin. So, as of Friday, I've been phoneless and computerless. That's been rough. Particularly since I've been travelling quite a bit in the US. At the moment I'm in Austin, Texas doing a little house shopping and getting some fundamentals set up. Over the next month or so, I'll move the family and get into the groove with our new client. Also, we've got some corporate branding coming along, and of course a website (the current domain is purely a placeholder). I've got a great partner in a gentlemen named Donn Clendenon, who I've been working with "virtually" for a while. We've also got some very talented folks working with us on various parts of the business. I can't wait to tell you a little more about that in the near future. So far, it's been one of the coolest experiences of my creative/professional life.
Over the next week, I'll address the "rights" and "wrongs," the reason for choosing Austin as our base of operations, the motivations behind the name "Heatwave Interactive," and other various topics as they arise.
Anyway, this is just a quick update to say, I'm dead serious. I'm a man with a family of six with a good salary and I just quit my job. Serious coolness will result.
One last thing, I'm considering doing some "reality blogging" about what it's like to start a new company, or more specifically, a new game company. There are a lot of implications to consider, but very few people have an idea of what it's like to start a business, much less a game company. Am I crazy enough to let the Intarweb vote on our company logo? What about which game project we should do first? Is that pure insanity? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about that.
Peace.
Posted by SunSword at 03:19 PM | Comments (1)
January 04, 2007
A Solid State of Being
SanDisk on Thursday released a 32GB drive for commercial notebooks that stores information on flash memory chips rather than the magnetic platters that make up a traditional hard drive.
The article comments how solid-state memory is faster and possibly more durable than regular disk drives, including a link to an interesting story about a science project that successfully recovers data from some SD cards after a potentially disasterous crash.
I have certainly noticed how many flash cards have entered my life over the last two years. Between our three digital cameras and various USB keys, I must have 20 or so flash drives. In fact, every time I go to Seoul, I make it a point to pick up a few more 2GB USB keys.
On the downside, a 32GB hard drive is very limiting. My fricken IPod is 60GB. I'm not sure who's in the market for a laptop with 32GB storage, I don't care how lightweight it is...but of course hope is on the way. There are industrial flash devices that have capacities in excess of 256GB.
So the obvious question is, when can I get USB ports installed in the back of my head? :)
Posted by SunSword at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)