Hunter Gough, Game Designer

This is really Hunter’s diary entry, but he posted this thoughtful missive on his own site, so — what can you do? I’m linking to it. Here’s a taste:

About a month ago, I put video games on hold (except the flash fighting game! I promise I’m not abandoning you, Joseph!), and started helping friends make movies. I couldn’t quite explain why I was doing it; the best explanation I could provide was that I was “lonely” making games, but beyond that all I could say was that it just felt like the right thing to do.

I had lunch today with a friend who did a similar thing; he put a lifetime spent writing on hold to help out on movie making (we’re currently working on the same movie, a family drama with a HL2-ish setting called In the Wind) because he was also feeling lonely and unrewarded. Talking to him, and comparing my experiences with video games to his experiences with writing, I was finally able to crystallize why I had lost my passion for making video games, and what it really boils down to is the amount of soul-crushing isolation. This also turns out to be a good insight into why making video games is nothing like making movies and never will be.

Hunter recently joined the ITW team, and after a rocky start, he’s come in guns blazing. Blazing in the right direction, even!

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