Before that point, I’d been a professional game designer for a little over a year or so, which wasn’t exactly the most distinguished of tenures, but I was incredibly proud to wear that title on my sleeve. (I remember, during the overnight Game Jam of ’13, my boss mentioned when he noticed that I quite liked saying that “I’m a game designer,” when introducing myself. At the time, it was still incredibly new to me, and though I was a little sheepish, he was completely right. It was awesome.)

But, employment going as it goes, that time at Wahoo Studios just wasn’t as long as I might have hoped – I was laid off in April ’14, and was suddenly adrift with a little severance and employment to keep me afloat for a bit.

During that time, I remember interviewing for all kinds of game positions, hoping I’d land something. I did get several interviews, but I quickly found myself in a pretty desperate situation, and that desperation really tended to bleed out into the interviews. I had the hardest time sharing my story, convincing these game companies that I was worth hiring, and looking back, I think it was down to two reasons:

1. I wanted it way too much. I didn’t want to be seen as a failure, and I really, really wanted that title back. A bit too much.
2. I didn’t know how to tell the story of myself well enough.

I remember distinctly and interview that a friend had gotten me with EA Sports in Florida at the time, and I remember bombing it so badly because I couldn’t articulate exactly the kinds of design that I was good at. I distinctly remember getting lost in explaining how I did a lot of work on code tweaks and parameters, which is true, but that was not the whole story, and certainly not the kind of thing that brings confidence to a potential employer.

In the decade since moving into a different design field, I’ve spent a lot of time exploring what it is to tell stories, and how to utilize storytelling to draw people into your way of thinking.

It’s an art that I’d forgotten was as important as it is, especially because it’s really the only thing that actually matters when it comes to interacting with other people. Telling stories, and listening well to others’ stories. That’s really all it comes down to.

So this past week, I was pleased to sit down with some of my coworkers and do a little creative exercises on flexing those muscles. It made for some fun, silly, and enlightening discussions. Excited to do it again some time.

Read more at karratti.com

I was so enamored by the idea that I took it upon myself to start running games for disparate friends of mine, some who, years ago, were hundreds of miles away from one another. We played online, exploring fictional lands, fighting epic battles and saving friends and allies from the dastardly foes who sought to destroy them.

These experiences, it turns out, were extremely useful in maintaining sanity and bonds throughout the turmoil of the 2020 pandemic and the subsequent years since, as despite all of us being so far away from one another, we were still able to connect regularly, relying on our shared stories in the realms of our imaginations to keep us going even in the darkest of times.

While I certainly still enjoy running these games, I’ve been grateful recently that I can attend a few as a player and leave the responsibility to be the GM behind for a while. This has been especially true as I’ve had the to attend the adventuring academy of Osborne as the gold-hearted dum-dum barbarian, Marko.

It was a great game today, and I’m grateful for the chance to play with my new friends. Here’s to the next!

– K

Read more at karratti.com

Once upon a time, I had a blog.

I didn’t really think much of it at the time, other than it was a place for me to post my thoughts about, well, anything. I posted about my feelings on movies, on restaurants, on the beginnings of text messaging, complaints about turn signals, and my college adventures. I didn’t really have an idea of why I was posting, but it felt right to do so. It felt right to have some kind of record of what I was up to.

As the years went on, I did a lot with that blog, but as Facebook and Twitter took over I found myself wanting almost to disengage from it all. If all my thoughts were just going to end up on social media anyway, was my blog just redundant? Was it just old thinking?

Recently though, I came across a section in Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon, where he mentioned something that’s stuck with me:

“Your influences,” he writes. “are all worth sharing because they clue people in to who you are and what you do—sometimes even more than your own work.”

I’ve been thinking about that since, and considering how often I still feel compelled to share random things with my friends and family and complete strangers and everyone else…

I’ve been thinking about the things that inspire me, about the concepts, and topics, and stories, and activities that I find engaging, and I wonder to myself – maybe someone else may find that stuff interesting too. Or maybe it’ll just do me some good to get the things out of my head and onto a page somewhere.

But then I start thinking – is anyone going to read this crap? I mean, yeah, it’s my personal thing, but maybe no one else cares one way or the other. Maybe this is just a waste of time for a near-40-year-old to spend his time.

But then I look at all my old notebooks, and my journals, and then read a bit through even my my old blog… And I guess someone found it interesting at one point. Maybe someone will again.

Let’s take another chance at once upon a time.

So here we go once more.

I have a blog.

– K

Read more at karratti.com