Quote: "By the way, (no idea whether you'll know or not, but...) is Aardman composed of two (or three) buildings now? I knew they were on Gas Ferry Road or something previously, but they either moved or bought another building additionally - any ideas where you'll be? (and whether you'll be in close-enough proximity to Mr Park to actually see/meet him)? Or is the internet team at a completely different place from the main studio(s)?"
They still have a very large presence on Gas Ferry road, but they have additional space at Aztec West, and in further sites in Bristol. Gas Ferry road is loads of smaller buildings / cabins, quite a maze there. But it is where the main CGI guys are, and the studios. Jump back 5 years, before I worked for TGC, and Aardman were the main client of the company I ran. We did plenty of work for them (built their entire intranet for example), so really this will be like going back to work for them, only in a different capacity (i.e. full-time staff, and a Senior Tech role). I'll be based mostly at home, but also at Gas Ferry Rd.
There is an amazing amount of work to be done - most of the sites are incredibly out of date, spread all over the place and running on disparate systems. As well as a mass of localisation issues, there is an entire rebuild to be done by the new team, not much more of which I can give away right now, sorry.
As mentioned here, and in the newsletter, I'll still be working for TGC though. So you don't get rid of me that easily
To be honest with you, joining TGC was the worst thing that could ever happen to my game/demo coding days! I used to crank out stacks of things in DB, but somehow it's just all so /different/ when you actually work for the company who make it. It's hard to explain - I think sort of like those people who are avid gamers, who then work for a large games company, it can sort of take the 'shine' off of it a bit! I'm sure some of you will understand what I mean.
Cheers,
Rich
Heavy on the Magick
