In August, the team traveled north to visit friends and family as well as see the total eclipse! We spent the day on a farm in Southern Illinois, with a nice family who welcomed us to their home. We stood at the edge of a field watching an amazing event. When the sun went total, the birds went crazy, the cows bellowed in confusion, and the crickets started singing. The light dimmed and we all watched the corona, a very strange and wonderful experience.

Then in October, we had another fabulous experience as the team traveled to Austin to experience the Unity conference, Unite.  We met people we had only talked to online, built relationships, learned a great deal about the future of Unity, and enjoyed the city of Austin. It was wonderful to hang out with others who understood all about the perils and joys of being in Indie game developer. The Unity folks were great, kind and approachable. The talks were interesting. 3 team members, myself included, won drones at the Unity Trivia match!

I have taken over as the organizer of the local Tampabay Unity User Group as the other organizers are out of the country for a while…a long while it seems. I have enjoyed meeting local game developers, students and hobbyists. It is always a challenge to get folks out but we are working hard to rebuild after we lost our hosting site when the previous organizer left. We have a new site and are confident that we can bring in some good speakers and enjoy sharing our progress with the other members as they also share theirs. I learn so much from them.

Other news…we are busy preparing some assets for the Unity Asset store, both scripting, and art assets. Hopefully a few of those will be out soon after the holidays. While we won’t get rich, every bit helps us to continue developing our game. We are also looking forward to helping others with their games by creating some quality assets. With one major game in progress and a few smaller ones on the back burner, we have plenty to keep us busy.

I have also spent time this year testing assets for others, especially terrain assets and have watched these talented developers produce some very fine tools.  I hope to continue that as well. Much of what I learn helps us move forward as well.

As the year winds down, I look forward to 2018 and the new advances Unity will make during the year. I know there are big changes in the future, mostly good, but a bit scary at times as it means learning lots of new skills.

So…Happy Holidays to all out there who might read this….from me, Dennis, Ryan, Aynsley and Kerensa, and I am sure Teun, Dylan and Richard would chime in as well if they knew I was writing this.

And especially…a very Happy New Year!!!

Laura, PM/Designer