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August 28, 2006
Happy Trails
Nearly eight years ago I walked into the building at 600 Townsend Street here in San Francisco and entered the first floor area where Macromedia technical support used to be. I wore a nice shirt, a tie and <gasp>shoes</gasp>*, I also walked in with a full beard (!) and zero knowledge of this product called "Director". All I knew was that I was interviewing for a position in technical support at Macromedia which at that time was still a "small" (ish) company and the tech-boom heyday was in full swing. My interview apparently went well enough as I was hired on with my first day having been October 19, 1998.
"Macromedia technical support, this is Tom, can I get your serial number please?"
In the time since I was hired I've wandered my way from technical support through qa and on to product management, I've worked here through five major releases and numerous dot-releases, I've travelled countless miles both domestic and international on the company's behalf, I've spoken to groups small and large (2000+ for the Sneaks preso at UCON2001) and I've had the chance to learn a great deal about software development. Throughout my career here I've always tried my best to serve both the company and the community, to be a good tech support rep/qa engineer/product manager while also trying to be a consistent public face for the product, as a point of contact, as a resource and unfortunately at times as a punching bag (sometimes y'all need someone to hear your complaints, sometimes they're loud and sometimes they're louder ;P). But now after all of that, my time on this product and at this company is coming to an end as September 5th will be my last day with Adobe. Please understand that my departure is of my own choosing despite the company's efforts to keep me on board as part of the Director/Shockwave team.
This news leaves me feeling both sad and excited. I'm sad as it brings to a close a significant chapter of my life, it's the end of nearly a decade working on a fantastic product as well as the end of working at a company where I've made quite a few good friends and had plenty of good times. I'm excited because I'm about to start the next chapter of my life, this is a chance to move in a new direction and find new challenges to take on. I want to thank everyone that's purchased and used Director over the years as you having done that enabled me to enjoy eight incredible years on this team. Through my community interaction I have met some of the most fascinating and interesting people imaginable, and what's more is that through it all I've also managed to make a few great new friends. For now I don't have any clear next steps other than taking some time off to relax and enjoy myself a bit, after that who knows where I'll land.
I realize that there are going to be a *ton* of questions about what this means, what's going to happen when I'm gone, who's taking over my tasks, etc. For the next week I'll keep an eye on this entry and any submitted comments and do my best to handle any questions that do come up. To get the conversation started I'd like to introduce a few key members of the Director and Shockwave Player team that y'all can use as points of contact going forward:
Vivek Kumar Pai - Engineering Manager
Krishnan HS (a.k.a. "Krish") - QE Manager
Venkatesh K (a.k.a. "KV") - Program Manager
Marc Hosein - Group Product Marketing Manager
Cheers y'all,
Tom Higgins
Former tech support rep...
Former tech support team lead...
Former qa engineer...
Former qa product specialist...
And now soon to be former product manager...
Go Director!
*For those that don't know, since being hired I've regularly walked around the office in bare feet, in fact I gave the first public presentation ever delivered about our 3D engine (at UCON2001) in front of a packed room while barefoot. ;) To help with things like going outside and using the restroom I always keep a pair of flip-flop sandals under my desk.
Posted by thiggins at 10:39 AM
August 09, 2006
Viacom to buy Atom Entertainment
Some big news is breaking today:
Viacom's MTV Networks Agrees to Acquire Atom Entertainment
I know there will be lots of questions from developers about how this will or will not impact Director and the Shockwave Player, notably the Shockwave install process as it's been a primary pain point over the past few years. At this point I too am still learning about this news and its full scope of impact it will have. If/when more details become available I'll do what I can to share those, in the meantime I'm focused on wrapping my head around the news in general. The landscape around us has shifted once again!
Posted by thiggins at 11:47 AM
PlaydoJam a finalist in the Flashforward Film Festival
PlaydoJam, a Shockwave 3D game incorporating Flash content, is a finalist in the Game category of the Flashforward Film Festival. Folks familiar with the game know why it's regarded as a great piece of content. Those not familiar with PlaydoJam should give it a look today:
It requires Shockwave and a web cam to play, but failing those there are also trailer videos which you can watch in a trio of formats.
PlaydoJam is a 3D game that utilizes a web cam image (via a SWF movie and the Flash Asset Xtra in Director/Shockwave) to allow you to shoot hoops and score points. Your live video feed is rendered within the 3D scene and your hands/head/body can be used to hit the ball! It's really quite amazing and I certainly hope it wins the Game category of the Flashforward Film Festival.
I for one have cast my vote for PlaydoJam already! It's not that I did that solely based on it being a Shockwave piece, it's because I truly think it deserves to win. The other games are all top-notch and the production values extremely high, it's just that I feel that PlaydoJam stands alone as a whole and definitely deserves top honors. We'll see how well my opinions match up with reality once all the votes are in... :)
Kudos to Andreas Rehnberg for his phenomenal effort in creating PlaydoJam, well done!
Posted by thiggins at 10:13 AM
August 07, 2006
Austin Game Conference
Just a quick announcement to let folks know that Adobe is sponsoring and will be on the exhibition floor at the Austin Game Conference in Austin, Texas next month. The conference runs for 3-days, September 6-7-8, and it makes for the third game conference Adobe will have attended and sponsored in 2006 (Minna Mingle at GDC in March and Casuality in Seattle being the other two). While we'll be there ready to discuss all Adobe products and how they apply to game developers, our main effort is to promote Director and the Shockwave Player in particular. If folks are there then please make sure to stop by our booth and say hi!
Posted by thiggins at 12:24 PM