Sometimes, life takes turns you never anticipated. In my case, it was being appointed to a professorship. While I did study computer science and even received a Ph.D. afterwards, I had concentrated on a career in project management for a long time. But when I was made aware of an open position which just perfectly matched my professional background, I seized the opportunity, and here I am. On September 29th 2023, I received my letter of appointment to the faculty of computer science at the Nuremberg Institute of Technology. Three days later, I stood at the front of a lecture hall, speaking to a room full of students for the first time. But the interesting question here is: how does this impact my private projects such as the Games:Tech:Blog and Network Traders?
Transitioning to a new job always involves some organizational effort. But in this case, it is probably worse than in many others. Suddenly, there are lectures to be held and therefore prepared. If you do not have a portfolio of presentations or even lectures from prior teaching, that means preparing all that on the fly. So time has been very scarce in the last three months. Best indicator: I started writing this article in early October, and it took me almost three months to finish it. Suddenly, it was not a top priority anymore.
The Future of Network Traders
The last time I actually worked on Network Traders was in July 2023, half a year ago. After that, I concentrated on my future job as a professor and on leaving a clean desk at my previous employer. But that does not mean that I a lost interest in the game. On the contrary. Network Traders already served me well as an example in a student project, and it surely will again. After all, as an online game, it combines many disciplines of computer science. Having used a structured approach to project management, it even provides some examples of engineering practices. And most importantly, the source code is mine to share as I wish. So I very much intend to continue working on it, and hopefully soon. After all, my first semester ends in a few weeks already.
What about the Games:Tech:Blog?
For the last three years, I have used this blog mostly as a devblog for Network Traders. I will, of course, continue to do so, as soon as I start working on the game again. But maybe it will drift a little more towards the Tech aspect now. After all, there are many more interesting things happening now in my new life as a professor. There are lots of questions I am being asked by my students which are worth researching and writing about. And there is research itself, which needs to be published and discussed. So I hope that I will be able to keep this blog alive, maybe as a less scientific news outlet for my work as professor at Nuremberg Tech.
In summary, there are interesting times ahead of me – and I am very excited about it! After all, I am not only an indie games developer anymore. I am now additionally a lecturer on visual computing and interactive media systems, including games engineering. And best of all, I am free to write about any of that. So what will be next? Actually, I don’t know yet. But keep looking for news here or subscribe to my Mastodon channel to stay up-to-date.