Learning From Pet Projects...

Over the past decade, I've worked on a good number of 'pet projects' outside of my chosen career in animation and design. These were all worked on in the evenings here and there. Whilst 'nearly all' achieved little in the way of success, I did learn an awful lot and many of those skills are used today in the running of our own business.

I thought I'd share a quick look back at what I got up to.

1. 3D Home - As a somewhat geeky teenager, I created a model of my parent's house in 3D using the classic 90's Quake game engine. My friends and I then setup a local network (*using old parallel printer cables) so we could run around having a first person shooter death match in my house. In hindsight, it is ridiculously geeky and pretty morbid but the knowledge of 3D design software no doubt helped in my final career.
2. DJJD - In 2000, I created my first ever website djjd .co .uk where I hosted a variety of Flash animations. It was mostly 10-second spoofs of current blockbuster films. The site was simply made to share my creations but did help me learn a variety of basic web skills.
3. YouCamp - A YouTube style website interlinked with maps. So that camping enthusiasts could share video reviews of campsites (in the UK and Europe) and camping kit reviews. It ran for around 6 months, had around 150 unique video uploads before I pulled the plug due to running costs.
4. TOTGB - (Think Outside The Game Box). Online forum for indie game developers to chat and host portfolios and contests. At its peak, it had around 50 daily users.
5. Contented Baby Sleep App - iOS app to help get a baby to sleep. I taught myself a bit of programming during paternity leave after my daughter was born. It was made during the evenings over a fortnight and went on to make about ￡1500.00. I learnt a lot during the simple app design and submission process.
6. Quake Builder - iOS Game where you built structures using set shapes that had to survive a 10-second Earthquake. It made it into the top 50 in the US and UK app store (*free) charts and was No.1 in Luxembourg. It peaked with around 250,000 downloads in a week.
7. Selling Stock Footage/Animation - I purchased an entry level HD camera and filmed a variety of stock video clips. Which sold now and then over 2 years on a global stock site. Which, has since closed. I also created a variety of animations which gave me the reason and the freedom to try out some new techniques.
8. Escape Artist - iOS Game. Trace shapes very quickly to stop the smoke monster destroying the little pixel art artist. It looked good but really wasn’t all that much fun to play. Though again I learnt a variety of new skills including trying my hand at a spot of animated pixel art.
9. Audio Invaders - iOS Game. Space invaders in the dark. Wearing headphones you have to tilt your phone to steer your ship. You could then hear when the invaders were directly above you and quickly tap your phone to shoot them. It received some very positive reviews and a surprise following from some visually impaired players.
10. Dark Asylum - Unfinished iOS Game - Swipe your way 360o around an old asylum to solve various mysteries. I’d made the basic game mechanics, planned all the puzzles and art style. I then ran a Kickstarter campaign to help fund it, which ultimately whilst close, fell short of its target. Though it did lead to some great contacts and the drive to eventually setup my own animation studio.
11. Murder on the App Store - Unfinished iOS Game - Fun turn-based multiplayer murder mystery game. I’d created a fully working prototype with servers running the game on Amazons AWS. I was offered a ￡10k grant to complete the game by Creative England. However, I eventually turned it down as at the time, I wasn’t quite ready to quit my full-time job at a London studio and commit to the project.
12. Stormy Studio Ltd - After 13 years working full time in the animation and video industry, my wife and I took the leap and setup our own animation and film studio. 2.5 years in, we now have our own office space by a beach, talented design and animation team and superb variety of projects for Global Brands and Companies.
13. Project X - My next side project is very slowly being tinkered with. This is alongside the running of our own growing business and raising two hilariously adorable and stubborn kids.

Looking back it’s clear now that so many things were learnt during the above side projects. Many of these have come into play when running our own business which complements our media production services. A good understanding of web design has remained particularly useful. The psychology and process of game design and marketing can, of course, be applied to our business. Finding the most efficient approaches for research & development, grant applications and more all come in handy.

Lastly, I would hazard a guess that multiple attempts at entrepreneurial activities, both good and bad help in allowing you to make the better business decisions.

Well, that's it... hopefully, there's some small insight to be taken from this.

If you've enjoyed this article please like/share/follow and all that jazz.

Plus of course please visit www.stormystudio.com to see what we're up to now with animation, design and business strategy.