Barcelona
Since my last post, I’ve had the good fortune to be able to move out of the United States. This has been a goal of mine for several years, mainly for cultural and political reasons. It finally became a possibility this year as I attained citizenship in a European Union member state and got a contract job that I can do remotely. I moved to Barcelona, Spain at the start of this month (December 2021).
The move itself was fairly painless, as far as trans-oceanic moves go. I spent months freaking out about whether my cats would make the long indirect plane trip successfully, but it went off (mostly) without a hitch – other than Persephone nearly getting stuck under a big machine in the private security check room. The kitties quickly settled into the new place and are doing great.
So far I’ve had a pretty chill expat experience. Due to the holidays and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been hard to meet new people, but I have gotten a couple opportunities to make friends. I’m hoping that things will pick up next year, maybe after the winter. I haven’t yet decided whether to stay here or move to a different part of Europe – my apartment is leased for 3 months, so I have until the end of February to decide. Barcelona seems like quite a nice place to live though.
As far as my career goes, I did a brief stint on the upcoming F2P mobile game Starborne: Frontiers with the Icelandic company Solid Clouds. They were lovely people, but when my initial contract expired I decided I just wasn’t very interested in working in F2P again… not to mention, I didn’t love how cold it was when I visited Reykjavik in June. Since then I’ve been contracting with Oxide Games on [REDACTED]. I, uh, am under a heavy NDA but let’s just say… it’s… a thing. I don’t think they can break my kneecaps for saying that.
Of course, 2021 was not the best year. In addition to the pandemic and everything else, I had to face the tremendous personal frustration of having my company fail and my project go nowhere. But with the move, I’m hoping to at least have a chance for a fresh start.
— Josh
Wind Catcher Games 