With my time in the UK coming to an end, I think I have a
clear and workable idea of what I’m going to do next after leaving here.
One thing
that I am certain of, is my decision to move back home for at least 1-2 years,
staying with my family and making up time for the last 5 years I’ve been away.
I’m very much comfortable with this decision as staying with my family means
that most of my essential needs (rent, food, workspace) are taken care of which
also means that I am freed up to concentrate on my art and finding the right
employment opportunity. Moreover, one of the benefits that I’ve gain over my
time here in the UK was setting my Patreon page, which at its current level is
working really well for me and is more than enough for me to provide for myself
and contribute to my family’s expenses as well (especially due to the currency
exchange rates between the Dollar and the Vietnamese Dong). If possible, it is
also the course that I want to take further, working full-time on Patreon.
Although I might be missing out the benefits of working job for a local studio,
such as health insurance, bonuses or ease of taxation, I gained in much more
control of my working hours, the topic of my work (which affects interest in
the work and thereby the quality of the final product), and in pay as well (considering
the fact that most local artist jobs pay much less than what I’m already
earning due to the difference in living costs and minimum wages between other
countries and Vietnam).
My other option also involved me going back, but while
keeping Patreon as a side earning, I’m planning to find a place in one of the
local studios around Ho Chi Minh city. After some initial research, I found
that Vietnam in general has a lot of small to medium size studio, with a
particular leaning towards mobile games and outsourcing products. I think these
places are a good starting point for me to build up professional experience
while still staying close to home, with the eventual goal of moving overseas
again after around 3 or 4 years for big studios and bigger jobs, such as in
China, Japan, Singapore or the US. From my initial searching potential
employers in Ho Chi Minh are A-team (a Japanese-funded game studio), Gameloft
Vietnam (mobile game studio), Dinlygo,… . There are also some jobs working with
local publishers for book illustration. However, I also noticed that much of
the jobs listed by these companies tends to be very broad in its role’s definition
and encourage the employee to have a much broader range of skill than just a 2D
illustration, such as understanding in 3D and Unity. Therefore, I should start
building up some knowledge in these areas as well.
Both the options above are also supplemented by any
potential contracts I might receive from oversea studios over the coming years.
On top of this, I also have lists of places that I might find an opportunity
at, such as RoosterTeeth studio in Austin Texas, or Netease and Yostar in China.
No comments:
Post a Comment