Help Dave Potter Move Back Home

My name is Dave Potter.

I was a professional video game developer from 1995 to 2014 -- about 19 years, not counting some periods of unemployment. The longest one, before my career effectively ended, was from 2011 to 2012.

I'm an American, an average Southern guy born and raised in East Tennessee. In 1995 I left Tennessee to move out west as a young adult and join the growing video game industry, after graduating college and acquiring some skills in creating CG imagery, which was also coming into its own as the predominant standard for creating commercial art.

I first lived in Nevada for a few years, then a new job took me to California, and subsequent jobs moved me around Southern California and finally the North Bay Area, where I still live today. Over the years my job shifted from art to video game design, and at the end, gameplay scripting. But today, as with many, I'm no longer able to find employment as a game developer. Outside of positions for well-qualified engineers, few jobs in game development have ever been truly stable, and currently the entire industry seems very turbulent, with unprecedented studio closures and layoffs in 2023 that continue today.

After my last professional gamedev job ended in 2014, I tried independent game development. I self-published the co-op puzzle-platformer Cheer and Track as an "early access" title. But it didn't take off, and as of this writing still hasn't generated enough money for even a single payout.

I also started YouTube channel Solitaire20X6, primarily featuring no-commentary gameplay from the video game Fall Guys, which I love. This past summer I also streamed the Elden Ring DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, with some commentary, playing to the end of the story (I think!). But my channel isn't popular, and hasn't generated any income.

I found a part-time job this year as a "break-fix" representative with a merchandising company, troubleshooting, maintaining, and installing displays in electronics departments and stores. While I was a little slow to start, I enjoyed the work. It was satisfying to restore a display to functionality and see a completed display. I hoped it would lead to full-time employment, but it just didn't, with not enough work for another full-time rep in my part of Northern California.

Without game development, I just can't make living in California work. So I need to move back to our family home where I grew up and start over, and with my life's savings nearly exhausted, I'm asking for financial help to do so.

I think my merchandising experience will have value back home. I plan to apply to local retailers and merchandisers once there. There's very little video game development in Tennessee, although East Tennessee is close to North Carolina and Raleigh, home of giant game developer and publisher Epic Games, also the publisher of Fall Guys. But I don't have any modern experience with the Unreal Engine, their flagship development product and the leading third-party video game engine; all my experience is with Unity, their closest competitor.

And Epic has laid off people in the last two years, as has just about every gamedev studio. So I think my chances of joining them, or finding another game developer who's hiring in the state or region, are slim.

I have a few options for getting back home. The move should be straightforward; I don't have a significant other or any children, it's just me to move back.

The simplest option is to put all my stuff in storage and drive home. Despite living in California for 26 years, I don't have that much. I've made few major purchases. I bought a small car new in 1994 and still drive it. I live simply and saved exhaustively while I was doing well. But it just wasn't enough.

USD 5,000.00 would allow me to hire movers and put my stuff in storage in Northern California for about six months. In that time I'd need to save up enough to move everything to me in East Tennessee. So while anything would help, that's my first goal.

USD 10,000.00 would allow me to hire movers to immediately move all my stuff to our family home.

Please contribute if you can. You can also help me by buying a copy of my indie game or watching some of my YouTube videos.

Thanks for your consideration and valuable time!