The Roller Coaster Year: Career Changes and R4 Progress

‍Hey there Wildlanders! Apologies for the overlong absence and thank you for your patience between updates. The past year has been a whirlwind, and I'm happy to share what's been going on behind the scenes.

But before that, please allow me to announce:

Story Contest Winner: William Slayden

Surprising nobody, y'all submitted the most incredible stories for last year's writing competition. We had such a blast reading every one, and our heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated. (And if you missed your chance last year, don't worry! We're definitely doing this again.)

Without further ado, I'm honored to announce William Slayden as the official winner of the Wildlander 2024 Story Competition.

William submitted two incredible stories that captured the essence of Wildlander: emergent storytelling, the deadly allure of Skyrim's wilderness, and how a single unexpected moment can change (or end!) a character forever. 

The raw authenticity of William’s characters and worldbuilding will capture you from the jump and forever change how you approach this game. We straight up guarantee it.

Thank you William for sharing your talent and passion with us, and please feel free to submit any other stories you drum up.

(Seriously. Please send us more William.)

((Please.))

Read William’s stories here:

• "The Beautiful Men"
• "The Days when Torygg was King"

A Year of Ups and Downs

As many of you know, last June I completed a back end engineering program and began pursuing full stack roles in earnest. I'm happy to report that in August 2024, I landed a full-time position as a consultant in the government contracting space.

My new role was great in a lot of ways. I got to build industry-leading applications with a team of superstars, my skills were growing at a breakneck pace, and my income was finally stable for the first time in a long time. But the role was crazy intense from the jump, and afforded no time for Wildlander. (Or hobbies. Or a personal life. Or any semblance of work life balance, really.)

Thankfully this was not the case forever. Things eased up at work around the ten month mark and I finally had time for Wildlander again! And since Lizzy kept developing features and queueing up work while I was away, we hit the ground running and made massive progress on R4 in a very short time. (R4 is a lot bigger now, by the way. We’re excited to show you once the time comes.)

Unfortunately, this golden era ended as quickly as it started. The massive cuts in the public sector resulted in the total loss of our client’s funding, and my entire team was laid off - one year to the day after I started. (Which I didn’t realize until right now. Creepy!)

Guess Who’s Back (Back Again)

So here we are again, with your boi back in the job search. I’ve had some bites and really hope to land something soon, but I won’t have time for Wildlander until I’m gainfully employed again.

I know this is frustrating and I really do apologize for the uncertainty. Needless to say, I’m frustrated too. But such is life and I promise I’m doing all I can to find a new role and get back to developin’.

A Humble Request

To that end, I humbly ask once more for your help in the job search. If anyone in the community knows of open software engineering roles, I would be endlessly grateful for any connections or referrals. Back end, front end, full stack, full back, quarterback, pickleback, snack attack - I do it all. (Especially that last one.)

I also want to thank you for all the patience and support you’ve shown me while I’ve been away. I still read your posts, and I can’t tell you how many times your passion for this project has helped me through a hard day. I hope y’all continue to enjoy Wildlander into the future, and I promise I won’t go this long between updates again.

Thanks for everything Wildlanders. Cheers and until next time,

Dylan