My last day at Polygon will be August 15th.
I've been deliberating how to write that for literally months, but there it is. I'm leaving Polygon, which I helped to co-found in 2012.
I'm not leaving for a job at another outlet, which would be totally fine, or to take a position in PR or development, though that would also be fine. Instead, I will effectively semi-retire from the games press as I start a new chapter in my life. At the end of August, I begin a Masters of Fine Arts program at SFAI, with a focus in painting and drawing.
I suppose I'm not leaving games completely. I will continue to produce and appear on Rebel FM, talking about games and whatever else we all feel like, and theoretically I may pick up a freelance gig here or there, as well as dip a toe or three or four into some consulting work, because, as it turns out, graduate school is really, really expensive. I still care about games, and I love talking about them, and if I have some kind of opportunity to help someone make something better, then that feels like a good, productive opportunity.
That said, my priority and the only thing that could really tear me away from Polygon is this new thing, which, in actuality, is an old thing. The only thing I've done for as long as I've played games and have been able to read is drawing. I went to an arts high school; My undergraduate degree was a double major, one of which was studio art. Somehow, while completing that degree, something clicked in my head with the direction that video game coverage was going with sites like 1up and Joystiq and Kotaku. It was thought-provoking and exciting, and I decided to pursue it, and somehow, against a lot of odds, I ended up doing it.
