WFH Game Development, Spaceman & My Friend The Spider

I watched Spaceman last night, starring Adam Sandler as Jakub Prochazka and Paul Dano as the voice of Hanuš, the enigmatic alien space spider. I enjoyed the movie and their relationship very much. The visual effects that brought Hanuš to life were very well done. Below are some stills in case you have not seen it yet. I wish there were more scenes with close-ups so we could see his little mouth talking a bit closer.

While watching the film, I was reminded of a little spider friend I had made about 4 years ago, when I first started working from home at the beginning of the pandemic, back in mid March of 2020.

At the time, I was working at Vicarious Visions (an Activision studio) on the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 as a Senior UI Artist. I was selected as part of the first WFH test group a week before the entire studio would ultimately be joining in on the new way of working for the foreseeable future. My initial work-from-home setup was quickly established in the living room - a very temporary setup while I worked on rearranging my personal computer desk in my finished basement in order to accommodate the equipment:

WFH initial setup in living room

Following this were three different desk setups I made over the next 2 years before I finally constructed a more semi-permanent, built-in desk. These various setups would last me thru my remaining time at Vicarious Visions [ including the merger with Blizzard, taking me from THPS1+2 thru Diablo IV ] before I left the company in May of 2022.

Basement desk setup 1

Basement desk setup 2

Basement desk setup 2

Basement desk setup 3

One day, while working on a scale model at my workbench in an adjacent room to where my computer desk was located, I noticed a cute, tiny little jumping spider poking around amongst the plastic pieces strewn across the tabletop. He seemed intrigued by me, as if he was trying to get a better look with his shiny black eyes peering at my own. I didn't really think anything of it and let him be after taking some photos.

A few days later while working at my computer, I noticed some movement on the floor out of the corner of my eye.  This little guy was making his way over to me from the other room.

Eventually, he found his way to my computer and was hanging out at my desk.  He would sometimes walk along my keyboard or edge of the monitor, even chase the mouse cursor across the screen. But most of the time he would just sit and look at me, hiding in the shadows just out of plain sight.  Surprisingly, this lasted a few weeks. I eventually started walking down to my desk very slowly and carefully, fearing I would accidentally step on him. I would say hello when I found him, ask what he was up to and sometimes take a photo to send to my wife who was working upstairs above me.

At one point I even brought the little guy into the room where the Bilco doors were located, thinking he was looking for a way out or might have better luck at finding some prey. But no, he eventually found his way back to my computer again.

Seemingly content on sitting with me and watching me while I worked. Over time though, he became less twitchy and sporadic with his movements and slowly walked in a lethargic manner when deciding to change his location.

Then one morning, he wasn't waiting for me at my computer.  I checked all of his usual hiding spots, looked all around the floor, the workbench, the Bilco door room. I could not find him anywhere.  Sadly, one day turned into two, then three, a full week and so on.  He was gone...

I like to think he made his way to another part of the house, living out the rest of his life catching whatever big bugs came his way. A short-lived work companion in a time where we were isolating was nice - and I wish it had lasted longer, but I enjoyed the time we had together.

My own little Hanuš...