Posted by Brice on June 27, 2010
“Blizzard and Nintendo don’t care about money; they only care about making fun games. Zynga just wants to turn a profit by making terrible games.”
Not exactly.
Video games, like painting, music, film, and theater, are a form of art. At the very least, they are a creative media that can be used to express any number of themes, ideas, fictional stories or worlds and convey experiences. For this reason, many players and developers have deep emotional attachments to the games that they play, games that touched their hearts and took them places they had never been before.
Companies that make these kinds of games are held in the highest esteem by players and fans. Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda games have always been known for their charm, easy-to-understand controls and challenges, and their flair for presentation and playability. Valve’s Half-Life and Portal games have many die hard fans who greatly respect the artistic integrity of the plot, storyline, and characters surrounding Gordon Freeman’s adventures. And Blizzard’s Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo franchises have given the company a seemingly unshakable reputation for high quality, polished experiences that are near-perfect. Each of these companies make the highest quality games in their own way, and saying that a game is “A Blizzard Game”, “A Valve Game”, or “A Nintendo Game” carries with it a mark of passion and dedication associated with those development teams.
However, other companies make games that are not as popular with the traditional gaming crowd. Currently the popular scapegoat is social networking companies, such as Zynga or Playdom. Games like Farmville or Sorority Life are wildly profitable, but they are often criticized for sacrificing fun and player entertainment in exchange for turning a buck. Clicking on crops day in and day out just doesn’t seem to have the same “labor of love” feel that went into a Zelda game. Rather, these games appear to some to be evil slot machines designed to maximize monetization.
This complaint is a serious misconception of the intentions of game companies. Those who voice this complaint believe that commercial games must be fun, that they must be of the highest quality, and that their number one, ultimate goal is to make a critically acclaimed product.
This is false.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on January 12, 2010
I still remember back in 2005 when the Wii was announced at E3, and the entire games industry just gasped. “What IS that?” It just didn’t make any sense at all. The words were coming out of their mouths and the demos were on the screen, but it just sounded like complete madness. A revolution indeed.
While motion control seems obvious now, you’ll have to take a moment to appreciate how impossibly innovative and creative it was at the time. No one else was anywhere near thinking something like controlling a game some way other than buttons was possible. And thus you have the makings of a fascinating story, of a company going from just about out of business in the console world to being #1, with sales that are unmatched by any other platform, and its leaders being named the top CEO’s among all industries, not just games. The Wii is certainly a lot of fun. Everyone remembers their first time playing Wii tennis, hearing about it, and trying it out. Everyone remembers being amazed that aunts, uncles, and grandparents were suddenly interested in games when they had displayed not a shred of curiosity before. If nothing else, it makes a great first impression, and that first impression has led it to over 50 million units and the best selling single game title of all time.
But there’s something wrong, isn’t there?
Isn’t it odd, that though so many Wii’s have been sold, they are actually played significantly less than other consoles? Isn’t it strange that despite how much fun everyone has swinging their arms wildly during Wii Sports tennis, eventually they are reduced to simply flicking their wrists? Doesn’t it seem unusual that while there are seemingly hundreds of Wii games on the market, you could count the ones worth playing on one hand? WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on October 30, 2009
Sometimes a phone conversation is all you need to get in the door. Photo: tilaneseven
In my previous article on Video Game Internships, I discussed some of the great things that can come out of having a shot at a game internship. In this article, I’ll discuss some of the first steps you can take to getting noticed by someone, which will often lead to getting a job in the game industry if done well.
Networking is an often overlooked aspect of getting into video game careers, especially by younger employees and students. However, networking is critical in all industries, but perhaps especially in the entertainment industry because it is such a high profile place to be. Everyone wants to be an actor, a TV producer, or a game designer, and yet the actual job openings and opportunities are relatively few. Finding someone who knows someone who knows someone who can get your name mentioned to a recruiter or a game developer can be a critically important step in starting your game career.
When I was younger, I thought it was almost like cheating to get a job because of someone you know. But the truth is that everyone is given different advantages in life, whether it is financial situation, geographic location, natural talent, good upbringing, or good connections; not everyone gets to start out at the same level or from the same starting point. So you’ll have to do the best with what you got, because your competition certainly will. Don’t feel guilty about networking; it’s a common and frankly well-respected practice to help get yourself noticed and at least get a foot in the door. You should also look at it as a skill worth developing for career building and enhancing your life. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on October 21, 2009
What is a video game engineer? What do they do, what is their day like, and how do they do it? In this article, we’ll discuss one of the most important members of any professional game development team.
In the games industry, engineers are usually people with backgrounds in computer science or electrical engineering; they are the wizards who transform the vague dreams of designers and artists into concrete mathematical representations. The team may come to them with requests, either for a new type of movement system or special effect, or perhaps an AI system for controlling the enemies, and the engineers will be responsible for turning those descriptions into systems that can be used in the game.
Engineers work in a variety of platforms and languages: C, C++, C#, Java®, Adobe® Flash®. They may also use programs such as Microsoft Visual Studio® or Codewarrior®. While the tools of the trade may change, the core concepts of engineering are universal. Knowing good coding practices, how to think about and organize problems, and how to create systems that interact further with other systems are high level skills that good engineers have mastered.
Furthermore, a video game engineer understands the real world limitations on the game, such as memory management or graphics capabilities of certain systems, and how to build robust and technically effective products anyway. If the lead designer, art director or executive producer comes to engineering with a specific request, it is up to the engineer to fully realize what that request actually means for the game’s under-the-hood systems.
Types of Engineers
Within this discipline, there is a good deal of specialization. We can’t possible discuss every type of engineer at every company, but we can cover the main three. Among different types of video game engineers are gameplay, systems, and tools engineers. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Brice on October 19, 2009
Almost everyone who is in the game development industry came from the student game development or indie world. Creating virtual worlds in their spare time, they dream of what it would be like to finally do for a living what they do in free time. And after months or years of networking, resume submissions, and job interviews, they finally land themselves a job with a game company and are welcomed to the world of electronic entertainment.
While working in the games industry certainly is a dream come true, many talented students and hobbyists become professional game developers only to be surprised that the job wasn’t exactly what they thought it was. They are used so working solo or at most with teams of two or three; now their teams consist of an entire office building floor. They are used to understanding every single line of the code in a game; now they specialize in a certain area or module, while no single person knows the entire code base in complete detail. They are used to doing what they think is fun or right for the game; now they are learning to work as a team and sell other team members on their ideas, or back off as superiors drive the vision.
The differences I’ve listed so far are small, but they are examples of the kind of culture shock that new entrants to the games industry can experience. Beyond these, there are four more major differences between working on your own project at home and working on someone else’s project at a company. And if working in the games industry is your ambition, then you should be ready and prepared for the changes that will one day come.
You can’t “quit” the project.
While working on independent projects with other students, you can quit with no major disaster. You get busy with other things, your exam schedule doesn’t allow you any programming time, or you lose interest in the idea (or the group). The project is essentially a hobby, meaning that your primary motivation for doing it is your own enjoyment, and so if things start to not work out in your favor for one reason or another, you can stop working on it and move on with other parts of your life. Other indie developers have a bad habit of not completing games. Before one indie title is even half way finished, they are already so excited about the next idea in their head that they scrap it.
Some independent game development organizations have fantastic group cohesion to prevent this, but more often than not, an independent project is abandoned without much fanfare. But when game development is your full time occupation, your nine-to-five, then quitting is not an option (unless you actually want to quit your job and lose your livelihood). This is true all the way through the project: it is true in the beginning when the design of the game is new and exciting, and it is equally as true eighty percent of the way through the project when you are bored to tears of implementation. When things get slow, you can’t quit. When your teammates are being unprofessional or downright unbearable, you can’t quit. When the tools or the tech isn’t working, you can’t quit. When management steps in and obliterates your vision for the game’s last chance at artistic integrity, you can’t quit.
I’ve described a lot of unhappy scenarios here that might cause you to want to quit, but realize that not quitting is also encouraging. Knowing that your team is going to get it done on time, no matter what, can help you through those dark times, help you grow as a person, and give you a sense of determination that will help you on future projects as well as other areas of your life. And during those late night long hauls, when everyone has banded together under the mission of creating a fantastic game, those are the times when heroes are made, another experience that rarely appears in indie game development.
Most everyone is probably as talented (if not more) than you.
At your local game development club, you may be the top dog. Everyone wants to have you on their project because you get the job done. You are a coding genius, a master designer, or a killer artist. Or perhaps you go solo, doing almost everything yourself, and are used to people being wowed that you could create something as complex as a video game all by yourself.
When you go to work for a game company, especially if it’s a good one, then you will have the experience of feeling very average. That’s not to say that you aren’t incredibly talented, because you are. It’s just that everyone else you will be working with is similarly talented. You were the president of your respective game development group? So was everyone else. You finished your first game in middle school and by graduated had worked on over 20 different titles? So has everyone else.
This doesn’t mean that you should hang up your shoes and retreat back to the indie world. Instead, take a bite of humble pie and put on your learning cap, because you are in one of the best laboratories on earth for mastering what you love to do. So when you first start at a game company, be sure to stay confident in yourself, but realize that the people around you are your co-workers and partners in this experience.
Game development is your primary time commitment.
Lots of indie developers are familiar with the hobby approach to game development. You have your normal job or class in the day, and at nights and on weekends then you work on your own little game project. It is a labor of love that takes up your free time. While you may be making great progress on your game over the weeks and months, your primary activity in life is separate from making a game. This gives your life a certain cadence which is very different from being a professional developer.
It seems obvious, but some people are surprised to find that when they start working at a game company, then game development is no longer a hobby. It is their primary focus. This will be a time when you realize how much you really love game development. If this is really what you want to be doing, deep down inside, then this is great. You’ll come in to work thrilled to be working on a real video game and the time will fly as you soak up as much knowledge and experience as possible. However, if it goes above your “equilibrium” for game development (meaning that you really only enjoy it enough to spend 2 hours, not 8 hours a day working on it) then you may find yourself disappointed.
Along with this is the fact that you’ll need to redistribute your passionate energy, per se. Since you’re working on your game project during the day, what are you doing to do at night? You could work on the game more (overtime), but most people will likely find that exhausting. Some developers continue to work on their own side projects in their own time, but this isn’t recommended, because it’s keeping your real energy and passion for yourself and your own project, and giving your teammates at work the leftovers. It’s better to learn to direct your passion into your job so that you can learn and grow at the highest level, not at a small indie project.
Overall, this change will be an opportunity to learn more about yourself and what you like to do, at your job as well in your spare time.
You are making a game in order to make money.
One final main difference between non-professional games and professional games is the core purpose. Ask yourself, what is the purpose of making a video game? If you are working on a project with friends or by yourself, then chances are that your motivation is:
To make a cool game idea that you think would be fun
To learn about game development for career growth
There’s nothing wrong with this, in fact these two reasons are great motivators to give you the skills you need to get into a professional gaming gig one day. However, when you are doing professional development, then your motivation is:
Make a game that will sell and make the company money
This is the purpose, and it is the only purpose. If you make a 96 Metacritic game that wins all the Game of the Year Awards, yet it only sells 200,000 copies when the forecast was for 5 million, then you have failed. No if’s, and’s, or but’s. The game was a failure. An inspiring work of art? Sure. But for the purpose it was created? A failure. Your team, your department, maybe your entire company, is now in jeopardy. You may go out of business, and all of that talk about game mechanics and aesthetics goes right down the drain along with your paycheck. Go check the job listings and tell your family no more dining out for a while.
This change in purpose will influence decisions made during development that few indie developers are familiar with. Let’s say that one particular feature of the game, such as the platforming action, doesn’t really feel right. If your motivation is to make a cool game, then you might sink a couple more weeks into making it work. If your motivation is to make money for your company, then you might cut the feature, realizing that players will still love (and purchase) the game even without it. Of course different companies have different strategies to approach this, but even the Valves and Blizzards and Nintendos of the world need to keep the sales coming. That is priority number one. Critical acclaim is a distant second.
Let me make a statement to the indie cynics out there: the purpose of making a game in order to make money doesn’t mean that you have sold your soul. There is still plenty of room to create games that inspire, games that push the envelope, and games that innovate. Legendary game developers and studios are those who can create something beautiful while still being financially successful. Just realize that if you want to make a business, not an art project, not a hobby, but a successful business, then your game has to make money; there is just no way around it.
Learning to adjust
Getting used to the professional video game environment takes time. Be prepared for confusion at your team’s decisions and a bit of bewilderment at processes as you learn the ropes. Be prepared to work hard and change your priorities as you begin to see the larger picture. And most of all, be prepared for the ride of your life, because there is nothing better than living the dream with those who have done it for years.
Things are different in the big leagues. (Photo: a4gpa)
Almost everyone who is in the game development industry came from the student game development or indie world. Creating virtual worlds in their spare time, they dream of what it would be like to finally do for a living what they do in free time. And after months or years of networking, resume submissions, and job interviews, they finally land themselves a job with a game company and are welcomed to the world of electronic entertainment.
While working in the games industry certainly is a dream come true, many talented students and hobbyists become professional game developers only to be surprised that the job wasn’t exactly what they thought it was. They are used so working solo or at most with teams of two or three; now their teams consist of an entire office building floor. They are used to understanding every single line of the code in a game; now they specialize in a certain area or module, while no single person knows the entire code base in complete detail. They are used to doing what they think is fun or right for the game; now they are learning to work as a team and sell other team members on their ideas, or back off as superiors drive the vision.
The differences I’ve listed so far are small, but they are examples of the kind of culture shock that new entrants to the games industry can experience. Beyond these, there are four more major differences between working on your own project at home and working on someone else’s project at a company. And if working in the games industry is your ambition, then you should be ready and prepared for the changes that will one day come.
You can’t “quit” the project.
While working on independent projects with other students, you can quit with no major disaster. You get busy with other things, your exam schedule doesn’t allow you any programming time, or you lose interest in the idea (or the group). The project is essentially a hobby, meaning that your primary motivation for doing it is your own enjoyment, and so if things start to not work out in your favor for one reason or another, you can stop working on it and move on with other parts of your life. Other indie developers have a bad habit of not completing games. Before one indie title is even half way finished, they are already so excited about the next idea in their head that they scrap it. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
