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Solus posted:I shall find things a bit more on hand next time. Google Image Search is your friend!
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Jun 22, 2011 15:36
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Alterian posted:Google Image Search is your friend! Bing Image search is where its at my friend. I got yelled at today for being a Geography Major who spends all his time loving around with 3D models and video editing. Apparently I should be at some liberal arts university or something. ;-;. I might decide at the end of the year if I want to do 2 more years of uni or bail and go to http://www.mediadesignschool.com/courses/game-development , they actually produce some decent work. Hell the last 6 months of your learning is actually producing a game, some fo which looked quite fancy like. But then again to get into the course I hae to be able to draw for some fucktarded reason. Solus fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Jun 22, 2011 |
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Jun 22, 2011 15:43
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I get the impression a lot of times the portfolio requirement is to weed out people who aren't super serious. If you are going to do an art program for games, expect to do art. I did 2 quarters of traditional art before I sat in front of a computer and the first two years of the program I did, half of the classes were non computer art classes.
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Jun 22, 2011 16:03
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Alterian posted:I get the impression a lot of times the portfolio requirement is to weed out people who aren't super serious. If you are going to do an art program for games, expect to do art. I did 2 quarters of traditional art before I sat in front of a computer and the first two years of the program I did, half of the classes were non computer art classes. Yeah except I can't draw, which may end up being a problem when it comes down to that. I'll probably just keep self teaching and once I think I get good enough scout around for a mod team and get some experience that way.
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Jun 22, 2011 16:11
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Solus posted:Yeah except I can't draw, which may end up being a problem when it comes down to that. I'll probably just keep self teaching and once I think I get good enough scout around for a mod team and get some experience that way. Time to learn then! Don't run before you can walk etc. I may live in an echo chamber, and I feel like I end up repeating this too often in this thread, but if you cannot draw/paint/whatever, you will forever be an "ok at best maybe ugh" game artist. Set your sights higher and buckle down and sketch, doodle, paint, and so on. Join a community college figure drawing class. Don't try to use the tools to cover up your inexperience. And for the love of god, NO GAME SCHOOLS.
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Jun 22, 2011 16:15
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devilmouse posted:
This one look lik a genuinely decent one, its an entirely newmedia based school, been around quite a while. But I will keep that in mind. Time to bust out the old stationary then...
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Jun 22, 2011 16:18
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I think its just a really bad idea in general to pigeonhole yourself like that even if the degree wasn't a piece of poo poo. What happens if you graduate with a Game Design degree and you have to get a normal job?
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Jun 22, 2011 16:20
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Solus posted:This one look lik a genuinely decent one, its an entirely newmedia based school, been around quite a while. But I will keep that in mind. Take his advice to heart. I know we're random goons, but I've been doing this a long time and Devilmouse is like Grand Poobah of Zynga or some poo poo. We both hire people for games. Don't go to a games school. Trust us.
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Jun 22, 2011 16:27
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So what I've gained from you fantastical game design dudes/lady dudes at 4am on a Thursday - Stick with Blender, work on making shinies - Draw, Paint, Doodle, Sketch to get better. - Potentially leave New Zealand due to an Average game industry - No game schools due to pigeonholing. (even though I'm currently a Geography Major) - Trust your goonfriends Anything I missed?
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Jun 22, 2011 16:27
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Solus posted:So what I've gained from you fantastical game design dudes/lady dudes at 4am on a Thursday Personally I say gently caress Blender. No studios use Blender. Learn Maya or Max, it'll look a lot better on a resume.
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Jun 22, 2011 16:29
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Backov posted:Personally I say gently caress Blender. No studios use Blender. Learn Maya or Max, it'll look a lot better on a resume. Going to school isn't a bad idea, just don't go to school for games specifically. If you want to be an artist, go find a degree program for "just artists." Fine art, whatever, something relatively respectable. THAT has value. Just not games-specific degrees. ... and yes, probably plan on leaving New Zealand. We're a hub-based industry, and you will probably (but not necessarily) have to move to break in. Sorry 
Shalinor fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Jun 22, 2011 |
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Jun 22, 2011 16:30
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Shalinor posted:
It is a semi-tradition to go overseas to work for a while anyway so its not out of the ordinary. It helps I have a British passport due to ancestry...or I should. It's in the box of things. As Far as I can tell we have a few small companies floating around, as well as Weta Digital who don't do games but do make shinies. Gameloft also opened a decent sized studio here too
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Jun 22, 2011 16:38
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Backov posted:Personally I say gently caress Blender. No studios use Blender. Learn Maya or Max, it'll look a lot better on a resume. I don't think I could ever give up Max as my number one choice, if for no other reason than TexTools and Neil Blevins' Soulburn Scripts collection of scripts. I know how to do pretty much all of the things in both packages by hand but they streamline modelling "junk" and unwrapping everything like crazy.
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Jun 22, 2011 16:41
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Solus posted:Yeah except I can't draw, which may end up being a problem when it comes down to that. There are a lot of suceess stories at conceptart.org Look at this person's stuff on the first page, and then jump to the last page http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=120557
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Jun 22, 2011 16:47
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Solus posted:- No game schools due to pigeonholing. (even though I'm currently a Geography Major) So this goes a little against the pigeonholing advice, but if you can hone your landscape art skills, you can find a job as a world builder in a heartbeat. Having a geography degree backing up decent art skills is like a magic bullet to land an interview at a studio making an open-world landscape-based game.
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Jun 22, 2011 17:06
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The thing about art is that anything that is a part of you is a credit to your abilities. With a geography major, you'll be able to look at maps and poo poo with a completely different eye than a fine artist or a programmer, and that's valuable. Anything you take in, enjoy, and make a part of your knowledge base will bubble to the surface as you create. A lot of the amazing artists I know are just genuinely interested in the world around them and are constantly studying all kinds of stuff that you'd think was unrelated. http://artsammich.blogspot.com/ This guy teaches digital painting at my uni, and he can explain all of the scientific principles that surround how light acts and reacts and why things look the way they do under certain conditions, and he'll corner science people at parties and question them about fresnel effects and such. Don't discount your life experiences and interests when it comes to art making. The more junk you have in your brain, the more uniquely you'll be able to create.
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Jun 22, 2011 17:19
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This latest outburst actually made me look at the Train2Game website for a bit to see what they were up to these days. They're doing a QA degree. Dear God. Oh, also all of their stuff is apparently TIGA awarded now, which seems well dodgy to me, given that they're supposed to be representing the games industry.
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Jun 22, 2011 17:26
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Geography major buddy! Finish your degree, just add as much fine art in as you can. Good college courses can help you start from zero with relatively little risk. You have a LOT of resources available to you while you're in school; focus on taking advantage of them instead of getting out as quickly as possible. I personally got a four-year geography degree and then later got a game-specific degree. While I'm now a designer, I still had to start from 0 in the industry because despite the game school's assurances, their "network of contacts" got me bupkus. I worked my own way up. While the skills I learned in that school were valuable, and I probably wouldn't have learned them as quickly on my own, I could have learned the same things for less money at a traditional school. I'm never going to discourage game-industry hopefuls from getting geography degrees. SOME of us need to know how the hell to make a world that could actually exist.
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Jun 22, 2011 17:40
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Tricky Ed posted:Geography major buddy! What about Animation/Russian Language double-majors?
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Jun 22, 2011 17:43
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mutata posted:What about Animation/Russian Language double-majors? Russia's got a development scene. I hope you like getting paid in rubles or Putin-bucks or whatever it is they use right now 
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Jun 22, 2011 17:44
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mutata posted:What about Animation/Russian Language double-majors? EDIT: Having a degree in Russian qualifies you for moustache work, doesn't it?
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Jun 22, 2011 17:52
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Chasiubao posted:Russia's got a development scene. I hope you like getting paid in rubles or Putin-bucks or whatever it is they use right now Hey, if you save up enough Putin-bucks you can get him to show up at your child's birthday party.
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Jun 22, 2011 17:53
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When did the thread title change? As a game designer, I miss the old one <>
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Jun 22, 2011 17:56
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I have a second interview for the Associate Producer position on Monday 27th, after having a phone interview earlier this week. I'm always nervous when it comes to interviews and it really shows. I'm hoping I can keep my composure this time.
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Jun 22, 2011 17:56
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Amrosorma posted:When did the thread title change? As a game designer, I miss the old one < Commentary on all of us who keep posting about interviews. Andio posted:I have a second interview for the Associate Producer position on Monday 27th, after having a phone interview earlier this week. Yeah I think I hosed up the Raven interview pretty bad due to being nervous. I didn't really have much time to prepare for it and it really showed, then in my haste I typo'd a URL in the follow up email after. Its really stupid stuff to beat myself up over, but I'll be really surprised if the guy contacts me again.
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Jun 22, 2011 18:02
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The Cheshire Cat posted:An magnetically driven piston or a hydraulic system both create pressure, but function very differently. In an OO-type machine, they would both be usable as the same part. Way off topic but please show me an example of this magnetically driven piston as I have a hard time imagining one that would be powerful enough to create the necessary pressure without it being: a) huge b) crazy expensive and not very efficient I'm not doubting you or anything, I'm just genuinely curious is such a thing exists.
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Jun 22, 2011 18:12
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GetWellGamers posted:He turns to me and asks with this semi-pained look on his face if he's done anything of any value for the team, since we're in the home stretch and there's not a single jot of his code in the program now that the feature he was working on got cut. He's having this entire existential crisis about the project being late and him feeling like he's been more or less dead weight. It's like, what do you say to that? I mean, he's been working pretty long days and doing hard work, but he's right- in terms of the finished product, by that point of 3/4ths through the project he'd done nothing that would be in the final product. I'm not a producer type, but I've been in similar situations on the design side. It's pretty much the nature of this industry (especially at larger studios) that you're dealing with a bit of a crap shoot at times with regard to what will actually make it into a game at ship. All you can do is be sympathetic and validate that they're doing a good job (assuming they are) and emphasize that *all* work is part of the team's work and helps everyone, whether there's something solid to show for it or not at the end. Sometimes exploring and paring down options and/or taking wrong paths is more valuable in the end than anyone realizes... (Or you can just blame producers and lovely planning.  )
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Jun 22, 2011 18:14
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MustardFacial posted:Way off topic but please show me an example of this magnetically driven piston as I have a hard time imagining one that would be powerful enough to create the necessary pressure without it being: I don't think it does, I was just trying to come up with something that would function fundamentally differently than a hydraulic system at 2 AM. You can create a fair amount of force over a small distance with electromagnets but that's about it.
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Jun 22, 2011 18:15
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EDIT: ^^ For an example of a magnetically driven "piston", look at Gauss guns. They typically only have the one stroke, but in theory you could reverse the field. What you'd run into is massive inefficiency as the field collapsed and reformed, and at that point what you have isn't a piston so much as a converter or a transmitter. Rail guns are another one to look at, where you'd essentially pulse a projectile back and forth along a reaaallly long barrel. ... neither would be efficient in the least, afaik. aas Bandit posted:(Or you can just blame producers and lovely planning. I realize it was a joke, just - something to keep in mind. If you do pull that card, assume the blame yourself with a commitment to doing better. "Yes, I hosed up. Not 'the management,' me. I made a mistake, and I will make sure it doesn't happen again." Don't pass the buck, give a specific target for the vitriol, and defuse the vitriol with confidence and passion. (and then back it up by actually doing what you say) Shalinor fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Jun 22, 2011 |
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Jun 22, 2011 18:25
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The Cheshire Cat posted:I don't think it does, I was just trying to come up with something that would function fundamentally differently than a hydraulic system at 2 AM. You can create a fair amount of force over a small distance with electromagnets but that's about it. ah, fair enough. In case you're curious: Heat Difference Engine Shalinor posted:EDIT: ^^ For an example of a magnetically driven "piston", look at Gauss guns. They typically only have the one stroke, but in theory you could reverse the field. What you'd run into is massive inefficiency as the field collapsed and reformed, and at that point what you have isn't a piston so much as a converter or a transmitter.  Engineer chat!Gauss and rail guns are really good at rapid acceleration but not so much at transferring that momentum into a canister that could create pressure (the likely scenario is that they'd blow through the canister or would take so long to slow down that they'd be unable to generate any sort of pressure). Part of the reason why internal combustion engines work is because the other pistons in the engine transfer some of their momentum to the one piston on the compression stroke. In addition to that the connecting rod attached to the bottom of the piston forces the rapid deceleration of it right before the fuel-air mix self ignites from the heat generated of being compressed (this self ignition is called detonation and sometimes happens on really high end dragsters or poorly tuned Civics). Gauss and rail guns simply operate at too high of a speed to make this effective without either breaking the piston, or breaking the gun. Diesel engines work in a similar fashion except they are specifically designed to force detonation which is why they don't have spark plugs. [edit] It's important for devs to have other interests besides games. In this case mine is cars and mechanics, among other things. Hence the gigantic off-topic rant. MustardFacial fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Jun 22, 2011 |
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Jun 22, 2011 18:31
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FreakyZoid posted:Oh, also all of their stuff is apparently TIGA awarded now, which seems well dodgy to me, given that they're supposed to be representing the games industry. Skillset do accreditation for games courses and they seem to be a bit more, what's the word, rigorous? The members of their computer games skills council seem pretty impressive (although that list is maybe just slightly out of date...).
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Jun 22, 2011 18:39
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Shalinor posted:I realize it was a joke, just - something to keep in mind.  If I think someone higher-up is loving up, I'll talk to them directly (one-on-one--not in a meeting or whatever) and see if there's something I'm missing, or perhaps point out factors/consequences to their decisions of which they may not be aware. Usually, if you're careful to approach someone at the right time and with the right attitude, people are willing to discuss/explain what they're doing. One of the best things you can do, especially if you've been someplace a while, is act as "early warning radar" for stuff going bad in a way that's similar to something that happened previously, and then point that out. Not in a "wow, you people are being stupid again" tone, but with a gentle, "hey, remember when we did X and Y happened? I'm worried that may be happening again..." (make it about you to reduce defensiveness).
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Jun 22, 2011 19:22
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:I think its just a really bad idea in general to pigeonhole yourself like that even if the degree wasn't a piece of poo poo. What happens if you graduate with a Game Design degree and you have to get a normal job? Do you think your last sentence becomes any less true if you replace the words "Game Design" with any of the plethora of other majors with no practical application offered by universities? I don't think Game Design is inherently any different, but a lot of the programs out there currently are poo poo unrelated to being "Game Design". They won't make you more well rounded as a person, and won't get you a job either.
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Jun 22, 2011 20:34
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Jaytan posted:Do you think your last sentence becomes any less true if you replace the words "Game Design" with any of the plethora of other majors with no practical application offered by universities? Game related majors are such a narrow part of the field, though - someone with a 3d art degree that isn't games related is going to presumably have more experience with non-games 3d and have a portfolio, or the skills to make one, that will let them land advertising, design, film, etc work. Same thing with programming - games is a narrow part there, and afaik with programming your degree matters more, so having a degree that isn't Games Programming but instead is a general CS degree, you'll have more options available to you. Game Design is narrow as it is, so going for a game design degree is probably OK, except again, 95% of the places with Games Degrees are loving fly-by-night scam colleges or unaware, clueless colleges.
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Jun 22, 2011 20:41
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Jaytan posted:Do you think your last sentence becomes any less true if you replace the words "Game Design" with any of the plethora of other majors with no practical application offered by universities? Actually yes, because in the process of getting a History of Science or Art Semiotics or whatever other useless degree you might come out of a liberal arts school with, you've also gotten a presumably well-rounded education that introduced you to all manner of subjects across the spectrum. If you get some hyper-specialized "trade school" degree, you've learned... about that trade.
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Jun 22, 2011 21:05
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Does whether it's a Bachelors or Masters matter much, and what kind of portfolio should a programmer have?
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Jun 22, 2011 21:08
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The Cheshire Cat posted:The difference really is that functions are generic input->output operations that can be applied to anything with the right data types, while class methods should only concern the operation of THAT particular class. GetWellGamers posted:He turns to me and asks with this semi-pained look on his face if he's done anything of any value for the team, since we're in the home stretch and there's not a single jot of his code in the program now that the feature he was working on got cut. He's having this entire existential crisis about the project being late and him feeling like he's been more or less dead weight. Not making the cut, so to speak, is just part of the entertainment business. You learn to deal with hard edits and cancellations by moving on, knowing that there will be more projects. In terms of what a producer should do to alleviate the weight of such loss, the idealist in me thinks that a producer should find more work for the talent. "Making of" and "behind-the-scenes" footage are great ways to showcase the process, but successful new projects will yield more, even if they're smaller in scale.
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Jun 22, 2011 21:08
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Black Eagle posted:See, to me, that just sounds like "classes are functions whose I/O operations can be applied to anything with the right data types within their classes." If that's an unworkable interpretation, I guess I just need more hands-on experience with using classes. (I've been writing procedural PHP, but I'm scheduling some time to learn AS3.) A class isn't a function. You can't call a class, you can't instantiate a function. Some languages do blur the lines a bit, so there are a lot of caveats. It's pretty offtopic for this thread but stop by the generic game dev thread in CoC if you want a more detailed answer.
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Jun 22, 2011 21:21
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Sam. posted:Does whether it's a Bachelors or Masters matter much, and what kind of portfolio should a programmer have? A programmer's portfolio should be full of small demos focusing on specific things they've built (a cool shader, a sky system, a ray tracer, a flocking AI demo, a physics system, whatever) and then a few large demos of finished, polished games they have built alone or on a team. Generally, a programmer's portfolio should not involve Stencyl / GameMaker / etc, and should focus on C++. If you use pre-existing engines, I wouldn't go much higher level than OGRE. Something like a Unity project or two on the side as some of your specific-thing demos would be fine, but don't put a Unity project as your primary project.
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Jun 22, 2011 21:34
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Anyone in here have an Associate Producer (or higher) experience? I would like to ask a few questions before the interview on Monday.
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Jun 22, 2011 22:15
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