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cgeq posted:Yes, we sure did, but the ROI really necessitates avenues outside of BigFish's own site, like traditional retail and smartphones/tablets. Or you could be like ERS and do things very cheaply. And as long as I can pimp Phantom, use this link instead (it has extra goodies)! You worked on Phantom? You're my (HO) hero!  Though you should have done something about the really long intro every time the game is booted up. What did you do on the project? That aside, I don't suppose that you could shed more information on said return of interest? As in, was going for the extra mile worth it, or did it only make just enough that trying for similar production values again isn't worth it?
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Jun 30, 2011 02:36
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Akuma posted:Yeah he'd be the other guy. Thanks! We actually spoke about you at the pub! He was very complimentary. I need to PM you... AFAIK Drew isn't a goon, though given the way his job came about it shouldn't be hard to convince him to drop the   I got your email, I'll compile some stuff for you in the meantime and reply tomorrow most likely. 
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Jun 30, 2011 02:54
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Mango Polo posted:You worked on Phantom? You're my (HO) hero! Glad you enjoyed it! I was pretty psyched to work on it. I joined the company last year when the game was ~75% done or so and worked mostly on the writing and bonus section. Mango Polo posted:That aside, I don't suppose that you could shed more information on said return of interest? As in, was going for the extra mile worth it, or did it only make just enough that trying for similar production values again isn't worth it? Well, it did well enough that our next game is coming along nicely at the same high standards. Personally I think it'll blow Phantom away in some regards, but maybe I'm more sweet on it since I've been able to contribute a lot more than I did with Phantom. We're pretty proud of our work on Phantom and I don't think anyone would have cut back on the extra mile we went with it, but would the game have sold less if we had cut back on the more expensive parts (art/sound/voice acting)? It's hard to say. Branching away from being so reliant on the traditional market, and more into the realm of original $.99 type games, is definitely an aim of ours. cgeq fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Jun 30, 2011 |
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Jun 30, 2011 05:05
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Fishbus posted:Oh god, right now I'm here to pimp some UK Jobs we have in London, Good place to work, pretty chill peeps. Looking for eager starters (like env artists) as well as grizzled juggernauts. Oooo, story time, it's always nice to read about how people get into my desired career.
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Jun 30, 2011 11:49
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EDIT: NM I am mean.
Monster w21 Faces fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Jun 30, 2011 |
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Jun 30, 2011 14:41
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cgeq posted:We're pretty proud of our work on Phantom and I don't think anyone would have cut back on the extra mile we went with it, but would the game have sold less if we had cut back on the more expensive parts (art/sound/voice acting)? It's hard to say. Branching away from being so reliant on the traditional market, and more into the realm of original $.99 type games, is definitely an aim of ours.
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Jun 30, 2011 16:01
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Is there a way to politely and appropriately ask my Lead about the current production pace? I'm going to be starting in about a week and a half and I'm fine with working long and hard, but I also would really love to know what I'm about to be dropped into in terms of typical hours for the team. I'm also worried that if I phrase it badly I could come across as a slacker/disinterested in working hard (not good for a temp who's hoping to make good impressions)
treeboy fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Jun 30, 2011 |
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Jun 30, 2011 16:19
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treeboy posted:Is there a way to politely and appropriately ask my Lead about the current production pace? I'm going to be starting in about a week and a half and I'm fine with working long and hard, but I also would really love to know what I'm about to be dropped into in terms of typical hours for the team. I'm also worried that if I phrase it badly I could come across as a slacker/disinterested in working hard (not good for a temp who's hoping to make good impressions :\ ) I think it's perfectly normal for new hires to be curious and even concerned about workload and work environment. Just ask what stage the production is in, if there's a crunch coming up or planned (or if the company even does them) and how many hours people in your position are expected to work per week. They like you enough to hire you, they aren't going to jump up your rear end over regular questions like that, I don't think. Maybe others have a different opinion, though. vvv Listen to those guys, they're smarter than I. mutata fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Jun 30, 2011 |
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Jun 30, 2011 16:29
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mutata posted:Just ask what stage the production is in, if there's a crunch coming up or planned (or if the company even does them).... Stop there - don't ask how many hours you're expected to work because it sets people up to think you'll do just those hours and nothing more. If you want an approximation, you could probably couch it in terms of "What are core hours?", which will likely be 9-11 through 4-6. The usual advice to someone starting in ANY new non-hourly job applies: "Don't be the last one in or the first one to leave." If people generally get there around 10, be in at 9:30. If people generally leave at 6, leave at 6:30. Don't, however, try to be some superhero coming in at 7 and leaving at 11 or whatever.
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Jun 30, 2011 16:48
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From my experience companies are usually up front about letting you know if they expect more than the standard 40 a week. I am sure there is some kind of orientation process even if it's just filling out paperwork I am sure they will let you know. If not just ask. People are being too neurotic about what they might think of you.
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Jun 30, 2011 16:56
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Fleshin' out the designer thing. My experience with designing is that the following helps significantly: -Play lots of video games, and understand why they're good or bad. -Be able to approach everything with a critical eye. Have an opinion on everything. -Be innovative, and come up with new, but PRACTICAL ideas. -Be a good, articulate writer. If you couldn't bullshit a GOOD 5 page paper in college about a random topic within 2 hours in college, you're not cut out for the job. -Have technical knowledge, i.e., know a programming language. -Be able to keep your emotions in check. Being attached to an idea is OK, but you need to be able to take rejection to the face and not throw a hissy fit. Designers are basically the closest thing to an "idea guy", but a "fun" position like this automatically guarantees that to be qualified, you'd better be damned special and offer something that no other applicant can. If your friends don't look up to you, you're not cut out for the job. Being a designer entails doing a bit of everything--from the technical side (scripting, coding, other sorts of technical planning) to marketing (public appearances, interviews, explaining to a crying community why X mechanic works that way). The smaller the company you work out, the more will be expected out of you.
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Jun 30, 2011 17:11
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Nome posted:-Be able to keep your emotions in check. Being attached to an idea is OK, but you need to be able to take rejection to the face and not throw a hissy fit. Just as an addendum to this, you should be very cognizant of which hills you're willing to die for. If there's some part of your design that you think is core to the experience, that you think it just won't be the same without, then go ahead and fight tooth and nail for it, but you'd better be sure you're absolutely on the money. You usually only get a handful of these per project, and you don't want to waste them, so cut what needs to be cut, even if it hurts, but save what absolutely has to be saved. I've had people come up to me way later in a project and say things like "You know when you were talking about [feature] earlier, I really didn't see how it would work. Now that I've seen it in action, I don't know how the game would be any fun at all without it." That's the level of certain you need to be to fight for your pet feature's inclusion.
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Jun 30, 2011 19:24
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Nome posted:
...and not cry in a meeting when the artists tell you what you want is impossible to do with the engine you're using. 
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Jun 30, 2011 19:38
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No way. If that's real you have to post the gory details.
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Jun 30, 2011 19:49
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Alterian posted:...and not cry in a meeting when the artists tell you what you want is impossible to do with the engine you're using. The problem here is letting the artists ever think they can say no!
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Jun 30, 2011 20:08
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Alterian posted:...and not cry in a meeting when the artists tell you what you want is impossible to do with the engine you're using. Makes me wish there was some anonymous "tales of game dev horror" wall, where you could post and change the names and details if you wished...
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Jun 30, 2011 20:55
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EDIT: ^^ There is, it's this thread, you just change the names to protect the accused (and amuse the readers)Alterian posted:...and not cry in a meeting when the artists tell you what you want is impossible to do with the engine you're using. 
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Jun 30, 2011 22:12
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Shalinor posted:EDIT: ^^ There is, it's this thread, you just change the names to protect the accused (and amuse the readers) I'm very surprised there's not an anonymous site for these things, i mean there's all those fanfiction and confession websites there needs to be a one for this industry because I've heard lots of really good poo poo though the years from different places. And all I want is to hear more.
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Jun 30, 2011 23:09
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In the last thread I posted some questions about interview and QA related stuff to get some tips, since I was just starting to land my first interviews in the field of gaming. Just landed a QA World/Art position at a pretty big company here in Seattle (not microsoft) so I've got a few of you to thank for giving me some good confidence with your tips and stories, etc. So, thank you for helping me land my first "real" gaming job! 
Nerolus fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jun 30, 2011 |
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Jun 30, 2011 23:51
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quote:-Be a good, articulate writer. If you couldn't bullshit a GOOD 5 page paper in college about a random topic within 2 hours in college, you're not cut out for the job. This method got me a B for my Anthropology 101 this semester, a method I know I can do but shouldn't have. Curse you beer. Anyway, I'm off to consider rejoining the Indie dev meetups that happen once I month, Full time work kinda killed me out of it but I have more time for that.
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Jul 1, 2011 01:10
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Fishbus posted:I'm very surprised there's not an anonymous site for these things, i mean there's all those fanfiction and confession websites there needs to be a one for this industry because I've heard lots of really good poo poo though the years from different places. And all I want is to hear more. Sounds like I should set up a Tumblr and start taking submissions!
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Jul 1, 2011 01:36
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Super Slash posted:Oooo, story time, it's always nice to read about how people get into my desired career. edit: Train-of-thought post warning Well I sort of didn't realise I could get into the industry. In fact I was told to in a way. Like, even though I'd want to join the industry I really had no idea of positions, what people do or how the system worked. I had been making maps, levels for stuff for years and years as sort of a hobby as a kid, making stuff for rts games, fps games, starting at duke3d, I was fingerpainting with level design at this point but I loved experimenting and mushing things together and playing them at my hearts content, lowtags and hightags are still childhood nightmare fuel. Anyway, I'd got into serious level design through cs, tfc the halflife engine mostly, again it's just experimentation, but now I was acutallly making playable stuff - i was playing with people on the internet now, i knew people and was getting feedback. Again, just not thinking much of it, just learning. Doing high school things, whatever, making levels was fun and relaxing when i was younger. Other games come along, cs:source, generals, cnc3, whatever I make stuff and play with mates over these years. Now it's 2006 / 2007, TF2 comes out and I'm throwing down mad shapes while not really feeling much for university. I'm in a community a big one, and SA now as well, I've got a huge audience for testing and now I've got hundreds of people, collating their feedback and processing it. And this is where I really decide to put the head down and work at it. I make Steel in 6 months and Freight a couple after. I've put rediculous hours in I don't even no what. They are picked up by Valve and now it's serious business time. Soon after, SplashDamage send me an email asking to join them. I say yes and worked on essentially the whole of Brink for the last few years. It's been mad, it's been enjoyable and I'm always learning still. (First shipped game by working from start to finish). Woo. Anyway, it's still rad as hell, I've burnt out every now and then over the last decade but i keep on coming back for more and with more passion. A personal gripe of mine, I really don't like it when someone asks me about becoming a level designer I say "what can you do?" and the response is "I can use Unreal/radiant/souce whatever" and I don't like it. Level design isn't about what tool you use. It's always "I made this in X engine" and never do I hear excitement for the whole level design process. Its sad as it sounds like they are just constructing levels just for the sake of making something rather than caring about what it plays like :< Fishbus fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Jul 1, 2011 |
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Jul 1, 2011 01:45
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Any suggestions for free UI mockup software? I'm at a loss 
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Jul 1, 2011 02:26
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3 of my Quake 2 skins were in the bottom running of worst quake skin of all time way back in the day.
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Jul 1, 2011 02:41
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Fishbus posted:I'm very surprised there's not an anonymous site for these things, i mean there's all those fanfiction and confession websites there needs to be a one for this industry because I've heard lots of really good poo poo though the years from different places. And all I want is to hear more. Both TCE and to a lesser extent GI have rant threads fairly frequently, and people will happily trade war stories and bash their (former) co-workers and those aren't even that anonymous (and in the case of GI, not at all). We're not a terribly demure industry when it comes to sharing our opinions!
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Jul 1, 2011 02:58
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So Bungie finally officially announced Bungie Aerospace http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=bungie_aerospace, their project to partner with smaller indie companies and their first partnership with Harebrained Schemes. I am currently a Tools Engineer/Programmer at Harebrained Schemes. We're a startup with really just a handful of people so this is huge for us. Being a startup with little to no funding is pretty scary so getting a partnership with Bungie is a really big step to getting noticed and getting our game out there. Woo 
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Jul 1, 2011 02:59
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Fishbus posted:Fishbusrant goes here Even though I'm still leaning towards 3D art, where would you reccomend I start map making (based on your own experience) I'm considering slowly learning Hammer editor, considering it's already installed and has decent documentation Solus fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Jul 1, 2011 |
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Jul 1, 2011 03:07
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endlosnull posted:So Bungie finally officially announced Bungie Aerospace http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=bungie_aerospace, their project to partner with smaller indie companies and their first partnership with Harebrained Schemes. I am currently a Tools Engineer/Programmer at Harebrained Schemes. We're a startup with really just a handful of people so this is huge for us. Being a startup with little to no funding is pretty scary so getting a partnership with Bungie is a really big step to getting noticed and getting our game out there. Woo drat dude that is awesome! I'm really glad publishers/larger companies are helping fund indie projects. I'm sure there's profit to be made by them doing that, but I hope they allow you guys for the most part full creative control over what you're making. 
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Jul 1, 2011 03:42
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endlosnull posted:Being a startup with little to no funding is pretty scary so getting a partnership with Bungie is a really big step to getting noticed and getting our game out there. Woo How are you a startup with little to no funding? I thought Weisman starts and sells a company every year or so and I would imagine with his track record he should have no problems either finding funding or having a stack of cash of his own to run it off of. Am I grossly off mark here?
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Jul 1, 2011 04:57
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aas Bandit posted:ahahaha! That's good stuff right there. Well, Game Developer has those anonymous programmer hacks articles and such. Those are always a fun read. Maybe if enough people write in to them they'd make it a feature. Shalinor posted:To further push what you can tell us - can you, by any chance, give us an idea of the team size and development timeline for the game? Our core team is very small, around half a dozen of us, give and take, over the course of the project, but most of the art is outsourced. As for timeline, not too long, but when you don't have contractual obligations to hit certain dates you take your time polishing until you're reasonably happy (or just getting sick of working on the darn thing). I can't say what the exact duration for Phantom was, since it was already started when I joined and several projects are running concurrently, but from all the projects the boss has talked about it seems they can come together quickly (like, two months from "hey, I got an idea" to "on sale now!") or not so quickly (like not hearing back from the team you outsourced to for a month, which is exaggerating but little delays do stack up over time). If you check out (and keep an eye on) our releases or those of other studios, like ERS, you can probably get a close idea of how long certain games took to make. BigFish starts a forum for each game, which is linked to from the product page of each game, so that's an easy way to exactly date when they're released. With "blockbuster" games like BigFish's own Mystery Case files line, they always put out one new entry a year at Thanksgiving. Anyway, not to rant too much, but the market is pretty saturated with crap games (which is always a dangerous place for any industry to be, I think). It's hard to stand out and quality isn't necessarily rewarded. If you're looking to make a quick, safe buck off the market I wouldn't recommend it. If you can play a longer game, financially, then best of luck to you, though we'd appreciate less competition! If you decide to go the quantity route, have fun driving the casual market off a cliff.
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Jul 1, 2011 05:26
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As long as we're on the topic of alternative publishing models and Halo, [a]list games essentially guarantees marketing spends for games toward that end of the life cycle. The first game supported by the [a]list label is War Inc. Battlezone by LA-based Online Warmongers (see today's press release). [a]list games is a division of Ayzenberg Group, which is the largest independent ad agency serving the interactive entertainment market. Steve Fowler is the general manager and was the man behind the brand identity and launch of Halo at Microsoft. He also works with me on the board of directors at Entertainment Media Council.
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Jul 1, 2011 05:28
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Sigma-X posted:How are you a startup with little to no funding? I thought Weisman starts and sells a company every year or so and I would imagine with his track record he should have no problems either finding funding or having a stack of cash of his own to run it off of. Am I grossly off mark here? Besides Bungie's help we currently don't have any other venture capital so we can only go so long from self-funding.
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Jul 1, 2011 06:14
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Hey so I'm esteemed lead designer of the just-over70-metacritic-earning Dungeon Siege 3, if anyone has any industry questions for me shoot away.
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Jul 1, 2011 09:18
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Solus posted:Even though I'm still leaning towards 3D art, where would you reccomend I start map making (based on your own experience) I'm considering slowly learning Hammer editor, considering it's already installed and has decent documentation I'd personally say [your favourite game] that comes with a map editor, that way you know the mechanics of the game and how to make a cool level for it. Source if pretty good, and it still has a solid player-rbase to test with.
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Jul 1, 2011 10:46
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Fishbus posted:I'd personally say [your favourite game] that comes with a map editor, that way you know the mechanics of the game and how to make a cool level for it. >1000 hours tf2 >Knows the game needs another good gpit style map beause gpit is one of the best maps ever Source it is. This will take a while, good thing I'm on holiday
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Jul 1, 2011 10:53
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well it's a no brainer. I'd make a test map first and also check out the example ones that come with it. Also use the power of blockout for fast iterative playtesting. Find people who will won't critic the looks of at this stage. A community are really good for these things.
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Jul 1, 2011 10:55
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Fishbus posted:well it's a no brainer. I'd make a test map first and also check out the example ones that come with it. I'll see if I can rope in some other ozfortress comp players to help out there. Half of them dont pull punches when it comes to criticism. Apart from Hammer I know of UDK as a decent map editor. Are there any other industry standard ones that I should investigate once I get the hang of it?
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Jul 1, 2011 11:02
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Solus posted:I'll see if I can rope in some other ozfortress comp players to help out there. Half of them dont pull punches when it comes to criticism. Source/UDK/Radiant are your big 3, other places will use maya/max/sketchup to make layout stuff instead.
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Jul 1, 2011 11:38
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Access Games actually answered me when I asked what my weakpoints were. It was the gamedesign, as half-expected. They said they can't go more into detail, even though they already did more than I thought by actually answering to my email. Directly telling me it was my design helps me way more and keeps my motivation up, than wondering if they just don't want foreigners or think my education isn't impressive enough. This is what I applied with. http://db.tt/hwV4Dh5 Now they always just write to send in a game design document, not if it should be just a pitch, or a fully fleshed out one. I chose a pitch. I'd like some comments about what's wrong about this one. Should I have written a full GDD, something inbetween, or does it simply suck?
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Jul 1, 2011 12:23
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If there was any justice, CryEngine 3 too.
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Jul 1, 2011 12:24
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