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GetWellGamers posted:Relocate for an internship? Unless you're super well-off already, that's an insane idea. I relocated from Montreal to Vancouver for my internship. It was the best experience of my life. Do it.
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Apr 17, 2012 03:11
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Category Fun! posted:It depends where you live. If you're in the countryside in the middle of nowhere, it makes perfect sense to move into the city to find a job. Correction, it makes perfect sense to move into the city to find a paying job. For an internship, though? I can't see that as anything but a money pit, unless it's one of those place that hire up from interns all the time.
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Apr 17, 2012 05:20
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GetWellGamers posted:Correction, it makes perfect sense to move into the city to find a paying job. For an internship, though? I can't see that as anything but a money pit, unless it's one of those place that hire up from interns all the time. Intern doesn't always mean unpaid work these days. Hell, Microsoft pays interns quite well from what I hear, and they're not the only company to do so. I got paid as an intern at EA (well they're called coops in  , but same idea).
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Apr 17, 2012 05:42
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Well, right, if it's a job job, go for it, but moving to a new place for an unpaid job just sounds crazytown for me.
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Apr 17, 2012 05:44
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I relocated to San Diego from Utah for my SOE internship. Even left the wife behind for 3 months. I sublet a room in a house full of local Asian college students and they all thought what I was doing was weird but cool. Slept on inflatable furniture, and bought a bike to get to and from work. It was awesome sauce (aside from the lack of wife). Also, don't take unpaid "internships", they are bullshit.
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Apr 17, 2012 05:53
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Oh, you thought it was unpaid. Yeah its absolutely nuts to move for an unpaid internship. They're also crappy and not worth it.
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Apr 17, 2012 15:23
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Around here at least, I don't think I've ever seen an internship that's paid. It's either an internship or a job.
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Apr 17, 2012 18:47
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I've seen paid internship positions from Disney Interactive, SOE, Microsoft Games, various EA studios, SCEA, Blizzard, Activision, Zynga, Firaxis, Insomniac, Riot, Lucasarts, Treyarch, and 343 Industries. I know others offer them too on an as-needed basis. They're essentially temp jobs, but a lot of places like SOE and Disney Interactive offer them as part of a specific internship program and assign mentors and all that. Until recently, actually, Microsoft Games' internships could've even been legally unpaid as interns just worked on a mentored student project (not actual dev) on-site, but they still got paid $30/hour for it.
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Apr 17, 2012 18:55
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We've had people on the production/QA side take a pay cut to go from intern to full-time since they lose out on that sweet crunch overtime cash.
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Apr 17, 2012 19:12
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Huh. This is a really interesting article - does a lot to show you what sort of person Blow is. Well, at least what sort of person he interviews as, in any case. Fascinating regardless. I'm not sure I agree with any of his basic assumptions as to what games should be, or with the article's implicit tone regarding what defines art, but it remains interesting. It's more or less the same debate between kitsch art and fine art that you find in other fields. I always find myself defending kitsch art elsewhere, so why should it be any different in games. (ie. most of what we'd call "art" in the current crop of games is decidedly kitsch - Shadows of the Colossus, Ico, Flower, Journey, these are all fantastic experiences, but the message they ultimately communicate is designed to be simple, universal, and easily understood. They encode less of a meaning and more of an emotion into the experience, much the same as the typical kitschy landscape scene you find on a home's wall.) Shalinor fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Apr 17, 2012 |
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Apr 17, 2012 19:48
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Shalinor posted:Huh. This is a really interesting article - does a lot to show you what sort of person Blow is. Well, at least what sort of person he interviews as, in any case. Fascinating regardless. In Indie Game the Movie, he came across to me as the biggest rear end in a top hat in game development. He was so upset that his game was reviewed "wrong" and reviewers were focusing on things like game mechanics and not diving deeper into things like "The goombas represent deformed children". I guess I'm more of a Tetris style gamer, though, and to me story does not really matter, I really care about mechanics dripping with a light bit of theming. I's also why I play so many board games.
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Apr 17, 2012 20:12
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He's just the same as the uppity stuffy types that fine art has been giggling at for centuries. In the meantime, everyone enjoys the art at various levels and the business side continues to be an engine. In that context, he has his place in the industry, but his type is not unique or original.
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Apr 17, 2012 20:20
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Shalinor posted:Huh. This is a really interesting article I didn't know much about Blow going into that article and it was an interesting read. I think more meaningful games is certainly a good thing for the medium. If his type is not unique or original, it is at least rare in the video game industry.
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Apr 17, 2012 20:54
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I agree with a lot of his points, but not necessarily with his vision. I don't think that a game needs to have a concise intellectual meaning for it to be artistic. In fact, I'd go as far as to argue that there is artistry to be found in many titles, even AAA. And just to make it clear, I'm not speaking strictly about the art of the game, but the whole gameplay. Moments like when you meet Andrew Ryan in Bioshock, or when your TV gets muted in Eternal Darkness. When you try to outrun the dark tendrils in Shadow of the Colossus but you can't. They achieve things that no other medium is capable of with the use of game mechanics. I think that one of the challenges that video-games face when trying to be conceived as art by the majority of the population is the fact that they ARE games. What would happen if you put a video-game in a museum? What if you called it interactive video art instead? What if its purpose was not to entertain, but to transmit a message? Would it still be a video-game? Would it be "more artistic"? Edit: Regarding Blow, I also wanted to say that if you actually care about transmitting a message with your art and the people don't get it then the only person to blame is the author. You either have to be happy to let people come up with their own interpretations or else you have to make your idea more literal. Complaining that people "don't get it" shouldn't be an option. Chernabog fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Apr 17, 2012 |
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Apr 17, 2012 23:03
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Chainclaw posted:In Indie Game the Movie, he came across to me as the biggest rear end in a top hat in game development. He was so upset that his game was reviewed "wrong" and reviewers were focusing on things like game mechanics and not diving deeper into things like "The goombas represent deformed children". I don't think you can be considered AUTEUR without also being considered an rear end in a top hat. The terms were synonyms, I thought. Though, I guess I'm not too clear on the dictionary definition. I've also grown to assume that the word "outspoken" means "human piece of poo poo". Edit: Not talking about Blow here, just other developers I've seen described as such. Really I look forward to CAN WE DELVE INTO MORE INTERESTING GAME MECHANICS? type discussions rather than WILL VIDEO GAMES... EVER TRULY BE ART?? stuff. The former will get us somewhere. The latter is more or less public masturbation.
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Apr 17, 2012 23:07
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Kepa posted:Really I look forward to CAN WE DELVE INTO MORE INTERESTING GAME MECHANICS? type discussions rather than WILL VIDEO GAMES... EVER TRULY BE ART?? stuff. The former will get us somewhere. The latter is more or less public masturbation. To me this is the same thing. More interesting game mechanics = More artistic games.
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Apr 17, 2012 23:20
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Woooo, I might end back in QA (yeah I know small, but hey better than being broke). I just gotta nail this interview!
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Apr 17, 2012 23:33
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Shalinor posted:But then everyone fucks business stuff up in the indie world, we're all learning, so whatever. Today, I learned that my format for a press release was stupid, and that's probably why I got minimal response. Yay. Learning. Shalinor, I know you posted this in the iOS thread but are there any good press release resources? I imagine this is something I'm going to have to know since I'd really like to make a career out of what I'm doing?
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Apr 17, 2012 23:51
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Chernabog posted:Edit: Regarding Blow, I also wanted to say that if you actually care about transmitting a message with your art and the people don't get it then the only person to blame is the author. You either have to be happy to let people come up with their own interpretations or else you have to make your idea more literal. Complaining that people "don't get it" shouldn't be an option. Agreed. I like Blow as a person and as a game designer, but the problem isn't with the audience here.
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Apr 17, 2012 23:57
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Chernabog posted:To me this is the same thing. More interesting game mechanics = More artistic games. To me, more artistic games = sepiatone, walking to the right slowly, some tepid message. You know, something that a reviewer can really sink their teeth into as a high concept. Ideally in a long article that works in a sentence along the lines of "Video games CAN be art after all! CHECKMATE, Mr. Ebert". I dunno, I just don't get games trying so hard to be recognized as conceptual art, when there's so much left to explore in games that are just games. If I use the phrase "art game", I'm using it as a pejorative.
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Apr 18, 2012 00:06
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Kepa posted:To me, more artistic games = sepiatone, walking to the right slowly, some tepid message. You know, something that a reviewer can really sink their teeth into as a high concept. Ideally in a long article that works in a sentence along the lines of "Video games CAN be art after all! CHECKMATE, Mr. Ebert". I don't want to do a hard derail, and we maybe need to take this to PMs, but what about games like Dear Esther? It is most certainly an art game, concept art, etc., but it also latches onto the player and generates emotional responses using standard FPS controls and perspective. Do you think those projects are worth pursuing?
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Apr 18, 2012 00:24
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NINbuntu 64 posted:Shalinor, I know you posted this in the iOS thread but are there any good press release resources? I imagine this is something I'm going to have to know since I'd really like to make a career out of what I'm doing? Check out gamespress.com, and look at the press releases other people send out. Then note that you don't actually send that as the body of the email - think of the email you send to a tips email address like the cover letter, and that press release the resume. You can attach it, or link back to a central location (like gamespress.com). ... but as stated, I bungled my less attempt - though less so than the attempt before that - so I am not the person to ask. Ask me in 6 months when I've done more of these and am an old hand at it or something 
Shalinor fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Apr 18, 2012 |
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Apr 18, 2012 00:26
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Kunzelman posted:I don't want to do a hard derail, and we maybe need to take this to PMs, but what about games like Dear Esther? It is most certainly an art game, concept art, etc., but it also latches onto the player and generates emotional responses using standard FPS controls and perspective. Do you think those projects are worth pursuing? I like projects similar to it, and really enjoyed Korsakovia (their earlier one). I never really got into Esther for whatever reason. Except for the part where I like to make fun of the dialog whenever anyone mentions it, ever. I realize a lot of this is personal preference. And mostly I encourage what they're attempting to do. I just wish the INDIE GAMES PRESS didn't have such a huge hardon for this kind of stuff. I like to point out the flood of massive praise and coverage Passage got, and then point out the flood of games that followed very closely in its footsteps. Then nothing, because it fizzled out. I think having to cater to GAMES AS ART for coverage limits our possibilities, instead of expanding them like they're supposed to. Anyway yeah, I think I've stated all my thoughts. I didn't know there was a gamedev thread, will have to look for that. I don't think I can get PMs, I should upgrade.
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Apr 18, 2012 00:53
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Any mobile producers/PMs I can ask a quick excel question to?
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Apr 18, 2012 01:10
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Comrade Flynn posted:Any mobile producers/PMs I can ask a quick excel question to? Any designer in the thread should also be able to answer this!
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Apr 18, 2012 01:48
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I would like to share with you all the best/worst thing about the games industry, in a single contextless quote: "We have just spent one man-hour talking about taint" - our very own Megashark
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Apr 18, 2012 02:02
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Sigma-X posted:I would like to share with you all the best/worst thing about the games industry, in a single contextless quote: All our production meetings end with poop jokes. All of them. devilmouse posted:Any designer in the thread should also be able to answer this! I... don't actually use excel at all. Our lead producer is an excel wizard though.
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Apr 18, 2012 02:03
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Sigma-X posted:I would like to share with you all the best/worst thing about the games industry, in a single contextless quote: I want this to be on my tombstone now.
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Apr 18, 2012 02:21
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:I... don't actually use excel at all. Our lead producer is an excel wizard though. Ok, not level designers, you get a pass FOR NOW. The rest of the design disciplines should though! Including those hobo "narrative designers".
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Apr 18, 2012 02:24
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devilmouse posted:Ok, not level designers, you get a pass FOR NOW. The rest of the design disciplines should though! Including those hobo "narrative designers". How about notepad I'm pretty good with notepad  VVV Ahh, you need the extra features
Irish Taxi Driver fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Apr 18, 2012 |
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Apr 18, 2012 02:27
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:How about notepad I use Notepad2 
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Apr 18, 2012 02:40
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Comrade Flynn posted:Any mobile producers/PMs I can ask a quick excel question to? Not saying I can help as I don't know the nature of your question, but I use excel a lot.
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Apr 18, 2012 02:47
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Chasiubao posted:I use Notepad2 
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Apr 18, 2012 02:47
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vim
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Apr 18, 2012 04:15
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Shalinor posted:Notepad++ This, when Akuma called upon us to edit about eight thousand lines of XML last week, Notepad++ really really loving helped. Though technically I'm an artist/animator and spend the overwhelming majority of my time in photoshop or a house-modified version of http://demina.codeplex.com/
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Apr 18, 2012 08:29
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Jan posted:vim I write everything in Something Awful message dialogues and then paste them into Microsoft Word for Mac and save them as plain text with the extension I want. For content: Is there a site that breaks down the money making potential of games that have an ad-supported and paid version? I've done some mulling over and reading and a free version with IAP doesn't seem to add any real potential to money making over a standard paid app.
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Apr 18, 2012 08:42
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NINbuntu 64 posted:I write everything in Something Awful message dialogues and then paste them into Microsoft Word for Mac and save them as plain text with the extension I want. See, now I'm tempted to make an emacs module for SA. Alt-tabbing is such a drag!  Back to content, I don't think there is. Your best bet is to look back a few years to GDC as various companies gave presentations of their transitions to free-to-play and the lift they saw in revenue. There's a bunch of single use case studies with numbers that mobile devs post to their blogs, but I haven't seen any dealing with scale that you could easily point to and say, "Look, now that's a trend!".
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Apr 18, 2012 10:51
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Paid is a barrier to entry vs free. Doesn't matter how small the price is, you've still caused a moment of friction that doesn't need to exist. Look up the "penny gap" for more info on studies etc. around this. Especially if your game has retention based around a social component, you really want as many players as possible since they're still adding non-monetary value to your game. Ads always seem to essentially be there as an annoyance that tempts the player in to upgrading to ad-free once you have already hooked them on your game, since everything I've read points to them not making much money.
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Apr 18, 2012 13:01
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Got up early this morning for an overseas telephone interview, couldn't figure out why they were late, usually those things happen on.the.dot. Double checked the schedule, it's in two weeks. Pays to pay attention. I'm going back to bed.
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Apr 18, 2012 15:14
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:Got up early this morning for an overseas telephone interview, couldn't figure out why they were late, usually those things happen on.the.dot. Double checked the schedule, it's in two weeks. Be sure to bring that up in the interview when they ask about a time you made a mistake and what you did to correct it
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Apr 18, 2012 16:45
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