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Shalinor posted:Wow. Now I kind of want to work at Kixeye. As someone who works for "Kerpoop", I was wondering who on earth would find this ad appealing.
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Jul 31, 2012 23:14
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Comrade Flynn posted:As someone who works for "Kerpoop", I was wondering who on earth would find this ad appealing. EDIT: I didn't even know there was pink Yoo-hoo. That in and of itself is bullshit. EDIT2: But, Kabam did Realm of the Mad Gods, which was/is actually pretty cool. Why hate on them. 
Shalinor fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Jul 31, 2012 |
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Jul 31, 2012 23:33
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Shalinor posted:Which studio was Kerpoop ripping on? Kabam Our studio after the video came out: "Goddamn, I wish we had the pink Yoo-hoo. This *is* bullshit!"
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Jul 31, 2012 23:35
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Shalinor posted:Hrm. I need some input on a thing. This is mostly targeted at the couple of people in here that have done casual games, but everyone's welcome to an opinion. Kinda want to play it to see it in motion. Personally vOv
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Aug 1, 2012 00:30
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Shalinor posted:Hrm. I need some input on a thing. This is mostly targeted at the couple of people in here that have done casual games, but everyone's welcome to an opinion. The biggest factor in my mind is what sort of deal she can manage with GameHouse, especially if you are going with an exclusive deal for bigger percentages. The visibility difference between something a portal features and splashes or just goes through the motions on is what can make or break. I've not dealt with them so can't give any useful numbers - but she should be able to tell you what their uptake rates, percentage of payers, ARPU etc are on games with similar expectations (I've no idea on your monetisation model - again, she is going to know - I hope  ) and specifically those numbers with marketing campaigns at the level that you'll be getting. The art isn't something I can look at without going 'argh, big head models' but I'm pretty biased on that front - otherwise it's not bad enough in my opinion to make a vast difference on the initial monetisation despite it not being absolutely deluxe. It could be that Spry Fox' experience etc have inspired with paranoia rather than the lack of confidence, though with 2 months time required for a finished product, that would seem to me that you could be first to market whatever happens. Maybe she's just lured by the thought of no publisher cut and this is a convenient smokescreen? Not being in a position to judge character, however, I'll stop doing the amateur psychologist thing.
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Aug 1, 2012 01:42
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Shalinor posted:...what would you do? Also of note, the other time management games on GameHouse look similar enough to yours that if those other guys are having any kind of success, I don't see why your game can't have any either. DaveKap fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 02:15
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If you've only got two months left, I ay power through it and get what you can from it, because unless there's something super-better for you to do in the next eight weeks, I'd say at least get what money you can for your efforts. You make 0% of your goal on every game you don't finish. v v
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Aug 1, 2012 02:38
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The Kixeye video is amusing to me and basically every reason why you would and wouldn't want to work there all at once. They like to talk a lot of poo poo and they've got some weird-rear end insecurity there while pretending that their games are elevated above FaceBucksVille hurry up or pay games by virtue of being PVP FaceBucksVille hurry up or pay games. The business model of pay to win PVP is loving great and I'm sure the guy I was lunching on the daily with my $200 worth of interview FaceBucks was feeding quarters into his usb port on the regular.
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Aug 1, 2012 07:40
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Shalinor posted:She recently pulled out of our plans for her to go to CasualConnect and demo a 10-level build to publishers because "they'd steal our ideas." There is a legal remedy for this, actually a couple. I won't go into the details, but a notable instance of this was when Hayden Christansen ("NOOOOOOOOOOO!") sued USA Networks because he pitched a show proposal to them for a series about a doctor who does concierge doctor service to the rich and famous, that the network rejected. They then stole the idea and produced "Royal Pains."
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Aug 1, 2012 07:59
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Diplomaticus posted:I won't go into the details, but a notable instance of this was when Hayden Christansen ("NOOOOOOOOOOO!") sued USA Networks because he pitched a show proposal to them for a series about a doctor who does concierge doctor service to the rich and famous, that the network rejected. They then stole the idea and produced "Royal Pains." Whoa, really? I mean, is this in the public domain anywhere?
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Aug 1, 2012 08:08
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I'd put the two months in to the game and get it out there. That Kixeye video is funny, but I think had the opposite effect on me than they would want. If they are great to work for, and their games are brilliant, developers will want to work there - the industry isn't big enough to keep somewhere like that a secret for long. If you have to spend money making "hey guys, we're great and these other companies are rubbish, please come and work for us" videos, all sorts of alarm bells start ringing.
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Aug 1, 2012 08:26
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Shalinor posted:Hrm. I need some input on a thing. That would sell. Get on gamehouse.com exclusively, or see if you can get a distribution deal through Oberon, and you could make money on it. My only experience on this field is a few years working with people from a different portal, but from what I've been lead to believe, there hasn't been a big decrease in revenue from Facebook, contrary to what you'd think. Or at least it has leveled out in the past ~3-4 years.
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Aug 1, 2012 08:52
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FreakyZoid posted:I'd put the two months in to the game and get it out there. What worries me is the production values on that video. If they want to spend that much money on a recruitment vid, I'm a little worried about it being another 38 studios. edit: I'd parrot the "get the game out there" sentiment too. the reward for 2 more months of work is potentially good enough to get it out there, and at worst you get rid of a hassle and won't have to work with the friend again. Juc66 fucked around with this message at 08:56 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 08:54
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GetWellGamers posted:Whoa, really? I mean, is this in the public domain anywhere? It's a recent decision from last month so the text may not be available yet. The legal concept that a pitch can produce an implied-in-fact contract is from a California Supreme Court case called Desny v. Wilder, 46 Cal. 2d 715 (1956) -- other states may have similar laws with small put possibly important variances (for instance, whether the plaintiff needs to make an ask for a price, or if there is an industry standard fixed price, etc.) The specific case in which Hayden made that claim was Forest Park Pictures v. Universal Television Network, Inc., 2012 WL 2382528 (2d Cir. 2012). (Yes, that's the circuit that covers New York. There were some loopholes that enabled them to make the decision based on California state law.) There are some weird aspects to the way this went down but the concept itself is applicable. quote:Plaintiffs developed an idea for a television series titled "Housecall," based on the story of a doctor who, after being expelled from the conventional medical community for treating patients who could not pay their medical bills, moves to Malibu and makes house calls to the rich and famous residents – becoming a "concierge" doctor. Plaintiffs alleged that in 2005 they created materials, including character biographies, concepts, themes, and plot/story lines for the television series, and pitched the concept to defendant by sending the materials to and meeting with a representative of the network, with the objective of persuading defendant to purchase the ideas for development. After meeting and communicating with plaintiffs, defendant rejected “Housecall.” In 2009, the network premiered “Royal Pains,” a show about a doctor who, after being expelled from the conventional medical community for treating patients who are unable to pay, relocates to the Hamptons where he becomes a concierge doctor. -e- Actually almost the exact same claim was decided against NBC over Ghost Hunters, which set 9th Circuit precedent on the same matter in 2011. Leif. fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 09:56
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Shalinor posted:Hrm. I need some input on a thing. This is mostly targeted at the couple of people in here that have done casual games, but everyone's welcome to an opinion. Hey Shalinor, I wrote some quick thoughts on the shots that you posted sorry if it came out a bit blunt, but i kinda just wrote what thoughts popped into my head when looking through the images so take it with a grain of salt.-what's the purpose of this screen? right now the popup looks a bit unfinished. Mainly because the arwork looks a bit sketchy and some typography issues (probably a bit more chunkier font would look better and the alignment of the text could be centered etc.) -the infromation there seems a bit vague, is this something the player needs to know in order to play the game? it would be best to let the player play the game without too many click throughs, could the relevant information be relayed with text overlays if neccesary? -the begin level button doesn't feel like a interactable ui-element. -the game area in the background and could be dimmed when the game is in a paused state. -the interactable objects could stand out a bit more, right now they look a bit plain and they kinda blend into the background a bit too much. Maybe you could try adding an outline to the interactable elements, some particle-fx when active and so on. -the neon glow outline in the ui-elements looks a bit extreme, maybe a different color or loose it altogether. I'm not a big fan of the defacto "round button with a stroke and drop shadow" -elements, but usually they do the trick if you just want to get the job done. -could the ui-elements be placed at the top of the screen? the menu button looks fine where it is, but the scorebar and the timer look a bit out of place, could be that it's just me. -the font in the score bar really needs some kerning. -the general color scheme is dreary, all browns and yellows don't really convey "casual". I get it that this is supposed to be a kinda early level with more humble settings, but i think that the overall look would benefit from a bit more cheery atmosphere, maybe you could experiment with different materials and colors some more? -the font used won't work too well with smaller resolutions, just something to keep in mind if you decide to port to ios or android. -the big issue with the gfx (in my opinion) is that the game doesn't instantly look appealing. Why would you play this particular game out of the thousands available? the causes are a bit harder to pinpoint but the main thing is that it doesn't look polished enough. All the assets look like placeholders, colors are way too dull and overall the characters don't look likeable.
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Aug 1, 2012 10:21
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Thanks folks. All of the above and especially...coeranys posted:That would sell. Get on gamehouse.com exclusively, or see if you can get a distribution deal through Oberon, and you could make money on it. My only experience on this field is a few years working with people from a different portal, but from what I've been lead to believe, there hasn't been a big decrease in revenue from Facebook, contrary to what you'd think. Or at least it has leveled out in the past ~3-4 years.
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Aug 1, 2012 15:58
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Juc66 posted:What worries me is the production values on that video. I don't know much about estimating video costs, but what would something like that cost to produce? $20k? Costs for acquiring new hires are pretty high even through traditional means. If that video lands them half a dozen quality candidates it could be well worth it.
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Aug 1, 2012 18:14
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EgonSpengler posted:I don't know much about estimating video costs, but what would something like that cost to produce? $20k? Yep. If it's 20k, you could recoup that in a single senior level hiring by skipping the recruiter's cut.
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Aug 1, 2012 18:21
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Most importantly, Kixeye has money to spend. They've got something like 4 recruiters working for them and are trying to staff up to a few hundred by the end of the year.
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Aug 2, 2012 00:52
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I'm wondering how they got such huge funding. What is it about their vision that is so unique and VC-worthy? Not throwing stones here; legitimately curious on that point. Also, that video and their web site gives me a very bro-tastic impression. On the bios page it looks like they have a female VP of engineering, so maybe it's not as bad as it looks. But "Awesomer or GTFO!"...? Yeesh.
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Aug 2, 2012 01:24
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Everyone I know who has applied at Kixeye gets far enough along and then gets completely hosed by their head HR dude who apparently doesn't do his job. Even current Kixeye employees I met agree that their HR guy is loving up the situation so badly that internally they stopped referring their friends/former co-workers to the company. I'm talking scheduling 10am interviews for working candidates, then delaying the interview when they're on site until after 1pm multiple times. Or just getting candidates to come in and not scheduling anything so they send the candidate home and telling them to call back to try to get another time, and then being told there is no record of their application. Anyways, there was a good bitch session with some Kixeye employees and their friends a few weeks back at local bar.
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Aug 2, 2012 01:38
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DancingMachine posted:I'm wondering how they got such huge funding. What is it about their vision that is so unique and VC-worthy? Not throwing stones here; legitimately curious on that point. From what they told me, they were out of the red 10 months after launch. They print a ton of loving money with pay-to-win PVP. That's the whole deal. Their games are farmville where you can wreck someone else's farm and piss on the ashes and it'll take potentially days to rebuild unless they pay money. I agree their recruiting process sucks. It gave me the impression they didn't know what the hell was going on and that they were growing faster than they knew what to do. They have a SF2 cabinet in their lobby. It is unplugged, because they cannot figure out how to turn down the sound. They know they need cool vintage arcade machines, but they don't know how to work them, which I think is a pretty solid metaphor for the company as a whole. I have a friend there and I wish them the best of luck but I definitely get the idea that their business model is the only bit they're doing right.
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Aug 2, 2012 03:17
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Sigma-X posted:They have a SF2 cabinet in their lobby. It is unplugged, because they cannot figure out how to turn down the sound. They know they need cool vintage arcade machines, but they don't know how to work them, which I think is a pretty solid metaphor for the company as a whole.
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Aug 2, 2012 03:31
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Haven't posted in a while, because there wasn't really much to say, but if any of you friendly game job goons need an honest game journo, whether for review reasons or whatnot, do remember to give us a mail (jamie_t_d@hotmail.com) or on LinkedIn. It's not much support for people who often get the lovely end of the stick... but it is on offer. Also, that whole cab thing? Jesus, boy, just point the poor sods at google or something, it's... oy vey...
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Aug 2, 2012 05:42
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Shalinor posted:Thanks folks. All of the above and especially... Not sure why I didn't see your post earlier. I sent you a PM as I occasionally do publishing deals at Kabam and can share some insight on our side of the equation. DancingMachine posted:Also, that video and their web site gives me a very bro-tastic impression. On the bios page it looks like they have a female VP of engineering, so maybe it's not as bad as it looks. But "Awesomer or GTFO!"...? Yeesh. From what I've heard, it's an extremely "bro" atmosphere. They make pretty good games, but I get the impression they just don't know how to operate them once they are out. Every time I've seen Will talk he just comes across as amazingly arrogant even to the point that I wonder if he's just acting out a role. I mean, a CEO swinging around a dildo on an official video? Comrade Flynn fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Aug 2, 2012 |
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Aug 2, 2012 05:56
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Shalinor posted:Oh come the heck on. Even arcade gamers usually knew how to get a machine into operator mode. Often you don't control sound volume through the software, there's a hardware thing you can turn, generally with a screwdriver, to adjust volume.
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Aug 2, 2012 05:58
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I like how MAME emulates all the nitty gritty little things in the operator mode like sprite test screens, all the way up to running an in-game upgrade tool for upgrading between different versions of Street Fighter III. Nerdy as hell, I know. I think it was Mortal Kombat that had software controlled volume. Here's a question that might have been asked - I keep hearing "Consoles Are Holding Back Gaming" but, gameplay wise, is this even valid at all? Was there ever a scenario where a gameplay feature had to be cut because it couldn't be ported to the console, thus changing the game significantly. I'm not talking about number of gibs on a zombie or quality of shadows, but situations fundamental to the game where you're saying "We simply can't bring this to the console, and because we need feature parity on the console and the PC it needs to be cut from the PC version."
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Aug 2, 2012 22:46
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Coffee Jones posted:I like how MAME emulates all the nitty gritty little things in the operator mode like sprite test screens, all the way up to running an in-game upgrade tool for upgrading between different versions of Street Fighter III. Nerdy as hell, I know. It's less that the hardware can't handle it, but more the rules and requirements from hardware companies can't. A game like League of Legends could not be ported to Xbox or PS3 with how they monetize and the game is built. A game like Starcraft 2 (ignoring control problems) could not be brought to Xbox or PS3 with all of the fantastic Starcraft Arcade / Custom Map features in-tact. It's almost a web 1.0 versus web 2.0 type of situation. The Xbox and PS3 are not built to run dynamic, living games that are changing on a weekly basis.
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Aug 2, 2012 22:58
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Coffee Jones posted:"We simply can't bring this to the console, and because we need feature parity on the console and the PC it needs to be cut from the PC version." EA and Dice basically wanted in on juicy console gaming that CoD4 was doing so well at at the time, but consoles and their non-server networking could not support huge 64 player Conquest games, so while BC1 didn't even appear on PC, BC2 boasted mere 32 player games for PC (24 for consoles on servers that EA had to fight to even get) as opposed to the gigantic 64-player wars that BF2 brought us way back in 2004. It wasn't so much individual features, the entire direction and large scale design that Battlefield was known for was hampered by consoles and that has only really been recently rectified in BF3. Though honestly the question you ask is a difficult one, as you tend not to hear about proposed features for PC versions that are dropped for parity's sake.
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Aug 2, 2012 23:17
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Coffee Jones posted:Was there ever a scenario where a gameplay feature had to be cut because it couldn't be ported to the console, thus changing the game significantly. The limitations of the control scheme affect a lot in terms of what genres and mechanics are viable. Gamepads gain better expression of camera-independent motion at the expense of expressing points on the screen, which is bad news for things like RTSes. A lot of popular mechanics on consoles (i.e. 2-weapon limits) can be traced to them taking up fewer gamepad buttons. The emphasis of their certification model on a consistent user experience is also seriously showing its warts with service-oriented models of managing games becoming more common. They make it harder to release updates, harder to try exotic monetization strategies, and harder to support user-generated content.
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Aug 2, 2012 23:34
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For more information on that whole thing, read this excellent Post Mortem blog by Dave Pottinger, the Lead Designer on Halo Wars, the Halo RTS for the 360. http://www.halowars.com/news/devblog/archive/2009/08/25/Lessons-Learned.aspx edit: that's actually the wrong blog, this one is more accurate: http://www.halowars.com/news/devblog/archive/2009/05/18/How-to-Build-a-Base-in-the-26th-Century.aspx Anyways, the whole Halo Wars Dev Blog series was written as sort of a slow post-mortem after the game launched and has tons of cool stuff. disclaimer: I'm the guy who posted, but did not write, all those way back when I worked for Ensemble/Robot. milquetoast child fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Aug 3, 2012 |
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Aug 3, 2012 01:00
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I've finished my first commercial project, and it was a ton of fun!
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Aug 3, 2012 01:05
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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. The ads for this were geared towards the game studios talking about customized layout and being able to export to engine. I'm not a game developer, but do you think customized tooling like this is a big plus on a budding game developer's resume? In an average studio, how much in the way of custom, non-game tools do you use? Aliginge posted:
I figured as much  thanks.
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Aug 3, 2012 02:37
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Aliginge posted:This was basically the Battlefield series post-BF2142. Even BF3 is only 12 v 12 on 360, and the ridiculously small teams are one of the main reasons I stopped playing multiplayer.
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Aug 3, 2012 02:54
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Sigma-X posted:They have a SF2 cabinet in their lobby. It is unplugged, because they cannot figure out how to turn down the sound. They know they need cool vintage arcade machines, but they don't know how to work them, which I think is a pretty solid metaphor for the company as a whole. And a Gaunlet one, also unplugged.
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Aug 3, 2012 03:02
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What the hell... It took me about 6 months to get a job, time during which I didn't hear a single thing from any studio other than the one that hired me. Then I get a job, and 2 months later the e-mails asking me if I'm interested in several jobs start raining down on me. Kinda annoying, but at the same time reassuring, I guess.
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Aug 3, 2012 03:57
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Oh my freaking god. I just got CC'd on an email out of the blue, where a friend of my mom's is contacting an artist friend of hers, to see if she could submit art as a test. To redo the art on one of my projects. Which I just happened to show to my mom one day, and explain I was black-bagging due to art amongst other things. I have not thought about this project for months. I left off plans on redoing the art due to financial reasons, finito, moved on. Just... What. Never tell your parents what you do. Make them think you work in a laundry. It's safer that way. but it is kind of cute. She just wanted to help :3 Shalinor fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Aug 3, 2012 |
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Aug 3, 2012 04:31
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I got my current job thanks to my dad, who was talking to his friend, who happened to have a nephew at the studio. He then passed me his contact information and eventually I got a job.
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Aug 3, 2012 05:04
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I got my current job by arguing with Megashark: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3415662&pagenumber=130&perpage=40#post400326068 http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3415662&pagenumber=145&perpage=40#post401730029
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Aug 3, 2012 05:20
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I'd just like to pop in here and tell anyone in charge of naming anything in an ongoing game to never ever name any system "new X," because eventually that thing will no longer be new, and you'll have to replace it. When you replace it, no one will be able to form a coherent sentence, because the discussions will be full of things like this: "No, the new system uses old tech. We want to use new tech in the replacement for the new system, but still support the old tech in the legacy new system." "So the new tech will go in the new system?" "No, we're replacing the new system entirely. With a newer system." Also, my dad occasionally cuts out articles from the newspaper and mails them to me with a post-it that says "FYI." These articles usually involve the Wii, because Nintendo is the only game-related name he can remember. It's kind of endearing.
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Aug 3, 2012 05:26
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