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Shindragon posted:edit: gently caress Minecraft, never got the appeal of that boring rear end game. I've never played it (although I loved terraria) but those games represent the invention and development of a new genre concept, which to my mind, at least, is more true to the supposed "indie games keeping it real and not rehashing big corporate games" notion than any actual big name indie's game. I like a number of indie games myself and appreciate the "scene" but the biggest names in the scene seem to largely be self-important douchebags, and I don't really need that kind of competition 
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Aug 14, 2012 08:04
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Oh well of course I agree to that extent. Believe me I can understand what you meant. Making a game makes you feel proud and very enthusiastic. But at the same time it doesn't give you the right to such a pompous prick as you said. Which is why I'm glad Team SMB really hasn't done anything like that even if their game is basically a platformer. I still need to see the movie. For every team SMB, we get Phil Fish and Blow. Sometimes I wonder if the success of their games is what makes them have this ego. Especially the whole "artistic" nature of it. I know art doesn't have a definition, but last time I checked it didn't include be a goddamn rear end in a top hat about it. Stop giving artists like me a bad name you bastards! Bad enough I have to deal with people thinking art is a dying medium.
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Aug 14, 2012 08:18
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Having an opinion is an easy way to get attention. Having an outlandish opinion is the easiest way. When your product is marketed on the basis of your personality, it's somewhat natural.
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Aug 14, 2012 08:33
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Braid is astonishingly pretty.  Speaking of indies, more people should play these AGS adventure games, especially Nancy The Happy Whore and the Perfidious Petrol Station, which I finished last night and enjoyed loads, genuinely funny and well made. Shame that the goon thread on it devolved into such bullshit last night, even with Shalinor working to curtail the moral high horse bitching from goons about the adventures of a cheerful cartoon hooker and her best friend Susie the crack fiend. I never got the chance to let the guy know I really enjoyed his game. 
GeeCee fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Aug 14, 2012 |
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Aug 14, 2012 08:37
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Carfax Report posted:Having an opinion is an easy way to get attention. Having an outlandish opinion is the easiest way. One of my game dev dreams is to hire an actor to play me for, say, a Kickstarter video. Everything he said would be paraphrased quotes from the goofiest game developer interviews I could find. Just a "best of" compilation of every hypocritical utterance or outlandish claim an indie game developer has ever gotten press coverage for. The actor would ride a horse at the end of the Kickstarter video. He'd say that non-whites are genetically incapable of making true interactive ludological experiences, then the horse would rear majestically. He would trot off into the sunset.
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Aug 14, 2012 09:48
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anime was right fucked around with this message at 07:07 on Apr 18, 2017 |
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Aug 14, 2012 09:49
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Does anyone else look at Valve and what they're able to do and just get really depressed? 
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Aug 14, 2012 10:28
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Aliginge posted:Lol Teesside. He got his way. I remember a group of first or second years talking about their group project. I remember him changing an assignment brief a fair bit into a year, and denying it was ever different. Shame for him that some people actually had it printed.
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Aug 14, 2012 10:49
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Achtung! Panzer posted:He got his way. I remember a group of first or second years talking about their group project. Ohh, good old Doc. I still fondly recall waking from a nightmare that prominently featured his big bald grinning head, and finding myself clawing at my bewildered boyfriend's face. Stress'll do that to you. To be fair, it sounds like the course has vastly improved since I did it, disastrous group projects or no disastrous group projects.
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Aug 14, 2012 11:02
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I am making Night of the Living Dead: The Roguelike (not just yet another zombie RL but the actual movie setting, location, characters and all that.) I'll probably have a player base of 4 and I'll be edgy and cocky as gently caress! A roguelike, in 2012! It's art, you guys can't understand.
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Aug 14, 2012 13:23
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I am un-ironically actually working on a third person roguelike-like with an emphasis on a series of core mechanics and an open development environment with community content in mind. It doesn't feature zombies though
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Aug 14, 2012 13:26
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Monster w21 Faces posted:I am un-ironically actually working on a third person roguelike-like with an emphasis on a series of core mechanics and an open development environment with community content in mind. It doesn't feature zombies though You should check out Mercury: http://www.decisionproblem.com/mercury/ A coworker's son made it and it's kind of awesome. Too bad the users keep making dumb items, monsters, and classes. But hey, UGC!
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Aug 14, 2012 13:28
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devilmouse posted:You should check out Mercury: http://www.decisionproblem.com/mercury/ A coworker's son made it and it's kind of awesome. Too bad the users keep making dumb items, monsters, and classes. But hey, UGC! That's cool. I'm actually using UDK currently and it's structured a little differently to most roguelikes. I might however tool around with Source this week in order to make comparisons. Especially if what I think is going to happen this week happens this week.
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Aug 14, 2012 13:38
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So today I was poking around Gamesindustry.biz and noticed you fine chaps at DNA Dynamics are apparently looking for a Junior Games Designer. Now I'm just wondering if I could probe a little bit of info out, as I have the feeling it could be a bit over my head as I don't how much "Junior" they're looking for.
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Aug 14, 2012 16:34
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Super Slash posted:So today I was poking around Gamesindustry.biz and noticed you fine chaps at DNA Dynamics are apparently looking for a Junior Games Designer. Now I'm just wondering if I could probe a little bit of info out, as I have the feeling it could be a bit over my head as I don't how much "Junior" they're looking for. The usual stuff applies about ignoring the more scary sounding requirements (I doubt you'll need a degree in Games Design, for instance) because we're really just looking for someone motivated and capable that can effectively communicate and has a passion for games. Experience playing and thinking critically about mobile games is a must, though, and I'd recommend playing our current free to play action RPG Warheads: Medieval Tales and preparing some thoughts on what you think it does right (if anything) and what it does wrong. If someone from this thread gets the job we'll be back on our way to reaching Critical Goon Mass. In terms of numbers, not fatness.
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Aug 14, 2012 18:02
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Monster w21 Faces posted:I am un-ironically actually working on a third person roguelike-like with an emphasis on a series of core mechanics and an open development environment with community content in mind. It doesn't feature zombies though Oh I was not being ironic, I am really making a zombie roguelike. In any case, I'm interested in your idea and will donate to your Kickstarter.
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Aug 15, 2012 04:11
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So, hypothetically speaking, if you could choose between a career step up into a position in social/casual games, or a career step down into a position in blockbuster AAA games, what would you choose?
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Aug 15, 2012 04:52
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DancingMachine posted:So, hypothetically speaking, if you could choose between a career step up into a position in social/casual games, or a career step down into a position in blockbuster AAA games, what would you choose? Totally depends on the specifics. Hypothetically, I would choose step down into a blockbuster AAA game.
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Aug 15, 2012 05:21
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DancingMachine posted:So, hypothetically speaking, if you could choose between a career step up into a position in social/casual games, or a career step down into a position in blockbuster AAA games, what would you choose? I don't really know how you can "step down" into blockbuster AAA games, but this is a really specific thing. I think in general I would rather step up into social/casual because if you "step down to AAA" later you're still in a better position, but the real thing is that there are maybe 3 or 4 "AAA" franchises/studios that would be worth a step down for me (Valve, Epic, Respawn, maybe Blizzard). All AAA budget games are not the same, and really it comes down to the studio. Assuming that each job is not a literal dream job, I'd rather take the higher station because that makes you more mobile in the future.
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Aug 15, 2012 05:39
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DancingMachine posted:So, hypothetically speaking, if you could choose between a career step up into a position in social/casual games, or a career step down into a position in blockbuster AAA games, what would you choose? I've got the super boring answer. Any decisions for me would come down to the business / fringe benefits side of things: How stable is the company? What are the insurance benefits like? What other benefits are there (company events, flights to conventions)? What are the rules on side projects? For me, games are games. As long as the quality of the product is high, I don't care too much on the specifics of the games I'm working on. Also, you missed out on a much more interesting third option: Small, stable company that makes games focused at very particular niches. Something like Paradox or Atlas.
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Aug 15, 2012 06:02
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It also depends on the social / casual studio too. I'd rather work for Disney Playdom then Zynga for example.
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Aug 15, 2012 06:14
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DancingMachine posted:So, hypothetically speaking, if you could choose between a career step up into a position in social/casual games, or a career step down into a position in blockbuster AAA games, what would you choose? As someone who had to make this exact choice and went with the social/casual games route: I regret it. I don't enjoy making these types of games anywhere near as much as the AAA titles, and I am finding it really difficult to get back into them now having the social games job current on my resume. Flip side, there is a pretty silly amount of money to be made in this market and it's only growing. If you can get some enjoyment out of them then I'd say it's a safe bet.
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Aug 15, 2012 06:49
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Kepa posted:I think it's mostly that he was one of the first big indie gamedev scene success stories. I can only think of one game where people were really talking about its financial success, before Braid, and that was Dwarf Fortress being successfully supported by donations. The Introversion guys were also successful a little bit before Braid was. They were one of the first indies heavily pimped on Steam with Darwinia and Defcon. Fun factoid: I probably wouldn't have considered Steam a viable business model when I did without Introversion  and then we might've ended up missing the Recettear boat!
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Aug 15, 2012 07:24
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I have a ton of friends who just recently made this choice and went with social/mobile, and they are about split in terms of their happiness. Then again, they all make way more than those of us who went into AAA, so I guess it evens out.
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Aug 15, 2012 07:31
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That kind of stuff can vary so widely from company to company that it's hard to say, really. I can't really speak for myself, since I just went for Flash stuff and that means smaller-time games, but I have a few buddies who are 3d artists and were bounced around from studio to studio even while working on fairly big name projects. They had a pretty miserable time of it. One of them found work recently at a mobile games company. The other just finished up working on a very recent AAA title. I'd actually place them at about equal happiness. Hard to say. Social games have longer, ongoing projects that might not be as interesting, but have the added bonus of being a little more stable than big companies who do AAA titles and then struggle to get to their next big project. But that doesn't stop me wondering about how cool it would be to work on one. I guess it really is more about how you feel about the individual studio, either way. A buddy I've kinda sorta lost touch with apparently started drinking heavily while working for Zynga. And I've heard rumors that's kind of par for the course.
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Aug 15, 2012 08:01
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GoleX posted:As someone who had to make this exact choice and went with the social/casual games route: I regret it. I don't enjoy making these types of games anywhere near as much as the AAA titles, and I am finding it really difficult to get back into them now having the social games job current on my resume. Yeah, I was kinda figuring this was likely. I imagine once you step out of the AAA world it's pretty hard to break back in. One interesting facet to me: even in AAA it's pretty unlikely that I would get to work on the kind of game that I get really excited about. Working on Halo/Call of Duty/etc. would be kinda neat and certainly more fun than barbie horse adventures, but the gap isn't actually all that large since I only play those games a little bit. A big-time RPG or strategy game would be a different story, but those are even more rare. I dunno. It's a really tough call I think. It feels like it has life-long implications either way.
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Aug 15, 2012 08:16
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If anyone is around Gamecom my booth is in hall 6, near the wristband station. This show gets more ridiculous every year.
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Aug 15, 2012 10:10
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It depends on where you are in your career, what you're looking for (salary, responsibility, growth, etc), and what the target companies are doing. By the time I had built up my resume of 8 years of MMOs with titles of senior/principal/lead and I got bored enough to leave, I was making the decision between Blizzard, Wizards of the Coast to join their nascent digital initiative, and a social game startup. I chose the latter because it was the most interesting at the time (the social space was brand new... our company was incorporated a month after Zynga was), the salary was mostly competitive, and I was the first non-founder employee and the only designer. We had no idea what we were doing and every day was something new and bizarre and we got to play the scrappy little startup game. Flash forward a few years and we're bought by Zynga and I had to make the same decision again. Sure, there was a strong financial incentive to stay with the golden handcuffs and all that, but if you're not happy with the job, the money won't really help in the long-term. Anyway, I re-evaluated things again to decide if I wanted to stay and it came down to the fact that Zynga had relatively few designers and I could own projects here, while if I went to Blizzard, I'd be Senior Designer #1993910. I'd be working on my bread and butter and the right decisions would be easier and I wouldn't learn all that much. Sure, I'd be able to be a hero to gamers the world over, but eh, I'm old now and I'm not sure that holds the same appeal it once did. Zynga, despite the horrendous rap it gets (and sometimes deserves), still lets me learn new stuff every day, I get to lead projects of basically my choosing, and my linkedin inbox is full of recruiters spamming me to come work at startups, tech companies, AAA game companies, and everything in between. And I'm paid far better than I would be in AAA. At this point, I'm not even sure I'd go back to AAA, honestly. Long development cycles would make me cry and the lack of metrics would be maddening. Plus, my mom would stop bragging about me to her friends.
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Aug 15, 2012 11:40
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Come on, why wouldn't you want to be part of AAA game development?
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Aug 15, 2012 14:01
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GoleX posted:As someone who had to make this exact choice and went with the social/casual games route: I regret it. I don't enjoy making these types of games anywhere near as much as the AAA titles, and I am finding it really difficult to get back into them now having the social games job current on my resume. I'd argue that having social/casual/mobile experience in 2 years time and trying to get back into AAA probably wouldn't be anywhere near as hard as it is right now. AAA prospects of stability are a bit terrifying for the moment, and everyone and their mother is jumping ship to go for startups other spaces. If you were to turn your nose up at those people in a few years, you'd be turning your nose up at well over half the talent base available. (if we're taking web/casual/FarmVille, I'd probably go AAA, but if you're looking at moving up into a mobile freemium "actual game" studio? I'd go for the latter.) Shalinor fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Aug 15, 2012 |
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Aug 15, 2012 15:09
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Flip side of course is how many social/mobile games even have credits? And more generally coming from a server MMO background going to online mobile is like coming home. So many of the same challenges unlike 6v6 multiplayer.
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Aug 15, 2012 15:10
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As previously mentioned, DNA Dynamics is hiring. We're looking for a lead artist, lead programmer, and a junior designer. If you want to work for a relaxed mobile developer and already live in Silicon Spa, or would like to move around here, take a look!
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Aug 15, 2012 16:13
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As someone who currently works at what some consider a AAA studio, I'd take a step up at a social/mobile developer in a heartbeat. But then again I'm also debating with leaving the industry altogether so my opinion may be tainted.
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Aug 15, 2012 17:40
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I'll throw in on the AAA side. It's very important to me to be working on projects that I am excited about. Social/Casual does not appeal to me at all, so I'd take a step down into a studio that I wanted to be part of instead of the step up into making games I don't care about. Which I did! I went from a design position at Disney to a QA position at Arkane, and within 3 months I was doing level design. Now I'm in a pure design position at a studio I really like making kick rear end games. It was a huge risk in my opinion, but I think it has paid off. I guess it all comes down to priorities.
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Aug 15, 2012 18:28
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As someone just kind of starting out, I'd go AAA to get a high-profile shipped title on my resume.
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Aug 15, 2012 18:32
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I moved out of AAA into Casual/Social almost a year ago now, and I've had the benefit of more mentorship, responsibility and opportunity for career growth than I've had in twice that time in AAA. I'd consider going back to AAA if the time, project and team were right, but not for a QA position.
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Aug 15, 2012 18:49
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When I was in college I used to think of Blizzard as the holy grail of places to work for in the videogame industry but I ended up starting in casual games and I actually liked it a lot. I got to work on all of the cool stuff (as well as the not so cool) since I was the only animator. I also had a say in what we were doing, rather than just following instructions. Not that it is like that in every studio, but I imagine there is a lot more freedom in a smaller company. Now I work with a bunch of ex-Blizzard people anyway.
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Aug 15, 2012 19:12
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devilmouse posted:It depends... Thanks for sharing. You definitely touch on the big draw to me: the scope of my role would be significantly greater in the social space than it would be traditional core games. That is a pretty big deal to me. Learning new spaces and new technologies also seems like the smart long-term move. Although there is something to be said for specializing. Shalinor posted:(if we're taking web/casual/FarmVille, I'd probably go AAA, but if you're looking at moving up into a mobile freemium "actual game" studio? I'd go for the latter.) All the web Farmville-type studios are moving into mobile freemium as well. So I'm not sure the distinction is significant. I think I know what you mean by "actual games" though - the target audience is sort of the key. Do I want to work on games where I am plausibly a part of the target audience, or not? There's a chance I could be even in the social space eventually, but as the space currently exists I'm not.
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Aug 15, 2012 19:14
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Akuma posted:As previously mentioned, DNA Dynamics is hiring. We're looking for a lead artist, lead programmer, and a junior designer. If you want to work for a relaxed mobile developer and already live in Silicon Spa, or would like to move around here, take a look! Bear in mind, anyone who gets this spot gets to boss me around
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Aug 15, 2012 19:23
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So, yeah.. http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/15/3244774/ios-csr-racing-earning-millions-monthly http://gamasutra.com/view/news/176031/NaturalMotions_latest_earns_12M_in_its_debut_month.php $12 million a month for a game where you press 3 buttons in between trips to the storefront. 
icking fudiot fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Aug 16, 2012 |
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Aug 16, 2012 01:57
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