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I'd like to suggest something, take it for what you will. But can we not turn this thread into a such and such a game is a competitor and it's bad? Similarly talking about the controversy that just occurred with Diablo 3 is just as easy without giving our own reviews of the game. I don't think it's too easy to make a line that isn't crossed where we're tearing games down. Just because one person might work for the subjective "better" version of a game, doesn't mean another person in this thread might be working on the other one. In my opinion that discourages conversation. I'm not a mod and I'll continue to participate in the thread but it's just a friendly suggestion to keeping this thread active and fun.
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Aug 22, 2012 04:39
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You beat me to it. I think this thread has had a pretty consistent, constructive tone to it, and ragging on someone else's work doesn't sit right with me. And I'm really not seeing what makes the animation so atrocious. Sure there's some popping and sliding here and there, but there's also some really good areas too. Besides, ANT is a fickle beast early on; it's an incredibly powerful tool, but getting the animations to blend properly takes some finesse. In the early stages (like this alpha footage), characters tend to slide around prior to the configurations getting nailed down.
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Aug 22, 2012 04:59
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Yeah I rather this keep being the way it is.  On another note, CRUNCH TIME. Basically no days off for the whole week. Yeah I know, pretty small for QA but hell I haven't done this in a while. Last time was at sony when the game was being pushed to gold. That was a 2 week grind. On the brightside. With the time I have, building my new pc. Least I can start actually making 3D models instead of trying to make sure my laptop doesn't blow up on me. 
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Aug 22, 2012 07:32
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It's amazing how much pain can be caused by missing a single $ in a regular expression... .*perf breaks the entire world horribly, but .*perf$ removes exactly what it was supposed to.
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Aug 22, 2012 07:48
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Shindragon posted:Yeah I rather this keep being the way it is. The first real game I did real QA on was on crunch for a year a half. We're talking 15 hour days Monday through Friday and 10 hour days Saturday and Sunday.
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Aug 22, 2012 07:55
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Looking back, was it worth it? That sounds insane.
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Aug 22, 2012 07:57
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concerned mom posted:Looking back, was it worth it? That sounds insane. For that game, yes. We released the smoothed launch of that company with the smallest day 1 patch and made millions of people really happy. I'd rather do too much OT than not enough.
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Aug 22, 2012 08:00
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Management and expectations are so hosed in games. I can't wait to get out of AAA development and set my own terms once I have enough money.
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Aug 22, 2012 10:52
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Another god drat British institution of games development was closed today. Sony Liverpool, the Wipeout team, gently caress this industry.
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Aug 22, 2012 13:47
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I heard half the team went to a funeral, came back and got made redundant. I hope that's not true, poor guys 
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Aug 22, 2012 14:06
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It's really not looking good for those of us in the UK trying to get into the industry, is it? From what I can see, even with these recent tax breaks that've been introduced, loads of places are shutting down over here. There are a few jobs I can see here and there that I could reasonably do, or learn to do quickly -- But they all want 2+ years of industry experience. Do paid internships or work experience exist? Reason I'm asking is because I have bills to pay and don't live at home, so I can't afford to work for free. I guess I'm just really worried that when I come out of this games art course and finally have a decent portfolio I'll be in a bit of a limbo.
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Aug 22, 2012 14:52
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uglynoodles posted:It's really not looking good for those of us in the UK trying to get into the industry, is it? Apply for those jobs anyway. The years of industry experience is usually just there to reduce the number of applicants. Also nothing wrong with working internationally if the UK doesn't pan out.
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Aug 22, 2012 14:56
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Lots of cool Unity announcements have already hit from Unite. Most notable to me, is that they're partnering up with Xsolla - one of the best desktop-side options for IAP payment handling. That'll close the pretty glaring gap of doing F2P Unity games on desktop platforms. (it's payment type agnostic... it's set up to work world wide, with everything from PayPal to individual bank accounts being used for payments, and the developer never has to think about any of it)
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Aug 22, 2012 15:05
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uglynoodles posted:Do paid internships or work experience exist? Yes. Personally, I applied for a job at Sports Interactive that I was under-qualified for (I was still in first year at uni). The flew me down from Glasgow for an interview, and though I didn't get the job they did take me on in the summer doing some programming. I also knew most of the programming team at Splash Damage and badgered them until I got an interview for an internship there too. I then spent the following two summers working there. So apply for jobs you aren't qualified for, and ask anyone you know that's already working if you can get a job. Edit: this was about 7 years ago right enough. MarsMattel fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Aug 22, 2012 |
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Aug 22, 2012 15:18
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uglynoodles posted:It's really not looking good for those of us in the UK trying to get into the industry, is it? It's a tough market, but junior positions do exist too - we've just hired two junior modelers fresh out of uni. The '2+ years experience' line is really just a way to weed out less confident applications. If your portfolio is awesome, and you think you can do the job, go for it.
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Aug 22, 2012 15:22
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uglynoodles posted:It's really not looking good for those of us in the UK trying to get into the industry, is it? It's not the end of the world. The UK scene is just breaking down to small indie studios like it used to be. Get in now to somewhere small and in ten years you'll be at the top of a huge developer again.
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Aug 22, 2012 15:53
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Monster w21 Faces posted:It's not the end of the world. The UK scene is just breaking down to small indie studios like it used to be. Jessops?
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Aug 22, 2012 15:54
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Monster w21 Faces posted:It's not the end of the world. The UK scene is just breaking down to small indie studios like it used to be. You're arguably in a better position than the seniors getting laid off. Startups can't afford to pay senior-level salaries, which means those startups are looking more for fresh graduates and juniors with kick rear end portfolios and recognizable talent. Given the market, it might behoove you to be able to demonstrate basic Unity 3D knowledge. I don't mean anything major, but knowing that the jr artist you're hiring already knew about exporting from Maya/Max into Unity, the typical hurdles thereof, how to make use of that model once it was there, etc, can help.
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Aug 22, 2012 16:12
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ceebee posted:Management and expectations are so hosed in games. I can't wait to get out of AAA development and set my own terms once I have enough money. It's not all bad, there are studios out there that do AAA games that don't have horrible working conditions. You just don't hear as much about them. There are plenty of big publishers and crazy studios that grind out their employees, but just because it's AAA doesn't mean it has to be that way. Working for a studio with more senior people in it helps I think, because senior guys seem to put up with less bullshit.
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Aug 22, 2012 16:19
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Shalinor posted:Lots of cool Unity announcements have already hit from Unite. Most notable to me, is that they're partnering up with Xsolla - one of the best desktop-side options for IAP payment handling. That'll close the pretty glaring gap of doing F2P Unity games on desktop platforms. I'm happy to answer any questions on both Xsolla (my former job) and Virtual Piggy (my current job). Both are new service providers for Unity. I'm actually at the conference this week and the keynote was fantastic, as was Peter's special keynote afterwards. I've never been so jazzed for a cube breaking game in my life, guy is very inspiring.
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Aug 22, 2012 17:02
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Random question for you level designers lurking.. I'm primarily a systems designer / scripter but I keep running up against things I'd like to greybox myself rather than try to talk an LD through what I think I want to try.. I know my way around Unreal BSP but it has so many bugs and oddities that I'd rather use something else to block out levels. Does anyone have any specific suggestions for what program I should teach myself? Most of our guys use Max or Maya, though I've heard talk about things like Modo being a bit simpler. I'm okay with simpler given I don't need much besides basic shapes and a functional grid.. Ultimately I'd like to be able to import into Unreal so things like Google Sketchup are out.
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Aug 22, 2012 18:18
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I'd say bite the bullet and just do it in UED. If you're not taking it past greyblock yourself you shouldn't have to deal with too many quirks and oddities, and I feel like sidestepping it like this is more effort for less work done.
Irish Taxi Driver fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Aug 22, 2012 |
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Aug 22, 2012 19:31
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I know a of concept art types who using Google sketchup to mock out perspectives, maybe that?
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Aug 22, 2012 19:54
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Next month is 5 years of me in the industry post college, I had 2 in the industry before it though, but in different rolls. Finally can apply for "junior" level positions with that big 5 number. Can't wait to hit 10-12 to apply for mid-level positions.
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Aug 22, 2012 19:55
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I marked 3 years in the industry earlier this month :3 Time flies!
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Aug 22, 2012 20:20
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10 years for mid-level positions?
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Aug 22, 2012 20:42
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FreakyZoid posted:10 years for mid-level positions? I think it is an exaggeration of job postings. Just apply to everything anyways who gives a gently caress. Literally no one will hold your substandard application against you and the reality is that number of years of experience does not correlate to a quantifiable amount of skill or talent.
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Aug 22, 2012 20:46
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One of the most valuable professional development experiences I've had came when I applied for an internal job opening that was way out of my skill level at the time. Getting to go through the interview process and realize why I wasn't cut out for it just yet helped a ton in determining what I needed to learn next.
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Aug 22, 2012 20:53
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Juc66 posted:Apply for those jobs anyway. The years of industry experience is usually just there to reduce the number of applicants. I definitely agree with the international suggestion - as long as you have done something that is directly applicable to the job obviously. Germany for example is still rich in games jobs, the culture in studios is very English speaker friendly and Europe is no-visa-required if you have a UK passport. For me - another year, another country to work in:) I've done permanent positions in UK, Germany, France and Korea with my next stop being Denmark in a couple of months. One thing I have learned in this travelling (and is an area some people find theoretically offputting) is that even the countries which are advertised as high tax aren't that shocking if you are from the UK. If you budget at most 40% for normal levels of pay that's about right, even for countries which have ridiculous 75% top rates. UK would be comparably 30% so it's not the end of the world, especially if you are getting good work benefits or work rather than nothing.
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Aug 22, 2012 20:58
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JosephStalinVEVO posted:Next month is 5 years of me in the industry post college, I had 2 in the industry before it though, but in different rolls. What up 5-6 year buddy! I'm moving up to a designer position by the end of the year after working as QA, Dev QA, Additional Mission Design and Community Manager for the past 5 and a half years! \o/
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Aug 22, 2012 21:00
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I'm pushing 1.5 years. Steady as she goes...
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Aug 22, 2012 21:02
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My 1 year was the 8th. Two published levels so far!
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Aug 22, 2012 21:09
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:My 1 year was the 8th. Two published levels so far! What are you using? Source? If so can I pick your brain?
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Aug 22, 2012 21:16
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Nevermind, I'm talking out my rear end. Edit: I mean, he's got TONS of Source experience anyway, so yeah. Nevermind. mutata fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Aug 22, 2012 |
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Aug 22, 2012 21:17
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mutata posted:He's at Treyarch, I think, so it's whatever Modern Warfare's got. I think it's Radiant-based, yes? Yeah MW level design is done off radiant. I somehow always though Taxi was Raven or something.
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Aug 22, 2012 21:19
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One year in Two games shipped (Plus many fractions of games )
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Aug 22, 2012 21:19
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Revitalized posted:Yeah MW level design is done off radiant. I somehow always though Taxi was Raven or something. Yep, Raven. Radiant is pretty close to Hammer so the transition wasn't too bad. Monster w21 Faces posted:What are you using? Source? If so can I pick your brain? A lot of my experience is in Source. Add me on steam and we can chat: http://steamcommunity.com/id/irishtaxidriver
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Aug 22, 2012 21:31
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wodin posted:One of the most valuable professional development experiences I've had came when I applied for an internal job opening that was way out of my skill level at the time. Getting to go through the interview process and realize why I wasn't cut out for it just yet helped a ton in determining what I needed to learn next. ... I had 3 years with a startup when they hired me, and was nudging them at 4-5 years about when I'd make lead. I learned a lot about why I wasn't cut out to be a lead, yet, but you could also say it was a great example of how confidence will take you places. I applied for a senior role, but they ended up making a non-senior position just for me.
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Aug 22, 2012 21:33
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:Yep, Raven. Radiant is pretty close to Hammer so the transition wasn't too bad. Added, thanks.
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Aug 22, 2012 21:39
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icking fudiot posted:Random question for you level designers lurking.. If you don't want to make BSP you can make some basic shapes (i just use a cube) and import that as a static mesh. Then you can manipulate that cube in editor to block poo poo out really quickly without worrying about BSP stuff.
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Aug 22, 2012 22:46
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