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mastermind2004 posted:I don't know what programmers you're talking to, because I sure as hell hate Visual Studio, but it's the least of all evils that I've found. It's been gradually getting better, but I can just about crash it on demand working in UE3, and there's a decent chance it will occasionally decide to crash for no good reason at all and eat all of my carefully set up customization. Oh VS still blows up occasionally, but I've never had the same kind of issues our artists have to live with.
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May 23, 2014 02:13
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ceebee posted:Maybe programmers have more tolerance for dumb poo poo happening because they know why it happens or something Nah, we just have to hit save more often in order to compile. Less time lost when the VS IDE crashes trying to debug UE4.
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May 23, 2014 02:27
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I love version control! Except when it makes it difficult for the average artist to, uh.. commit things. Git's cool when I'm working on a small team and no one else is touching art assets. My frustration comes from the ridiculous merge errors that I can't fix on my own because  , and I have to call an adult for help-- shattering any illusion of self-sufficiency I had for myself. I'd rather get handheld through the process by an engineer than endure the shame of nuking the build accidentally, however! I've found that when errors outside of your control happen repeatedly throughout the day because a fuckton of people are working on the project on multiple branches, combined with the time pressure to edit something ASAP on a live game, it becomes very difficult to not lose your poo poo. At my previous studio, I'd frequently find myself trying to commit a single asset but couldn't because my version was constantly behind (pull...conflict... merge.. pull, try to push.. nope, conflict again x 10 and then it just becomes 'gently caress everything on this earth' time). I could never just go home at the end of the day without first dealing with a ton of git bullshit that could take an unreasonable amount of time to fix.I had to temporarily use GIT for a small Unity project with one engineer and two artists-- it wasn't the worst clusterfuck in the world, other than the time my lead somehow nuked the project with a push, or that other time an engineer almost punched the poo poo out of my keyboard.. or that other time I was so furious I almost punched the poo poo out of my keyboard and monitor... I'm thankful we're using P4 for art files now, but we're apparently encountering issues with P4's Unity integration, especially on the UI side. I've not experienced this first hand yet, but I think I will be soon! Hooray!
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May 23, 2014 03:29
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devilmouse posted:Jeff Vogel is killing it this month: http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.ca/2014/05/the-indie-bubble-is-popping.html Not much comment on this. For those that don't know, it's a blog post where the thesis is that indie dev is a bubble that has popped. I think he's basically right. One thing he says I think is worth digging in to. Essentially it's the claim that the number of dollars available to purchase games in a given time period is static. My suspicion is that people's time and attention is roughly static, but money is actually pretty elastic. So you're definitely still very limited in the number of winners that can exist, and they are extremely fewer than the number of developers. But I think there is room for prices to go up. Steam/PC games are already too cheap, and there is a danger of the sales/bundle mania making that problem even worse.
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May 23, 2014 05:24
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I don't have time to write out a history right now, but it's worth it to look at this through that lens, from the Atari crash on through the iOS race to the bottom. Right now we have more people (in general), more experienced people, more history to draw from, and more freedom available than ever in gaming, and what you're going to get is a lot of crap, a lot of clones, and a few people who hit the right place/right time/right game lottery and turn in to huge successes. If Steam doesn't want to be the curator, someone will and that may be the next best hope for getting the good stuff in front of the people who want to play it. I'm trying to find a point here, and I think there probably is one, but I took an Ambien so I forgot it. Amazon and Netflix were involved as curators or ideas about curation, maybe. It's a cycle that we repeat every 5-7 years but each one gets a little bit better. I guess the moral is to check out your assets before working on them, artists, because stomping 20% of an asset package file is not a good use of anyone's time.
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May 23, 2014 06:02
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I learned to make a gazillion files thanks to Flash constantly crashing. Oh, but it didn't just crash, no. It would also corrupt my files so I could lose the entire thing, not just what I didn't save. It doesn't seem to do it anymore in the newer versions but I keep doing it just in case.
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May 23, 2014 06:30
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DancingMachine posted:Not much comment on this. For those that don't know, it's a blog post where the thesis is that indie dev is a bubble that has popped. I think he's just theory spinning out of the air without any real data to back up any of his allegations, not to mention he claims that it's an inevitable situation that was unavoidable ("this came from regular people making logical business decisions!") and furthermore it has already happened and/or can't be stopped. It's a really fluffy post without much content and he plays it up like he's got his finger in the hole in the dam trying to warn us all that it's gonna break but we can't do anything about it so... I dunno, I don't really get why I should give him any credence over anyone else.  The bundle glut with people buying games they don't actually want is an interesting point, I guess, but again, he doesn't really have a thesis statement beyond "The following are things, I think!" mutata fucked around with this message at 08:42 on May 23, 2014 |
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May 23, 2014 08:40
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I'm in a bit of a weird situation right now, and would like some insight. I am currently employed in a company that does mobile games, and in a senior position. I like working there, but I was recently approached by an acquaintance about a job opening in a established company where i have always wanted to work (more core games, AAA games, etc.) so naturally i jumped at the chance, and soon enough a producer approached me to invite me to an interview. Things progressed, and I got an interview set up quite quickly. It was really nice, i really liked the vibe I got from the place, people seemed energetic, there's tons of people with experience i would love to work with and they have been making the games I've played since i was a child and they seemed to like what i would bring to the table. The HR person promised to get back to me in 2 weeks time whether i'd get a second interview. This is where the things start to get a bit odd. 2 weeks pass, and no contact, so I assumed that it's a no go for me, but i thought i'd inquire the status nonetheless. I sent an e-mail to one of the interviewers thanking for the opportunity to apply, and to visit the company, and if there has been any development on the application. a week went by and i got an answer that things haven't moved at all, and no decisions have been made. After a few weeks I got an invitation to 2nd round of interviews on site that would take the whole day,and would include interviews with different people and some practical tests etc. the usual stuff. I took the day off from work and got to meet some of the people that i would be working with, did the tests, and all in all it was a pretty cool day, the people seemed to be really fun to work with. and the general vibe was good. The HR rep informed me that things would move in a rapid pace from now on, and they would inform me in 2 days time if i got the job or not. 4 days pass and the HR informs me that they have decided to offer me the job, and that he will contact about the offer "tomorrow". Surely enough no such offer ever materialized, day after i was supposed to receive the offer i e-mailed the HR rep to inquire about the job offer and has there been some development on the matter(did they hire someone else in the meantime or something...) and i haven't received any reply yet. It has been 3 days and no contact. Right now i'm a bit torn on what to do, a part of me thinks that this is a huge red flag about the company and how they treat people. I can understand that things don't always move in a pace that was originally planned, and life happens sometimes, but i'm a bit upset that i wasn't at least informed about the delays in the process (especially the radio silence after i was told i would receive the job offer.) Also i would probably take a pay cut and a demotion from senior status, so probably not the brightest move career wise. But on the other hand, i really want to work there  I don't know if i'm being naive, but i really believe in the stuff they have made and the craftsmanship there is something i'd really want to be a part of. Also i'd really like to move from casual mobile to AAA since those are the games I've mainly enjoyed to play and have always wanted to work on.So what i would like to hear from you guys, is that is this kinda thing normal? have you had similar experiences happen to you?
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May 23, 2014 09:58
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O2CLT posted:I'm in a bit of a weird situation right now, and would like some insight. I am currently employed in a company that does mobile games, and in a senior position. I like working there, but I was recently approached by an acquaintance about a job opening in a established company where i have always wanted to work (more core games, AAA games, etc.) so naturally i jumped at the chance, and soon enough a producer approached me to invite me to an interview. I would be be very cautious but pleasant and inquire about what happened. The day I was supposed to hear back from my first game jobs employer, they got taken down by a virus that an employee brought in accidentally, and it killed the office for a day. There may be reasonable extenuating circumstances for both delays (it's also E3 season, mind you) but I would want satisfactory answers. If they don't think it's worth their time to provide them, then that's an indicator of how they treat their employees I'd imagine.
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May 23, 2014 10:23
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Sigma-X posted:I would be be very cautious but pleasant and inquire about what happened. After the HR rep informed me that they would like to offer me the job, and failed to follow through on the matter I e-mailed them to ask what's up, but didn't receive a reply(it's been days now)... I'm a bit hesitant to e-mail them again not to seem pushy, but goddamn it's annoying.
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May 23, 2014 10:42
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O2CLT posted:After the HR rep informed me that they would like to offer me the job, and failed to follow through on the matter I e-mailed them to ask what's up, but didn't receive a reply(it's been days now)... I'm a bit hesitant to e-mail them again not to seem pushy, but goddamn it's annoying. If they actually want and care about you I don't think you will be too pushy. They're the one reneging on their promises. If they get flustered then that is a data point for you to consider when you evaluate their offer.
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May 23, 2014 11:30
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Sigma-X posted:If they actually want and care about you I don't think you will be too pushy. They're the one reneging on their promises. Thanks for the advice, i finally manned up and sent another message. Let's see if they answer this time. edit: Got a response, and it seems like everything worked out well in the end
O2CLT fucked around with this message at 14:55 on May 23, 2014 |
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May 23, 2014 13:07
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O2CLT posted:Thanks for the advice, i finally manned up and sent another message. Let's see if they answer this time. For future reference, any company worth a poo poo isn't going to rescind an offer because you followed up after the self-imposed deadline they gave you has passed with no word from them. Always ask for timelines and follow up if they pass with no word from the company.
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May 23, 2014 17:52
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Hanlon's Razor, man. It's E3 season and people are idiots, by and large, don't assume negatively without reason.
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May 23, 2014 18:21
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Still working at RaD Sigma? I saw they were showing some gameplay footage of The Order today.
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May 23, 2014 18:35
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O2CLT posted:edit: Got a response, and it seems like everything worked out well in the end Good for you. And for future reference, since I was late in answering... Yes, this par for the course with big AAA companies. In one particular case, I was told to expect a reply within a week, and got one one month later. The guy even said, "Hello Jan, I'm following up on our interview last week." 
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May 23, 2014 19:59
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mutata posted:The bundle glut with people buying games they don't actually want is an interesting point, I guess, but again, he doesn't really have a thesis statement beyond "The following are things, I think!" What bundles do is increase your playerbase beyond the core into those less engaged with your product. Everyone has a set price at which they'll buy your product, so temporary deep discounts end up being a way of throwing a progressively wider net. If you do the naive average price, this looks like bundles reduce your game's value. They don't. It has the same value it always has to your core audience, you've just found a strategy to widen that and make more money / more people happy overall. Their argument, framed in brick and mortar terms, is "the existence of a bargain bin reduces game prices and hurts the market!". They like to claim that it's unique because this "bargain bin" doesn't empty, but neither did the one at K-Mart. That's why you hit it every time you went into the store, because it was different every time. All that's different is that our digital bargain bins, blessedly, don't end up full of 100 copies of that one poo poo game that no one ever wants. It's different every time, so it's always worth walking by the bargain bin, even if you seldom grab one. Just as with their physical analogs, bargain bin bundles are a means of squeezing some last income out of back catalog games, and a desperation play for games of questionable quality / poor visibility. The other side's counter to this argument ends up treating games as interchangeable, and spins off into treating games as a homogenous product, so that they can spin their "bundles are an infinite supply of cheap games therefore game price is dropping!" rhetoric. Which I don't buy. ... anyways, two things are happening right now. One, Steam is changing the market, and making it competitive instead of Steam playing kingmaker. Two, bundles are happening. People are conflating the effects of dropping revenue per developer with bundles and screaming "THE SKY IS FALLING," when in practice, all that's happening is Steam is transitioning into being something else. I'd argue that things are actually likely to get better from here, given that Valve is trying about a billion different strategies to bring a layer of curation back to Steam. If anyone can solve that problem, it's probably Valve. EDIT: even if they don't, I don't think things will get any worse. We're already in a relatively flooded state, and you really have to do more than throw your game onto Steam now, you've got to promote it and talk about it in a way that wasn't required previously. That's freaking people out, especially the middle of the market that survived for so long by getting a Steam golden ticket, throwing games onto it, and getting money out the other end. There are a TON of people that have literally no idea what to do now that Steam isn't giving them ideal visibility. Both people that were on the Steam train already, and people trying to break in whose entire promotional strategy was "make good game, get it on Steam, profit." EDIT2: And that people are panicking mostly because Steam is changing is a great point in favor of Cliffski's favorite topic - "own your audience." If a ton of folks hadn't had their entire livelihoods tied to a single storefront, we wouldn't be panicking right now. I don't know HOW to pull a Cliffski in today's market, but I think this shakeup is underlining the importance of figuring that out. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 21:02 on May 23, 2014 |
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May 23, 2014 20:50
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Flying out for an interview in early June for a studio that is very art orientated and seems like a a huge step up from what I'm doing right now. I AM QUITE EXCITE, they make some of my favorite games too.
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May 23, 2014 21:14
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Chernabog posted:Still working at RaD Sigma? I saw they were showing some gameplay footage of The Order today. Yeah, still there. I missed the stream (out to lunch) but glad to see some of the initial feedback.
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May 23, 2014 21:16
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Sigma-X posted:Yeah, still there. I missed the stream (out to lunch) but glad to see some of the initial feedback. God drat does The Order look good. I will probably pick up a PS4 just so I can play it.
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May 24, 2014 03:25
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I'm working on it too in a very small outsourcey kind of way and I like the nice comments 
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May 25, 2014 10:26
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ceebee posted:Flying out for an interview in early June for a studio that is very art orientated and seems like a a huge step up from what I'm doing right now. I AM QUITE EXCITE, they make some of my favorite games too. Congrats that's awesome!
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May 25, 2014 10:40
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I'm starting my internship at Blizzard tomorrow. I'm super nervous  I'm doing tools development for Heroes of the Storm and while I'm sure they'll ease me into things I feel like I'm being thrown to the sharks a bit. (Also, belated congrats to Brackhar! The Seattle area is excellent and you won't be disappointed. Also, I dunno if you'd be interested but I've got a ton of friends in the design program at Digipen who would kill to talk shop with you in the fall sometime when school starts up again.)
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May 28, 2014 06:45
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Pseudoscorpion posted:I'm starting my internship at Blizzard tomorrow. I'm super nervous Congrats on the internship man! Getting a foot in the door is a big deal, and you can do a lot with it. My best advice is to not think of yourself as an intern while you're there; instead, think of yourself as a junior employee. The best thing I did as an intern was challenge some of the processes Riot was using because I wanted what was best for the company, not just what I was told to do. My full-time interview was pretty easy as a result, and now five years later I'm going off to be a director. As for Digipen, I'd be happy to chat with peeps! I'm generally a pretty gregarious guy when it comes to talking shop, and I'd be happy to talk to anyone about my experiences anytime (including any lurkers in this thread), whether by skype or in person. I suppose I can say now that I won't actually be in Seattle, instead I'll be up in Vancouver BC. But Seattle is a short drive away! And thanks for the congratulations.
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May 28, 2014 09:35
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Pseudoscorpion posted:
I wouldn't worry too much, it's not like anyone cares about HotS. Good luck! EDIT: We (and by we I mean Outplay), just secured another cool $5 million in funding from OCP. No, not that one. http://www.oxcp.com/about-us/news-events/our-news/oxford-capital-leads-5m-funding-round-for-mobile-games-developer-outplay-entertainment Monster w21 Faces fucked around with this message at 11:30 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 10:09
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Pseudoscorpion posted:I'm starting my internship at Blizzard tomorrow. I'm super nervous Congratulations! Say hi to the UCI students, they actually got the largest percentage of Blizzard internships ever this year. From such humble beginnings the Game Development Club has grown... :wipes proud tear from eye:
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May 28, 2014 14:02
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Welp, PAX badges went on sale 20 minutes ago and they're already sold out. Frustrating. 
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May 28, 2014 18:54
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Brackhar posted:Welp, PAX badges went on sale 20 minutes ago and they're already sold out. Frustrating. Don't worry, there's always tons of scalpers at the door for cheap.
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May 28, 2014 19:30
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I got two four day passes!  ...But the guy I was supposed to take found out minutes later his brother's bachelor party was that saturday.  Anyone want a four-day pass in exchange for being GWG's slave for a weekend? 
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May 28, 2014 19:44
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Oh hey, a game I made last summer was finally launched at the end of last week! The China IPR SME Helpdesk Serious Game. It's kind of a business sim sort of thing. I was given the task of designing a game to teach the very dry subject of European business persons protecting their IP when taking their business to China, so I built out a game on paper and made what you see there with an artist over a few months. It ended up dragging along in dribs and drabs for months after that because of client-insisted feature creep and some notion that our rendition of a Chinese factory looked too bleak. Too accurate to life I guess I don't know. The fun self-imposed challenge for me was building something that would run in HTML4 compliant browsers that could also be packaged up in stand-alone binaries, which is what we ended up with there. It uses HTML for everything, but not the canvas tag. For some reason they've not deployed the Windows and Mac binaries, though. I'll have to ask them about that. Play it if you'd like! It shouldn't take longer than an hour. It is insanely easy, though. My design was for the game to be hard so you could learn through your mistakes and replay it, which the client agreed with, but over time they insisted on more and more changes to make it easier. Then it was finished and they said it was too easy. C'est la vie.
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May 28, 2014 20:31
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Maide posted:Don't worry, there's always tons of scalpers at the door for cheap. Yeah, I've seen that, I just hate the idea of planning a big trip and relying on scalped tickets. GetWellGamers posted:I got two four day passes! I might take you up on that, as long as by "be a slave" you mean "buy you beer + pay for ticket"
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May 28, 2014 22:35
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Brackhar posted:I might take you up on that, as long as by "be a slave" you mean "buy you beer + pay for ticket" Slave means "Pimp the foundation like it's the day before rent is due and all your call-girls are sick", but otherwise yes. And depending on things the Foundation might even cover gas/airfare. E: vvvv vvvv
GetWellGamers fucked around with this message at 02:55 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 00:16
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GetWellGamers posted:Slave means "Pimp the foundation like it's the day before rent is due and all your call-girls are sick", but otherwise yes. And depending on things the Foundation might even cover gas/airfare. edit: I'm an idiot.
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May 29, 2014 01:41
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GetWellGamers posted:I got two four day passes! Any plans for panels this year? I had a blast on the localization one last year.
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May 29, 2014 03:38
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Chainclaw posted:Any plans for panels this year? I had a blast on the localization one last year. Yeah, that was a riot, (I still chuckle at "IT'S A DOUGHNUT!" and "Are you sure that wasn't just EA's legal team and not the third reich?") but the lady who was taping it never sent it to anyone that asked!  No, no panels this year, but I was talking with a guy from Extra Life and a guy from Gamers Outreach about maybe doing a "History of gaming charity" sometime next year, seeing as how it's really exploded in recent years and it'd be neat to trace its roots from Nintendo's original involvement with the Starbright Foundation all the way up through Desert Bus For Hope and so on.
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May 29, 2014 07:01
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^^^^^That would be sick. The 'GDQ gang is planning for a panel this year. I think it will be our first time taking directions questions outside of solo twitch streams with questionable audio quality.
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May 29, 2014 07:05
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I get less excited about E3 every year. Mainly because it's just turning into a convention just for the press. I really enjoyed the museum area though last year. Honestly I just wish PAX came out to LA since that one seems so much more interesting for me. Also this has nothing to do with video games but the Strategiconvention at the LAX Hilton was surprisingly pretty cool. I was expecting the worst but actually was pretty fun. http://www.strategicon.net/index.php
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May 29, 2014 23:08
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Mythic Entertainment, creators of the terrible new Dungeon Keeper, shuts down. Still though, I feel bad for the people who lose their job over this 
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May 29, 2014 23:24
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DancingPenguin posted:Mythic Entertainment, creators of the terrible new Dungeon Keeper, shuts down. I think Mythic would be better remembered as the creators of Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online. I did not even know they were behind the Dungeon Keeper mobile game, for that matter. I do wonder how much of that game's failure is publisher pressure to monetize, developer unfamiliarity with F2P models or just plain developer error. Going from MMOs to mobile F2P isn't exactly a direct transition.
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May 29, 2014 23:46
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Jan posted:I think Mythic would be better remembered as the creators of Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online. I did not even know they were behind the Dungeon Keeper mobile game, for that matter.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdLfnjXUdMw The game that everyone thought would be the EverQuest killer, until a little something called World of Warcraft entered the fray.
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May 29, 2014 23:53
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