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Dr_Amazing posted:I'm looking at going back to school next year and getting a degree in computer science. After 2 years the school lets you take a focus in video game programming. Does this sound like something worth doing? They stress that it's hard work and not just playing video games which I guess is a good sign, but I figured I'd ask here.
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Jun 1, 2011 11:50
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 08:30 |
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Indeed. I rarely have to work past 5:30, even now, getting builds ready for E3, and we pretty much choose our own hours and work at our own pace because we always hit deadlines. But at another studio, we had strictly regimented working hours and break times - to the minute - and couldn't slack off or stop paying complete attention for a minute. But we still never worked past 6pm. Obviously you're supposed to make a big effort, but not everyone can (or is expected to) work at their best with eyeballs glued to a screen all day.
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Jun 3, 2011 08:13
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Whew, we just hit the E3 demo deadlines - there were two of us, on separate projects, and we both finished and went to hand them over to the guys that are flying out at the same time, right at the end of the day. Felt good man! Only really had today to port something from iOS to Android. Had to be a bit hacky and strategically leave some features out but thems the breaks. First time I've ever had games at E3! Hopefully a contract will drop in time for us to show one game in particular; it'll make some people pretty happy. If anyone's going you should stop by the DNA Dynamics booth. We're pretty chill. I won't be there, though.
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Jun 3, 2011 17:50
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^^^ poo poo, really? I mean I'm a programmer but I thought they'd be comparable. Edit: Actually thinking about it now I was on less for the first six months, then around that. This was also several years ago. Aliginge posted:Salary for my postion I'm expecting would be around £20k if not a touch more. Leamington can be a pricy place to live, at least compared to the shithole that is Middlesbrough :p Akuma fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Jun 9, 2011 |
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Jun 9, 2011 15:55
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Glad things are progressing for Glass Bottom Games, Shalinor. We've got two new guys coming in for a trial week on Monday. Finally, someone that seems capable! I won't name any names (because they'd have done it by now if they wanted to, I figure) but they both came from this thread.  But it's the last week of the last milestone of my project that week, though, so I'll be mega busy 
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Jun 14, 2011 07:27
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Aliginge posted:Meanwhile I'm paying £75 for a train journey to go down there tomorrow. And good luck!
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Jun 14, 2011 23:27
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I guess that depends largely on the state of the studio. Here, we have a history of taking on people that aren't always fully baked and carrying them until they are, because it's an investment in people sort of thing that we like to do. But lately, we've fallen into the position where that's maybe not possible so we're not cutting people as much slack. Aliginge's interview was with Playground Games, who've been operating for two(?) years with no(?) products on shelves. Maybe they simply don't feel like they're in the position to take anybody on that can't hit the ground running because of experience or whatever. Edit: Double negative where I wanted a single negative doi. Akuma fucked around with this message at 11:36 on Jun 17, 2011 |
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Jun 17, 2011 11:21
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Solus posted:I end up hating my job if its not creatively stimulating, that and I suck at maths.
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Jun 18, 2011 09:52
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We had two people come through our office after "graduating" Train2Game; both without anywhere near the necessary skills, and both very out of pocket. Quite sad, really.
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Jun 19, 2011 14:52
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sebzilla posted:from what he said the job prospects for those graduating the course are pretty solid Go to a real university! The consensus in this thread seems to be that even specialised university courses aren't worth the time, but I disagree - it depends on the course. My university ran two courses - Games Development and Games Design - and both courses produced people (like me!) that went on to get, and keep, jobs in the industry. Or learn in your spare time using books and the internet. All Train2Game will do is give you lovely materials to use and lovely assignments to carry out; you can find better materials and give yourself better assignments for a fraction of the cost.
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Jun 22, 2011 13:00
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SnafuAl posted:From a while back, but I was one of the two new guys, and I start full-time next month. Cheers, Akuma! Time to start looking for flats in/around Leamington! (And despairing at how much more expensive they are than Dundee.) Andio posted:Out of interest, what company in Leamington Spa? Interested to see what games companies are located there.
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Jun 29, 2011 17:45
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Aliginge posted:I think this was in the last thread, but are you the guys I forwarded a coder/electrician friend to? Does Drew have a forums account? Both the guys did really well, it wasn't a hard decision. We've seen some other good people since, too. Our little company is growing so fast. Edit: No PMs, eh... Expect an email! Akuma fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Jun 29, 2011 |
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Jun 29, 2011 18:00
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Our parent company puts out a lot of press releases for investors and junk, and the other day I happened to be reading one that was talking about restructuring shares to reward a couple of long-standing employees and I just thought "Huh." And then I found out holy poo poo one of them is me! It was nice to feel valued. Had a wee bit of a stressy couple of days since I'm off next week (first holiday in... God knows) and I had to get builds ready for Hong Kong and it was all going wrong and I had to stay late and argh. So it was nice. They didn't have to give me anything, it's not in my contract (come to think of it, do I even have one?) but they did anyway. Who says the games industry is cold and monstrous? Excited about my game almost being done. Looking forward to it being released and seeing what people in this thread think about it. Hopefully my curse won't kick in; three boxed products I've headed up have been shelved in the last few years. I think this'll be 3 for 3 digital distribution titles if it actually comes out. Speaking of that, one of the other DD games was an iPhone title I made at work basically for fun while we were between contracts. I did all the code, all the tools, all the design, all the graphics. It was a little three week labour of love. And nowadays I overhear our new benevolent overlords (DNA Dynamics - seriously they sound like the baddies from some scifi show) talking with publishing partners and investors and whathaveyou about my little game like its some commodity, it's a "piece of content" that may yet become a "piece of android content" and it just feels weird. You know? I mean it wasn't original and it didn't set the world on fire but it's... Mine.
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Jul 1, 2011 19:37
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Aliginge posted:So err seems I've got myself a week's trial at Akuma's IOS dev That's great news, man! I'm on my jollies at the moment so I didn't know about it until now. Which company is it with? Dynamics is the parent company, then there's Interactive and Studios (I'm at Studios.) Either way you're coming to my office so I look forward to meeting you!
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Jul 7, 2011 10:30
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Funnily enough I implemented the credits in a game today. We're a bit fuzzy with job titles here so I didn't really know what to give myself. Went with Lead Programmer. Felt right. Edit: Oh! And Aliginge finished the first day of his trial with us today. He is good with the drawings! And also having a name similar to Superman.
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Jul 11, 2011 18:06
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Spuckuk posted:*because of. gently caress you Who Wants to be a Millionaire and your 90 000 ports. You know I think I've worked on more canned games than ones that actually saw a release.
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Jul 19, 2011 17:51
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Oh, okay. We did the DS/Wii/PS2 versions for a few years.
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Jul 19, 2011 18:21
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Had the first prelim design meeting for the next project I'm leading today. Very excited about it! But need to temper that excitement because I'm not done with my current project yet. But it's so close I can taste it! Might be getting previewed in the media next week. Our new starters are working like champs. I wasn't sure if it was cruel or kind to throw them onto their own solo games from day one, but they're definitely swimming and not sinking so I guess it was a good thing! The studio's all full steam ahead at the minute. Very exciting time. We have so many cool games either nearing completion or in the pipeline that I desperately want to talk about but can't! Aliginge is going to have plenty to do when he starts! Does anyone in this thread ever have to do Android development?
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Jul 20, 2011 17:48
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My wife got a freelance games designer/writer gig, yay! So proud of her. (She's never worked in games before.)
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Jul 25, 2011 21:25
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Also worth noting is that game retailers gently caress us all over with used game sales. Day 2 used game, a few quid lower than the price of a new copy; none of it goes to the people who made it. If they're part of the industry they do a good job of loving it over.
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Jul 29, 2011 08:48
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Black Eagle posted:Lost opportunities are not real losses. How is that not a loss?
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Jul 29, 2011 09:41
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Black Eagle posted:Let's say that you're running an ad agency. After you've bid for a contract, another agency bids for the same contract at a lower price. The prospective client chooses the other agency. Your agency lost an opportunity; you didn't incur any real losses. Now, let's say that you've had a client signed for some time. Another agency courts that client and their business walks away from you. That's a real loss. Missing an opportunity is not the same as losing a customer.
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Jul 29, 2011 10:58
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Sigma-X posted:What is S.978?
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Jul 29, 2011 17:41
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GetWellGamers posted:Nah, I know Obsidian had at least four when I was there that openly posted. To Shalinor, it's not probationary, he's our newest in-house artist, and he earned it. Came to the trial week not expecting to do much 2d, let alone 2d animation, and knocked it out of the park. Very much looking forward to working with him on several exciting projects in the future. The wife and I have been working all weekend on one project in particular that we're dying to announce, but, you know, the wheels of industry are slow.
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Jul 30, 2011 23:17
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Smart casual. Jeans and trainers are very casual, but they aren't smart. No jeans or cargo pants. Or shorts unless they're really nice and it's really hot. Wear a decent shirt that goes with your lower half but isn't too smart. You know, the height of summer is the worst time for interview attire! Edit: If you look like a student, for god's sake don't wear a tie. And pick a shirt that fits. I don't know why it bothers me but it really does when someone comes in and they're wearing this massive bright white shirt like they're still in school wearing some cast off from an older sibling, and some terrible tie. Akuma fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Aug 2, 2011 |
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Aug 2, 2011 21:26
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Ladies and gents! In the past couple of months I have benevolently given jobs to 2.5 goons, but The Beast at DNA Dynamics still craves for fresh meat, and the boys in the lab of DNA Interactive need new test subjects. We have heard that the tastiest and most useful for the experiments are Flash developers, preferably those with experience of developing and deploying Facebook games. You'd be working on a high quality DnD-esque thing with swords and spells and all that poo poo. To begin with. We're located in the heart of the games community of the Midlands, Royal Leamington Spa. It's so great the queen made it all Royal and poo poo. We're a very laid back sort of place; I'm sure snafuAl and Aliginge can attest to that. We've already grown at a fair clip and goddamnit we just keep on expanding because people want to work here. You get a lot of responsibility and autonomy in a pretty awesome way. But it wasn't like that when I started here three years ago! I had to make a bloody applause generator as my first project. These new guys were given entire freaking games to make by themselves, and they love it. No industry experience is necessary, just the ability to make cool poo poo (and prove it!) Since it's worked out pretty well for us in the past you'd probably get a week-long trial because interviews are a stupid way to find out how somebody works. So get in touch! I'll probably get in trouble if nobody does. And I just became senior so they'll probably take that away. Goddamnit.
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Aug 4, 2011 17:51
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Our current CEO, who used to work for Codemasters and a bunch of other places, always says that some kind of profile or personal statement and things like that in a CV are fairly useless, because everybody's going to say the same thing (they're a team player but can work on their own, etc.) and they're not really verifiable. His advice is just to stick to the facts.
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Aug 5, 2011 07:24
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So there's no FlashGoons looking for work in the UK? 
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Aug 9, 2011 17:49
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BizarroAzrael posted:What level is needed? I've used it here and there, serviceable ActionScript ability and have used the similar C# a lot. What is the focus of the role? We have C# pretty well covered in the office already, but we really need someone with ActionScript experience because we don't have a huge amount of time to retrain at the moment. We're one big, friendly team, but you'd be with individual, usually solo, projects. If this sounds good to you we could take this to PMs and I could probably show you a copy of the game. Lemme know!
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Aug 9, 2011 20:45
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Check out this preview of my game, you nerds!
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Aug 17, 2011 10:37
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So this is my next project. Seems way too premature to announce but I guess that's why they don't pay me the big(gest) bucks. For those not willing to click: Naked Gun point'n'click. Or just "tap" since it's for tablets.
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Aug 18, 2011 18:11
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Not at the moment, sorry Except for that Flash post we talked about before.
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Aug 18, 2011 19:29
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Goddamnit edit is broken in the Awful app at the moment. It is fun! I've been pushing to get the lead on this for a while now, very happy the deal is all signed. I've just come off assisting my wife with the design of some other license-based point and click game, which was ace. I loved the genre as a kid so I'm totally living the dream.
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Aug 18, 2011 19:33
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Aliginge posted:Ahem, OUR project So how's it working out being the only in-house artist? 
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Aug 20, 2011 10:16
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How are your project management skills? Our CEO is keen to find someone tenacious as a project manager who also has the sorts of things you list in your CV (build engineer, a bit of design, etc.) Do you have any experience with giving people a kick up the arse to get poo poo done?
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Aug 20, 2011 14:07
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The Cheshire Cat posted:For a gameplay programmer that should be enough - most of the heavy math in game design comes in at the engine level. Gameplay programmer is more about logic - maybe some AI work depending on the specifics of the position. If you've ever made a Source mod or something, that's very similar to what a gameplay programmer does.
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Sep 1, 2011 21:24
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r2x posted:Isn't path finding usually just looking at the data that is present and creating an algorithm to find the optimal from a -> b? I have not worked in 3D but even in 3D, pathfinding and generation shouldn't take more then Calculus I and some knowledge in algorithms (recursive searches) at max right?
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Sep 1, 2011 22:16
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Aliginge posted:poo poo, as a Junior 2D artist at DNA studios my portfolio wasn't even seen. I got my foot in the door purely by getting a recommendation from a programmer friend and then knocking some socks off on the week's trial. There was a degree of "it's who you know" but it wasn't nepotism!
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Sep 7, 2011 07:49
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I don't have the perspective of working in AAA, but having worked at a shop that made games that were sometimes essentially what people call "shovelware" (and make no bones about it, you're fully aware that that's what you've made) you quickly gain perspective and it's water off a duck's back most of the time. But when it's a good game you really believed in it can deflate you a bit. My last game that launched last week has received unanimously positive reviews on the App Store so far, but I decided to venture further afield and looked on TouchArcade, where they were... Less kind. Sucks a bit to have people say that no effort was made in implementing a particular feature when you know there bloody was! Generally people really don't have much of an idea of the reality of development and all the politics it entails, so anything that's less than perfect must just down to apathy of some kind.
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Sep 12, 2011 17:53
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 08:30 |
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I didn't say otherwise, did I? Observing something doesn't mean judging it.
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Sep 12, 2011 18:30
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