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Blocko posted:I've been doing 12 hours a day for the last 6 months. Most of that has been learning other stuff/prototyping little ideas I have. But even so I'm young, single and actually don't mind staying so I can afford to do crazy poo poo like this. And you are why the game industry has a tendency towards the hours it does! (It's ok, I was once like you too!)
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Jun 3, 2011 19:27
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Brag-time GO! Our typical catered lunch, crunch or not (if we're working more than >= 10 hours, we get lunch and dinner): http://www.seasontotastecatering.com/menus/family_style_wedding.pdf
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Jun 4, 2011 01:36
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Pardon the name-drop/brag, but my mind is sort of blown right now. I spent last night sitting around drinking and playing board games with Brian Reynolds, Bruce Shelley, Bob Bates, Paul Neurath, and a bunch of other dudes who made the games of my childhood like it was no big thing. And then when one of them turns to me and says, "Oh, hey, you worked on X? I thought that was brilliant and I still play it from time to time!" My only response is "stammerstammergoshthanks" and then I'm pretty sure I spent the next 30 minutes blushing like a 14 year old girl.
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Jun 9, 2011 13:38
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Hey now, my Lady Gaga / Farmville shirt garners tons of compliments! The ones you have to watch out for are the black shirt with blue/purple/red logo or a full back graphic. Down that road lies sadness. edit: vvvvvvvvv NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! devilmouse fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jun 14, 2011 |
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Jun 14, 2011 14:52
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After so many years of just passing them around in email when people ask or when I come across interesting ones, I've started to formally build up an archive of interesting / well-reasoned academic papers on game design with useful lessons (not just swilly "Hey, look games are interesting and I have written a paper on them!" trash, either.) from a variety of disciplines. I like sending them around to spark discussions or as interesting weekend reading material. Does anyone do anything similar or have a cache of good papers to share (or just links to them)? I'll probably dump them all in a wiki or something when I've got critical mass.
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Jun 15, 2011 14:07
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isk posted:Every good style has its niche, but I love that you're sticking to your guns on this. We need more artists to be bold in their work. That's not the way to get hired as a production artist... Not being able to walk into a new company and adapt to whatever their art style is akin to a programmer saying, "I refuse to use your coding standards/style." or worse, "I refuse to learn this internal language you use."
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Jun 16, 2011 00:49
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Watch me potentially insult the thread's artists! Just like I tell people who want to get into design to get a degree from a liberal arts school (albeit hopefully one in CS!) and programmers to do the same, and avoid "game degrees", in general, artists that go to traditional art schools (RISD, MICA, Pratt, etc) are far better long-term hires than people who are "game artists". The best artists I've ever worked with graduated college having barely used Photoshop and never Maya/Max. Their portfolios consist of paintings, illustration, and so on. They take way longer to ramp-up, but you can teach someone tools, but you can't teach them about light, composition, color, form, and so on. (Not to mention art school crits are more brutal than anything they'll ever face in their professional careers.)
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Jun 17, 2011 11:29
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Alterian posted:Are you talking about hiring a 3d artist to a studio with no 3d art background? Yup! For junior / intern spots, they're the investments that pay off. edit: concerned mom posted:I half agree with you devilmouse. I think they should definitely have a good understanding of 3d though otherwise it would be insane trying to train someone up. What if they decide they don't like it? You run that risk with any hire though. Sure the ramp-up investment of a few weeks of a mentor's time sucks to lose, but I've seen people from every discipline quit within a few months time for any number of reasons. I don't want to get into a debate of 3D vs not, but if you asked them, they'd say it was just another medium akin to oils vs watercolors (just like a programmer has different languages they work in). Granted, this is a very long view that I take. If you need someone to slot into a production artist slot NOW to bang out some decor or an environment artist to push into your level creation pipeline, this isn't the way to go at all. I'm just talking about people who come out of school and where they "top out". The art directors / leads have almost universally in my experience gone to rigorous traditional art programs. devilmouse fucked around with this message at 11:56 on Jun 17, 2011 |
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Jun 17, 2011 11:48
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Oh boy... first projects time. This was from back in '97 or so from an intro to software engineering class. It was a 4 person project done over the course of 4-5 weeks in C++ and raw X drawing + OpenGL. I give you Racer-a-go-go!  It was a "kart" game in the loosest sense, but it was 4 player networked on Sun UltraSparcs, which could push a ton of triangles but had NO texture memory. Can I interest you in shaded polys? I bet I can!  Or if top-down is more your style:  Not only that, but there were weapons and damage "skins" to the vehicles. There was a fancy rigid body physics sim behind it. There was even a level editor so we didn't have to build these sweet tracks from scratch. But most importantly, there was the WEINER MOBILE. 
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Jun 21, 2011 12:03
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Shalinor posted:Yaaay, they finally dropped the press release (LEGO Universe is going free-to-play): http://universe.lego.com/en-us/community/newsnetwork/story.aspx?id=329745 More like free-to-make-gobs-of-money if history is any indicator! Money hats for all!
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Jun 22, 2011 01:07
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Chasiubao posted:But I'm curious, what's the motivation for going F2P? "You make a shitton more money on F2P than you do on subs if your game is properly set up for it." edit: I say this having worked on sub-only, sub+F2P, and strictly F2P games. devilmouse fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Jun 22, 2011 |
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Jun 22, 2011 01:57
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Solus posted:Yeah except I can't draw, which may end up being a problem when it comes down to that. I'll probably just keep self teaching and once I think I get good enough scout around for a mod team and get some experience that way. Time to learn then! Don't run before you can walk etc. I may live in an echo chamber, and I feel like I end up repeating this too often in this thread, but if you cannot draw/paint/whatever, you will forever be an "ok at best maybe ugh" game artist. Set your sights higher and buckle down and sketch, doodle, paint, and so on. Join a community college figure drawing class. Don't try to use the tools to cover up your inexperience. And for the love of god, NO GAME SCHOOLS.
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Jun 22, 2011 16:15
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Solus posted:- No game schools due to pigeonholing. (even though I'm currently a Geography Major) So this goes a little against the pigeonholing advice, but if you can hone your landscape art skills, you can find a job as a world builder in a heartbeat. Having a geography degree backing up decent art skills is like a magic bullet to land an interview at a studio making an open-world landscape-based game.
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Jun 22, 2011 17:06
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Jaytan posted:Do you think your last sentence becomes any less true if you replace the words "Game Design" with any of the plethora of other majors with no practical application offered by universities? Actually yes, because in the process of getting a History of Science or Art Semiotics or whatever other useless degree you might come out of a liberal arts school with, you've also gotten a presumably well-rounded education that introduced you to all manner of subjects across the spectrum. If you get some hyper-specialized "trade school" degree, you've learned... about that trade.
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Jun 22, 2011 21:05
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treeboy posted:What should a typical phone interview typically run assuming a good conversation and some decent Q&A? Shortest I've done is 10m (an obvious bad fit right off the bat), longest is 90m (quite a good fit and lots of chatting!).
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Jun 23, 2011 17:51
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FreakyZoid posted:But hey, I guess his HUGE amount of experience at a number of different companies gives him great perspective. Yeah - I was confused. His resume didn't really list (m)any companies where he'd worked to form these opinions.
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Jun 24, 2011 17:37
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Shalinor posted:Any casual developers in here? From talking to my friends at Big Fish and Hoyle's, they're still raking in the money. They, however, have very different work environments where everyone puts in their time and goes home. There's very little passion (other than the passion for money) or creativity, it's just churning stuff out and cashing in. Despite making gobs of revenue and profit, they're super risk-averse places to work where even a few million dollar bet is looked down upon and they want to mitigate them as soon as possible. But yes, there's still gold in them thar hills.
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Jun 27, 2011 11:57
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Shalinor posted:It seems like it'd be worth considering as fill work in a small studio, as opposed to leaning on work-for-hire. Flip-flop from core to casual to build up reserves if a core game under-preforms, etc. I know you'll hate this suggestion, but if you've already "stooped" to considering casual games to cover burn and shore up against risk of your core titles, you should also think about tossing something up on Facebook. A good arcade game can happily stay up for months without an update and pull in a pretty penny with no further work required once it's fun, stable, and shipped.
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Jun 27, 2011 15:24
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Shalinor posted:True, but Facebook apps do require support and some back-end work, and need more of an ad spend to get them up to the point of traction - casual games are fire-and-forget and relatively well supported by Gamehouse/Big fish themselves in terms of ad spend (afaik). I can't claim any intimate knowledge of how much games sold to BigFish make for the developer, but I imagine it's decent enough given the number of people clamoring to work with them. I think I've mentioned them before but a pair of friends tossed up a game, got it into Applifier (a cross-promo bar across a bunch of indie games), and their game putters along with a minimum of support and makes them a few thousand dollars a month for beer and living expenses. When I think of what I'll do after this job runs its course, it involves traveling the world, and assuming FB is still a viable platform, writing niche games on it. The games aren't limited by the platform, only by the current market trend towards "We need 1M+ DAU to be successful!" It's a shockingly easy way to access massive numbers of potential customers and to have them do the marketing for you. quote:I don't know if this is an uncommon view, but I'd rather have creative and scheduling freedom but have to make a game in some way about shopping/serving beer/etc, than be locked into a death march with no IP flexibility but on a game with guns/explosions/core stuff. We agree! I know I'm probably an anathema among the developer community, but after making HARDCORE games for so long, the change of pace is not only interesting and new, but it also allows me to enjoy playing core games again instead of nitpicking them to death. That and gaming in 5-15m increments is just too drat appealing...
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Jun 27, 2011 15:50
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Cue my usual "Hey, come work with me!" post! Zynga's Boston office is hiring a technical game designer (a design who can code!), a pair of artists (primarily 2d illustration, but there's some 3d work), and a senior engineer (PHP and ActionScript mostly). All positions are local and full-time in Boston. Excellent pay, benefits, etc. Our project is awesome, and making games for millions of people will blow your mind. PM me if you've got questions, are interested, or just want to chat.
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Jun 27, 2011 23:45
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Odddzy posted:I don't have PM's so I hope this type of question is allright. Do you believe it's hopeless for entry level 3D artists to apply for this job if they are from outside of the US? Sadly I don't think that would go over so well, since it's largely an illustration gig with some 3D on the side. We'll do relocation for the right folk, but that's generally senior level and above. Sorry 
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Jun 27, 2011 23:51
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mutata posted:Just ask what stage the production is in, if there's a crunch coming up or planned (or if the company even does them).... Stop there - don't ask how many hours you're expected to work because it sets people up to think you'll do just those hours and nothing more. If you want an approximation, you could probably couch it in terms of "What are core hours?", which will likely be 9-11 through 4-6. The usual advice to someone starting in ANY new non-hourly job applies: "Don't be the last one in or the first one to leave." If people generally get there around 10, be in at 9:30. If people generally leave at 6, leave at 6:30. Don't, however, try to be some superhero coming in at 7 and leaving at 11 or whatever.
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Jun 30, 2011 16:48
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Alterian posted:...and not cry in a meeting when the artists tell you what you want is impossible to do with the engine you're using. The problem here is letting the artists ever think they can say no!
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Jun 30, 2011 20:08
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Fishbus posted:I'm very surprised there's not an anonymous site for these things, i mean there's all those fanfiction and confession websites there needs to be a one for this industry because I've heard lots of really good poo poo though the years from different places. And all I want is to hear more. Both TCE and to a lesser extent GI have rant threads fairly frequently, and people will happily trade war stories and bash their (former) co-workers and those aren't even that anonymous (and in the case of GI, not at all). We're not a terribly demure industry when it comes to sharing our opinions!
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Jul 1, 2011 02:58
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Hold on to your pants as you read through this... http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1439404/000119312511180285/ds1.htm
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Jul 1, 2011 17:19
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Shalinor posted:I don't speak Lawyer A handy summary! http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304447804576414111297459234.html *GULP*
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Jul 1, 2011 17:36
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Monochrome posted:Which books are these? I'd like to learn AS3 and need a good reference and lesson plan. You know you have one of the best AS3 hackers IN THE WORLD sitting like 10 feet from your desk, right?
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Jul 2, 2011 23:22
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Solus posted:What confuses me is that every position ever requires previous industry experience to some degree. I understand the field will stagnate and die if you dont take fresh blood in but every position ever seems to require this. But the job listing you just posted doesn't require industry experience, just experience making games either professionally, personally, or as a part of a mod. 
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Jul 4, 2011 16:27
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Shalinor - what you need to do is take the technical designer position I have open on my team and learn all you could ever want to know about this stuff and THEN go back to your own thing after a year with all the new found knowledge and your first year of vested stock! Everyone's a winner!
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Jul 9, 2011 17:01
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Yeah, in-game credits never did anything for me. The manual was where it was at. You couldn't patch the manual to add/remove people and it remained a physical testament to the blood and sweat that went into the game. The in-game ones just feel faker somehow, buried down in an options menu or some other tucked out of way place. There's actually a minor tempest in a teacup brewing over the lack of credits in FB/social games. The younger developers are worried that their lack of credits will affect their future job prospects, and you have to soothe them by showing them your linkedin inbox full of recruiter spam looking to pick you up because you worked there (Not so stealth brag). devilmouse fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Jul 11, 2011 |
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Jul 11, 2011 19:58
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My company swag is (mostly) laundry day wear, but I wear the hoodie pretty much every day. It's super subtle about its branding and unless you look close, you probably don't even notice. There are a few excellent t-shirts as well, but the vast majority are just "GAME NAME!!!" and the graphics across the front, and they lead to some hilarious exchanges when out and about: I'm at a bank, doing something with the teller, and when our transaction is wrapping up: Her: "Hey, do you want to be neighbors?" Me: "Huh, wha?" Her: "Your shirt. Do you play and want to be neighbors?" I look down and realize I'm wearing a FarmVille shirt. Me: "Oh, sorry, no. I just work there." Her: "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG OMG OMGOMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" At the eye doctor's, the optometrist is making small talk as he's doing the exam: Him: "So what do you do?" Me: "Oh, I work with computers." Him: "Are you a programmer or something?" Me: "Yeah, I make stuff on the web these days." Him: "What kind of stuff?" Me: "Games, mostly, on Facebook." Him: "DO YOU MAKE FRONTERVILLE?!!?? CAN YOU FIX MY POTATOES?!!!?" I was on a flight a few months back, wearing my aforementioned hoodie, and my row consisted of myself in the middle seat, someone with a google hoodie to my left, and someone with a facebook t-shirt to my right. I was like "Hey guys, internet high fives!!" but they proceeded to scoff at me and hide their laptop screens.  But it's way more fun than saying "Do you know WoW? Yeah I work on the less popular versions of that." devilmouse fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Jul 12, 2011 |
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Jul 12, 2011 11:00
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treeboy posted:Well I'm a few days into my first week at Vigil and, aside from having no idea what's going on (that's getting better every day), I'm having a total blast. Tell Judith that Jesse says hi! I haven't seen her in ages and she was one of my favorite people.
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Jul 13, 2011 20:19
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wodin posted:You know that super nerdy game you played in college where everyone got a name and you had to find them outside of class/work and 'kill' them with a nerf weapon, then take their target and continue onwards racking up kills till you got ganked yourself? This was that, except when you died you could keep killing your targets. Chaos (and lots of cross-team mixing and laughter) ensued. At the old company, I ran a company-wide (maybe 2-300 people?) game of assassin, but since we were an RPG company, I added classes (including unlockable ones), upgradeable skills, traits, and so on. It got kind of ridiculous over the course of the 3 or 4 weeks the game ran. Way better than nerf wars imo!
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Jul 16, 2011 15:25
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Shalinor posted:EDIT: Oh look, GameLoft has an EASpouse. Yeah, but we have the EASpouse!
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Jul 18, 2011 23:14
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Monochrome posted:It's even worse when you're in QA and your boss believes that a higher bug count is inherently virtuous. This is not my situation now, when it was, I wanted to hang myself. LESS POSTING MORE BUGS, BUSTER (or just respond to that mail I sent out to the designers and say, "Gosh, this would also make our lives easier! Don't you want our lives to be easier too?!!?!") Having good developer QA is the best. Having bad dev QA makes me want to slash my wrists and bleed out in the bathroom. It's actually odd having non-confrontational dev/QA engagement. I do not know how to deal with this! edit: Saw your response! 
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Jul 22, 2011 18:38
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FreakyZoid posted:There's an interview somewhere with the guy who does that, it's a really interesting read. http://gamerdork.net/?p=9286 is the one. Kind of hilarious!
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Jul 27, 2011 18:24
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Not gaming, but eminently tech-focused, this is an excellent article on Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/11/110711fa_fact_auletta And her Barnard commencement speech is also awesome: http://barnard.edu/headlines/transcript-and-video-speech-sheryl-sandberg-chief-operating-officer-facebook Please ignore the "pink" contingent of developers who prefer to spend more time talking than making... they're toxic and actively work against any progress that's made unfortunately, despite their good intentions.
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Jul 27, 2011 23:04
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I'll take the opposite approach with that video... Ignoring the fact that she has no real talent, this isn't a bad way to get your resume burbled to the top of a pile. It shows a motivation that not all junior people trying to get their foot in the door have. But yeah, that assumes her portfolio was actually good.
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Jul 28, 2011 18:42
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Ramen Ocelot posted:Shalinor, do you know about the Border House? It's a blog that a lot of the women developers write for. You should try contacting Tami, she's a real friendly lady! (She's also not a developer. Both she and her co-editor are community managers.) Edit: Sorry for being pedantic! devilmouse fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Jul 28, 2011 |
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Jul 28, 2011 20:12
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We actually have a bunch of full-time writers on staff. Generally each of the larger teams has at least one full-time, and maybe one contract. And we pay them really well if they're senior/good. And we make games with pretty light narrative!
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Jul 28, 2011 20:46
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