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I did this last time, but I'm going to complain again about your "I want to start in QA" rant. You should make the distinction that Publisher QA is an unloving hellhole whereas Developer QA has ample room for advancement if you do your work. 
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Jun 1, 2011 05:18
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Acethomas posted:The key to BD is to become good friends with the bartenders and restaurant managers at the W. This made me laugh out loud, because it's just so true. Though I'm wondering what the end goal is of becoming friends with said people. Just getting the nice/quiet spots to talk, or what?
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Jun 2, 2011 06:47
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Solus posted:Weapons and Vehicles, I have a thing for hyperfuturistic melee weapons and gunships. I would just offer as a word of advice, I've talked to a lot of art leads and HR people who hate futuristic stuff in portfolios, even when they do futuristic games. Robots and spaceships and futuristic cityscapes have a bad reputation for being refuges of the lazy, relying on clean lines and unexplained tech to bypass the nitty-gritty of design. No one has to explain a sleek spacefighter that goes because you say it does, whereas something real and familiar like a real car or jetfighter has to be mechanically sound all the way through. I've had one creative director who worked for a company that did lots of sci-fi stuff say his dream portfolio was an urban street in good but not perfect condition rendered out to the last detail, and then that same street after a bomb's gone off or the tsunami came through or after a zombie rampage, showing everywhere that everything went wrong. I'm not saying to change your specialty or anything, after all, someone had to design all the stuff in Star Trek and Babylon 5 and everything else, but just warning you against a common pitfall I've heard time and again from people making hiring decisions, which is that robots and other such "clean" sci-fi elements can trigger a nearly involuntary negative reaction in protfolios.
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Jun 19, 2011 10:41
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Solus posted:I'll start small though, Theres a combat knife I read about in the Dust 514 Chronicle where the Edge burns ridiculously hot onces it makes contact, would be interesting to see where I can take that small description. That sounds great- just make it looks like it's seen a few tours. 
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Jun 19, 2011 11:21
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I have a question for you producer-types out there. Recently on a project, I had a guy working for me on a feature basically since day one, but it involved some tricky programming and as other complications in the game showed up and had to be dealt with, I made the decision to cut the feature and put him on one of the programming teams that were struggling, saying "There's no way we're going to get this feature implemented and bugged out by the deadline, so I'm going to put you with these other guys to make sure that their features come out right." I think that's that, but the next morning the guy comes in way earlier than normal, when I'm usually the only one there, and he's just kind of in a daze, just, total thousand-yard stare. I kinda pop in like "Uh.. hey, what's going on, man? Everything okay?" He turns to me and asks with this semi-pained look on his face if he's done anything of any value for the team, since we're in the home stretch and there's not a single jot of his code in the program now that the feature he was working on got cut. He's having this entire existential crisis about the project being late and him feeling like he's been more or less dead weight. It's like, what do you say to that? I mean, he's been working pretty long days and doing hard work, but he's right- in terms of the finished product, by that point of 3/4ths through the project he'd done nothing that would be in the final product. For my part, I told him he'd done exactly what he should have been doing- his job. He came in, got his tasks, and did them. I said that his feature getting cut had nothing to do with him, it was a function of the planning of the management. If the schedule and the milestones say "This isn't going to work," then things need to be shuffled and scaled back to the point we can make deadline, and he needs to just keep doing his job coming in and doing his programming tasks each day. I mean, I'm sure that there's a skill level where he could have made it work in the time allotted, but the project was plagued with "Boy this sure turned out to be more complicated than we thought" from the word go more or less, and I don't think even if there was a skill threshold where we wouldn't have needed to cut the feature it wouldn't have accomplished anything to say it out loud. It was just weird for me, it was the first time I'd been with someone on a project and their motivation crashed that dramatically. I've had to deal with people who weren't very motivated, and people who went crazy and burned out, but the near-total daze with which he came into work that day was just kind of like "  what the gently caress do I do  "
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Jun 22, 2011 10:34
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Jefferoo posted:...feminist apocalypse? When I see stuff like this, I take solace in the fact that after a dozen or so of these morons in a resume' pile, mine looks like a rockstar's.
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Jun 26, 2011 04:44
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Andio posted:I had the AP interview today and it went really well. I think it was quite apparent that I have a lack of Production experience and this may be my downfall unfortunately. Can you elaborate on this? Like, what were the skills you were apparently lacking?
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Jun 27, 2011 23:11
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Sure, give it a week to make sure they go through it all with everyone they're going to, but then I'd be interested in hearing how it went and what they asked.
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Jun 28, 2011 00:11
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Andio posted:If you don't mind me asking, why didn't you respond to my PM last week? Because I was packing up about 800 PS2, XBox, and DS games to send out to around 60 hospitals and didn't have the time before your interview came up. v  v
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Jun 28, 2011 00:38
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typhus posted:Any other writers speaking at GDC Online's narrative summit? Or just attending? I want a Game Jobs Megathread party-within-a-party at Ginger Man. We shall drink and laugh heartily over tales of game writing shame and woe! I'm there.
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Jun 28, 2011 20:17
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Nome posted:-Be able to keep your emotions in check. Being attached to an idea is OK, but you need to be able to take rejection to the face and not throw a hissy fit. Just as an addendum to this, you should be very cognizant of which hills you're willing to die for. If there's some part of your design that you think is core to the experience, that you think it just won't be the same without, then go ahead and fight tooth and nail for it, but you'd better be sure you're absolutely on the money. You usually only get a handful of these per project, and you don't want to waste them, so cut what needs to be cut, even if it hurts, but save what absolutely has to be saved. I've had people come up to me way later in a project and say things like "You know when you were talking about [feature] earlier, I really didn't see how it would work. Now that I've seen it in action, I don't know how the game would be any fun at all without it." That's the level of certain you need to be to fight for your pet feature's inclusion.
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Jun 30, 2011 19:24
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No way. If that's real you have to post the gory details.
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Jun 30, 2011 19:49
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bilperkins2 posted:I do BizDev for Ubisoft North America, evaluating submissions for possible 3rd Party Development, Publishing or Distribution deals. Anyone with questions let me know, or any 3rd Party teams for any platform that want to submit, I'd be interested in discussing. Bil! What the hell, man, I never knew you were on SA. Since you're you and I'm me, could you go over the review process for that puzzle game I submitted? I mean, at least on my end I'm fine with you dissecting my failure for the enlightenment of all.  Edit: And tell Vic I'm still really thankful for the big donation you guys hooked us up with last year.
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Jul 4, 2011 21:02
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GameDevMap is probably your best bet.
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Jul 4, 2011 22:57
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Well, thanks for the feedback, and sharing your process with the thread. Right now our programmer is actually rejiggering the code for Android and we're just going to self-publish.
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Jul 5, 2011 05:29
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What?! Sputnik is dying? When did this happen, back in the day they were filling auditoriums.
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Jul 6, 2011 19:11
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Holy cow, it's like Christmas. I went by my local public library and they were having a used book sale, went be the chronically comically-empty "computer" section and found an entire suite of "Learning Maya" books with CD's on sale for between one and three dollars a piece, along with a bunch of other good development books. Eat crap, Charles River Media and your $60+ insanity- I got an entire shelf of books for a $20 bill, with change! 
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Jul 6, 2011 21:56
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If there's a bunch of you Austin goons how come no one ever shows up to the GDC Online meetups?
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Jul 8, 2011 20:27
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MustardFacial posted:Getting my first ever Design credit in a video game Hey, you know what, cherish it, man. Seeing someone play a game you've made, or even better recognizing you from one of your games, creates a joyful buzz in your heart that rivals amphetamines.
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Jul 10, 2011 08:49
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MustardFacial posted:I dunno dude, amphetamines are pretty great... I do know amphetamines are great, but the game one is still better. 
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Jul 10, 2011 10:42
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wodin posted:Re: credits - the feeling of seeing yourself in credits is pretty much second only to signing a box for someone who is just THAT loving EXCITED that they got to meet you and get your signature. I've never had an autograph asked of me, but I remember being on vacation in Utah, wearing my Blizzard hoodie and playing Metal Slug in a bar while I waited for our food to get put up, when I hear from a few tables away "Dude, do you really work for Blizzard?" "Yeah." "...You mind if I wear your skin and assume your identity?" I just laughed, but in an odd way I was flattered. Actually, that bring up a question for you guys- what do you think about wearing company gear around in public? For me, so many crazy-nerd fans wear stuff with games emblazoned on them that I kind of don't want to be lumped in with them. At work, sure, I always like to fly my colors  but on the weekends and stuff I usually leave them in the closet. The only reason I was wearing my hoodie on vacation is because it gets nasty cold up in the mountains and the hoodies we got from the company store are really, really nice and they've got those huge stomach-pockets I really love. (Speaking of which, any Blizz peeps in the thread, mine finally disintegrated and I'd pay nice to get another one.)I mean, I'm proud of the work I do and all, but does anyone else feel odd about wearing industry clothes to non-industry places?
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Jul 12, 2011 03:46
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coeranys posted:The opening is a running gag amongst community managers. Explain.
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Jul 18, 2011 06:19
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M4rk posted:Graduating on August 5th. PAX Prime is my GDC, going to hit up some booths and see if any PR departments are hiring. You need to find and attend the "How NOT to get a job in the game industry" panel hosted by Jim Rivers and Dino McGraw: at once terrifying and hilarious, informative and dismissive, I caught it at GDC Austin once just because Jim's a friend of mine and it's one of the most amazing panels I've ever seen. Even if you've already got a job, go just to hear the horror stories and see the name-removed resume's and cover letters and ask yourself, while laughing, how anyone that stupid could ever think THAT was a good idea.
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Jul 18, 2011 09:45
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M4rk posted:Atm I'm interning at Game Recruiter, which is a videogames recruitment service. Oh hey, awesome! If you see Marc Menchner around, tell him I said hello. The past couple GDCs have been too "Got a meeting, sorry!" for us to actually stop and say hello to each other...
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Jul 18, 2011 12:10
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I know there's already a PAX thread, but it's being overrun with the dickwolves controversy, so I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a PAX Prime meetup/dinner like we do for GDC? Fun times can be had by all!
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Jul 18, 2011 21:32
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Diplomaticus posted:....... I can't help but feel for the kid, really. Which IGDA board is this? I might want to sign on and just try to steer him on a better path...
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Jul 27, 2011 04:39
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Alterian posted:...and had me help with art. If you guys really met this way and got married because of it, that would be the most adorably nerdy thing ever.
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Jul 28, 2011 06:55
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Tricky Ed posted:
Would love to hear some of these, even in general terms.  And Black Eagle, knowing a number of recruiters, I will say this: Regardless of what tangential relationship retailers have to the industry (However valid) if you try and use non-corporate retail experience as "Industry experience" on a resume you will be alternately laughed at, pitied, and finally ignored, so I guess regardless of the technical definition, as far as reality is concerned it doesn't matter.
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Jul 29, 2011 09:16
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Nah, I know Obsidian had at least four when I was there that openly posted.
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Jul 30, 2011 22:42
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Akuma posted: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. God, I hate that. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had at the usual pub patio that are like "So what're you up to?" "I can't say, sorry. You?" "...I can't say." Whee. 
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Jul 30, 2011 23:20
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Networking is one of those things that helps some strains of nerd be less nerdy, too. I've seen it happen over the years, people starting out at networking events just sort of hanging out in the corner and mumbling about their portfolio to gradually learning the art of just making friendly small-talk in an environment that is so nerd-saturated they lose their concerns about seeming out of place. If you can learn to network well, in the process you might just develop something approaching social skills.
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Aug 1, 2011 05:49
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I find "So how's the show treatin' ya?" to be a great GDC/E3/etc. opener, because it's not something you'd know offhand (As opposed to the weather) and you know they've got an opinion on it (As opposed to asking about sports teams or other things they might have zero interest in) with the added bonus that people always like to talk about themselves. And no matter what their answer is, there's always an obvious next step- Sympathy if they say it's going poorly, specifics if it's going well, and camaraderie if it's a more neutral "Just surviving, you?" Furthermore, all avenues segue easily into the next one, "Who're you here with?" at which point you've broken the ice enough to actually start talking business. I've done it at bars, sandwich lines, booths, buses, everywhere, and it really works. And what Shalinor said is really true- we're all still pretty nerdy at these things, and I get the sense at some gatherings that everyone's only faking being sociable and they'd rather be having the conversations we're having while playing Bomberman or something.
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Aug 2, 2011 00:04
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I like the Tokyo variant- the bright green color makes me feel like it's the future or something. 
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Aug 2, 2011 03:19
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Monster w21 Faces posted:That and Jim Sterling and I are bros. Say what you will about his work but the guy has passion for what he does and wears his heart on his sleeve. What he does is be deliberately obtuse to the point of trolling. Everyone can have opinions, but some of his stuff is just so objectively flat-out wrong they read like Sarah Palin's "opinions" on Paul Revere, just completely disconnected from the reality the rest of the world recognizes. ...To quote one of my favorite lines from the Legacy of Kain series, "Hate me, but do it honestly." If you're going to slam something, do it for its flaws, not because you're bored and feel incendiary.
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Aug 3, 2011 10:20
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I actually have an honest answer for that "weakness" question, strange as it may be. "Downtime. I hate downtime. There are two expectations with this whole 'job' agreement, that I'm working to get paid and you're paying me to do work. If I have to sit around twiddling my thumbs for more than a few minutes because the build is messed up or someone's in a meeting or whatever, I will start trying to find ways to be useful, even in other departments. If it's been more than half an hour since I've been able to do work, you probably won't find me at my desk, I'll be off asking my co-workers if there's anything I can help them with. I can do nothing at home much more comfortably, I don't come out here and wear the nice clothes to do nothing." Edit: The reason I call this a legitimate weakness is that some corporate cultures frown on that sort of initiative, everyone's got their place and should stay there. Other companies are far more flexible, like Gamespy, where depending on the availability of the various publishers (I recall specifically a lot of downtime waiting for THQ and EA) there could be two or three solid hours without clear direction, and so I'd wind up doing odd jobs for the area team, the marketing team, heck, a particularly egregious downtime was responsible for me making the shift over to editorial as a freelancer. But at some companies I've actually had the "So you're going to pay me to sit at my desk and do nothing and this is acceptable." "Yes." discussion, so it's fair warning on my part, I suppose. GetWellGamers fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Aug 3, 2011 |
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Aug 3, 2011 21:01
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The Cheshire Cat posted:Though bear in mind that while a good answer, it might not be appropriate for everyone. Some people like having a bit of goof-off internet/NetHack time in the office, and those people really shouldn't be saying they want to be busy all the time when they don't actually mean it. It's not that downtime by its nature bothers me- it's downtime where there's nothing useful to do. Hell, I've gone around and defragged/spybotted unused computers while on downtime, it's not downtime that bothers me it's not being able to do anything productive during it.
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Aug 3, 2011 21:28
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Resume' feedback is about as hard to find as Orihalcium, especially from recruiters or HR people. I managed to find one and just about built a shrine.
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Aug 4, 2011 09:04
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Here's the last big press release we did, stripped of all the fancy formatting:quote:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: I mean, there's info, a few quotes, but like Black Eagle said, keep it very short and very on-point.
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Aug 9, 2011 23:41
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What would you say about focus testing for people trying to get their foot in the door? I mean, maybe not once or twice, but if you've got a handful of companies who know you by name and specifically call you to do focus testing on their projects/DLCs/etc. over and over again, you think that'd be worth putting on a resume'? And if you did, how would you put it? A couple of students I know are on like their eighth or ninth focus test at some places because every time they want good feedback they call these kids up before they cast their net anywhere else.
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Aug 19, 2011 06:50
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I thought I had some QA horror stories, but some of the ones collected on the new comic the PA/PVP guy are working on together are horrifying.quote:Suppose you found a bug in a game that rendered a console unplayable? Suppose it was something akin to the original Myth II Uninstall problem where it basically formatted your hard drive, only worse? This is so terrifying I don't doubt its veracity, because I don't think anyone could make up something like that and expect anyone to believe them if it was fake.
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Aug 20, 2011 04:10
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