Game Career Guide - Fall 2009

TOP TIPS FROM THE PROS 10 CAREER TIPS from each major development discipline SPECIAL ISSUE AVOID THE CATCH-22 GOT NO EXPERIENCE? WE’LL HELP YOU GET SOME!

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AKRASIA STUDENT POSTMORTEM DO IT YOURSELF GAME ENGINES ON THE CHEAP

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CONTENTS.FALL 09

STUDENT POSTMORTEM 22

AKRASIA It all began with a premise—make a game based on an abstract, like love, hate, or honor. This group of 10 students took to the task, and learned a lot in the process. Read on for a window into the development process of a student game. By Louis Teo

D E PA R T M E N T S 2

GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield Industry Intro

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WHO TO KNOW & WHAT TO DO A guide to the game industry's events and organizations

[ G A M E D E V 101 ]

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GET MONEY, GET PAID By Jill Duffy Comprehensive information on salaries for entry-level developers

[ G A M E D E V 101 ]

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ARTSY GAMES CREATION By Jim Monroe A method for making games even if you have no prior experience

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[ G A M E D E V 101 ] CULTURE FIT By Andrea Malloni Sure, you want a game studio to like you— but how do you know if the studio is the right one for you?

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10 IMPORTANT INDIES By Tim W. Boon An introduction to the world of indie games

[INDIE FOCUS]

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INTERVIEW: EVERSION By Jeffrey Fleming A Brazilian DIY game maker shares his secrets

[INDIE FOCUS]

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SCHOOL DIRECTORY A list of schools with game development courses in North America, with an international list, to boot

[EDUC ATION]

100 ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland You got the job, now what?

[HUMOR]

[LE T TER FROM THE EDITOR]

F E AT U R E S 9

CATCH-22 You need experience to get a job, and you need a job to get experience. This catch-22 happens in all industries, but it’s even more difficult to conquer in a competitive industry like game development, which attracts some of the brightest and most technically savvy people on the planet. Luckily, a few do-it-yourselfers in the game industry know how it can be done. By Jill Duffy

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DO IT YOURSELF It used to be that only high-powered coders could make their own games by themselves. But these days, a host of accessible tools make it easier for anyone with the time, dedication, and creativity to become a proper game developer. We go in-depth with four of these low-priced engines, and show their ups and downs. By Jeffrey Fleming

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[INDIE FOCUS]

TIPS FROM THE PROS Want a little advice about getting that first job in your chosen discipline? How about some tips about how to use your time once you get it? Here, five industry professionals share some of the secrets to their success, in handy bullet-pointed lists. By Hal Barwood, Stuart Roch, Robi Kauker, Lee Petty, Brad Bulkley

COVER ART: JONATHAN KIM

WWW.GDMAG.COM

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GAME PLAN // BRANDON SHEFFIELD

www.gdmag.com Think Services, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090

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HEADLINE INTRO INDUSTRY DEK NETWORKING IS YOUR FIRST STEP TO A CAREER IN GAME DEVELOPMENT

FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND ADDRESS CHANGES t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 e: [email protected] EDITORIAL PUBLISHER

Simon Carless l [email protected]

WELCOME TO THE 8TH ANNUAL CAREER GUIDE from Game Developer magazine! Every year, we compile a host of articles designed to help aspiring developers enter the industry, whether that is through attending the right university, making the best of your time while there, getting a job once out, or simply going it alone as an indie. This year we’ve put an increased emphasis on actually getting out there and making games. At school, or on your own, putting some games on your resume is the only sure-fire way to prove your worth to prospective employers.

MEET AND GREET Another thing that really helps, regardless of your existing position in the industry, is networking. There are a lot of people out there who can tell you how to try to network in the game industry, but from my experience, here are a few important tips. Attend trade shows. This is sort of a nobrainer, but either attending or volunteering for a game industry trade or consumer show can get you to meet a lot of people. Granted, if you’re a volunteer wearing a uniform, you may get less serious responses from developers you meet, but it’s still possible to make a good impression. These events are far and away the best places to meet both established and aspiring developers, so if there’s a show in your area, and you’re feeling sociable, it’s worth the trip. In-person meetings mean a lot more than a random email in an inbox. Do research. Every once so often I’ll get an email from someone who is looking to get into games, and they’ll simply ask “how do I do it?” There are a lot of online resources, like our own GameCareerGuide.com, and books out there about breaking into the industry. Asking people questions that you can easily search for on the internet yourself is a sure-fire way to get a short response, if you get one at all. On the other hand, if you want to be a coder, and you have a question about 2D physics and have researched someone that might be able to help, you’re a lot more likely to get a positive and interested response. Choose your target. Don’t try to become Will Wright or Shigeru Miyamoto’s best pal straight out of the gate. They meet 12 gazillion people every minute, and will probably not remember you for very long after you’ve spoken, unless you’re wearing a chicken suit or something (maybe carry one around, just 2

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

for kicks). Try approaching folks who have given interesting mid-level talks at GDC, or an indie whose work you admire. You’re a lot more likely to get a good response if you’re talking to someone who doesn’t get talked to as often. Be genuine. Your parents always told you to be yourself, and that’s true here as well. If you come across as anything but your own interested self, it’ll be a red flag to the people you’re trying to meet. I remember a student who approached me during the Austin GDC, asking whether I’d listen to his game pitch and give him some ideas. This could go either way—it could be uncomfortable to me as a listener, or it could be an interesting experience I’d enjoy—the only way I’ll know which way this is going to lean, is if the person seems genuine and likeable. In this case, he came across as very earnest, and we had quite a good resultant conversation. Follow up. That same student later saw me at a San Francisco-based GDC. He specifically sought me out to say hello, thank me for the talk we had in the past, and tell me about the job he’d since gotten. This makes a very good impression, because it shows you’re not just trying to take the money and run, as it were, you’re trying to build an industry network. You don’t have to follow up by saying, “Hey, I’ve made it!” but adding a developer you’ve met on Facebook and making relevant comments to their game-related posts is a pretty good idea. Don’t be annoying. While this should go without saying—don’t keep pestering someone if they’ve not responded to you, or reacted how you’d like. Like I said, be yourself—there’s a possibility of course that you’re a very annoying person, and there’s nothing we can do about that! But if, as I’m sure is the case, you’re a very well-rounded and affable individual, just try to meet industry folks as you would meet normal friends, on the grounds of common interests and respect.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Brandon Sheffield l [email protected] PRODUCTION EDITOR

Jeffrey Fleming l [email protected] ART DIRECTOR

Joseph Mitch l [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jesse Harlin l [email protected] Steve Theodore l [email protected] Noel Llopis l [email protected] Soren Johnson l [email protected] Damion Schubert l [email protected] ADVISORY BOARD

Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large Mick West Independent Brad Bulkley Neversoft Clinton Keith Independent Ryan Lesser Harmonix Mark DeLoura Independent ADVERTISING SALES GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR

Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6227 MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER

John Malik Watson e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6224 GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EDUCATION AND RECRUITMENT

Gina Gross e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6241 COORDINATOR, EDUCATION AND RECRUITMENT

Rafael Vallin e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6223 ADVERTISING PRODUCTION PRODUCTION MANAGER

Robert Steigleider e: [email protected] REPRINTS WRIGHT'S REPRINTS Ryan Pratt e: [email protected] t: 877.652.5295 THINK SERVICES CEO THINK SERVICES Philip Chapnick GROUP DIRECTOR Kathy Schoback CREATIVE DIRECTOR Cliff Scorso

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT GROUP DIRECTOR Kathy Henry e: [email protected] DIRECTOR Kristi Cunningham e: [email protected] LIST RENTAL Merit Direct LLC t: 914.368.1000

MARKETING SERVICES MARKETING COORDINATOR Laura Robison

e: [email protected]

MAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE Maintaining relationships with your peers and mentors will help you throughout your career. It’s great to have people you respect whom you can bounce ideas off, people to trade industry gossip with, and indeed, people who can help you get work in the future. Just play it cool, and you’ll be in the game.

UBM TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER David Levin CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Scott Mozarsky CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER David Wein CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Kevin Prinz CORPORATE SENIOR VP SALES Anne Marie Miller SENIOR VP, STRATEGIC DEV. AND BUSINESS ADMIN. Pat Nohilly SENIOR VP, MANUFACTURING Marie Myers

—Brandon Sheffield

WWW.CMP GAME .COM

scad.edu/interactive-design-and-game-development Monte Ford, animation B.F.A. 2008, Carrot Sunlight, Maya and Photoshop.

adventure reigns.

The Los Angeles Times named SCAD’s interactive design and game development program among the top 10 in the United States mentioned by industry recruiters.

GAME DEV 101

WHO TO KNOW & WHAT TO DO IN THE GAME INDUSTRY

EVENTS Game industry events are a great way to introduce yourself to the world of development. Here are a few you should know.

GDC AUSTIN www.gdcaustin.com The online-focused Austin GDC, which is scheduled for September 15–18, 2009, will have lecture tracks that follow business and marketing, game design, social networking and community, 4

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

services, production, and game programming along with summits on game audio, game writing, iPhone games, and independent games. GDC CANADA www.gdc-canada.com GDC Canada takes a production-oriented view of development with lectures that cover concept and preproduction, game production, and finalling, along with post launch and analysis. GDC Canada will take place in Vancouver, Canada, May 6–7, 2010.

GDC EUROPE www.gdceurope.com GDC Europe will be held in Cologne, Germany, August 17–19, 2009 and will feature talks on business and management, game design, production, programming, and visual arts. GDC CHINA www.gdcchina.com Held October 11–13, 2009, in Shanghai, China, the GDC China event will host talks on online games, global game development, visual art, game audio, mobile games, and independent games. PHOTOGRAPH BY VINCENT DIAMANTE

GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE www.gdconf.com From its small-scale origins 21 years ago in Chris Crawford’s living room, to its current mega-conference incarnation, the Game Developers Conference (owned and operated by Think Services, which also owns Game Developer) remains centered on the community of developers that drive the game industry. With hundreds of lectures, panels, summits, and hands-on workshops spread over five days, GDC is organized into tracks for the audio, business, design, production, programming, and art disciplines. The conference is also home to a series of focused summits covering game AI, casual games, outsourcing, mobile games, education, independent games, localization, serious games, and MMOs. Job hunters will want to spend time at the Game Career Seminar and explore the Career Pavilion where recruiters, development studios, and educators can be found under one roof. The GDC is also home to the Independent Games Festival (www.igf. com/index.html), which showcases of some of the best indie and student created games of the year. The next GDC will be held March 9–13, 2010 in San Francisco, California. In addition to the main Game Developers Conference each year, a number of satellite conferences have joined the roster of events organized by Think Services. Each offers a unique set of lectures that give them their own regional identity.

The Game Developers Conference 2009

PHOTOGRAPH BY VINCENT DIAMANTE

GAMESCOM www.gamescom-cologne.com Book extra time after GDC Europe, because immediately following the conference, Cologne will be hosting Gamescom 2009 on August 19–23. The event is a massive video game exhibition that will be open to industry professionals as well as the general public. DEVELOP CONFERENCE www.develop-conference.com The annual Develop conference in the U.K. will have sessions that cover art, audio, business, coding, design, and production. The conference is also hosting an Evolve summit that is centered on the unique design and business opportunities presented by the convergence of games with social networking. Develop will be held July 14–16 in Brighton, U.K. TRIANGLE GAME CONFERENCE www.trianglegameconference.com The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle area of North Carolina is home to a number of high-profile development studios including Epic Games, Insomniac, Red Storm, and Emergent. The Triangle Game Conference draws heavily on this concentration of talent for its sessions that cover game design, business, technology and programming, serious games, and marketing. The conference also hosts an exhibition hall, career fair, and a game development university for student attendees. The next Triangle Games Conference will be held in Raleigh, April 7–8, 2010. TOJAM www.tojam.ca/home/default.asp Making games can often be a solitary exercise and game jams provide a welcome opportunity to get out of the house and collaborate with fellow developers for a friendly but intense weekend of non-stop coding. The Toronto Independent Game Development Jam has been running each May for the past four years and has generated more than a hundred completed games. Bring your own machine, sleeping bag, and tools (no pre-built games allowed). Knocking out a finished game from start to finish in three days may seem intimidating, but TOJam also welcomes asset creators who can float from project to project helping to produce graphics and audio as needed. INDIECADE www.indiecade.com/index.php? Independent game creators have been getting increasing mainstream recognition in recent years. Since 2007 IndieCade has been advancing the cause by organizing exhibitions of independent games at major expos such as E3, SIGGRAPH, and PAX. An IndieCade 2009 Festival is planned for October 1–4, 2009, in Culver City, CA. E3 www.e3expo.com After two years of relative sobriety, E3 has returned to its glamour days with companies once again lavishing money on eye-melting and ear-numbing show floor extravaganzas. Organized by the ESA, E3 is largely a publisherand hardware manufacturer-driven event that gives the game industry an opportunity to show off its upcoming releases and build excitement for the all-important 4th quarter. While E3 is limited to industry professionals, more than 40,000 attendees were confirmed for the 2009 three-day event. The 2010 E3 Expo is scheduled for June 15–17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. GAME CONVENTION http://www.gamesconvention.com/en One of Europe’s major video game trade shows, the Game Convention is held

Earning a paycheck at E3 2009.

each summer in Leipzig, Germany. Open to the public, the convention gives exhibitors an opportunity to connect with their audience on a vast show floor. Game creators can also participate in the GC Developers Conference that features lectures on all aspects of game development. The 2009 GCDC takes place from July 31–August 2. PENNY ARCADE www.pennyarcadeexpo.com The Penny Arcade Expo is a three-day, end-of-summer weekend filled with a deep and abiding love for video games. Thousands of attendees meet at the expo to play new and upcoming games, spend time with old favorites, and compete in the epic Omegathon elimination tournament. There is also an exhibition hall for game companies to show off their latest wares, and a roster of speakers to take in as well. The expo also features the PAX 10, a showcase for outstanding independent games. Penny Arcade Expo will take place this year in Seattle, September 4–6. D.I.C.E. SUMMIT www.dicesummit.org Since 2002, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has been holding the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit each year in Las Vegas. The summit brings together big money people from publishing and development to discuss game industry trends and opportunities. While much of the summit is given over to high-level business talks, the AIAS also takes the occasion to present its annual Interactive Achievement Awards. TOKYO GAME SHOW http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/english The largest annual video game trade-show in Japan, TGS fires the starting guns of the Christmas buying season with four days of new game previews and announcements. While the first two days of the show are restricted to industry people only, the last two days are open to the public. In addition to its enormous exhibition floor, TGS hosts workshops and conferences, as well as the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association’s (CESA) annual Japan Game Awards. The show also hosts the Sense of Wonder Night in which game creators are invited to submit in-progress or completed works that demonstrate new and unusual game ideas. Co-organized between the CESA and Nikkei Business Publications, Inc., TGS will be held in 2009 on September 24–27 at the Makuhari-Messe in Chiba City.

WWW.GDMAG.COM

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GAME DEV 101 · WHO TO KNOW & WHAT TO DO

ORGANIZATIONS These organizations support and regulate the game industry, and a number of them are open to students or consumers. ESA www.theesa.com The Entertainment Software Association represents the interests of U.S. video game publishers. The ESA supports the industry with anti-piracy programs, government outreach, market research, and intellectual property protection initiatives. The ESA runs the E3 Expo and supports a number of charities through its ESA Foundation. VIDEO GAMES VOTER NETWORK www.videogamevoters.org Created by the ESA, the Video Games Voter Network is focused on opposing government regulation of video games. It encourages video game consumers to involve themselves in the democratic process by organizing petitions against legislative efforts to restrict game sales.

industry. The IGDA has local chapters across the North America, Asia, and Europe where members can meet with their peers, and the organization sponsors events and parties at the many developer conferences that take place each year. The IGDA is also a rich online information source for developers. The IGDA web site is home to specialized Wikis, special interest groups, white papers, articles, and columns that address a wide variety of game development issues. Access to the web site is free and annual memberships are $30 for students and $48 for professionals.

ESRB www.esrb.org The Entertainment Software Rating Board was created by the ESA to rate the content of video games released in North America and to ensure that the industry follows a common set of advertising guidelines. The ESRB enjoys broad support from publishers and retailers.

AIAS www.interactive.org The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences is a non-profit organization open to industry professionals that promotes and recognizes developer excellence. Each year the AIAS presents its Interactive Achievement Awards that honor the best of the game industry’s work. The Academy also organizes the annual D.I.C.E. Summit that brings together industry leaders for high-level seminars and discussions. Dues–paying membership with full voting rights is open to individuals from the creative and technical fields that have been active in the game industry for at least two years while membership with limited voting rights is open to those in the business sector and to students who plan on joining the industry.

GAME AUDIO NETWORK GUILD www.audiogang.org The Game Audio Network Guild was formed to help give game audio creators a unifying banner under which to meet with their peers, share ideas, and advance the audio agenda within the game industry. Members of G.A.N.G. have access to a range of benefits including professional events, mentoring opportunities, access to its social network, and a large shared knowledge base. G.A.N.G. offers a variety of membership levels including a low-cost Student membership.

CESA www.cesa.or.jp/index.php/en The Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA) is a Japanese trade group that promotes the video game industry through events like the Tokyo Game Show and the CESA Developers Conference. It also oversees the Computer Entertainment Rating Organization, which is roughly equivalent to the American ESRB. CESA organizes several committees that address a variety of industry concerns, from technology and intellectual property to market research, distribution, and human resources.

IGDA www.igda.org The International Game Developers Association is volunteer organization that works to connect and educate game developers at all levels in the

—Jeffrey Fleming

additional resources There are several other events, organizations, and web sites that game industry professionals should be familiar with, including: Events • MI6 • Casual Connect Seattle • Microsoft Gamefest • Montreal International Game Summit • Siggraph • Taipei Games Show • London Games Festival • GameON: Finance 2.0 • SXSW • Artificial Intelligence for Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference

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GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

Organizations • Computer Game Artists Association • Game Developers Association of Australia • IGDA Student Action SIG • NPD • The Entertainment Consumers Association

Web Resources • GameCareerGuide.com • Gamasutra.com • GamesIndustry.biz • Gamedev.net • GameSpot.com • GameJobs.com • Gamedevmap.com • Gamepolitics.com • Gamestudies.org • GameAudioForum.com • Tigsource.com

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J I L L

D U F F Y

THE CATCH-22 MOST YOUNG PEOPLE FEAR IS: YOU NEED EXPERIENCE TO get a job, and you need a job to get experience. It’s a hard-hitting reality that affects most professions, but it’s even more crushing when the career you’re aspiring toward is highly competitive and attracts some of the brightest and most creative people on the planet, as game development does. On the other hand, the game industry does employ tens of thousands of people in North America alone, not to mention the thousands of others in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Clearly, someone has to work these jobs, and no one is born with experience. Every single game developer was at one time in his or her life inexperienced at making games. The catch-22 is a surmountable problem, with several roadmaps to getting around it. THE TRAINING ROA DMA P Directions: Enroll in school. Learn skills. Apply skills to make a game. Graduate with three things: experience, degree, proof of “experience” (game demo). For many people, the clearest roadmap for getting around the job experience catch-22 is to get formal training. Usually, this means they

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WWW.GDMAG.COM

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enroll in a university that offers a matriculated degree program in their field of interest, and use the time while they’re there to make a game. Many people view going to school as a clear path into their careers because, by their very nature, degree programs give students several months, or as much as four years, of structure and direction. Someone else (in this case, whoever designs the curriculum) is in charge of telling you which steps to take and in what order. The implicit promise is that if you follow the program’s outline, you will succeed in attaining the goal: acquiring the skills that are needed to become an employed game developer—or better, building an entire video game (or at least a few completed levels of a game), thereby having a piece of evidence that demonstrates you possess the necessary abilities to be an on-staff game developer. Also implicit is the promise that these skills will make you a viable candidate in the job marketplace. Unfortunately, these implicit promises aren’t always fulfilled, and their chances of being fulfilled actually change depending on which specific job in the game industry you want. Holding a degree almost universally says something positive about you as a job candidate, but how strongly it correlates to proving you can do a certain job differs by discipline. Programming. The payoff for aspiring game developers who study programming formally at a university is high. The game industry needs good programmers. That statement is repeated day in and day out at game studios all across the world. That statement has been true as long as games

wrong, but compared to the other jobs in game development, it’s relatively easy to measure the aptitude of a programmer. Between the game industry’s need for programmers and the analytics used to gauge a programmer’s abilities, earning a degree in computer science or game programming is often a very good investment toward getting a job in the game industry. (Of course, there are also the ever-vague personal compatibility factors as well.) Art and Animation. Many people think of artists in terms of their “talent,” a totally subjective word that makes it difficult to judge whether an artist is qualified to be a video game artist. However, game artists and animators are commercial artists, so while talent and personal style do come into play, there are many other factors that add legitimacy to their credentials, and going to a good art school can help. Which artists are making the most of their time in school in terms of beating the catch-22 of the game industry? The ones who collaborate on a team with non-artists, like programmers and producers, and the ones whose works go into a pipeline. Most schools that offer art and animation programs specific to video games don’t limit the training to that one industry alone. It’s more common (and in my mind, good practice) for those schools to prepare artists to be flexible in the job market, considering not only games, but film, television, advertising, and other commercial ventures, too. What that means for an artist or animator who has graduated from art school and really wants to work in games is that if her game-specific job search is taking too long or not panning out well, she can expand her search, increase her chances, and take related work for the time being. Related work in film and television sometimes also counts for experience, too, meaning the artist is, in effect, beating the catch-22 and getting the experience she needs to eventually break into the game industry. (I’ll talk more about working in related fields in the next section.) Design. In the game industry, jobs in the design discipline tend to be the most competitive. Experienced game developers from other departments, such as production, QA, and art, will likely toss their hats into the ring when a game design job requisition is approved, so now inexperienced graduates are competing against experienced game developers. Jez Harris, a lead designer and producer at Relentless Software in the U.K., sees this kind of thing happen all the time. “Hiring designers does often come down to already being aware of a candidate’s design sensibilities by virtue of them being a colleague, or having to rely on a gut feeling about a seemingly appropriate external applicant,” Harris says. While it’s true that designers do get hired straight out of college—see Kim Swift, designer on PORTAL for an example—it’s still extremely difficult and pretty rare. This is not to say that game designers shouldn’t pursue an education! However, having a degree isn’t likely to contribute much to whether a company thinks you are capable of doing the job of a game designer. According to Harris and other game developers I’ve spoken to over the years, design candidates are judged firstly on their portfolio —Scott Steinberg or sample work (which can be created in an academic setting or entirely independent of it), and secondarily on personality. “[P]ersonality will always be a factor,” Harris says. “Regardless of your demonstrated skills, if those interviewing you don’t think you’re right for the company, that’s the end of it. In a design sense, personality is perhaps even more important than it would be for other disciplines, as a designer’s working life is largely about communication, both with the team and wider company, and with their players through the work they produce.” Production (sometimes thought of as project management). Similar to aspiring game designers, aspiring game producers will find that the connection between the degree they hold and their ability to prove they can do the job will be tenuous. Finishing a university program and earning a degree shows a lot of positive things about a job candidate, but it won’t deliver on the promise of “earn this degree, get a job.”

You don’t need to hit a home run on your first effort. I think a lot of people balk on that first effort. ... Go for a first-base hit. have existed, and it’s not going to change in the next few years either. When it comes time to fish around the job market, computer science graduates and game programming students have clear ways of showing whether they meet the required skills in a job ad. You either know a programming language and can list it on your resume, or you don’t. You either took a class in systems design, or you didn’t. You either have made a game application using Flash, or you haven’t. What’s more, once you are being vetted by a company for a job, you will be required to take exams to show exactly how much you know about different areas of programming and what thought processes you use to solve problems. Not everything is perfectly black or white, right or 10

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

THE D O - I T-Y O U R SE LF R O A DM A P Directions: Formulate a plan for creating and shipping a game project independently. If the project requires more than one person, pool together friends and associates. Learn the necessary skills for building the project. Make something. Make it publicly available. Use this finished product as an example of your experience when eventually applying to full-time game

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is it a game? Do you consider these things to be games? Check yes or no next to each item.

development jobs; or call yourself an independent game developer and learn to make money from future independent projects.* As noted in my DIY Roadmap summary, there are two ways of going it alone. First, you could make a game on your own and claim it as your “experience” when applying to fulltime game development jobs at established studios. The alternative is you can opt out of the corporate world entirely and just become your own game studio, which puts you in the position of having to juggle your own finances, but to many people, it’s a preferable way to go. One of the tricks to going it alone is being clear about your goal. Scott Steinberg, a huge advocate of the DIY route, has this advice: Remind yourself, “I don’t need to convince everyone. All I need to do is convince the one who is going to open the door for me.” Steinberg, known best for his books Get Rich Playing Games and Videogame Marketing and PR, and for hosting the video web series Players Only with Scott Steinberg, says he used to be a shy, overweight wallflower. He overcame his social fears the same way he learned to succeed in his career: by trying and often failing or humiliating himself, and then trying again anyway. It takes building up a tough skin and a good amount of courage. “Don’t worry about perfection. Don’t worry about if people are going to laugh at you. People will laugh at your failures, but you shouldn’t be afraid to try. You shouldn’t be afraid to lose,” Steinberg told me when I spoke to him on the phone. According to Steinberg, the first and most important rule is to just get out there and try—but publicly. “Start circulating content in the channel,” he says. “People are so afraid of a negative response or afraid that what they make is not going to live up to their own standards. ... Start trying! You don’t need to hit a home run on your first effort. I think a lot of people balk on that first effort. ... Go for a first-base hit.” Whether the goal is to become a writer, journalist, or game designer, the method is the same even though the product is different. I asked Jez Harris for his advice for game designers: “With or without firsthand industry experience, a designer should be creating. Whether it’s a clutch of LITTLEBIGPLANET levels, or a fully fleshed out design document, it’s perfectly possible to demonstrate your skills to a potential employer. That does not equate to a handful of game ideas scribbled on a napkin. What we’re interested in is seeing evidence of design-savvy thought processes in context.” Luckily, it’s easier than it ever has been to “circulate content in the channel,” as Steinberg put it. The barrier to entry is extremely low, and the lines between player-created content and professionally distributed content are blurred. Once you have an idea, whether it’s for a game, a character, a puzzle, or an article, Steinberg recommends putting the idea down on paper. Writing down an idea, from start to finish, is a huge first step that many people never do. It’s a lot more difficult to articulate an idea through words than it is to think them. In the metaphor that every marathon begins with a single step, writing down an idea is equivalent to signing up for the race. The next step, according to Steinberg, is to take a look at using free game toolkits, such as Adventure Game Studio and the Torque engine. (See our article on game creation software on page 15.) Most importantly, “You have to be your biggest champion,” Steinberg says, meaning once you write down the idea, learn the tools needed to implement the idea, and circulate it in the channel, you also need to promote yourself and convince other people that what you have to offer is of value to them. “Offer something of compelling value that’s going to do right by players, but you’re only going to learn through experience.” RE L ATE D E X PE R IE NC E R O A DM A P

Now, look over the list and ask yourself, “Would working on (i.e., helping to make, remake, test, or market) this product or application count as relevant experience to becoming a game developer?” Would you change your answers, and if so, which ones? Why? What element of that product or play experience seems most valuable in terms of applicable experience: interactive nature, art, coding, rules systems, multi-player aspect?

» Directions: Get a job in a related field that isn’t as competitive. Learn skills that are applicable

to the game industry. Demonstrate the flexibility of those skills by working on game-like projects. Apply for game development jobs on the basis that your previous experiences are relevant. When it comes to beating the catch-22, you don’t have to seek out the exact experience that the job or industry seems to be demanding of you. Rather, you can look at your existing experiences and figure out how to make them count. Or, you can aim for jobs in less competitive industries where the skills you’ll develop will be seen as relevant and related in game development industry—which likely means you have to put off your dream of working in a video game studio for at least a year. Having related experience means you have worked (or will work) in an industry or on a project where the skills you used are of value to the game industry. If the project or industry is close to the game industry or shares some overlap, such as designing interfaces for other * The DIY Roadmap may be trickiest for producers, for whom corporate or office experience may be more valuable, unless the person takes on more than one role on the indie project, for example, designer and producer.

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GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

interactive experiences or animating for the film industry, the relevance is pretty clear. Typically, taking a related-experience route to getting into the game industry is most applicable to two groups: 1) professionals of other industries, meaning people who already have a career elsewhere, and 2) students who have a goal of working in the game industry but either can’t afford to hold out for that dream job or are trying to break into a role where they will have a better chance if they have some work experience rather than only academic experiences. “When I was in college I did a lot of technical writing. My dad was a technical writer for about 30 years. ... He would source some of it out to me. It allowed me to be a professional while I was still in school,” says Coray Seifert, a game designer at THQ’s Kaos Studios and member of the IGDA’s board of directors. “What was nice was it gave me a certain amount of credibility when I went to apply for game-related jobs.” His experience as a technical writer gave Seifert something to lean back on when he got his first job with the U.S. Department of Defense, which was the first step in his move toward working in the game industry. Another helpful thing you can do if your midterm goal (three to five years) is to become a game developer is embrace games of all kinds.

For game producers, Seifert says holding a managerial title in any kind of corporate structure makes a candidate much more desirable than someone who lacks it. Lead game designer Jez Harris explains that another crucial factor in terms of showing how and why one’s experience is relevant is content. Even experienced game developers with shipped titles on their resumes, or “gameography,” can run into the problem of not knowing how to show those experiences are relevant to new potential employers. “We all know that the quality of games upon which one has worked isn’t necessarily indicative of any one individual’s abilities,” Harris says. “You might see an absolute stinker on someone’s resume, and an absolutely natural reaction is to question that person’s credentials. It would be wrong to dismiss the applicant at this point, as what’s more interesting is their understanding of what went wrong with the title, information not commonly included with a resume. [That’s] what I’d advise anyone, experienced or otherwise, to think about.” Harris adds, “It’s also imperative that at least some of the work shown is relevant to your desired employer. Here at Relentless, known for its social, inclusive games, we wouldn’t perhaps learn a great deal about someone’s suitability were they to turn up with a disc full of CRYSIS levels—however good they were. Not only would it fail to demonstrate an aptitude for the kind of work the candidate would be employed to do, it would also point toward that person’s interests being out of touch with our own. Turn up at Valve with the same portfolio however, and you may well be onto a winner.” STA MIN A FOR S U C C E S S

» “Unless we’re talking about dating,” do-it-himselfer Scott Steinberg says, “no never means no.

Despite whether an aspiring game developer has university experience, related experience, or independent projects to show (and says Seifert: “I would say that you should do all of them at the same time”), it’s important to have a reasonable idea of how long it can take to find a job. I once corresponded with a tenacious go-getter in the U.K. who was feeling down on his luck because in one month, he had “only” had two interviews. I was astounded. I told him that two interviews in one month was extremely successful. Coming straight out of college, it’s not unusual for a candidate to fish around for three, four, or five months before even getting a nibble of interest. Having stamina and being persistent isn’t just about pushing—it’s also about waiting. Steinberg estimates that, among the do-it—Jez Harris yourself crowd, the success ratio in the game industry is one time out of ten. “Ten percent is pretty good,” he says, “but most people are going to quit before they even run the race.” What he means is that out of every ten things that are seen through to completion, one will be successful. Half-finished projects don’t count. “You need the hook,” Coray Seifert told me, “and then you need the line and sinker. For the hook, you need one piece of visual awesomeness—something that makes me go to my boss and say, ‘Dude, we have to talk to this person!’” The “hook” can be something as simple as one or two images of the absolutely highest quality, but “highest quality” is not a status to be taken lightly. “Go out and find a professional’s work, and then do better than that.” Seifert stresses that the hook really should be visual, even if the aspiring game developer is not an artist. “If you’re a programmer, code a mutator or a cool scenario, and do a FAPS capture of it, and send the link around. [Give us] something to see and process.” He adds, “The line and sinker, of course, is you have to have a solid educational background or a solid professional background.” Consistency in your own history, here, is key. “If you’ve done five mods really well, you’re in. We want to see a history of high-quality work. Most mods don’t see the light of day. ... If the mod is playable, it’s in. It’s game-over and you win.” “You have to try,” Steinberg adds. “Do not assume that you will be turned down for anything. ... The experts only have two things over the amateurs: knowledge and experience. But the amateur has time.”

We all know that the quality of games upon which one has worked isn’t necessarily indicative of any one individual’s abilities. The more “things” you identify as games, the more chances you have of working on projects that will count as “related experience,” and the more you can tweak your current skills and abilities into those of a game developer. In Seifert’s example, the Department of Defense for years has funded or has been working on game-related projects, though not exactly in the entertainment sector. However, the experience one earns while working on these types of projects is directly relevant in the interactive entertainment industry. (Also see the sidebar “Is It a Game?”) The real trick to making your related experiences count is focusing more on skills than products, projects, or job titles. In that other job, did you “develop,” “design,” “produce,” “code,” or “work on a team?” What did you “optimize,” “integrate,” “document,” “write?” With whom did you “communicate” and how? From that angle, many more professional experiences become relevant and relatable.

J I L L D U F F Y is senior editor at the Association for Computing Machinery, where she helps guide the student magazine Crossroads, as well as several other publications. Previously, she was editor-in-chief of GameCareerGuide.com, as well as managing editor of Game Developer magazine. Email her at [email protected].

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J E F F R E Y

F L E M I N G

ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THE GAME INDUSTRY’S BIG-BUDGET OUTPUT COMES FROM large team efforts, toiling on the production line is not the only model for game development. The lovingly-crafted efforts arising from indie game culture have shown that creativity flourishes when the process is put back into the hands of a solo developer. Working alone to build a game with art, music, and compelling play might seem daunting to the novice, but it’s never been easier for designers to create polished titles without committing themselves to large cost outlays and the intricacies of lowlevel programming. That being said, to create games that are nuanced, designers need to be comfortable getting under the hood and learning the various scripting languages used by these tools. There is an entire industry devoted to career training for people who want to become game developers (witness the magazine you hold in your hands). As the market for games continues to grow there will be many opportunities to join big studios once that training is completed. However, there’s no reason to wait for permission to work on a game. Why not start now and do it yourself? To get a sense of where to begin, we spoke with a number of independent developers to find out what tools they were using to help them realize their highly personal works.

TORQUE GAME B U ILDER ( W W W. GAR AGE GAME S . COM/PR ODU CT S/TOR Q U E-2D)

»

Torque Game Builder from GarageGames is a 2D game engine that aims to be easy to use for the beginner while offering a deep feature set that professional developers can utilize to produce games for the web, Windows, Mac, Xbox 360, Wii, and iPhone. The engine relies on TorqueScript, an object-oriented language similar to C++ for game logic. It features integrated physics that allows in-game objects to respond to force, friction, and inertia as they would in the real world. A key component of Torque Game Builder is its integrated level editor that allows designers to visually WWW.GDMAG.COM

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place objects on the screen as Miguel Sternberg's NIGHT well as edit their behaviors. Conor OF THE CEPHALOPODS. O’Kane, who used Torque Game Builder to create his protest game HARPOONED, told us, “In effect, this tool is writing a lot of the basic set-up code for you so you can get straight into the interesting stuff, which is the actual gameplay. You can also do a lot of technical stuff in the editor, such as creating particle effects, setting up scrolling backgrounds, defining collision for your objects and creating animated sprites. The main difficulty is that you are restricted to 2D games. TGB can display 3D objects, but the camera and all motion is restricted to the 2D plane so you can’t have true 3D gameplay.” (It should also be noted that the other game builders mentioned here are 2Doriented as well.) Ante Bralic, who is currently at work on a Flash-based MMO called THE EMPIRE GAME also noted the advantages of using Torque Game Builder’s level editor. “For the non-programmers, it offers plenty of drag and drop functionality to build a game scene, including small but useful things like having a pre-defined level background with parallax scrolling, or extremely simple importing of an image grid to form an animating sprite,” he said. With its focus on ease of use, working with Torque Game Builder can sometimes present unexpected roadblocks for experienced programmers. “It took us a while to figure out how to move the player’s character, because every object displayed on the screen was running under the umbrella of TGB’s 2D physics engine,” Bralic told us. “Our initial inclination was to move an object some number of pixels in some direction for every frame, however TGB did not provide an apparent way to access its render loop’s callback functions. Instead, TGB gave us text boxes in which to input Conor O'Kane's HARPOONED. amounts of force applied, which was also modifiable through TorqueScript. So it was a simple solution: apply force in a given direction and the object moves. The solution worked in our case, but for games that are not making use of those physics, this can be a bit of an overhead to chew through.” An independent development license for Torque Game Builder can be had for $100.00.

Language (GML) script for more complex creations. Miguel Sternberg was introduced to Game Maker while creating NIGHT OF THE CEPHALOPODS. He chose the tool for its robust support for sprite-based graphics as well as its easy learning curve. “Having both a drag-and-drop system and a proper programming language made learning Game Maker easier,” Sternberg told us. “I started out dragging and dropping, then using some GML expressions and variables inside my drag and drop elements, and after a week graduated to full GML. The drag and drop coding feature was nice, but wasn’t robust enough for making a game that felt solid. I ended up having to learn GML early on to get rid of a lot of minor glitches. Even though I switched pretty quickly, knowing that there was a drag and drop system made it less intimidating to pick up and start working with.” Benjamin Rivers, who used Game Maker to create his latest game THE

GAM E MAK ER ( W W W. YOYO GAME S . COM)

»

Game Maker is another game-making tool that offers nonprogrammers the ability to create polished 2D works. Using a drag-anddrop interface, Game Maker allows game logic to be built up visually through the use of command icons. Once a user is familiar with the tool’s drag-and-drop functions he or she can delve deeper into its Game Maker Benjamin River's SNOW. 16

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ASCENT, also felt that learning GML was key to creating a successful game. “To get something really cohesive and professional, you have to dive into GML. It’s an excellent tool because, for the visually-minded, it teaches you how games work pretty quickly, and thus teaches you how to think before you sit down to build a game—handy for making production easier.” NIGHT OF THE CEPHALOPODS features an adaptive soundtrack as an integral part of the game experience and it was in coding the audio that Sternberg ran up against some of the limitations of Game Maker. “Native sound support in Game Maker is not great. There’s no support for OGG and the engine is unable to reliably report when a sound has stopped. I had to use an external library called supersound dll by a user named tsg1zzn on the YoYo games forum to get the sound support I needed,” he said. Game Maker is currently a Windows-only tool although a Macintosh version is in the works. A Lite Edition is available for free and a Pro Edition with extended features is available for $25.

ADVENT UR E G AME STUDIO ( W W W. AD VEN TU R EG AME S T U DIO.CO.U K )

» Point-and-click adventure games may have lost some of their appeal to mainstream audiences

but indie developers continue to keep the torch burning for the genre. Designers who want to create games in the classic style of LucasArts or Sierra may want to look into Adventure Game Studio for its ease of use and genre specific functionality. Benjamin Rivers used Adventure Game Studio in the creation of SNOW. “Rare amongst most game development tools, AGS is so specifically built to a genre that you can get so much done so quickly. Some folks have really pushed it to make some nontraditional and exciting games like Matt Hammill’s GESHUNDHEIT! (see the Postmortem in our Game Career Guide 2008). I think that’s its strength; it’s so focused, you either work the hell out of its toolset to make something amazing, or you push its tight boundaries and make something even neater,” Rivers told us. “I think you can mostly use AGS without any programming skills, but I found out quickly that sometimes you need to use its Matt Hammill's GESHUNDHEIT! scripting language—which is very human-readable—to make it do what you want. For example, I dove into the scripting so I could create dialogue trees. Still, AGS’ visual interface for scripting objects and characters is really robust, and I didn’t have to use its back end much for this.” Adventure Game Studio is currently a Windows-only authoring tool and is free for both noncommercial and commercial use. However, developers who want to release a commercial product should read its license agreement carefully, because the tool contains a number of external components that are covered under different agreement terms.

RECORDING NIGHT OF THE CEPHALOPODS I was lucky enough to know Scott Moyle, a professional voice actor from the radio drama podcast Decoder Ring Theater. That said, I do recommend looking at audio drama podcasts and local theater folks as a great way to find skilled voice actors. Much of the recording knowledge I have is thanks to my friend Micheal Klinowski from Shinnyo Interactive Audio, who gave me a bunch of great tips for recording on a budget. For recording I use a Samson C01U USB studio condenser microphone. It’s designed for podcasting and is reasonably cheap at roughly $100. While it’s not a high end microphone, it handles the conversion to a digital signal internally before it gets to the computer and sidesteps the soundboard entirely, which reduces a lot of potential interference. To avoid pops caused by the actors breath hitting the microphone I jury rigged a “pop guard” using a pair of pantyhose stretched over a wire coat hanger and fixed it so it came between the actors and the microphone. I also taped a pen vertically in front of the microphone to break up any remaining breath making it past the pop guard. To create a good environment for recording I found the room in my house with the most bookcases and other random stuff in it. These objects will break up the sound waves and avoid distortion caused by sound reflecting off walls. For a similar reason you don’t want to record in the center of the room, reflected noise will meet in the center causing louder distortion. So I chose a corner and lined the area with some random futons and blankets I had—sound foam would be even better. I taped the microphone to an Ikea lamp as a makeshift microphone stand and I was good to go. – Miguel Sternberg

The Behemoth's ALIEN HOMINID. 18

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

Ignite your passion at Chicago’s new digital media arts college.

®

FILM/BROADCAST MEDIA | RECORDING ARTS | VISUAL EFFECTS/ANIMATION | GAME DEVELOPMENT

www.fpainfo.com Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences | 28 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602 | 312-332-0707

Terry Cavanagh's DON'T LOOK BACK.

FLASH ( W W W. ADOBE . C OM/PR ODU CT S/FL A SH)

»

Adobe’s Flash is a well-known tool for enabling complex multimedia experiences in web browsers. While Flash has been a boon to internet marketers and the casual games industry, indie game creators are also making good use of the software. Adobe’s Flash has its origins as a vector animation tool and as such retains an artist-friendly approach despite the layers of interactivity that it now offers. Andrew Traviss, who worked on the console version of ALIEN HOMINID and is now a developer at Cryptologic, feels that this art-centered approach makes Flash a good choice for beginning developers. “Flash has an extremely low barrier to entry for anyone with even the barest of development skills; the entire rendering process and the content pipeline are taken care of for you. It’s very easy to get something on screen and moving around,” he told us. While assets can be placed with drag-and-drop simplicity, the key to unlocking Flash’s power as a game-making tool lies in learning to use its ActionScript language. Initially a simple script for controlling animation playback, ActionScript (now in version 3.0) has grown over the years into a more object-oriented language similar to JavaScript. Learning the tool’s scripting language can also pay long-term career dividends. “Because ActionScript is a full programming language that doesn’t really hold your hand, the skills you learn using it are transferable outside of game development. A lot of the other tools available to build games aim to simplify the task and by learning to use those tools, all you’ve really learned is how to use those particular tools. Even if your goal is to work in game development, it makes sense to do it in a way that 20

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

will be valuable to you regardless of whether the game itself succeeds,” Traviss said. Working effectively with Flash requires developers to keep in mind its boundaries. “Performance limitations can easily pigeonhole an otherwise great idea. That’s really the critical constraint with Flash. It makes it extremely challenging if you want to go down the 3D path, in particular. It also means that your game design should try to support the smallest screen size possible. You need to be conscious of how much animation you are using at any given time,” Traviss noted. Because ActionScript is still evolving as a language, its somewhat ad hoc nature can present difficulties. As Alex Bethke, also from Cryptologic, described, “Most of the problems I’ve encountered haven’t been with the tool itself but more with how Flash is used. This is partly due to the lack of structure in programming ActionScript, and earlier versions definitely allowed for much sloppier coders using mediocre practices,” he said. Bethke is enthusiastic about Flash’s long-term evolution, however. “With ActionScript 3.0 we have seen huge improvements to the programming language, making it a more effective tool for doing large scale projects. Add to this the early stages of 3D support, third party options like PaperVision3D and the actual market saturation of the Flash Player that now supports a number of handheld devices. This puts Flash developers in a situation where they can release their games to much larger audiences than ever before and allows them an easy access point to get in on things like Xbox Live Arcade.” The sheer ubiquity of Flash on the internet makes it a compelling platform for game creation. Although Terry Cavanagh frequently works in C++ he chose Flash to build his latest game DON’T LOOK BACK. “By far the biggest advantage of using Flash is that it opens your game out to a potentially huge audience—the number of people playing Flash games is just a whole category larger than the number of people playing downloadable freeware games. To put it into context, my last game, JUDITH, was downloaded around 10,000 times—but DON’T LOOK BACK has been played almost 2 million times so far,” he said. Adobe Flash CS4 Professional is available for PC and Mac and retails for $699.00. While that may a bit steep, those eligible for a student discount can acquire it for $249.00. Thanks to Jim McGinley and the TOJam developers. J E F F R E Y F L E M I N G is the production editor of Game Developer magazine. Email him at [email protected].

ASSET CREATION

TOOLS BLENDER

A free, cross-platform 3D graphics tool. www.blender.org

GIMP (GNU IMAGE MANIPULATION PROGRAM) A free, cross-platform alternative to Photoshop. www.gimp.org

PIXEN 3 A free, pixel art-focused graphics editor for the Macintosh from the Open Sword Group. http://opensword.org/pixen GRAPHICS GALE A low-cost, Windows-based sprite animation tool from Human Balance Co. www.humanbalance.net/ gale/us FREESOUND.ORG A repository of sound effects released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License. www.freesound.org AUDACITY A free, cross-platform audio editor. http://audacity. sourceforge.net SFXR An easy to use audio tool created by Tomas Pettersson for generating retro style video game sound effects that can be exported as .WAV files. www.cyd.liu.se/~tompe573/ hp/project_sfxr.html A Macintosh port is also available: http://thirdcog.eu/apps/cfxr

IT UNIVERSITY OF CPH

Much more than games

GET A MASTER IN GAMES IF YOU WANT TO CREATE, UNDERSTAND AND USE GAMES STRATEGICALLY – STUDY IN DENMARK itu.dk/internationalstudent

The IT University of Copenhagen · Denmark – Dedicated to the digital world

TEAM AHA! WAS ONE OF SEVEN TEAMS FORMED FOR THE 2008 SUMMER PROGRAM AT THE Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. The team, which was made up of students from various tertiary institutions in Singapore as well as MIT, was assembled to create a game based on an abstract concept without the use of cut scenes. The team consisted of: Doris C. Rusch, a researcher looking into the application of metaphors in games; our producer Paul Yang; artists Shawn Dominic Loh and Zou Xinru; programmers Stephie Wu and Law Kok Chung; our QA lead Alexander Luke Chong; audio engineers Pradashini Subramaniam and Guo Yuan; audio designer Erik Sahlström; and myself, Louis Teo, the game designer. Usually, when one talks about the "high concept" of a game, he or she refers to a simple premise as to what the production is about. However, throughout the development of the game, we used the term a little differently. For us, the high concept was a holistic abstract idea that was built upon a number of abstract ideas. For example, the high concept of inner demons could consist of a number of emotional states; each emotional state would then be an abstract idea of its own. When we were first presented with the task of making a game based on the abstract, we were stumped: How does one go about creating a game based on concepts such as "honor", "love" and "trust"? Do we have to break it down into components? What metaphors do we have for these concepts? Is it even possible to build such a thing? Eight weeks later, AKRASIA was born.

WHAT WENT R IGHT

1)

Extended Brainstorming and Prototyping Period. Of the eight weeks that it took to develop AKRASIA, we dedicated three of them to the brainstorming process. This was one week longer than the other teams, but it was necessary to better understand the research question at hand. How exactly does one even start on this task of giving metaphors tangibility 22

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

through game mechanics? Many contemporary games utilize cutscenes to tell their stories and help players understand the motives and motifs behind the game, but we had to avoid falling into that generalization. The team tossed around myriad ideas, from using two separate realms as a metaphor for the passage of time to using an art gallery as a metaphor for the human mind. Through rapid paper prototyping of the various ideas, as well as constant debates over what metaphors we wanted to employ, we finally settled on addiction. More precisely, we were going to create a game based on how we feel addiction can be translated into gameplay. During this paper prototyping stage, we discovered that AKRASIA was not a game that could be prototyped physically. This stage was immensely helpful, however, for we now had an idea what affected a player when he or she jumped into the game. We took into consideration what aspects of the game the players would focus on, and how they could derail the player from understanding the concept behind the game. Next, when we prototyped AKRASIA as a turn-based board game, we discovered that the players thought too much about their future actions and not about what message the game was trying to convey. We tried

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translating the game into a faster paced chaser which required the player to control the main character while we pretended to be the A.I. opponents attempting to chase the player down. However, there were too many hands on the board. It soon became too messy to play, and for the player, too much interaction was going on beyond the magic circle of the board, resulting in distractions, very few hits and tons of misses when we finally asked if they knew what the game was about. With all the knowledge gained from experimentation and brainstorming, it was time to move on to the technical prototype itself.

2)

Going 2D. Initially, there was a small debate over whether we should develop a 3D game or a 2D game. The additional dimension of interactivity in a 3D game seemed intriguing, so we came up with a few ideas set in 3D space, such as an exploratory kitchen that dealt with metaphors for memory. 3D appeared to be a very attractive platform which, just like the research question, had an immense amount of potential. What we needed, though, was not more room to explore but rather a concise map to help us navigate this terra incognita. Furthermore, we simply didn’t have the time to go 3D, nor did we want our chances of further exploration into the subject to be hampered by the technical obstacles that would come with 3D. When our team came to the consensus that AKRASIA should be in 2D, this gave us a clearer idea—and a slightly more well-defined scope—as to how the game should look and play. With this decision made, we could engage the research question on grounds we were more familiar with. This allowed us to use, modify, define, or break conventions commonly used in 2D games to develop metaphors and mechanics for AKRASIA.

3)

Gestalt and Purposeful Game Design. We soon discovered we couldn’t design AKRASIA using conventional methods. On the one hand, we were bound by the research question. On the other, we were keen on the challenge of trying to create a game based on a metaphor (or metaphors, depending on how much we could squeeze into it). Rather than starting with a mechanic we found interesting or basing it off of an existing game that we wanted to recreate, we started with an abstract concept—essentially an idea such as love or hate—and broke it down into the processes which contributed to that concept and could be turned into game mechanics. Cohesion was our top priority—the game’s concept and mechanics had to fit together perfectly.

24

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

This new design methodology was rather foreign to us, but our team took to it right away and started brainstorming about which metaphors and highconcepts we wished to pursue. The process of breaking down these concepts into elemental processes, attaching metaphors and game mechanics to these processes, and then finding associations between the metaphors and mechanics was constantly used throughout the development of the game. These steps allowed us to remain focused on the important aspects of the game as well as the direction of the game’s development. This really kept us going and ensured that our vision of AKRASIA would manifest, becoming what it is today.

4)

Between Games, Movies, and Addiction. When we chose to portray addiction, we quickly stumbled upon a roadblock. What exactly is addiction and how does one go about portraying it? Our team had varying ideas as to what addiction is, from simple ones—such as a basic craving for candy—to ones of the chronic variety. We looked at books, games (namely Jason Rohrer’s PASSAGE) and, of course, movies. Throughout the course of development, we watched movie after movie to help us gain insight into how addiction could work on an entertainment level, as well as how an audience would perceive or relate to a portrayed vision of being under the influence of substances. We took what we’d learned from designing the game and applied it to various movies such as eXistenZ, Strange

Days and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. By breaking these movies down into their core themes and examining how they could be applied to AKRASIA, we soon found relationships between the addiction and the addict and used those insights to help us in strengthening the game.

5)

From Flex to Game Maker. The first technical prototype for AKRASIA was done on Game Maker. This prototype was whipped up over the course of five hours. The programmers then went on to spend a few days trying to get used to Flex. Game Maker allows the user to easily develop games without having to master or even learn complex programming languages such as C++ or Java. The primary development interface uses a drag-and-drop system with no coding involved. It has a built-in scripting language known as Game Maker Language, or GML, which allows users to further customize their game. Flex is a software development kit released by Adobe Systems for development and deployment of cross-platform, rich Internet applications, utilizing ActionScript, the core language used in Adobe Flash. We wanted to work on Flex mainly because of its versatility in game creation. Furthermore, the artists wanted their work to be as expressive as possible in the game. However, time was not on our side. The programmers were trying as hard as possible to get used to the platform while dependencies were piling up. So we switched back to our alternative, Game Maker. With a Game Maker prototype already on hand, we dived right into development and never looked back. We could not be more satisfied with the results. The new platform allowed us to make changes on the fly as well as incorporate features that we were almost certain that we would have to scrap. This sped up workflow immensely and allowed the rest of the team to tweak the design and guide its evolution through rapid testing and feeding the findings back to the programmers.

WHAT WENT WR ONG

1)

One at a Time. When we switched from Flex to Game Maker for AKRASIA, we encountered an interesting issue: we could only have one programmer working on the code at any given time. Because Game Maker project files consist of a single binary file, these files, once saved, will overwrite everything that was saved into it before, including the library which contains our sprites, sounds, scripts and most importantly, the ending images of the game. In order to not expose parts of the project to potential testers, we had to import most of the images into the Game Maker library. Furthermore, to prevent any accidental overwriting of code or the game library, we had to restrict the number of coders working on the game itself to one. That also meant that one programmer was left with nothing to do half the time. The team quickly realized that there had to be some way to even out the workload between the two programmers. Unfortunately the solution, albeit a messy one, came rather late, when features and bugs started to pile up and we had various issues to solve. The solution was that one programmer, Kok Chung (KC), would stick to writing the Game Maker Extension library while the other, Stephie, focused on implementing gameplay elements.

The library would then be imported into the main build after Stephie was done. Next, KC would export the script files that he had written and would pass them over to Stephie who imported the script files into the main build. Furthermore, when it came to balancing AKRASIA, four people were working on Game Maker for different reasons, each getting results at different times. This interrupted everyone’s workflow. As the designer, I had to look at balancing the game’s speed, score, health, etc. The QA lead had to test these aspects and manage the external testers that were coming in. Finally, the two programmers were either working on different features, or one could be working on a mechanic while the other created scripts to facilitate the various mechanics in the game. Even by the end of the project, we had yet to come up with a foolproof working pipeline for multiple programmers or users on Game Maker.

2)

Too Much Talk, Not Enough Testing. We had a wide design scope. Essentially, the research question gave us no direction in particular, just a design methodology to follow. This caused the first few brainstorming sessions to digress into generating a whole lot of ideas but nothing really concrete. We kept jumping back and forth, from trying to build the game around a metaphor to trying to build a game based on broken-down elements of a concept. Ideas were flying everywhere but we didn’t really progress, and as everyone was trying their best to come up with a suitable metaphor or high concept to explore, it quickly became rather overwhelming. Notes were stuck onto walls and votes were cast in order to decide what direction we would be looking into. Next, we spent the majority of our brainstorming period talking about the game without actual testing

26

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

of the proposed mechanics, which led us to discard and/or dismiss many ideas before we gave them enough of an opportunity to germinate. I do feel that this was quite a loss, because there were a few gems in there, no matter how unpolished they were. Concepts based on the mind, on relationships that sounded very feasible, were unfortunately shot down before we could even sit down and think them through.

3)

Misunderstandings. Throughout development of the game, we faced some negativity from the staff as well as within the team due to a number of misunderstandings and disagreements of what the game was supposed to be about. The disagreements stemmed from a number of issues. First, the initial prototype of the game utilized sprites similar to that from the 16-bit era. It was cute and upbeat, and the common belief was that the game was supposed to be that way. A strong aesthetic shift was made between the initial prototype and the current game to make the game feel more serious. A number of testers felt that the new art style was great, except that the game did not feel

as upbeat or as cheery as before. We had to make it clear to testers who tested both prototypes that the game was not meant to have a feel-good aesthetic. Next, more disagreements surrounded the game mechanics. We were told that the mechanic of collection was too commonly used in other games and it did not make the game unique. However, what we were actually doing was using an established mechanic as a metaphor for an aspect of addiction. It was difficult to explain how and why the mechanic would work at that period of time because we had to test to see if anyone would pick up on the metaphors. Unfortunately, not many did until the final few test sessions.

4)

Tiered Experience. Three levels were originally planned for the game. We wanted to include an introductory level for the players to get used to the game mechanic, an exploratory level for the players to utilize knowledge gained from the first level, and a third level which had players experience a different metaphor for the same concept. Due to the time we spent on the introductory level, all three levels were broken down and reassembled into a single level. The loss of the last WWW.GDMAG.COM

27

that this would intrigue the player and would instigate the player to explore the game with a piqued curiosity. This was removed about halfway into production, for we did not have time to create the assets necessary to pull this off. Another feature that we scrapped was the pulsating vignette and an actual swirling background in the psychedelic state. We wanted to capture the surreal state of being “high.” The idea itself was intriguing and would’ve allowed us to further enhance the aesthetic of the game. However, both the vignette and the background were eventually scrapped due to technical limitations on our end and a heavy emphasis on ensuring that the core mechanic was exactly what we wanted.

CONCLUSION

»

exploratory level was quite a blow to the game, because it would have allowed a stronger association between the mechanics and the concept, would have allowed players to venture deeper into “addiction,” and would have allowed us to play around with additional mechanics for the game. Segments reminiscent of the various levels that we had planned can be seen in the game now. The first level, the tutorial, was a prelude to the game that introduced the concept of addiction. The second and third levels were respectively modified into the dark and moody “real’” state and the bright and fast “psychedelic” state.

5)

On the Cutting Room Floor. Quite a few features were cut from the final version of AKRASIA that we felt would have added much more value in terms of gameplay. As previously mentioned, we intended for AKRASIA to be a tiered experience, and we had also wanted to add another layer of interactivity or a touch of storytelling that would bolster the concept of the game. We were also caught in a dilemma over whether we should make the game fun or serious. One of the aspects we had planned early on, and were rather keen on including, was a small swing in the level. When the player’s avatar approaches the swing, the volume of children playing at the swing would grow in magnitude and draw the player in to interact with the swing. We felt

game data NUMBER OF DEVELOPERS 10 LENGTH OF DEVELOPMENT Two Months RELEASE DATES September 3, 2008 HARDWARE Apple MacBook Pro 2007 Edition (Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 17-Inch Screen) SOFTWARE Game Maker 7, Photoshop CS3, Flash CS3, Ableton and Reason PROJECT SIZE 2100 lines of script, 104 sprites, 11 background images, 3 pieces of background music and 9 sound effects. Final file size 30.6mb PLATFORM Windows XP/Vista

28

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

Developing AKRASIA was one of the most interesting experiences that the team and I had ever had. Trying to create a game from scratch and using a specific methodology for it was not an easy task, and we’re extremely proud of AKRASIA. We may have hit a number of bumps over the course of development but I believe personally it was all worth it in the end. Everyone has an idea of what a game is supposed to look like, how it should play and, most importantly, everyone has their own definition of what is fun. The problem is that we can’t look into the minds of our fellow developers. Only through prototyping could everyone come to agree on how the game looks and plays, and, of course, make sure everything works. L O U I S T E O is a final year student in Republic Polytechnic, currently finishing up on his diploma in New Media. He is also an avid reader and gamer, more often than not, indulging in a little AKRASIA every now and then. Email him at [email protected].

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J I L L

D U F F Y

HOW MUCH WILL YO U BE WOR TH?

» Making video games is often its own reward, but if you’re going to do it for

a living, you need to know how much money you can expect to make. Every year for the last eight years, Game Developer magazine has conducted a salary survey of video game creators to find out who earns what (see the Methodology section on page 38 for more information). After all the data is collected, the editors and survey author (that’s me) analyze it and lay it out in a way that we believe is the most useful to the readers. Here, the data is reanalyzed with a new audience in mind: aspiring game developers. This article seeks to deliver the information from the survey that would be of the greatest benefit to people who are looking to get into the game development industry. There are many reasons, both personal and practical, why you need to have clear salary expectations if you want to become a video game developer. For starters, you need to be prepared to tell employers your salary range, and you need to hit the mark within $5,000 or so of what they intend to pay the person they hire. Before you start eyeing jobs in the game industry, you should define where you plan to live and what job title you intend to hold. Using those parameters and the data from this survey, you should arrive at a ballpark figure. Second, it’s a good idea to have realistic expectations about what kind of lifestyle you will be able to afford as you move into your new career. This is particularly important for converts of other industries, people who spent a few years working in software development, project management, film and television, and so on. Will you be able to own a home, buy a new car, pay your phone bill, upgrade your computer every two years, put a child through college, or travel and enjoy other luxuries? Maybe you’ll have to live with roommates for the next 10 years. Related to lifestyle is another personal financial management topic: student loans. How much do you owe—or will you owe—in student loans? Can you reasonably pay them off if your take-home pay is $38,000 a year, but your job is in San Francisco, where one-bedroom apartments go for $1,200 a month?

AVERAGE E NT R Y-LE VEL S AL ARY

» I punched some numbers and came up with an overall average entry-level salary for game developers across all disciplines, excluding business and

legal people: $53,354. That sounds pretty good, but it is elevated slightly by the high number of programmers who responded to our survey, who generally earned more. So for kicks, I punched some more numbers to come up with an unweighted average and got $47,433.

THE YE AR IN NUMBE R S

» The findings in this article are based on the calendar year 2008 (and

we all know what happened at the end of 2008). Because the economic dive didn’t occur until mid September of that year, the figures in the salary survey are buoyed by the preceding eight months. Reports (or rather speculation) that the game industry is recessionproof have yet to convince me that they hold any water. I don’t doubt that consumers will continue to play video games, but I do doubt that their spending on those games will hold steady, and more importantly I do doubt that game companies will weather the storm without cutting costs somewhere. The entire business chain is affected, and there are dozens of parties standing between the consumer’s pockets and the companies’ coffers—and it’s not just retailers and third parties, but also banks, insurance companies, and utility suppliers. My bottom line: Games may still sell, but the job of the average game developer making them is not “recession-proof.” Technology, luckily, will be a strong player in pulling the economy out of its collapse. That leaves the game sector and its employees well ahead of many other failing industries in at least one respect. As ever, programmers and engineers walk away with the most highlights on their resumes. Demand is strong, and for those who can adapt what they know of video games into other game-like applications, opportunity will in time be even stronger. My biggest piece of advice to the incoming generation of game developers is to stay flexible, and not just in terms of salary expectations. If you think about “games” in the broadest possible sense, you will greatly increase your chances of landing that first crucial job, the one that gets your foot in the door. J I L L D U F F Y is senior editor at the Association for Computing Machinery, where she helps guide the student magazine Crossroads, as well as several other publications. Previously, she was editor-in-chief of GameCareerGuide.com, as well as managing editor of Game Developer magazine. Email her at [email protected]. WWW.GDMAG.COM

31

S A aL uA Rt hY oS Ur RnVaEm Ye >> A V E R A G E S A L A R Y, 3 YEARS OR LESS

Programmers

$64,500

A V E R A G E S A L A R Y, 3 YEARS OR LESS

Artists and Animators

$47,692

Technology know-how is a valuable commodity, especially in the game industry. Programmers and engineers walk away with some of the highest pay in the business, even at the entry level. Demand remains strong for numerous types of engineers and coders, chiefly those specializing in AI and tools programming. And you don’t need to be employed at a game company in order to gain experience; you just need to make a playable game. Looking further in a career as a video game programmer, that salary range of $75,000–$125,000 might seem rather cushy, but remember that game programmers work hard and long hours. They are expected to stay current with tools, tricks, and programming languages, which means hitting the books on their off hours. Overall, 74% of programmers reported that their salaries increased since 2007. However, compared to our previous survey, the average salary rose by only $1,641. The entry-level average rose about $4,000 since last year, though.

Salaries for entry-level artists are up by about $4,000 from last year. How many entry-level artists and animators are there, though? The breakdown by years of experience tells us that the least experienced artists make up 25% of the workforce. This indicates that the middle group (with 3 to 6 years’ experience) and most experienced artists are hanging around and trickling out at the same pace that new ones are trickling in, which is good not only for bringing in new blood, but getting them up to speed and trained in the ways of the pipeline. This year’s survey saw a slight uptick in the number of women in the field, 10% compared to 8% in 2007. Fears that art jobs are being outsourced are valid to some extent, but there are many roles that simply can’t be done from the outside. Animation and concept art tends to stay in-house. Technical artists (those with programming knowledge, scripting abilities, and a knack for programmer-speak) are still in demand, too.

Programmer salaries per years experience and position

Artist and animator salaries per years experience and position

Programmer/Engineer

Lead Programmer

Technical Director

Artist and Animator

20K

10K

10K

>>

0K

0K <3 years

3–6 years

>6 years

ALL PROGRAMMERS AND ENGINEERS YEARS EXPERIENCE IN THE INDUSTRY

HED

<3 years

38% >6 yrs

28% <3 yrs $64,500

Dek

$107,309

34% 3–6 yrs $77,267

GENDER STATS FOR PROGRAMMERS

32

Percent Represented 97% 3%

Average Salary $85,368 $75,119

3–6 years

>6 years

ALL ARTISTS AND ANIMATORS Percent receiving additional income:

YEARS EXPERIENCE IN THE INDUSTRY 79%

Average additional income: $18,765

Gender Male Female

$105,536

30K

$88,929

$108,725

$127,083

$98,571

$75,526

20K

$79,858

40K

$90,000

40K $99,881

60K 50K $59,375

60K 50K

$79,221

70K

$59,017

70K

$70,333

90K 80K

$56,290

90K 80K

30K

Art Director

100K

$45,985

100K

Lead Artist/Tech Artist

Type of additional compensation received Annual bonus .................................... 45% Pension/Employer contribution to Retirement plan ............................... 52% Profit sharing .....................................18% Project/title bonus ........................... 29% Royalties ............................................19% Stock options/equity ........................37% Percent receiving benefits:

94%

Type of benefits received Medical .............................................. 98% Dental ................................................ 93% 401K/Retirement ............................. 82%

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

40% >6 yrs $88,052

25% <3 yrs $47,692

35% 3–6 yrs $61,613

GENDER STATS FOR ARTISTS Gender Male Female

Percent Represented 90% 10%

Average Salary $70,385 $61,929

Percent receiving additional income:

75%

Average additional income: $16,130 Type of additional compensation received Annual bonus .................................... 45% Pension/Employer contribution to Retirement plan ................................41% Profit sharing .....................................21% Project/title bonus ........................... 35% Royalties ............................................19% Stock options/equity ....................... 34% Percent receiving benefits:

91%

Type of benefits received Medical .............................................. 99% Dental ................................................ 93% 401K/Retirement ............................. 80%

SRAULN A RNYISNUGR VHE EY D A V E R A G E S A L A R Y, 3 YEARS OR LESS

Game Designers

$45,896

A V E R A G E S A L A R Y, 3 YEARS OR LESS

Producers

$45,259

An ongoing debate about whether anyone hires game designers at the entry-level has been batted back and forth for as long as I’ve followed the game industry. The argument is mostly semantics. When some people say “game designer,” they mean the creative visionary of the project, while others say it meaning everything from “level designer” to “dialogue writer.” And yes, if we’re talking about level designers, writers, and whatnot, they are sometimes hired in with little to no prior professional game experience. In 2008, entry-level game designers made roughly what they did in 2007. But across all levels of experience, they $3,730 more. Game writers, counting all levels of experience, earned on average $72,188, whereas game designers made $56,461, and creative leads earned significantly more than that. The true outliers are the West Coast designers, who reported earning $75,662 on average across all levels of experience.

$45,259 might not be the most reliable figure for lesser-experienced game producers. Many assistant and associate producers are technically experienced (because they have worked in the game industry in another role, such as quality assurance) but are at the same time entry-level for their field. So, when we looked across all levels of experience but only at the titles associate and assistant producers, the average annual salary is $54,087. The bulk of producers, nearly half, are highly experienced, having worked in the game industry for six years or more. That’s a good sign, not only for producers who want to stick around and have a long career in games, but also for teams who are shepherded through their projects by these seasoned veterans. If you’re interested in pursuing a career as a game producer, organization and communication skills are your greatest assets—and a love of games, of course.

Game designer salaries per years experience and position

Producer salaries per years experience and position

Game Designer

Creative Director/Lead Designer

Associate Producer

20K

10K

$99,269

30K

$136,900

$56,618

20K

$69,817

40K

$99,198

40K

$66,711

60K 50K $44,056

60K 50K

$65,500

70K

$80,539

70K

$54,214

90K 80K

$40,577

90K 80K

30K

10K

0K

0K <3 years

3–6 years

>6 years

<3 years

ALL GAME DESIGNERS

40% >6 yrs $86,460

23% <3 yrs $45,896

37% 3–6 yrs $58,898

GENDER STATS FOR DESIGNERS Gender Male Female

Percent Represented 94% 6%

3–6 years

>6 years

ALL PRODUCERS

YEARS EXPERIENCE IN THE INDUSTRY

34

Executive Producer

100K

$49,063

100K

Producer/Project Lead

Average Salary $68,491 $50,167

Percent receiving additional income:

Years experience in the industry 76%

13%

Average additional income: $15,002 Type of additional compensation received Annual bonus .................................... 43% Pension/Employer contribution to Retirement plan ................................51% Profit sharing .....................................17% Project/title bonus ............................32% Royalties ............................................18% Stock options/equity ....................... 38% Percent receiving benefits:

90%

Type of benefits received Medical .............................................. 99% Dental ................................................ 96% 401K/Retirement ............................. 84%

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GAME CAREER GUIDE GUIDE 2009 2009

Average additional income:

<3 yrs $45,259

48% >6 yrs $103,405

39% 3–6 yrs $70,852

Gender stats for Producers Gender Male Female

Percent Represented 79% 21%

Percent receiving additional income:

Average Salary $85,130 $75,051

78% $18,174

Type of additional compensation received Annual bonus .................................... 65% Pension/Employer contribution to Retirement plan ............................... 48% Profit sharing .....................................12% Project/title bonus ........................... 20% Royalties ............................................12% Stock options/equity ........................41% Percent receiving benefits:

95%

Type of benefits received Medical .............................................. 98% Dental ................................................ 94% 401K/Retirement ..............................87%

>> a u t h o r n a m e A V E R A G E S A L A R Y, 3 YEARS OR LESS

Audio Developers

$53,269

A V E R A G E S A L A R Y, 3 YEARS OR LESS

QA Testers

$27,894

The people who make sounds for games rarely work only on games. They typically do other audio work, too, and more often than not, they are on contract. Only a handful of people do this job in house. Between 2007 and 2008, the audio developers who would consider themselves entry-level made about the same amount of money, on average. Still, audio is the last extreme niche of the game industry. There’s an aura of expertise surrounding this discipline, and there’s a sense that you’re either in the club or you’re not. You either make sounds for games, or you know next to nothing about it. (A common complaint I’ve heard from audio creators is that often, game designers and business managers will confess that they “have a thing” for audio and want to be highly involved in a game’s audio development, but in reality are complete dilettantes. On the other hand, audio people sometimes have a reputation for being elitists.)

For truly entry-level people (meaning those with no prior professional work experience in any field) aspiring to work in video game development, quality assurance may be the most important discipline to consider. If you can manage to work full-time as a tester, you can accomplish four important things in your career path: 1) get work experience on a game project, 2) cultivate strong contacts in the game industry, 3) develop a reputation as an employee, and 4) earn a living wage. Surviving on less than $30,000 a year while living in Seattle or Los Angeles may sound pinching and painful, but it can be done. It’s true that testers are paid less than any other game developer by discipline, and they are more likely to be hourly rather than salaried employees. But a QA tester who works hard, communicates clearly, takes on difficult tasks and sees them through to completion, and expresses an interest in learning and growing on a team is a valuable asset to a gamemaking team and will be rewarded for his or her efforts eventually.

Audio developer salaries per years experience and position

QA tester salaries per years experience and position

Sound/Audio Designer/Engineer

Sound/Audio Director

Composer/Musician

70K

70K

30K 20K

10K

$23,587

20K

$66,250

30K

$79,500

40K $93,971

40K

$85,000

60K 50K $49,000

60K 50K

10K

0K

>>

0K <3 years

3–6 years

>6 years

ALL AUDIO DEVELOPERS

HED $53,269

31% 3–6 yrs

Dek

$72,500

GENDER STATS FOR AUDIO DEVELOPERS Percent Represented 98.5% 1.5%

Percent receiving additional income:

YEARS EXPERIENCE IN THE INDUSTRY 81%

14%

Average additional income: $16,216

21% <3 yrs $92,167

3–6 years

>6 years

ALL QA TESTERS

YEARS EXPERIENCE IN THE INDUSTRY

48% > 6 yrs

<3 years

$80,278

90K 80K

$32,095

90K

$41,944

100K

80K

Gender Male Female

QA Lead

$40,625

100K

Tester

Average Salary $78,602 *

Type of additional compensation received Annual bonus .................................... 45% Pension/Employer contribution to Retirement plan ............................... 53% Profit sharing .................................... 28% Project/title bonus ........................... 36% Royalties ........................................... 43% Stock options/equity ........................17% Percent receiving benefits:

78%

Type of benefits received Medical ............................................ 100% Dental ................................................ 93% 401K/Retirement ............................. 89%

Average additional income:

>6 yrs 79,500

40% 3–6 yrs

46% <3 yrs $27,984

$38,190

GENDER STATS FOR QA TESTERS Gender Male Female

Percent receiving additional income:

Percent Represented 86% 14%

Average Salary $38,500 $46,000

56% $5,567

Type of additional compensation Received Annual bonus .................................... 63% Pension/Employer contribution to Retirement plan ............................... 55% Profit sharing .....................................16% Project/title bonus ............................18% Royalties ..............................................0% Stock options/equity ....................... 26% Percent receiving benefits:

70%

Type of benefits received Medical .............................................. 94% Dental ................................................ 94% 401K/Retirement ..............................77% * too few respondents to report WWW.GDMAG.COM

35

S A aL uA Rt hY oS Ur RnVaEm Ye >> PEER-TO-PEER

AVERAGE SALARY BY U.S. REGION (across all levels of experience and disciplines)

IT'S IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THESE NUMBERS DON'T NECESSARILY represent what you can expect when you enter a studio for the first time. A lot can happen in the first three years of your career, and it's likely that some of the folks responding to our survey did indeed receive some sort of raise or bonus during their tenure. Here, you can see the percentage of survey respondents who had 3 or fewer years of experience in order to gauge how many people there might be in a similar position. Likewise, we've put all the under-three years' salaries together in a list for comparison.

Midwest $69,873

West $85,484

South $68,369

PERCENT OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS WITH 3 OR FEWER YEARS’ EXPERIENCE BY DISCIPLINE

1 2 3 4 5 6

Programming Art Design Production Audio Quality Assurance

29% 25% 23% 13% 21% 47%

AVERAGE SALARIES BY DISCIPLINE FOR DEVELOPERS WITH 3 OR FEWER YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

1 2 3 4 5 6

Programming Art Design Production Audio Quality Assurance

$64,500 $47,692 $45,896 $45,259 $53,269 $27,984

East $75,432

TOP 10 STATES WITH HIGHEST AVERAGE SALARIES (across all levels of experience)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

California Washington New Jersey Virginia Oregon Maryland Florida Massachusetts Illinois Wisconsin

AVERAGE SALARY

PERCENT WHO OWN HOMES

AVG. SALARY OF HOMEOWNERS

$88,281 $85,523 $83,125 $80,781 $79,932 $77,689 $76,635 $73,611 $73,233 $73,167

38% 59% 44% 42% 58% 52% 52% 37% 53% 63%

$106,500 $100,126 $94,375 $96,731 $97,262 $94,286 $88,542 $103,864 $85,000 $76,500

AVERAGE SALARY BY U.S. REGION BY DISCIPLINE Programmer Art and Animation Game Design Production Audio QA Business

PHOTO BY VINCENT DIAMANTE

>>

HED Dek

EAST

MIDWEST

SOUTH

WEST

$79,222 $64,519 $56,563 $92,727 — $43,333 $98,269

$73,873 $59,500 $62,778 $70,833 $68,214 — $101,071

$78,714 $59,250 $55,943 $66,419 $56,875 $25,278 $83,526

$91,126 $76,115 $75,662 $86,359 $85,174 $41,304 $111,508

AVERAGE SALARY FOR HOMEOWNERS VS. NON-HOMEOWNERS BY U.S. REGION Homeowners Non-Homeowners

EAST

MIDWEST

SOUTH

WEST

$96,237 $61,601

$80,833 $56,739

$81,308 $52,688

$101,438 $72,729

LAYOFFS THIS YEAR, WE DECIDED TO ASK ABOUT LAYOFFS, AS THE ECONOMY TOOK a dive and many companies slimmed down. It turns out that in 2008, 12% of developers surveyed lost their jobs. We don’t have a figure to compare with last year, so measure that fact against the following info. Of those who lost their jobs, 38% got a job at a different studio, 24% began contracting or started an independent project, and only 14% have yet to find new work.

36

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

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S A aL uA Rt hY oS Ur RnVaEm Ye >> AVERAGE SALARY BY EDUCATION LEVEL AND DISCIPLINE

METHODOLOGY

(across all levels of experience)

High school/GED Some College Associates Degree Bachelors Degree Some Graduate Masters Degree Some Doctoral Doctoral Degree

PROGRAMMING

ART

DESIGN

PRODUCTION

AUDIO

QA

— $94,265 $76,196 $82,867 $73,333 $89,663 $110,833 $91,591

$67,500 $75,473 $74,521 $66,516 $71,324 $76,019 — —

$52,045 $72,045 $55,500 $67,387 $61,833 $73,152 — —

— $84,500 $59,643 $83,598 $72,857 $81,563 $109,643 $111,250

— $94,000 — $73,214 — $71,071 — —

— $38,333 — $34,737 — — — —

Average Canadian Salaries

AVERAGE SALARIES IN THE U.S., CANADA, AND EUROPE (across all levels of experience, by discipline, given in USD)

Programmer Art and Animation Game Design Production Audio QA

U.S.

CANADA*

EUROPE**

$85,024 $69,532 $67,379 $82,905 $78,167 $39,571

$65,500 $57,417 $47,760 $67,368 $58,929 $35,147

$49,620

by Top 5 Earning Provinces

$43,286

$40,489 $60,500 $42,855

Alberta $61,944

$29,375

*Most Canadian respondents were from British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario. **Most European respondents were from the United Kingdom (34%), Germany (12%), France (8%), Sweden (7%), Spain (5%), and Poland (4%). Together, the Nordic countries accounted for nearly 18%.

Ontario $54,643

British Columbia $66,349

Quebec $57,224

Nova Scotia $43,654

THE GENDER REPORT IT WAS 1920 WHEN THE NINETEENTH Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women the right to vote. It’s now 2009, and with Congress only just passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, we women are still fighting for true equal protection. It seems questionable that an industry that acknowledges a need for a more diverse workforce continues to have a disparaging pay gap for women. Overall this year, male game developers earned on average $11,800 more than women, with female game developers across all disciplines and all levels of experience averaging $68,574.

HED

Dek

38

These numbers do tell a story, but there are also fewer women in the game industry to begin with, so comparing across all levels of experience may not give the full picture. It's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario—do more women in higher positions mean a higher average, or does the average need to be higher in order to attract more women to the field? Our statistics for this year show that women comprised a little more than 9% of the total workforce, which is about what it has been for the last four or five years. In a different survey, the IGDA reported closer to 12%, but the ballpark onein-ten figure has been dogged for at

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

least the last five years. The only bright spot on this bleak card is that in 2008 women in QA earned more than men: $46,000 compared to $38,500. In the previous year, the tables were turned, with male QA testers, who made up 94% of respondents, earning $5,000 more than women. The two biggest fields for women in the game industry are production (21%) and business and legal (16%), with QA being the surprising third (14%). As women continue to break into the game industry, it's our hope that the numbers will even out across all disciplines and all levels of experience.

>>

NOW IN ITS EIGHTH YEAR, the Game Developer Salary Survey was conducted in February 2009 for the fiscal year January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008, with the assistance of Audience Insights. Email invitations were sent to Game Developer subscribers, Game Developers Conference attendees, and Gamasutra.com members asking them to participate in the annual survey. 3,880 responses were gathered from developers worldwide but not all who participated in the survey provided enough compensation information to be included in the final report. We excluded salaries lower than $10,000 and the salaries of students and educators. A small number of reported salaries greater than $202,500 were excluded to prevent their high numbers from unnaturally skewing the averages. We also excluded records that were missing key demographic and classification numbers. The survey primarily includes U.S. compensation but consolidated figures from Canada and Europe were included. The total sample reflected in the data presented for the U.S. is 1,879, for Canada 372, and for Europe 473. The sample represented in our salary survey can be projected to the overall game developer community with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.24% at a 95% confidence level. The margin of error for Canada and Europe is plus or minus 5.2% and 4.8%, respectively.

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GEARBOX SOFTWARE’S BORDERLANDS IS MORE AWESOME THAN EVER WITH UNREAL ENGINE 3 Gearbox Software has reinvented its sci-fi shooter, Borderlands, with a new distinctive look and gameplay experience. The game, which has always been powered by Unreal Engine 3, got an extended development timeline last year when the decision was made to launch in holiday 2009. The larger window proved to be a crucial opportunity for the team’s art department. “From a small group of artists came an initiative to render the concept art style in the game,” said Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software. “Have you ever seen a really cool looking concept car? Concept cars are always amazing. But we never get to drive them. Something always happens between the concept car and when it’s finally manufactured and all the coolness is stripped away. I think our artists asked themselves why we couldn’t just make the game look like the concept art. So they did it.”

story. The gameplay is amazing, too, and the results we’re seeing are only possible with strong talent using great tools.” The Borderlands team also used UE3 to develop a datadriven system to support the creation of an artificial intelligence that procedurally generates each of the millions of different weapons in the game. This Gear Builder system and AI is new technology that Gearbox was able to seamlessly layer on top of UE3 without compromising systems or complicating the team’s ability to take other software or engine updates from Epic Games.

The prototype blew away management at Gearbox and publisher 2K Games. Pitchford said when people see screenshots, they want to know what the game looks like when it’s moving in real-time 3D. And when they see it moving, they want to pick up the controller and walk through the world themselves. “Unreal Engine 3 is a great platform for the art direction because it supports so many great features for the kinds of materials we want to render,” said Pitchford. “It’s also extensible; our engineers have added to and extended the engine’s rendering features to make lighting and shading changes necessary for this distinctive look. We’ve been able to do this and remain compatible with the Unreal Engine 3 code base and accept new upgrades as they come from within Gearbox and from Epic Games, who are constantly improving the technology.” Gearbox’s programmers have worked with its artists to add new rendering techniques that work with the content to create the astonishing look of Borderlands that is unlike anything seen before. Pitchford said it’s an amazing testimony not only to the technical flexibility of UE3, but of the possibilities that can be unleashed when talented artists, designers and engineers are empowered to be creatively flexible. Pitchford said his Borderlands team has also capitalized on the advancements from Epic’s own Gears of War 2. “With the success and quality of Gears of War 2, we leverage a huge amount of technology value,” said Pitchford. “We use this to ensure that Borderlands looks amazing and runs fast on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. But the look of the game is not even half of the

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The end result is a game that looks and plays like no other experience out there. Pitchford said that one look at Borderlands is all that’s needed for someone to see that Gearbox has used UE3 technology to create a look that is familiar yet unlike anything that’s ever been seen before. Pitchford concluded that Borderlands is a very robust, rare and valuable game experience that’s all been created from the imaginations of Gearbox Software’s talent using the tools of Unreal Engine 3. In essence, it’s the perfect marriage of creativity and technology. Thanks to Gearbox Software for speaking with freelance reporter John Gaudiosi for this story, which will be posted in full at www.unrealtechnology.com.

For UE3 licensing inquiries email: [email protected] For Epic job information visit: www.epicgames.com/epic_jobs.html

W W W . E P I C G A M E S . C O M

Epic, Epic Games, the Epic Games logo, Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Unreal, Unreal Engine, Unreal Technology, the Powered by Unreal Technology logo, and the Circle-U logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. Other brands or product names are the trademarks of their respective owners.

TIPS FROM THE PROS FOR A CAREER IN GAMES

40

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

TIPS FROM THE PROS

DESIGN

BY HAL BARWOOD

01

FORGET THE WHOLE THING. On my first day in film school, my first teacher issued a dire warning: Hollywood is a closed shop, you’ll never break in, so drop out and study something practical, like accounting—not what an aspiring moviemaker wants to hear when he’s just hitched his future to tinsel town. I repeat this warning to those students looking for a career in game design. It’s hopeless. Game design is a small province in a small world. And, as with all aspects of entertainment, there is no well-marked path to success. Get out while you still have a chance. Otherwise you’ll wind up as a producer, or a marketer, or a consultant, or (shudder) an executive. So that’s my first tip. However, if—like me—you just won’t listen to reason, read on ...

02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09

AVOID TRICKS. Still here? Okay, then, listen up! You’re going to read a lot about clever ways to make yourself look good on a résumé. Don’t bother; no one wants to hire an imposter. Forget tricks and stratagems. Instead of trying to look good, try to actually get good. Work hard to build up a set of real skills.

GO TO SCHOOL. In the same way that film schools revved up when movies got hot seventy years ago, now game development courses are mushrooming all across the globe. We’ve accumulated a lot of knowledge since PONG, and school isn’t a bad place to absorb it. But be wary—many colleges advertise a design program, but few actually teach it. Don’t slip-slide into 3D modeling, or god forbid, interactive storytelling. STUDY THEORY. Whether in school or not, you must study. Games have a rich history, and their place in human life has been the subject of much thought. A good designer should know some of the philosophy. Read Huizinga and Caillois, check out Donald Norman’s take on doorknobs, flow with Csikszentmihalyi, pick up some patterns from Christopher Alexander. Then shrug them off and ... PLAY GAMES. This is your medium, so get to know it. Schools may be on the cutting edge of science, but they are never on the cutting edge of art. The most important lessons you will learn are taught by real games. Games that got published. So play them—some for 15 minutes, some for 150 hours. Design concepts are difficult to articulate, and a good way to overcome this problem is by reference to shared knowledge of existing material. STUDY GAMES. Of course, you can play forever without learning anything. Remember Sherlock Holmes’ rebuke: “You see, Watson, but you do not observe.” Examine closely how the games you enjoy are constructed. Look for governing mechanics, powerup sequences, puzzle types, gates, pipelines, feedback systems, boss monsters, narrative form, and on and on. Try to discern what makes a good game good. MAKE YOUR OWN GAMES. This means you. Taking on total responsibility for an entire game may be daunting, but you should not flinch. If you want to design games professionally, you must not only understand the elements, you must deploy them. Pick a small project one person can handle, and put it together—mechanics, graphics, code, sound, start to finish. The trial by fire will serve you well. It’s the most important tip on this list. LEARN TO TEST. If your big break means becoming a tester, then become a good one. Finding righteous bugs will measure your ability to understand game details. It will also test your dedication to our craft. Just try not to annoy your team with unwanted design suggestions until you really know what you’re doing. And then be tactful.

EXTEND YOURSELF. Game design isn’t much like designing aircraft wings or bridge decks. I hope this doesn’t come as a shock—it’s an art, not a science. Fortify your mind in areas outside your field, and we’re not talking Lost, Facebook, and Dirty Pair mangas. Go to museums and go to the theater. Read up on social trends. All good designers I know are vastly overqualified. Not only can they tackle all aspects of a game from interface to final boss, but they also think clearly, they express their ideas in persuasive written form, and they maintain a healthy curiosity about the world. They have some knowledge of art, literature, psychology, politics, drama, and computer science.

10

DREAM ON. Much of design necessarily duplicates the prior work of others—look for the holes in past successes where you can squeeze in some originality. Get in the habit of inventing games every idle moment of your waking life. Few of your thoughts will see the light of a computer display. But entertain your fantastic ideas without shame. As with all exercise, practice produces results. After a while you will tire of the familiar, the safe, the banal. Your ideas will start to focus, and something new may emerge. H A L B A R W O O D has been designing and writing games for more than twenty years. Check him out at www.finitearts.com.

WWW.GDMAG.COM

41

TIPS FROM THE PROS

PRODUCTION BY STUART ROCH

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

TOP OF YOUR CLASS. Whether completing high school, an undergraduate degree, or a specialty degree in game development, it’s important to finish what you’ve started and get as much education as you possibly can before entering production. With heavy competition to land an entry-level job, a solid educational background will likely give you a competitive advantage over other applicants. Higher education also benefits producers later in their careers as they’re considered for promotions.

CHOOSE A SPECIALTY. As you consider a career in production it’s helpful to decide whether you’re more interested in a job in internal production (with a game developer) or external production (with a publisher). The internal production job provides the most opportunity to be hands on with the game and requires you to manage project schedules and teams of people. An external job leans more toward the business side of the industry where providing objective feedback to the developer and managing budgets are more the emphasis.

READ, WRITE, SPEAK. It’s been said that a producer’s primary role is not to make decisions, but to foster communication leading to consensus. While decision-making is of course part of the job, a good producer is also able to communicate effectively and persuasively. Work on your communication skills particularly in the area of written and verbal communication. A production role will require you to write professional e-mails and reports for a variety of audiences as well as to speak publicly in team meetings or when demonstrating a product at trade events. BE A COMPUTER WHIZ. As producers spend a lot of time developing schedules, reports, and communicating via e-mail, it’s important to know a variety of programs inside and out. Outlook will be necessary to manage your personal communication, calendar, and schedule. Excel is necessary for wrangling production schedules and budgets. While not used in all development houses, it pays to know Microsoft Project, as many studios use that program to manage their schedules. GET A LIBRARY CARD. Whether you’ve had formal project training or not, it’s helpful to read up on current production techniques. A wide variety of reading material is available to help prepare you for a job in production and hone your skills as your career flourishes. Consider reading up on software development methodology, team leadership, game design, and negotiation techniques.

GAMERS WANTED. The best producers are those who understand what makes games tick. Knowing what constitutes a good videogame and what makes a bad one is as important as understanding competitive standards of the title you’ll be working on. It’s amazing how few developers actually play videogames, and your understanding of the competition will become an advantage as you’re compared to other producers during your career. THE ART OF SELF-PROMOTION. Rather than waiting for your dream job to come to you, consider promoting yourself a bit. Join the local IGDA chapter to meet other game development professionals, network with industry personalities at shows and conferences like Game Developers Conference, and consider starting an industry blog or web site. The games business is still one built on personal relationships, and many of us landed our first job through someone we met casually at a party or industry event. POLISH YOUR RESUME. At least initially, you won’t have a lot of industry related experience, so your resume will need to focus on other things that matter. To stand out from the pile of resumes recruiters have on their desk, focus on other relevant experience such as educational background, game-related projects you developed while in school or at home, and your passion for gaming. Be sure to tailor your resume for the given opportunity. A developer making first-person shooters might be interested in your experience building levels with a level editor, while a publisher may be more interested in your business-related education. GET YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR. Once your resume is ready, it’s time to start sending it to companies you’re interested in working with. It’s tough to land your first job in the game industry so don’t limit yourself to only sending resumes for open production positions. Also consider applying for an entry-level job in quality assurance or even as an artist or designer. Getting your foot in the door should be the primary goal so you can begin building a network and working your way into the job of your dreams. NAIL THE INTERVIEW. Once you’ve landed an interview, the job is yours to lose. Chances are you’ll be interviewing against a number of other qualified candidates and that hiring mangers will be providing ample opportunity for you to talk yourself out of the job. Your resume has already piqued their interest, and now it’s up to you to nail the interview. Do your research. A prepared candidate will go into the interview dressed appropriately for the position, knowledgeable about the company's history and games, and with a background on the leadership of the given company. Speak their language, and the job is yours.

S T U A R T R O C H has worked in the interactive industry for the past 13 years in quality assurance, design, production, and strategic roles. He is currently senior director of franchise strategy at Activision.

42

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

TIPS FROM THE PROS

AUDIO

BY ROBI K AUKER

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

CREATE A FOCUSED DEMO REEL OF YOUR WORK. Make sure it is the best work you can do. Focus on a single discipline—music or sound design. As a beginner, no one expects you to have a big reel, and nobody wants to hear a bunch of cuts straight from a commercial sound or loop library. Show your skills and interest. Make sure it is presented in a concise and no-hassle form first, which usually means a common linear format. “Play me first” is a great title for this file. The goal is to catch some positive attention so valuable time is spent looking deeper. Be sure to include more for the later digging. Creativity catches the most attention. KNOW THE BASIC AUDIO TOOLS. Traditional audio tools like microphones, preamps, equalizers, compressors, reverbs and delays are mainstay audio tools. Digital audio workstations and plug-ins are the primary workspace in most cases. These are the fundamental tools of any audio professional. Know how they work so that you can work with any brand or flavor of them. Signal flow and basic editing concepts are important; the new brand X tool with super feature Y is less so. KNOW HOW TO COMMUNICATE IN DESCRIPTIVE AUDIO. Audio has few useful common language descriptors, other than “quiet” and “loud.” Very few outside of the audio profession speak decibels or frequencies and music theory is an equally distant jargon. As an audio person you must translate descriptions into useful information, both technical and laymen’s. “Down -3 db” is easy to translate into “it’s too loud,” but “I feel isolated” involves a contextual understanding based on the goals and perspective of the entire development team. FOCUS ON THE TYPE OF GAMES YOU WANT TO WORK ON. Shooter, casual, racing, music, horror, simulator, gambling, and other types of games all offer great audio experiences and challenges. What type of game do you want to spend your life on? What gets you excited about audio in games? It is very hard to maintain creative focus on something you are bored by.

LEARN TO PROGRAM A COMPUTER TO DO SOMETHING. Anything. JavaScript, Visual Basic and the like are great introductions. Max/ MSP, Pure Data, Reaktor and many other audio oriented programming environments are excellent ways to develop programming skills and interactive audio concepts and tools. The goal is dual purpose: to learn basic computer programming concepts so that communication with engineers and technical oriented types is more productive, and to learn basic concepts of implementation. AUDIO HAS NO DIRECT CAREER PATH. Your audio career will most likely lead you through many forms of entertainment—not just games—all of which require the development of essential skills with audio tools. Being a good team member is as important as your audio abilities. Your ears and the grey mass between them are only useful when your mouth is not in the way.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE EFFORT REQUIRED TO ENTER AND MAINTAIN A CAREER IN THE AUDIO DISCIPLINES. If you have the intelligence and personality to be a good audio person for games, you have many more lucrative options available to you. Lawyer and investment banker come to mind as equivalent career choices with much better potential for eating well. Audio and music are very attractive fields from an outside perspective, but it requires all the work and study that any highly skilled profession needs. If you doubt, go read up on Fast Fourier Transform, a fundamental principle in so many current audio tools. UNDERSTANDING THE AUDIENCE REALLY MATTERS. Making audio for a game that has a demographic of 14-year-old girls who like ponies is very different than making one for 25-year-old males who like guns. Music that is targeted at a specific demographic is highly effective at defining the game as relevant to the audience. Sound design has an equal impact. Understanding the difference between your personal taste and the audio needs for the targeted audience cannot be overstated. Your tastes don’t matter, the game does. VOICE IS THE KEY TO MANY DOORS. Many games now have large quantities of spoken dialog in them. One of the best ways to get a foot in the door is to become involved in the process for creating dialog. Editing or creating human speech is a great way to learn audio. Very few people have real experience with the sound of a gun, but pretty much everyone has heard someone talk. Because of that, pretty much everyone recognizes bad or artificial speech when they hear it. Being able to fool everyone is a good start toward being creative with audio. IDEAL IMPLEMENTATION AND AUDIO CONTENT DO NOT ALWAYS GO HAND IN HAND. Content is easy compared to implementation. It is much easier to create a particular sound with all the studio tools than through game technology. Given a choice, it is often much better to create large parts of the sound through real-time digital signal processing in game. Having a tunnel reverb baked into a sample is inferior to having it added in real-time through game spatial modeling—but that requires more resources. The development team's resources will vary greatly and resources for audio are often secondary in priority. Creative maximizing of what is available is the only option.

ROBI KAUKER is a senior audio director with EA, overseeing THE SIMS 3, MYSIMS and SIMANIMALS games. The author thanks the EA audio members who contributed to this article.

44

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

TIPS FROM THE PROS

ART

BY LEE PETTY

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

TALENT ISN’T ENOUGH. Talent can make great art, but talent isn’t enough by itself for you to stay in demand in the game industry. To become invaluable to the team and the studio you work for, you have to be both talented and know how to creatively collaborate with others, deliver clean, organized work, and have a consistent, solid work ethic. Great visuals in a game are a careful blend of technical wizardry, artistic persistence, and clever design. Artists who know how to work with everyone to help make that happen will never find themselves wanting for work. BE A CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVER. Making games means experiencing an endless parade of problems, all of which require creative solutions to keep the game moving forward. The best solutions consider the design of the game, the timeline of the production, and the limitations of the technology being used. Regardless of your position or discipline, the team will value someone who can come up with creative solutions to problems and keep the game moving forward in a productive, creative way. LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, ALL THE TIME. To stay at the top of your game in this ever-evolving industry, you need to push yourself. Staying abreast of the industry and digital art production through online forums is a great place to start. Sharing tips and tricks with your co-workers is another. Learning new things outside of the industry is also a great way to keep you inspired and fresh.

DEVELOP YOUR TRADITIONAL ART SKILLS. It’s easy to lose track of those techniques after you’ve spent 10 months modeling buildings for an open world game, but it’s important to come back to your traditional art skills and refresh yourself whenever possible. Simple lunchtime sketching, regular life drawing or an occasional traditional media project outside of work will do wonders to keep your skills fresh. Maintaining your traditional skills is the essence of being a great artist. BE TECHNICAL. A deep understanding of the hardware, tools, and engines that you are working with is a good thing. Being technical shouldn’t be seen as mutually exclusive to being artistic; it should be seen as simply understanding the media that you are making art for. Approaching your work with a technical mind will also help make you and your peers more efficient, and allow you to make better art in less time. PRE-PLAN YOUR WORK. When starting a new task, take some time to think about how you are going to approach the work before jumping in. Supplement any concept art you are given with your own doodles or additional visual research. If something seems risky or hard to understand, do a quick mockup and get approval or feedback from others before proceeding. Look for problems and think about those who need to work with the asset downstream from yourself and talk to them to make sure you are delivering the art as expected. Taking even half an hour to work through these issues will save you much more time later in the process. WORK FOR THE JOB YOU WANT, NOT THE JOB YOU HAVE. Do your current job to the best of your ability, but also push yourself to do the job that you want to eventually have. Put in the extra effort and thought to develop the skills and experience required for that job. Ask yourself what skills you are missing to be qualified for that job and find ways to incorporate learning those skills into your daily work. Don’t expect a great promotion to be handed to you just because you are good at your current job; instead make yourself the best and natural choice for that job should an opportunity arise. TAKE AND GIVE CRITICISM. Criticism is an important part of the process of making great art and great games. You need to not only take feedback well, but also give good constructive feedback. Analyzing the work of others and stepping back to try and evaluate how a piece of art fits into the “big picture” of the game helps develop your critical eye and problem solving abilities.

LOVE YOUR TOOLS, BUT DON’T MARRY THEM. It’s good to be an expert at a widely-used art tool, such as Autodesk’s Maya, but if you are married to only using one tool you will limit your job possibilities and may find yourself antiquated if that software falls out of wide-spread use in the industry. Be open to the possibility of using new tools, and remember that ultimately your value is in your core abilities as an artist.

MANAGE YOUR OWN CAREER. It’s up to you to manage your own career in this industry. Developers and publishers, even with the best of intentions, won’t necessarily put you in a place for your best long-term growth. The industry is constantly changing, and it’s up to you to keep an eye on how it’s changing and adapt your skills to stay competitive. People are usually hired for their strong aptitude in a specific area of art production; however, avoid becoming too much of a specialist, or you may find it hard staying in demand should the need for that specialty fall. L E E P E T T Y has been involved in video games since 1996 in a variety of art production and art leadership capacities. Lee is currently an art director at Double Fine Productions and is happily banging his head to the thunder of metal everyday while working on BRUTAL LEGEND.

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45

TIPS FROM THE PROS

PROGRAMMING BY BRAD BULKLEY

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LEARN TO BE AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATOR. Let’s face it: programmers aren’t exactly known for their sterling communication skills, but it’s the single most important thing I look for in any programming applicant. No one wants to work with the stereotypical condescending loner. Working on a team means communicating effectively and diplomatically. Listen to what your colleagues are saying, and try to see things from their point of view. Without good communication, your other skills are wasted. MASTER THE BASICS. Some of the best programmers I know didn’t write a single line of code until after college. Don’t underestimate the value of a solid foundation in mathematics and logic. You’ll use those skills every day. Of course you will need to study programming as well, and here again it’s important to learn the basics. If you don’t know which data structure is best for a given problem, you’re not going to write good code. Practice the art of debugging. Build up your bag of debugging tricks now and you’ll save yourself hours of frustration later.

CODE DEFENSIVELY. Do yourself a favor: make it a habit to code defensively. Everyone creates bugs, and experienced programmers never trust their assumptions. Sanitize inputs to your functions. Add assertions where appropriate. Don’t let a critical function fail silently; when something goes wrong, return a meaningful error. Your program should never simply crash—it should halt with an error so that anyone on the team can tell what went wrong. Comment your code liberally; it’s better to err on the side of too many comments than too few.

HAVE A PASSION FOR GAMES. Making games can be a rewarding, exciting career, but it’s also a demanding one. Burnout is high. There will be late nights, huge bug lists, and frustrating last minute changes. You might spend years of your life working on a game only to see it canceled, or it could release to scathing reviews and lackluster sales. If you don’t love games, you won’t love making them. Don’t let the stress of working on games ruin your passion for playing them. MAINTAIN A HEALTHY WORK/LIFE BALANCE. “Crunch” is now a four letter word, and studios are doing everything they can to minimize overtime. Does crunch still happen? Of course it does, and that’s not always a bad thing. This is a competitive industry, and there are times when overtime is appropriate. However that doesn’t mean that you should ever let work take over your life. Once you find a company that has an overtime policy you like, work those hours and leave on time. Maintain an outside life, and be healthy enough to enjoy it. ASK FOR HELP. A lot of programmers are used to having all the answers, and like most people they don’t want to look stupid. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. A typical game has thousands of source files and millions of lines of code, and no one knows them all. If you see a piece of code you don’t understand, ask someone to break it down for you. Know what you don’t know, and don’t be embarrassed about it. You’re not the world’s greatest programmer, and neither is anyone else in the room. If you regularly ask for help, you’ll do a better job and people will respect your work more, not less.

LEARN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES. C++ is still the de facto standard for game development, and you should be comfortable with it. But your programming knowledge shouldn’t stop there. Once you’re familiar with C++, learn something new. It forces you to think about problems in a new way and reinforces the basics. The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas recommends learning at least one language per year. Even if that language isn’t directly applicable to your job, it will make you a better programmer in your chosen language. DON’T LOSE SIGHT OF THE BIG PICTURE. Everyone wants to make the best game possible, and each department will bring its own wish list of features to the table. Compromise is inevitable and healthy. Programmers don’t work in a vacuum, and you need to tailor your approach to the given situation. Think about the people who will use your code once you hand it off. Does it satisfy their needs in a way that fits with their workflow? Does it have the flexibility they will require? Perhaps most importantly: will it be done on time?

LEARN THE CODE BASE. Most programmers work on a small portion of a game; e.g. UI, rendering, AI, physics, or tools. Good programmers know how their code will interact with the other systems. You should be able to describe, in general terms, how the game flows from the beginning of one frame to the end. When you’ve got a bit of spare time, try fixing a few bugs in someone else’s code. They will certainly appreciate it, and you’ll learn something new. Did you previously write an interface for someone? Follow up—see if they are happy with it. Are they using it to do things you didn’t anticipate? Offer to make some adjustments or add functionality.

STAY CURRENT. Your education doesn’t end when you land a job! Take the time to read regularly, and apply your new skills using sample exercises and/or personal projects. Find out how different studios tackle similar problems and compare their approaches. If you can, attend a developer conference like GDC, and fill your schedule with as many relevant sessions as possible. Subscribe to an industry magazine like Game Developer and scour the articles for new tricks. Don’t lose your drive to learn once you settle into a new career. B R A D B U L K L E Y is a lead programmer at Neversoft Entertainment.

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WORKING ALONE ON A GAME NOT ONLY GIVES YOU COMPLETE CONTROL, IT INFUSES YOUR WORK WITH a personality that the big team games rarely have. But making games is a daunting task, and can often be overwhelming for first-time creators. In that sense, it’s nice to have feedback from others, and people off whom you can bounce ideas. This guide is intended to both help beginning developers (artists especially) get started, and to help more established developers prototype ideas they might not otherwise get around to making. I started the Hoity Toity Writers’ Circle when I started writing books, Vid Critters when I started making movies, and so it only made sense for me to start the Artsy Games Incubator (AGI—see the AGI principles on page 53) when I started to make games. It’s easier to make stuff when you’re supported and inspired by people doing the same thing. The AGI is based on the solo model because it makes things simpler to coordinate and gives you fewer excuses why you haven’t made a game—because “your programmer is too busy” or “your artist isn’t answering your e-mails” don’t apply if you’re the one doing it all. And it gives you a much better idea of what goes into all the aspects of game making if you do end up working in a team environment. The how-to below is very specific to putting together groups with the artist-focus I was interested in encouraging, and came about originally because I had people in Texas, Tokyo, and Montreal interested in starting something like the AGI in their areas. But obviously it’s not “the” formula, just one strategy. If you start something, drop us a line at [email protected] and let us know! GE T YOUR P OOL OF PA R TICIPA NTS You’ll want no fewer than four people in addition to yourself, and no more than five. Three people feels a little sad, and seven is inclined to break up into multiple groups. Hopefully you know a couple people who are crazy about games already. Let them know you’re planning to start on a certain week that’s good for you (and a few months away), and ask them to spread the word. Be up front about the time investment—two to three hours a week for six weekly meetings, and then two to three hours of assignment work. The more diverse a group you get has a lot to do with how you spread the word: if you post notices only to places you’d go, you’re likely to end up with a group of people just like you. Online is a great place to start, but dropping flyers off at places interesting people congregate (bookstores, galleries, etc.), and even postering if you’re keen, will give you a big pool of people to choose from. Odds are you will end up getting one participant at a time, so don’t expect a “magic bullet” solution.

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THIN THE H E RD Next, you’ll want to get a sense of how enthusiastic and dependable your new group seems. With artists in particular, and people in general, the flakefactor has to be considered, so it helps to ask them to do something to see if they’ll follow through. I ask for them to tell me their favorite game and why they like it. Pretty simple, but it gives me a sense of where they’re coming from and their level of passion. If they don’t get around to doing this, they’ll never do the assignments and participate fully. I also ask them what their focus is and if they can send me a sample or web site with their work—most artists have something online that you can check out, and writers may have a blog. The completely subjective question you have to ask is: why will I be excited about helping this person make games? It could be that they have an aesthetic you’ve never seen in a game, or simply because you share a similar sensibility. Choosing the people you’re involving can make this far more satisfying than working with a group of random people—and probably the only way you’ll be paid is in satisfaction— so don’t rip yourself off. Choosing a vaguely interested art star over a less talented and super-enthusiastic artist is probably a mistake.

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» When putting together your group, consider the mix. A mix of gender,

race, art medium, and gaming taste isn’t just an equal opportunity thing; it’s just more interesting for the group—and ultimately gaming culture—to get a variety of perspectives and concerns. It’s harder to do the outreach, and different people are more likely to be awkward or even clash with each other, but everybody benefits in the end. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, and you end up with a bunch of white guys, but do your best! Some programmers have complained that they would benefit from the structure and regularity of the AGI, but my perspective is that there are other projects that give them that—around here, the Toronto Independent Game Development Jam is perfect for people who can program. (It’s kind of like people who grow up speaking French joining a beginner’s class because their French is “sooo rusty”—it can make real beginners self-conscious.) Still, if they’re artists as well, and won’t lord it over people with how l33t they are, then you might consider allowing a programmer in.

If you ask me: it’s not glamorous, but the best spot is one of the participants’ living rooms or dorms. Usually people have a TV there, which is good for plugging in the laptop. So ask around and see if someone has the space. A gallery can be good, as they sometimes even have a projector you can use. There are lots of places that can be had for free, just ask—and get your participants to ask—around. Obviously computer-savvy people will say: why not meet virtually, in a chat room somewhere? This does work, but it’s not as effective as an in-person deadline (and we have experimented with this). When you have to show up in person and hang your head and say you didn’t do the assignment, you’re more likely to get it done than if you can just type in an excuse. Plus, you’ll be spending so much time making your game on the computer, it’s nice to get into meatspace just for variety. SN A C K S A ND DR INK S A ND NOT E TA K ING For each session one of the participants should be in charge of bringing snacks and drinks, though if you’re in someone’s living room you might want to create a pool for shared purchasing of food. The note taking duty is for posting to the blog after the session, ideally with screenshots or some kind of images (pics of the group, maybe?). If you ask, someone will usually volunteer, especially at the first meeting, and if not, then just ask someone directly.

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Get into a rhythm with game making—making, revising, releasing, and moving on. Even when you don’t get a lot of useful feedback, putting your work out in public is a good habit to start. Sometimes I feel weird about assigning snack or note taking tasks, but what I find is that it makes people more involved and brings the group together in an interesting way. It also puts people on an equal footing, as everyone will get a chance to characterize the sessions and to choose what delicious treats (or brand of hummus) you eat. C R E AT ING T HE SE S SION V IBE

F IRM IT UP When you have decided on the people, issue a formal-sounding invitation and ask them what days of the week are not good for them for the six week period you’re considering. Once you know the blackout days, you can figure out the day that’s okay for everyone. Then follow up with the exact dates and times and ask if they feel 100 percent about it, mentioning how important it is that they are committed. I suggest emailing people directly rather than CC:ing everyone. Once everyone’s confirmed the dates in a non-flaky manner, you can let the other folks know that, sorry, this round’s filled up, and could you get in touch if a spot opens up or if you have another round later this year? I don’t have to say to do this in a non-dickish way, do I? People want to make games so badly that if they feel you’re the evil gatekeeper they will hate you. Don’t say their art wasn’t exciting enough or something similar, that’ll just drive them nuts. Like the old breakup maxim says: it’s you, not them.

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GE T YOUR PL A CE Bars or cafes are pretty good for writers’ circles, but when you have a laptop going around with people playing a game, it’s nicer to have your own space. Snacks and drinks are cheaper as well.

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» As mentioned before, we don’t want to have too big a group, since that

tends to break up into smaller groups: great for a party, not so great for a focused team. We want people to be able to feel like their work is getting the attention it deserves, and to provoke considered discussion and feedback— it’s a great motivator. Sliding into jokes is inevitable and a fun diversion, you’re making games after all, but it’s your job to bring it back to a serious focus and move things along once discussion’s dried up. I usually wrap it up by asking if there are any outstanding questions anyone wanted to ask the group about their work. The point to having a small group is that it’s intimate and not intimidating for people who don’t have any game making experience. Sometimes you’ll have someone in the group who’s either made a game or has a lot of knowledge about games—which can be useful so long as it doesn’t become a extended monologue about THE LEGEND OF ZELDA. Sometimes they’re filling up dead air because they’re nervous or talkative so you might just want to ask, say, the painter in the group what they thought about the colors in the game to highlight someone else’s expertise and conversational track. There’s no need to be heavy handed with it, but you’re the project facilitator, providing structure, and everyone will appreciate it. I suppose

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this is a duty you could rotate if you were horribly uncomfortable with it, but give it a session to see how it goes first. As you’ve brought people together you’re the natural coordinator. I’ve heard this model described as “peer mentorship.” S E S S ION NOT E S The AGI should run its course in six sessions, followed by an open house, where the final products are showcased. After each session description, I’ve added some notes based on my experiences running a few of these.

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Session 1 Everyone is to bring an idea for a game, realized to the best of his or her abilities, to share with the other members of the AGI. Use visuals if you like, but a verbal description is fine too. Essentially you want the other members to be able to “see” the game and what it would be like to play it. Give it a title. You will not be expected to make this game, unless you want to, so don’t feel constrained by what you think is possible—just imagine what you consider to be a cool and interesting game, and be able to discuss it.

NOTES: t This is a get-to-know-you exercise. Be light on criticism. t Go over some of the AGI principles and discuss them. So long as people have good reasons for it, all the rules are breakable. (See the sidebar: AGI Principles.) t It’s also a good idea to have a couple of achievable indie games that you really like to play after the discussion to inspire folks. Encourage people to bring in games they like to future sessions for after the feedback portion.

Session 2 Using the in-game editor, and following this tutorial (www. instructables.com/id/How-to-Create-a-Good-N-Level) create a level for the 2D physics platformer N. You will need to play this (very difficult) game a bit to get the sense of what it can do, and if it’s not to your taste to create an action level consider trying your hand at a puzzle or a “Don’t Do Anything” (a level that functions as a Rube Goldberg machine). Tip: it’s best to test a “sketch” version of it first and test it to see how it works, then fill in the details.

NOTES: t The N level editor is a bit finicky, so emphasize saving the level data often and testing it frequently as you go—good practice to get into anyway. Spending hours getting your level just right and then losing it in the level saving process is very frustrating. t You will need a keyboard with a numberpad—some Mac notebooks don’t have this.

Session 3 Revise and post your N level at NUMA (the N User Map Archive, www.nmaps.net) using the feedback you got at the last session. Choose one of the games that comes with a default installation of Scratch (a free visual programming environment available at http://scratch. mit.edu/). Mod it in some way that makes it your own: change the graphics, the sound, the gameplay, whatever it takes. You may want to try out some of the tutorials, or just start changing the code blocks on your own. 52

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Start thinking about an idea for an original game that you’ll be starting in sessions four through six. Depending on the type of game you’re interested in making we’ll look at the tool options in this session.

NOTES: t The idea behind posting the level on NUMA is to get into a rhythm with game making—making, revising, releasing, and moving on. Even when you don’t get a lot of useful feedback, putting your work out in public is a good habit to start. t When people have been too ambitious at this stage they’ve generally gotten frustrated and given up, so emphasize the importance of starting with a game that works and changing it rather than trying to implement an original idea at this point.

Session 4 Revise and post your Scratch mod to the community at http:// scratch.mit.edu/share. The game automatically converts to a java applet that is playable within a web browser and embeddable on blogs and so forth. Depending on what kind of original game you want to make, download Game Maker (arcade), Inform 7 (text/graphic adventure), or Adventure Game Studio (graphic adventure). You can also use Scratch. See more options on page 15. Spend some time getting to know the app (perhaps via the tutorial, or by looking at the other games folks have made with it) and consider its usability, the quality of its forums/support materials, and what platforms it eventually compiles to. Once you’ve picked your tool, create and import some of the sounds and graphics that your game will be using. Then get one interaction working.

NOTES: t Once we had a participant who was keen on working in a 3D environment. Once he saw how much work went into animating a 2D environment, and that 3D was an exponential level up from that, he changed his mind. t Encourage people to choose a tool that they can get running on their home computer. If they have to make a special trip to a friend’s house that’s just another obstacle.

Session 5 Get your game into a playable state. Rough is fine. You want to be able to let the other members play your game at this session and for you to get some feedback, rather than be explaining what the interactions will be.

NOTE: t The key thing here is the playability—even if it looks and sounds great, the core of the game medium is that people can interact with it. It’s natural for, say, visual artists to focus on the graphics, as that’s their strength, but you need to encourage them to get the interactions working as well.

Session 6 With the feedback you get and your own vision of the game, polish it up. Ideally you will integrate instructions somehow and have a title screen and end state.

NOTE: t Hopefully people have gotten a game into a playable state and are able to get feedback here. While this is officially the end of the sessions, the open house presentation offers another deadline to work toward.

THE OP EN HO US E This is a quasi-public release of the games—it’s a great way to motivate the participants and connect them with the indie game community at large. I generally set it up so that it’s a series of ten-minute presentations by the participants and by people in the game scene that you invite to present in-progress or new work. I’ve been pretty open about who I’ve invited. Sometimes new media and hardware demos are included so long as they’d be of interest to gamers. The key thing is to stress the 10 minute limit—less is fine, and can be good, but demonstrations should be absolutely no more than 10 minutes. I’ve had 5 AGI participants and 5 community folks present, but I think this is the upper limit ... beyond 90 minutes it becomes a bit of a grind. It can be nice to get an interesting space and a projector for this to give it a bit of ceremony, and try to have a couple laptops so the AGI games can be running after the talks so people can play them. I generally have stated that the admission fee is “a game work-in-progress or a snack for the snack table.” The open house is a great way to meet other developers, as well. If you can tell them the date a few weeks in advance it can serve as a deadline to get an independent project to the state where they can do a ten minute presentation. Make sure you leave enough time at the end for conversation between the audience and participants. Maybe even have some music playing. With the interesting stuff that’s been presented, the conversations will naturally ensue and you will hear months afterward about projects that began that night.

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T HE NE X T ROUND It’s an iterative process, so don’t sweat it if the first time out isn’t mindblowing. I’ve done three rounds of the Toronto AGI over the last year or

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We know many artists have a passion for games, and would like to make them. We know people in the games community, both industry and players, are excited about games that approach the medium from diverse places. Artists make the game world look good, and games can bring art to a broad audience. Everyone wins! We use accessible tools. Point-and-click game making suites abound, and until we’ve developed our gamemaking chops to the point where they’re limiting, they’ll do. When programmers turn up their noses, we’ll tell them that machine language is what real coders use! We make one-person games. “Team building” can simply be procrastination. When we get to the point when our games “need” better art, or better sound, we’ll be able to communicate much better with artists or musicians having done it ourselves on a crude level. Plus they’ll see we’re able to complete games and be more excited about being involved. We will leverage our talents. All of us are good at something— visuals, sound, writing—and we’ll put that front and center as often as possible. That being said, we will work hard at polishing all aspects until they are as shiny as we want them to be. Placeholder graphics are so beta. We meet in person, as creative circles have met for millennia, to establish a consensus reality that what we are doing is worth doing. We know that when we sit down to work on something on Monday that people we like and respect will see it and discuss it on Wednesday. We are all about making games now!

so. (The first round wasn’t that productive—we only had four weeks and I was still finding my feet—but the second and third were great.) They gave me the structure to make a couple of games I wouldn’t have otherwise found the time for, and to hang out with lots of other game makers. By my measure, it was totally worth doing. J I M M U N R O E makes games, movies and books. As well as the Artsy Games Incubator (http://nomediakings.org/artsygames), he helped start the Hand Eye Society (http://handeyesociety.com)—a group that aims to mesh Toronto’s videogame communities. Check out his illustrated text adventure Everybody Dies for free at http:// nomediakings.org/ed. Email him at [email protected].

The Ned or N-Editor allows users to generate their own game levels for Metanet's N. WWW.GDMAG.COM

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A N D R E A

THE HUNT IS ON FOR THE GREAT WHITE RHINO OF ALL GAME DEV JOBS—THE PERFECT POSITION. How will you know it when you see it? Talk to any industry insider and you’ll hear lots of buzz about “culture fit.” Is an individual a good match for a given studio’s unique environment? Finding the right long-term fit isn’t just a one-way street. Although studios will be wondering if you’re the right candidate for them, its equally important that you decide if that studio is the right home for you. Understanding your own preferences and needs is a critical first step in the hunt for a game industry job. Before wading out into job search swampland, spend some time reflecting on some key issues that will help you decide what’s a must-have and what you’re willing to be flexible on. Does the total studio environment support your own expectations, work style, and philosophy? “ TOP-DOWN ” L E A DE R S HIP V S COLL A BORATI V E / DE MOCRAT IC L E A DE R SHIP A mismatch in this area is the number one reason why job unhappiness begins, and both types of leadership styles have their pros and cons. Top-down leaders operate independently and establish the direction of the company and its products autocratically. Decisions are made quickly and with clarity but there is very little room for input from others (especially those with less power and/or experience). Top-down leadership is not inclusive and opinions from other team members are rarely encouraged. In a collaborative leadership model, a variety of voices contribute to the overall direction of the project and to decisions within the team. Seeking opinions and supporting a democratic

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M A L L O N I

process is central to this leadership style. On the downside, it’s usually a much longer process to reach a decision, there is lots of debate and discussion, and the compromise reached is usually watered down. ' ◊ How often are open team discussions held? Who can attend? ◊ When a critical change in direction is being discussed, who participates? ◊ How are disagreements over direction handled? ◊ Are team opinions asked for by senior leadership? ◊ How are suggestions acted on? OPE N V S C LO SE D C OM M U NIC AT ION S T YLE How much does being looped in matter to you? Are you the type of person that thrives on inside information and being up to date on all of the latest changes and news, or do you prefer to do your job on a need-to-know basis? Different studios have different degrees of information sharing with their employees.

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Some feel that having the latest scoop on all details helps them stay connected to their work and to the direction the company is headed. Others find the constant changes a distraction, and would rather be left out of the loop until a final decision has been made. Prior to your interview, determine where your own expectations are on the “information-sharing” scale. ◊ Are senior leaders open to questions or ideas? ◊ How soon are potential changes shared with team members? ◊ What tools does the studio use to communicate? Is it mainly word of mouth and email (or left up to team leads to share new information on a one-to-one basis) or is there a central studio blog or wiki where you can catch up on the latest news? ◊ How available are leads for unscheduled conversations? ◊ What is the studio’s relationship with local media? How much does their profile matter to them? How closely does their image match their press? P HYS IC AL S PA CE How much does your workspace matter to you? Studios have different views on how important the physical environment is and how much they want to dedicate toward creating comfortable and inspiring surroundings. Access to natural light, gym amenities, and ergonomic furniture are all things that some companies make a point of prioritizing. What’s on the top of your wish list? For some, a workspace with all of the bells and whistles is a low priority and translates into wasted company profits (and lost bonus dollars they’d rather have in their own pocket). For others, a tricked out studio is a sign that they’ve arrived, and can enjoy the extra little perks of life in the industry. Small things matter too—air circulation, kitchen facilities, areas for quiet retreat, et cetera.

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◊ What is the studio saying about its view of employees through its studio space? ◊ Is the dev floor an “open concept” plan (with no walls or dividers) or are there offices and cubicles? Which do you prefer to work in? ◊ Are employees outfitted with the right equipment to get the job done? ◊ Does the environment resonate with your own aesthetic? Do you feel comfortable walking through? ◊ Is the environment too shabby (not enough polish) or too chic (too artificial) for you? ◊ Does the space encourage sharing or are team members segregated and siloed? What does that say about how day-to-day interaction among team members? P RODUCT V S PROCE S S

» Is the way a game is produced as important to you as the final result?

Building a solid portfolio of AAA titles is a noble goal, but at what cost? Finding a studio in which the culture supports balance and longevity may be just as important in the long run. Burnout is a serious issue for experienced candidates in the industry, and some have stepped away from studios which push their teams too hard. On the other hand, some individuals are charged up by the fast pace, tight deadlines, and increasing pressure and look forward to the big win at the end of a difficult cycle. ◊ Are you a work hard and play hard kind of person or do you need more balance in your day to day life? ◊ What kind of environment brings out your best work? How are you inspired and motivated? ◊ How much would you be willing to give (both personally and professionally) if you knew that a title you worked on would be a top 10 product? 56

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◊ What amount of time is allocated to each product cycle at the studios you are considering? How are changes or additions managed and fit in? ◊ What allowances are being made for any overtime that may be required? ◊ Does the studio encourage and support employees having a life outside of the studio or are work demands so big that there is no time left for anything at all? GE T T ING TO T HE BOT TOM OF T HING S Now that you know what to put the focus on, how do you go about getting the information you need to figure out if a studio’s culture is the right fit for you? Ask if you will be able to meet with current team members as part of the interview process. If so, talk to them candidly about how much input they are able to contribute and how much control they feel they have over their own work. Seize the opportunity to meet with people who are closer to your level of experience to get a true sense of what working there will be like. Request a studio tour during your interview and specifically ask to see the dev floor set up. If that’s not possible, ask the in-house recruiter or HR rep to describe the workstation concept. Let them know that it's important to you. Scour the company web site for all images that will show areas that may be off-limits during the interview itself. Find others in the industry who have worked there or are currently working there and ask them about their own level of happiness with the environment there. Network with others in the industry—what is the studio’s overall reputation? What are the reputations of the senior leads? Try to connect with former and current employees at the studio—what has their own experience been like? Ask them about the project cycle for a recently shipped title and how much overtime was required. Would they refer a friend? Would they recommend working there? Think about how open the studio has been throughout the interview process. Have details about the job been clear? Have answers to your questions been dodgy? Are you finding it hard to get any real information about the opportunity? How a studio conducts itself in the interview stage is a fairly good indicator of what to expect after you’ve taken the job (although if your interviewer is an HR manager, they may be less connected to the company culture). Research, research, research. Google the studio and any senior leadership team members you know of. Look up profiles on social network sites like LinkedIn and Zoomerang. Find out all that you can about their backgrounds and philosophies as leads. Are their careers ones you’d like to model? Chances are the studios that they’ve worked for in the past had an influence on their current leadership style. Look for any and all press written about the studio and its products. Even private blogs from former employees may yield some clues about what its like to work there day to day. Culture-fit is a two sided coin. Although your first few interviews may be nerve-wracking and you may be anxious to secure that first gig, it's important to keep in mind that your own preferences matter too. Both you and the studios you’re meeting with want a solid fit from the very beginning. Be honest with yourself about what you need and don’t sell yourself short. Ask the tough questions and take a candid look at the pros and cons of any studio you’re meeting with. At the same time, don’t be too pushy with your first gig—a studio is always taking a chance with a new hire, so humility is a plus. Understanding the kind of environment that will help you be successful is just as critical as any other part of the job search process. If you find the studio culture that’s a custom fit for you, the rest will fall into place.

»

A N D R E A M A L L O N I is a talent management and acquisition strategist. Email her at [email protected].

J O U R NEY

TO

2010 MARCH 9 –13, 2010

MOSCONE CENTER | SAN FRANCISCO, CA WWW.GDCONF.COM

Game Developers Conference® 2010 Call for submissions opens late summer 2009. Visit www.GDConf.com for more information and to access 2009 conference proceedings.

THE LEADING PROFESSIONAL GAME SOURCE FOR JOB SEEKERS AND EMPLOYERS Access the Web’s Largest Game Industry Resumé Database and Job Board Take Control of Your Future Today! Log onto www.gamasutra.com/jobs

T I M

W .

B O O N

10

indie games that matter HOW INDIES ARE SHAKING UP THE INDUSTRY

INTERESTED IN THE INDIE GAME MOVEMENT, BUT NOT SURE WHERE TO START? OR ARE YOU simply wondering what all the fuss is about? This is a primer to 10 indie games that made a significant splash over the last few years, along with the reasons why they did. Now if someone asks you the cultural significance of the indies, you’ll have an array of examples to put forth.

C AVE STOR Y

(PI X EL )

1)

The story of a developer who rose from unknown to celebrity status via word of mouth. Released in 2004, CAVE STORY is a game which took Daisuke Amaya (who goes by the alias of Pixel) five years to create on his own time. Western audiences soon sat up and took notice of this freeware 2D platformer after the release of a free translation patch, and interest in the game hasn’t waned since then. Even today the story of protagonist Quote and his adventures is still being retold via an upcoming WiiWare release. In CAVE STORY, everything from design, coding, sprite work, and even music composition was all the effort of one man. Pixel is truly the perfect example of an indie game developer who worked tirelessly on a single project without any thoughts of financial benefits, just because he wanted to make a game for others to play. www.cavestory.com

WORL D OF GO O

(2D BO Y)

2)

How to quit your high-paying job and become a successful indie. WORLD OF GOO is the success story of two designers, Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, who used to work together at Electronic Arts, but then decided to leave the comfort of job security and risk everything by turning an old prototype of Kyle’s into a full game. It was no secret that 2D Boy’s office was basically any Wi-Fi enabled coffee shop they could meet in, and most of their savings were spent on food or rent, but the returns paid handsomely as WORLD OF GOO was embraced by nearly every player and journalist that came across it. www.2dboy.com

BRAID

3)

(N UMBER NON E , INC .)

The highly-regarded, highly-rated indie game made mostly by a team of two. It might look like a masterpiece now (what with John Blow's brilliantlydesigned puzzles and gorgeous painted art supplied by David Hellman), but the original concept for the game and early prototype build had already chalked up considerable interest when it won the Independent Game Festival’s Game Design Award back in 2006. BRAID is proof that you don’t have to

spend a lot of time or money to find out if the idea for a game has potential or not, and prototyping is still one of the best methods to justify turning a simple game design into a full-length production. The end product might have cost over $200,000 to make, but by creating a prototype for a select group to playtest, designer Jonathan Blow reduced the risks associated with spending years on game development without any guarantee of commercial success. www.braid-game.com

AUDIOS URF

(DY L A N F I T T E R E R )

4)

The first game to use Valve’s Steamworks technology. Dylan Fitterer was creating a free game every week and releasing them on his web site for visitors to download—it was fun until he realized the traffic-driven ads didn’t bring in the revenue he needed, so he examined every single prototype he made for the site and chose a small project called TUNE RACER to develop into a full-length commercial game. Submitting his now-retitled game AUDIOSURF to the IGF was a fruitful decision, as Valve contacted Dylan just weeks before GDC 2008 with an offer that no developer could turn down—a prominent marketing push on Steam’s front page, the first hands-on experience of working with Steam’s new publishing suite Steamworks, and a deal to include the ORANGE BOX soundtrack with every download of AUDIOSURF. www.audio-surf.com

AQUARIA

(BIT BLOT )

5)

How one game, and the IGF, changed the lives of two developers. Winner of the Independent Games Festival’s Seamus McNally Grand Prize award, AQUARIA is the rags-to-riches story of Derek Yu and Alec Holowka, who worked together for two years to create Bit Blot’s first

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indie games (and, to date, only) commercial effort. The game was an epic fable with much of the underwater setting painstakingly drawn by hand, lending it an incredible atmosphere that most other commercial 2D games struggle to offer in this day and age. The future of Bit Blot is uncertain at present, and a sequel to AQUARIA may never be made, but the future is bright for these two young developers who are already prominent figures in the indie game development community. After AQUARIA, Yu released the roguelike platformer SPELUNKY on PC and DIABOLIKA for the iPhone, while Holowka now helms his new game development studio Infinite Ammo, and composes musical soundtracks for his other developer buddies when not involved in making quirky games such as PAPER MOON. www.bit-blot.com/aquaria

Swedish indies put on the map. A relatively unknown developer who created a series of short experimental games using Mark Overmar’s Game Maker engine, the Swedish native made a name for himself after submitting CLEAN ASIA as a competition entry for the 2008 IGF competition. Cactus didn’t win any awards that year, but it didn't stop him from releasing more than twenty games over the course of the next twelve months. Calling him prolific is an understatement—many aspiring developers who are just starting to get their feet wet with game development can only watch in awe as he churns out two more games in the same amount of time it takes to read this paragraph. Any doubts about his game making skills and creativity can be erased by watching the IGS lecture he gave just months ago at GDC 2009. www.cactus-soft.co.nr

CRAYON P HYSICS

PA S S AGE

(PE TRI P URHO)

6)

How a game made in five days won IGF’s Grand Prize. Originating from a five-day prototype release, Petri Purho’s CRAYON PHYSICS DELUXE has since blossomed into a full-length game with significant commercial success. The IGF Seumas McNally Grand Prize Award kept in developer Petri Purho’s trophy case only solidifies the fact that prototyping is an excellent practice for game designers who want to gauge the potential of a game concept before fully committing to any long-term projects. The idea of releasing a free prototype to the public regularly is a blueprint that many highprofile developers have begun to adopt into their own game development cycle, although Purho himself credits the Experimental Gameplay Project as his inspiration for implementing a strict schedule to his coding habits. www.crayonphysics.com

N ARBA C U L AR DROP

(N U CL E AR MON K E Y S OF T WAR E)

7)

The student game that made it. NARBACULAR DROP, the game which eventually became the awardwinning PORTAL, had very humble beginnings. A DigiPen student project that was released as a free

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download in 2005, Valve soon took notice of its innovative gameplay concept with puzzles based around travelling through connecting portals. A futuristic location was chosen to replace the fantasy setting of the original, puzzles were redesigned, and the storyline was rewritten, making it difficult to find any relation between the earlier student project and its successor (other than the use of portals to teleport from one spot to another). https://www.digipen.edu/fileadmin/website_data/ gallery/game_websites/NarbacularDrop

CL E AN A SIA

(C A C T U S )

8)

(JA S ON R OHR E R )

9)

Games as art. Jason Rohrer’s semi-biographical work about a man’s passage in life is one of the few games that brings tears to players' eyes when the curtains draw to a close. Word about the emotional rollercoaster ride that others experienced while playing it spread quickly, causing an incredible amount of interest from the press and public just weeks after the initial release of the game. People questioned how a mass of colored pixels could evoke such a strong emotion from players in just five minutes of playtime, and the term “art game” was bandied about to explain this genre of short experimental projects designed to make their participants think or react in unexpected ways. Art games are here to stay, and though PASSAGE is not the first of its kind, this particular work was frequently talked about and used as a prime example when describing the movement that is gaining considerable presence in the game development community. http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage

F LOW

(THAT G A M E C OM PA NY )

10)

From the humble beginnings of a student game to success on the PSN. FLOW started out its primordial life as a Flash game designed by Jenova Chen for his thesis research at USC’s Interactive Media Division, and together with the release of CLOUD, Chen and company had attracted enough attention for Sony to offer them a three-game contract—hence the formation of thatgamecompany. Co-founded by two University of Southern California students, thatgamecompany is one of Sony’s most prized assets in this generation of consoles, thanks to the abundance of ideas flowing from creative director Jenova Chen and his colleagues. The anticipation of TGC’s third game is only heightened by every praise and accolade that the PSN game FLOWER continues to receive from the media. Releasing FLOW as a playable Flash game helped set things in motion for the team, CLOUD convinced Sony of TGC's worth, and FLOWER helped cement the company’s place as the studio to watch in the coming years. http://thatgamecompany.com/games/flow

T I M W . B O O N is the editor of IndieGames.com: The Weblog. Email him at [email protected].

J E F F R E Y

F L E M I N G

wisdom from an indie pro MAKING AN INDIE GAME WHILE LOOKING FOR WORK IS A GOOD WAY TO GET noticed. If you make something of some notoriety, there’s a chance you could win a prize at the Independent Game Festival, or even go about selling your games yourself. For some, indie games are a stepping stone to the larger industry, but for others, it’s a way of life. Guilherme Stutz Töws works out of Curitiba in Southern Brazil. He’s been creating games for more than ten years, building up a catalog of bright, pixel-perfect games like ZETA’S WORLD, SIRTET, and BRAIN BEAT. If you want to make a splash in the indie game scene, you need a hook, a concept, or simply a really solid game. Töws’ latest effort is called EVERSION, and hidden beneath its happy, jumping exterior is a deadly sting nestled like a razor blade in a candied apple.

JF: You also work in Flash. What are your considerations when deciding which tool to develop a project with? G ST: Flash's greatest asset is its native portability; people in Windows and Linux and Mac can all play Flash games with a minimum of hassle. It also natively supports vector graphics, which should be given more

(ASYNCHRONOUS PROGRAMMING WITH COROU-TINES

J EF F RE Y F L EMING: What tools did you use in building EVERSION, and how long did you work on it? GUIL HE RME S TUT Z TÖW S: EVERSION uses the Shiny engine, which I've developed for my own use—to anyone who might consider developing an engine of their own, I will say it takes longer than it looks. It's programmed in C++ with embedded Ruby scripting for easy prototyping, SDL for graphics and input management, and Audiere for sound processing. I intend to port it over to Linux and Mac when I have the chance. EVERSION, while being in subconscious development for a couple of years or more, came into form as an entry to TIGSource's Commonplace Book Competition which took about forty days. For this competition, contestants were to make a game based on one of H.P. Lovecraft's unfinished ideas, as listed in his "commonplace book." EVERSION's chosen line is quoted at the start of the game: "Sounds—possibly musical—heard in the night from other worlds or realms of being." J F: Did you create Shiny to address areas in which other available engines were lacking? GS T: The game engines available at the time either were too limiting or were lacking in decent development tools—I solved that problem in Shiny by using the file formats from my favorite editors. Using Ruby also did wonders for hastening game development—I had no idea how much time I lost heeding C++'s constraints until I started using a script language. Additionally, making games in a commercial game engine isn't very impressive on your résumé as a game programmer or as a general programmer, compared to C++ and Ruby.

IN

C++)

size matters

www.rtpatch.com RTPatch and Pocket Soft are registered trademarks of Pocket Soft, Inc.

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consideration in this modern world of gigantic screen resolutions. However, Flash can't handle very complex scenes or effects without slowing down, and manipulating a large number of graphical resources requires as much juggling as the engines I used before Shiny did. The choice between platforms is also in part instinctive, as I feel the different platforms cause different initial impressions of a game. Flash gives games developed in it a feeling of casualness and volatility—as if something made in Flash won't be worth playing for more than thirty minutes. This is certainly prejudiced and there are already a few games that break that mold, but I still like the "professional" feeling offline programming gives. J F: Can you tell us about the music in EVERSION? GS T: As I never expected EVERSION to gain such fame and I needed quite a few songs for it by the deadline, I used music from various different sources. The title music and initial world music are from a NES game called COCORON; I should be replacing those soon. Another Commonplace Book competitor, Miroslav Malesevic (http://pqgames.exofire.net), composed the rest of the music in exchange for art for his own ODDWORLD-styled game UNEKSIANS. The very last couple of songs are public domain from freesound.org. There are eight in-game songs, one for each eversion layer. Existing sound libraries don't allow for the more complicated ideas I've had regarding sound manipulation, but the mix effect when you near an eversion point is achieved by a simple trick—keep all the songs in memory, and use the pause EVERSION and volume controls to mix them http://zarat.us/tra together when needed. SHRAPNEL

resources www.adamcadre.ac

LITTLE BLUE MEN http://wurb.com/if/game/471 Cactus www.cactus-soft.co.nr CHZO MYTHOS www.fullyramblomatic.com

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J F: The eversion mechanic is very cleverly implemented in that it is not completely explained in the instructions, requiring the player to experiment. This emphasizes the uneasy sense of "glitch" and brings a feeling of playing outside the game’s boundaries. GST: The eversion idea is partially

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

inspired by a dream of a friend, of playing ZELDA II and finding hidden doorways to darker and more alien versions of the game's castles in order to unlock a secret ending. The final piece was supplemented by the commonplace book quote, which brought the idea of changing the music to mark points where you could travel between layers. I did conceal the eversion mechanic in order to make it feel more alien—initially, the game was intended to be playable entirely without everting—but also to test the player. I feel the obscurity of the eversion mechanic is a game in itself, where the clues are in places a player doesn't usually look at—the music, the white space between decorations, the title screen reminding you to "press the evert button." My reluctance to document it is a bit of a protest against the super-saturation of tutorials and handholding in modern games, in order to make playing them as easy, profitable, and forgettable as possible. JF: Was SILENT HILL on your mind when working on EVERSION? G ST: Actually, I never played SILENT HILL and the last console I've had was a SNES, though I do keep myself abreast of new games through friends and the Internet. I had a lot of inspiration from IF (interactive fiction) games, like SHRAPNEL by Adam Cadre and LITTLE BLUE MEN by Michael Gentry. I've also taken a lot from the MONDO games by Cactus, the brilliant CHZO MYTHOS games by Ben Croshaw, and the Polybius urban legend, about an arcade machine made by the government that'd use subliminal messages and flashing lights to plant hypnotic suggestions. JF: What are your thoughts on the horror genre in games? G ST: It's certainly easier to disturb people with a video game than it would be with a book—Lovecraft was born in the wrong age after all, just not in the direction he thought. Video games get the instinctive brain engaged like no form of art did before it. Unfortunately, mainstream gaming—just like the movies industry before it—handles horror in the same neutered way it does comedy and drama, and what we've had is a glut of cookie-cutter "horror" games where dozens of zombies or demons or aliens jump from closets and are mowed down by chain gun fire, where the only truly terrifying moments occur when you're looking for more ammo. This adrenaline-fueled view of horror is so prevalent I had no idea a weird game like EVERSION—which has very few spring-loaded cats and barely no body horror, as my pixel art of viscera and bones would just look silly— would get popular. Indie games, like the ones I've mentioned as inspirations, have been more courageous in stepping into the bizarre and frightening, but there's a great psychological world out there that's barely been scratched by the new tools we have. I would like to someday make a game that makes people fall in love. J E F F R E Y F L E M I N G is the production editor for Game Developer magazine. He likes his grounds haunted and his hills silent. Email him at [email protected].

ACCE S S IT IN R E A L T IM E

Game Developer magazine brings you postmortems, product reviews, and strategies for creating innovative, successful games from industry leaders and game development experts.

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ART SCHOOL

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Ryland Loncharich, B.F.A., interactive design game development, 2008, Zioson, Autodesk Maya.

The Savannah College of Art and Design offers Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees in interactive design and game development. Students can earn their degrees at the university’s Savannah and Atlanta, Ga., locations and online via SCAD-eLearning. The interactive design and game development program at SCAD fuses artistic and technical training to prepare students for professional, creative careers in the rapidly growing interactive and game industries. Students develop the aesthetic, artistic, design and technical abilities necessary to become leading artists, level designers, game designers, innovators, and interactive Web and experience designers, as well as installation and digital artists. Enroll in a top-ranked program. According to the Los Angeles Times, the SCAD interactive design and game development program ranks among the top 10 in the United States— out of more than 200—mentioned by industry recruiters.

Josh Markham, undergraduate interactive design game development student, Carnival, Maya 2008, Photoshop CS3, Crazybump.

Use high-end hardware and software. At SCAD, students use a motion-capture lab, green screen, Cintiq monitors, Autodesk Maya, Z Brush, Discreet 3ds Max, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects, Flash, C++, Unreal game engine, ActionScript and Dreamweaver. Learn from talented, dedicated faculty members. SCAD’s accomplished faculty of artists, designers and programmers includes award winners and experts in their fields. They bring to the classroom a combined total of more than 50 years of experience in both game development and interactive design.

SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN ADMISSION DEPARTMENT P.O. BOX 2072 SAVANNAH, GA 31402-2072 Phone: 912.525.5100 or 800.869.7223 Email: [email protected]

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“I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the three people I have hired from SCAD have been incredibly valuable and have fit right in here at Firaxis. The thing I like most... is the breadth of their education and experience. I expect my producers to add value in numerous ways above and beyond simple project management, and [they] embody that approach to the fullest extent... We love that here at Firaxis.” Barry Caudill EP for Sid Meier at Firaxis

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Network with industry professionals. Representatives from leading game design and digital media companies—including Lucas Arts, Activision, Blizzard and Electronic Arts—frequently visit SCAD to recruit students and new alumni. Participate in conferences. SCAD sponsors the annual Game Developers eXchange, which brings together game developers, educators and students with experts who share their behind-the-scenes knowledge. Faculty and students also regularly participate in the IGDA Leadership Forum, the Game Developers Conference and SIGGRAPH. Join other award-winning students. In March, undergraduate interactive design and game development students Gwen Murray and Seth Smith won the ScreenBurn at SXSW Game Design Competition at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival. Follow in the footsteps of alumni employed by top game design companies. Firaxis Games, home to legendary game designer Sid Meier, recently hired SCAD interactive design and game development alumni Michelle Menard (M.F.A., 2008) and William Miller (B.F.A., 2008), as well as student David McDonough (M.F.A. anticipated in 2009). Interactive design and game development alumnus Jeff McNab (B.F.A., 2008) has accepted a position as a game designer with Areae, home to game industry icon and massively multiplayer online game expert Raph Koster. Find out more. Visit scad.edu/interactivedesign, call 800.869.7223 or e-mail info@ scad.edu. SCAD: The University for Creative Careers The Savannah College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution that offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in 42 majors. Visit scad.edu.

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When you are ready to do more than simply play your favorite games, the Game Production Degree Program at the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood, CA could be your next move. The Los Angeles Film School’s new 14-month Associate of Science Degree in Game Production is a one-of-a-kind, immersive experience designed by industry professionals. The ambitious degree program will produce industry-savvy graduates with a portfolio of hands-on games industry experience. During the 14-month program, students learn to explore games and game making from a theoretical perspective and ultimately apply practical skills as a principle team member on a final student game in a ‘game studio’ experience. The courses cover an array of topics, including critical game studies, game programming, game design and a final project. During Critical Game Studies, students learn to analyze and appreciate games from a diverse global perspective. They are introduced to game theory and challenged with creating engaging game experiences using conventional game mechanics. Students will also learn the dynamics involved in the business in games and about the pioneers of the industry. The game programming courses in the program include essential and advanced programming, as well as, scripting languages, data structures and tools. Each course will utilize video games and mini-games to enhance each student’s understanding and retention of materials. Game Design is explored using a digital platform as students experiment and develop practical design skills. Project management skills are also taught, as the students apply their PM skills in an agile environment. Since asset management is essential during game production, students will also have a hands-on opportunity to build and maintain a reliable asset pipeline for art, audio and cinematic assets. Prior to their final project, they pitch an original game concept. During the final project, students will experience the green light process while constructing the game design. As each studio team enters pre-production, students make final planning arrangements before entering the production stage. The final project will commence during the game production stage as each studio team demonstrates a culmination of skill, teamwork, planning, technique and professionalism. In addition, The Los Angeles Film School’s unique interdisciplinary culture (including film, animation and audio) provides game production students a rich opportunity to collaborate with fellow students from other disciplines. Students also get up close and personal with industry guests and log real world experience in a simulated work environment as they prepare to begin their career in the world of professional game production. And with success in mind, The Los Angeles Film School’s Career Development Department is there to provide guidance as students navigate their way through the interactive entertainment industry throughout their career.

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“Entertainment interchanges from movies to games all of the time. This makes The Los Angeles Film School an ideal place to learn because it presents a great opportunity for those involved in graphics and movies.” Nolan Bushnell Founder of Atari Member of LAFS Game Production Advisory Committee

“This program is a great addition to the educational landscape in Southern California, as Los Angeles is the hub of the gaming industry. Not only is there a strong industry demand for well-equipped people, but as technology changes and new techniques need to be acquired, professionals are constantly looking to refresh their own skills.” Andi Smithers Research and Development Senior Engineer Sony OnlineEntertainment

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MEDIA ARTS COLLEGE

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This fall, Madison Media Institute will launch its long anticipated Game Art and Animation program. Madison Media Institute (MMI) is a media arts specialty school located in Madison, Wisconsin and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The program has been developed by industry veteran Eric Weiss, with over 20 years experience in computer animation production. Eric has worked on several bestselling game titles including: Electronic Arts’ James Bond, From Russia with Love, The Lord of the Rings, The Third Age, and Prey, developed by Madison’s Human Head Studios. Eric also has extensive experience in film animation and visual effects and his credits include Superman Returns, The Polar Express, Final Fantasy, The Spirits Within and Godzilla. Eric recently completed work as the Digital Supervisor on Nickelodeon’s hit show Back at the Barnyard. Leaders from local gaming companies in Madison were also instrumental in the development for course make up, content, software and textbook choices. Having gaming companies participate in the creation of the program is just the beginning of their involvement, as they will also have continued presence in the advisory committee, student portfolio reviews and guest lectures.

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Raven Software is thrilled to be a part of the Advisory Board of the Game Art and Animation Program at the Madison Media Institute. As one of the top game development companies in the Midwest, we are looking forward to continuing our relationship with MMI. Ravensoft is a Division of Activision and located in Madison, Wisconsin. Its 2009 releases include Wolfenstein, X-Men Wolverine and Singularity.

Human Head Studios, located in Madison, Wisconsin, is excited to work with Madison Media Institute on it’s new Game Art and Animation program and we are looking forward to assisting MMI on the program’s Advisory Board. Human Head Studios releases include Rune and Prey.

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The Game Art and Animation program will concentrate on the artistic side of the game production process and graduates of the program will be prepared for entrylevel jobs as modelers, animators and technical animators. Students will have courses in all of these areas but also have the opportunity to focus their skills in a chosen discipline in both team-based and individual projects. Maya has been chosen as the 3D animation software program as it has become the industry standard animation package. By the end of the 75 credit hour program, graduates will be highly proficient with this comprehensive tool. For modeling, students will learn to create 3D models using Maya, Mudbox and ZBrush as well as Body Paint and Painter. They will work on human and non-human characters, environments and backgrounds as well as props. Animation courses will include Maya, Motion Builder and hands on experience with Motion Capture performances. Students will also learn the technical animation skills of character rigging, programming with Maya’s Embedded Programming Language (MEL), python scripting and advanced lighting, rendering and compositing techniques. Throughout the program, students will learn how to integrate their animation and models into a working game using the Unreal Game Engine by Epic Games. This is a cornerstone of their training, as it will allow them to hit the ground running on their first jobs when they begin their careers. Learning how game art is integrated into a game engine is essential in the optimization of game art in a production environment. Students will graduate with a complete portfolio including a demo reel, DVD, website and working game level created with their own art. Graduates from the Game Art and Animation Program at the Madison Media Institute will stand out above the rest. For complete details of the Game Art and Animation Program, please visit www. madisonmedia.edu or email [email protected].

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PRIVATE UNIVERSITY

Full Sail University, located in Winter Park, Florida, is an innovative educational leader for those pursuing careers within the video game industry. The school was founded in 1979, and offers four specialized bachelor’s and master’s degrees that span a wide range of gaming disciplines – from software programming and character modeling, to the business management and production roles leading the industry. A comprehensive computer programming degree, Full Sail’s Game Development Bachelor’s Program teaches students the latest processes for creating single and multi-player games for networks, consoles, handhelds, and computers. The courses mimic real world studio environments, where students learn essential skills in artificial intelligence, C++ programming, 3D graphics, and story development while creating their own playable games. The Game Design Master’s Degree Program caters to those students wanting to start administrative careers in the industry, with courses that stress the creative production and business management skills used at professional game studios. Students learn to broaden their abilities as a project coordinator, with practical applications that recreate the processes used by successful managers – including developing an understanding of team leadership, project development, and collaborative design.

FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY Full Sail also covers the art-production needs of the industry with two Bachelor’s degrees that focus on the design and modeling techniques essential to bringing games to life. The Game Art Bachelor’s Degree Program is specifically geared towards 3D content creation for games, with a heavy emphasis on character development, shading and lighting, texturing, and modeling – giving students a solid foundation in the art production methods and workflow seen in the industry. Game Art students also collaborate with programmers and designers from other Full Sail programs to create art for a playable game project. Finally, students who want the versatility to create digital graphics throughout the entertainment media industry have the Computer Animation Bachelor’s Degree Program, which covers the practical application of 3D computer graphics for games, with additional courses on creating animations and effects for television and feature-length films. Students bring their wildest creations to life while mastering the techniques of professional artists and animators, including modeling, rigging, lighting, and shading. The breadth of skills covered in these degrees has seen Full Sail graduates go on to successful careers with major game studios across the globe – working on a variety of best-selling and critically acclaimed console and PC games such as Madden NFL 09, Call of Duty: World at War, Resistance 2, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and Dead Space. Full Sail University has also received a number of industry accolades, and was recently named the 2008 “School/College of the Year” by the Florida Association of Postsecondary Schools and Colleges. The university has also been previously named: The Harvard of Game Schools by Tips & Tricks Magazine; one of the top three New Media Schools by Shift Magazine (alongside the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University); and one of the Top Five Game Degree Programs in the world by Electronic Gaming Monthly. For more details, call 1.800.226.7625, or visit www.fullsail.edu.

3300 University Blvd Winter Park, FL 32792 Phone: 800-226-7625 Email: [email protected]

www.fullsail.edu Florida Governor Charlie Crist stated, “I am impressed by Full Sail’s commitment to shaping the next generation of leaders that will influence the global media, entertainment and communications industries, and it is an honor to have a top-ranking school achieve University status and be situated in the heart of our great state.” “Full Sail’s dedication to innovative curricula is to be commended and is consistent with what today’s dynamic, technology-rich global economy demands from its professionals, said John Couch, Apple’s vice president of Education. “Its progressive educational approach puts students and graduate success squarely at the forefront of the institution’s mission.”

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PRIVATE COLLEGE

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Education, Location, Imagination Since 1996, DigiPen has been helping students prepare for careers in the electronic gaming and animation industry with a formula of world-class faculty, an ongoing tradition of academic excellence, hands-on experience and strong industry connections.

Top Five Reason to Choose DigiPen

Dave Bolton – Senior, BFA Production Animation, matte painting.

RECOGNITION To date, our students have been recognized 25 times at the IGF – more than any other school in the U.S. We are also the only school to be nominated in the IGF’s Professional category. Over the years, DigiPen has been covered by news from Newsweek to Rolling Stone. In addition, Electronic Gaming Monthly ranks DigiPen as the #1 school in the world for game development. LOCATION The Redmond/Seattle area is home to over 150 game-related companies. For many of these companies, DigiPen is the preferred choice for recruiting new employees. This allows DigiPen students and graduates unparalleled access to networking, internships and job opportunities. Class of 2008 DigiPen programmers had a 91% employment rate in fields utilizing their degrees. In 2007 DigiPen accepted the invitation of the Singapore government to open a second campus in Singapore to facilitate the country’s growth as a leader in the interactive digital media industry in Asia.

2009 IGF Best Student Game award goes to TAG: The Power of Paint. This marks DigiPen student’s 25th IGF award. DIGIPEN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 5001 150th Ave. NE Redmond, WA 98052 Phone: 425.558.0299 Toll-free: 866.478.5236 Email: [email protected]

www.digipen.edu

“Over the past decade, Valve has continuously hired individuals and teams from DigiPen who are ready and equipped to make material contributions to professional projects immediately out of school. The need for programs such as those offered at DigiPen has become tremendous as the gaming industry continues to represent one of the fastest growing areas of technology and entertainment.” Kathy Gehrig HR Director at Valve

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GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

CONNECTED DigiPen has the world’s first game development degree program. In the last two decades, DigiPen has garnered a strong reputation as an established, quality institution. Our graduates and interns work at Microsoft, Nintendo, ArenaNet, Valve, Bungie, Sony, Monolith, Big Fish Games, LucasArts, Rhythm & Hues, Intel, Activision, Bungie and many others. FACULTY 92% of our courses are taught by fulltime faculty and each student at DigiPen is assigned a faculty/staffmember as an adviser. DigiPen faculty combine decades of experience inthe game and animation industry. Utilizing that experience, our faculty provide students with a production environment and academic workload similar to the industry itself to prepare students for their careers. SPECIALIZED Specializing your education should never mean that you have to compromise your education. Our students spend a full four years in their chosen program. This allows a depth of knowledge far beyond that of a traditional school model. As a result, undergraduate interns from DigiPen have worked on published AAA title games, assisted in Microsoft research projects and and they have helped to develop the device drivers for the Wii. HANDS-ON DigiPen education goes beyond theory to applied. It’s not enough that our students learn about games – they have to make them. Every year at DigiPen, students must form into groups for a project class. Whether they are developing a game for competition at the IGF or an animated short film, the students must create everything themselves, from complete game engines and AI to storyboarding and sound development. We invite all prospective students to see first hand why DigiPen is considered among the very best of game development degrees. Prospective students are welcome to shadow our students, sit in on classes and attend a monthly information session in person or online.

Exemplary games that have gone on to compete in the IGF 2009 Best Student Game Tag: The Power of Paint 2008 Best Student Game Synaesthete 2007 Best Student Game Toblo 2006 Student Showcase Winner Narbacular Drop (inspiration for Valve’s Portal) 2006 Student Innovation Award Rumble Box

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PRIVATE COLLEGE

When triOS College set out to create a Video Game program, we turned to the Video Game Industry and posed the question: What skills are you looking for when hiring people for your company? The results were clear. The Video Game Industry needs Video Game programmers with an understanding of design but solid training in areas including 2D Game Programming, Video Game MODification, Video Game Data Structures , Mobile Game Programming, 3D Game Programming and XNA Game Development. According to industry experts, the career opportunities for game developers outnumber game artists 10:1. If you would like to start a career in video game development/programming, making good money with great career opportunities, then we have the program for you. Our program combines video game development training with intensive gaming projects and a real world 16-week industry internship at a video game company.

triOS COLLEGE 425 Bloor St. E., Suite 200 Toronto, Ontario M4W 3R4 Canada Phone: 888.805.0533 Email: [email protected]

www.getintothegame.ca Graduates of this program will enter the workforce with 5 video game projects in their portfolio, including Video Game Prototype, 2D PC Video Game, Video Game MOD, Cell Phone Video Game and XBOX Live Arcade Video Game (using Microsoft XNA). Areas of training include: Video Game Core Foundations: Video Game Analysis and Technical Design, Video Game Business, Video Game Mathematics, Video Game Physics, Video Game Core Prototyping: Video Game Prototyping with Project, Intro to Programming with C, C++ Programming, MODification Video Game Development: Video Game Animation for Programmers, Video Game Level Design, Video Game MODification Project, Mobile / Online Video Game Development: Video Game Data Structures and AI, Java Programming, Mobile Game Development with Project, XNA Video Game Development: 3D Video Game Programming, XNA Video Game Development, XNA Video Game Project, 2D Video Game Development: Video Game Art and Modeling, 2D Video Game Programming, 2D Video Game Project.

“triOS College is planning on graduating the type of programmers that the games industry needs; I want to hire them now!” Keith Makse CEO of Cerebral Vortex Games

“I wish I could take this program!” Tim Maly Independent Video Game Producer

“Every course offered by triOS College has been designed by a compilation of industry veterans. This ensures that every graduate has a full knowledge of what is currently utilized in the industry.” Hamed Abbasi Vast Studios Inc.

Apply early as there are a limited number of spaces available for each start date. Students will receive a state-of-the-art gaming laptop during the program, combined with hands-on training, actual gaming projects and an Internship aimed at making you job-ready when you graduate.

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MEDIA ARTS COLLEGE

Flashpoint, The Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, LLC, is a high-end, direct-toindustry digital media arts college in Chicago that offers intensive two-year programs in four disciplines — Film/ Broadcast Media, Recording Arts, VFX/Animation and Game Development. Flashpoint students are surrounded by peers and educators with a passion and commitment for the advancement of higher learning in these fields of digital arts and entertainment technologies. Flashpoint has produced emerging new platforms for educating these disciplines – doing things differently and offering solutions that are revolutionary and bold. Flashpoint has re-engineered the methodology of teaching and the very content of the curriculum to respond to the exploding cross-industry demand for employees in these converging digital entertainment industries. World-class professionals develop each program and guide students with a willingness to share their knowledge and participate in shaping tomorrow’s dynamic media arena. Real-world tools and techniques, next-generation technical developments, the latest trends, and an authentic hands-on, immersive experience are seamlessly integrated into every class. Communication, good story telling, collaboration, visualization, attention to detail and execution of these skill-sets, are the fundamental ingredients of a Flashpoint students’ learning. Luminaries and celebrities from these industries share their expertise and accomplishments.

FLASHPOINT, THE ACADEMY OF MEDIA ARTS AND SCIENCES 28 North Clark Street Chicago, Illinois 60602 Phone: 312.332.0707 Email: [email protected]

www.fpame.com

“Seems like [Flashpoint] consolidated just about every state-of-the-art technology and stuff I haven’t even imagined yet.” Harold Ramis Director/Screenwriter/Producer/Actor Ghostbusters, Caddyshack

“Flashpoint Academy has knocked my socks off. There’s a cliché – but it’s true!” Michael Uslan Executive Producer, The Dark Knight

“I’m blown away by Flashpoint. They’re doing an amazing job here – this school I think is exactly what’s needed.” Colin Brady Director/Animator E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Hulk

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GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

Flashpoint provides a remarkable opportunity to establish the talent and proficiencies for those truly interested in working in the digital arts industries. With a future oriented course of study through multi-disciplinary workflow and collaborative teamwork, alongside the latest changing technologies and creative development training program, Flashpoint’s portfolio development opportunities give students a distinctive entry point into their industry of choice. Flashpoint’s main campus, housed in the historic Burnham Center in the heart of downtown Chicago, includes classrooms, cinema/sound/game and animation labs, recording/sound design studios, Foley studio, film/synth/sound editing suites, directing stage, lighting stage, screening rooms, information commons, motion-capture studio, advanced technology conference studio and student lounges. Two additional campus locations are anchored by over 5,000 square feet of studio space, as well as uniquely adapted digital classrooms unprecedented in the college environment. Flashpoint is recognized as an innovative and vibrant educational enterprise. FILM/BROADCAST MEDIA: Exposing students to the complete spectrum of these industries’ essentials, from screenwriting/storyboarding, producing, cinematography and directing to editing, programming, set design and production techniques. GAME DEVELOPMENT: Pursuing game design and production with hands-on experiences in relevant industry projects; learning the fast emerging technologies and practical applications for commercial and corporate uses while seeing your visions come to life. RECORDING ARTS: Studying the science of acoustics, learning the nuances of live studio recording; hitting the road with the Film department for location audio experience and employing the technologies of the trade, from software to the most sophisticated soundboards. VISUAL EFFECTS/ANIMATION: Exploring the animation of characters and environments; utilizing the highest-caliber 3D animation software available. Collaborating on prominent industry assignments, implementing modeling and texturing to compositing creations into film.

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MASTER’S PROGRAM

Master’s Degree in Digital Media Answering Industry’s Call for Talent The Masters of Digital Media (MDM) Program, Canada’s first professional graduate degree of its kind in digital media, is developing the next generation of leaders in digital animation, video games, interactive design, e-Learning and virtual world technologies. The MDM Program offers a challenging academic curriculum relevant to the needs of the digital media industry. The team-based, award-winning program provides real world experience through access to industry partners such as Electronic Arts, Autodesk, Rainmaker, Radical Entertainment – Vivendi Games, Propaganda GamesBVG Disney and Microsoft. Further, students work on industry-funded projects and on four-month internships. But it’s not all work! Movie nights, multi-player Rock Band sessions and pizza Fridays take the edge off the high performance week.

A Distinctive Degree for a Distinctly Outstanding Student Body The MDM Program is housed at the Centre for Digital Media located at Great Northern Way Campus (GNWC). GNWC combines the strengths of four leading academic institutions: the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr University of Art + Design and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. MDM graduates receive a powerhouse Master’s degree bearing the seals of all four academic partners. The MDM Program is targeted at individuals with an undergraduate degree in a variety of disciplines. MDM classrooms are populated with artists, computer scientists, film-makers, entrepreneurs, philosophers and engineers who all share a passion for digital media. Each class has a mixture of seasoned professionals who have worked in the industry and students continuing directly from an undergraduate program.

Location, Location, Location: Vancouver, Canada – THE Centre for Digital Media The MDM can boast not just a world-class program, but a world-class city to offer it in. Vancouver is home to more than 1,100 digital media companies and numerous industry leaders and innovators in digital film, television, video games and interactive advertising. There are more videogame developers per capita in Vancouver than any other city worldwide. The city is an excellent environment—unparalleled anywhere in the world—to nurture and teach our brain trust of digital media minds. Situated on Canada’s West Coast, Vancouver is the Gateway to Asia and one of only a few places where it is possible to snowboard, hike and sail - all on the same day. This dynamic and diverse city (BC’s largest) is consistently ranked as one of the most livable on the planet. In 2008, Vancouver was named the “Most Liveable City” in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Next year, it will host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Become a Master of Digital Media The MDM Program is currently accepting applications for the next session scheduled to begin in September 2009. Become a Master of Digital Media.

Apply Now: mdm.gnwc.ca

MASTERS OF DIGITAL MEDIA PROGRAM @ GREAT NORTHERN WAY CAMPUS 577 Great Northern Way Vancouver, BC q Canada Speak to an advisor: Alison Robb Phone: 778.370.1031 Email: [email protected]

mdm.gnwc.ca

“The MDM Program represents endless opportunity, immeasurable growth and daily discovery.” SuYon Sohn MDM Graduate Student

“The MDM Program has the unique advantage of training students within the structure of a realworld production environment. It is education in a live-fire setting – a must for fostering the next generation of talent in the interactive entertainment industry.” Dave Fracchia VP, Technology Radical Entertainment

“A truly revolutionary educational experience.” Ashley Welsh MDM Graduate, Class of 2009 Co-founder, D-Sign Touchless Interactive Systems

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TECHNICAL SCHOOL

Game Design at Vancouver Film School is an immersive one-year program that covers everything students need to join the game industry, from theory to hands-on practice to portfolio production. The L.A. Times called VFS one of the top 10 schools “favored by video game industry recruiters.”

VANCOUVER FILM SCHOOL 200 - 198 West Hastings St. Vancouver, BC V6B 1H2 Canada Phone: 604.685.5808 or 800.661.4104 Email: [email protected]

www.vfs.com/gamecareer “VFS made it easy to connect with various companies in the industry. Although the onus was on us to foster the relationships that would lead to jobs, the staff at VFS provided a ‘foot in the door’ that gave me an opportunity to prove myself.” Armando Troisi, VFS Graduate Lead Cinematic Designer BioWare (Mass Effect 2)

“You can’t think of this as school. This is industry experience. If you go into the program and you think of it that way, you will get a job in the industry because you are working with people from the industry.” Paul Parsons, VFS Graduate Senior Game Designer Propaganda Games

“Coming in from VFS, I was ready to hit the ground running. VFS prepared me very well for the volume and type of work that I do and produce the kind of gameplay that I can be proud of.” David Bowring, VFS Graduate Gameplay Designer Volition (Saints Row 2)

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GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

In a process that closely mirrors a realworld studio environment, students work in teams to take a game from concept to completion. Through an in-depth curriculum, including Visual Storytelling, Design Documentation, Machinima, Analog Games, Flash, Interface Design, Level Design, Project Management, Game Audio, Motion Capture, and Game Journalism, students learn more than just one facet of game design; they gain broad and applicable experience as they begin their careers. Above all, Game Design at VFS is a professional experience, led by industry. Every step of the way, students are mentored by faculty consisting of respected industry professionals, who are often a student’s first professional network and best reference. Dave Warfield, Head of Game Design at VFS, is an industry veteran: as a Senior Producer for EA, he helped produce and design the NHL franchise between 1995 and 2005, and his many other credits include titles like EA’s NBA Live, Konami’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and NEC’s Champions Forever Boxing. An Advisory Board of industry leaders, including luminaries from Activision, BioWare, Namco, and Ubisoft, also helps to shape and adapt the curriculum on an ongoing basis to meet the needs of an evolving industry. To reflect the collaborative nature of the game industry, students gain valuable experience by working with other production-oriented programs at VFS during various stages of the development process, drawing on the talent and expertise of their peers in disciplines like Sound Design and Animation & Visual Effects. Students at VFS have the advantage of living and creating in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Along with strong film, TV, and animation industries, Vancouver is a world center of game development, with dozens of developers based in this beautiful and cosmopolitan city. That means that VFS can remain industrycurrent, host regular guest speakers, and provide students with the opportunity to present their final playable games to an audience of industry representatives and recruiters: a unique chance to demonstrate their skills and make vital professional contacts. The proof is in the results. Since the Game Design program’s inception in 2004, graduates have gone on to work for dozens of companies in Vancouver and beyond. Graduates have been hired in Designer and Producer roles at companies like BioWare, EA, Mythic, Propaganda Games, Radical, Relic, Ubisoft, and Volition, and recent and upcoming credits include Mass Effect, Dawn of War II, Prototype, Saints Row 2, skate, and Warhammer Online. To learn more about Game Design at VFS, visit vfs.com/gamecareer.

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The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University, and the Division of Art at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts and SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering have started the first-of-its-kind degree programs in the nation offering a bachelor’s degree in fine arts or computer science and a master’s in interactive technology degree in digital game development (MIT) within five years. Students who choose the dual degree plan complete their general education and School of Arts or Lyle School of Engineering major requirements at the SMU main campus and then move to the SMU campus in Plano to complete The Guildhall at SMU program. At the Plano campus, students concurrently finish their undergraduate degrees and start the master’s program. Gaming has increasingly broad penetration into all forms of cultural expression, and likewise draws more and more from the framework of the arts, physical and social sciences. Because of the depth of immersion possible within the graduate studies of the Guildhall MIT program, the breadth afforded by the BFA degree and the BS in computer science will give the next generation of game designers unique tools and experiences to bring to the profession as well as the game environment itself. The BFA/MIT and the BSCS/MIT programs form a unique collaboration between these three disciplines, with exciting implications for the future of art, engineering, and interactive simulations. In six short years since the program opened its door, more than 250 of its graduates have worked at more than 80 of the world’s leading video game companies. Combining the foundation of a fine arts or computer science undergraduate degree with the technology, project team management and game theory knowledge encompassed in The Guildhall at SMU graduate program truly prepares students for careers in the gaming industry.

SMU’s main campus is in the heart of Dallas, one of the top places in the U.S. to live, work, learn, and play.

PRIVATE UNIVERSITY

High School Students Interested in Video Game Development Career Should Look to Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Traditional art skills are transformed into game art.

The Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering at SMU believes there are no problems too big to be solved. The Guildhall at SMU 5232 Tennyson Parkway Building 2 Plano, TX 75024 Phone: 972.473.3539

http://hs.guildhall.smu.edu

High school students wanting to learn more should contact: The Guildhall at SMU at (214) 768-9950 or [email protected].

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ART SCHOOL

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Game Art & Design at The Art Institutes It starts with your creativity. Comes to life in the form of a character. And moves, breathes, and exists through the tools and technology you can experience at an Art Institutes school. It’s your future in Game Art & Design. And it’s waiting for you to take a big step — from game player to game designer.

Anatomy classes teach students to study form, which is then brought to life through clay sculpture — resulting in more realistic characters.

Not just a school. A creative learning environment. You’ve already done 12 years of school — maybe more if you’ve taken higher education classes. You know book learning isn’t everything — you want to get your hands dirty. At The Art Institutes schools that offer Game Art & Design programs, you’ll have an opportunity to sculpt characters out of clay. You’ll learn alongside other students who feel the same way you do about gaming. And you can become part of a creative community where instructors and students share their insights, imagination, and understanding that learning is a valuable and purposeful tool that can lead to an exciting future. An education that can equip you for the real world. The games you play give you choices. And so do we. You can pick from over 20 of our diverse schools across North America that offer Game Art & Design programs. You can forge your path in an environment that stimulates you intellectually and creatively. And you’ll have an opportunity to gain experience through hands-on education that allows you to jump right in and get going on bringing your ideas to life. In our program, you’ll be making your own games — adding textures, devising challenges, and setting the parameters to make the game uniquely yours. And you’ll do it under the guidance and instruction of experienced professionals. Our fundamental courses get you started, and then it’s off to the races with drawing, color, design, and computer applications—the real tools of the trade. You’ll even study anatomy to help you create more lifelike characters. Finally, you’ll have an opportunity to dive into image manipulation, cinematography, creative storytelling, storyboarding, and 2D and 3D modeling techniques — utilizing industry-related equipment that you’ll see in the real world, after graduation.

Completed sculptures look as if they could walk off on their own — and they soon will, as animated video game characters.

The tools you need to conquer the competition. You know it — the gaming industry is competitive. So why not prepare to compete? Our students build a portfolio of work that’s ready for potential employers. And our schools offer Portfolio Shows that allow students to talk up their work to companies that are interested in hiring graduates from Art Institutes schools. Our reputation speaks for itself in the industry, and employers know that they can count on our graduates to deliver.

THE ART INSTITUTES

Function at a new creative level. What will you be able to do after graduation? Well, for starters, how about pursue an entry-level position as a game tester/analyst, game designer, level designer, texture artist, cinematic artist, 2D artist, or 3D artist in a software company, game design company, or education company? And that’s just what your experience can prepare you for, right out of school.

Administrative Office 210 Sixth Avenue, 33rd Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Phone: 412.562.0900

Start it up. You have the tools you need to take the next step. So fire up your laptop, get out your cell phone, or whip out the Sharpie, and contact us. In return, we can provide you with the equipment you need for a future in Game Art & Design that you’ll love.

Xavier D. Saulter, Game Art & Design, The Art Institute of Phoenix, Graduate

www.artinstitutes.edu The Art Institutes is a system of over 40 schools in North America. Financial aid is available to those who quality.

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GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

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ONLINE SCHOOL

“This is the way I like my education.” – KEVIN GRAHAM, GRADUATE CD-ED’s Digital Arts Technology Training Institute offers a 1-year, fully recognized 3D Game Artist diploma program available throughout the United States, Canada, the UK, and beyond. With a main campus in Sydney, Nova Scotia and a new branch campus in Tampa, Florida, plus the virtual campus that allows access all over the world, it’s never been easier for you to get an education. The skills learned in this program might help you find a position at a company creating games for the PC or for independent gaming platforms such as the PS3, DSi, Wii, PSP, and more.

CENTRE FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION In development of the 3D Game Artist program, we took our cue from the game industry itself, building a program that would ensure successful graduates a shot at entry-level employment. The curriculum is based on the requirements listed in actual employment ads for these jobs from companies such as Bioware, Blizzard Entertainment, and the Walt Disney Company. With its tight focus, you’ll be ready to apply for a job such as 3D Background Artist, 3D Artist, or Environment Artist. As a graduate you’ll have all the 3D techniques and technical aspects required in a real live job, such as creating low-poly and high-poly models based on provided concept artwork and model sheets while adhering to the polygon & texture budgets established for the production. At the end of the program, you will be able to prepare your models to accept your custom game-specific textures with UV maps. You’ll know the technical aspects of using normal mapping & texture baking to bring your high-poly detail into a low-poly game setting and how to import your 3D assets into a game engine. CD-ED’s learning methodology places a heavy focus on portfolio development, and as every hopeful game artist knows, the portfolio will make or break you. You will have both a CD-ready and a web portfolio upon graduation. The innovative, industry-driven, fully online and interactive programs give you the opportunity to immerse yourselves in the digital environment to the degree necessary to truly excel in the gaming industry. Online education means having wider choices. CD-ED has the courses employers want, when and where the student wants to take them. With minimal disruption to your daily life, you can become a 3D Game Artist regardless of where you live or work. Graduates from CD-ED are in high demand. CD-ED graduates are compositing and modeling at IMAX and contributing to XBOX 360 games. CD-ED is committed to helping you find employment in the field of your choice. In fact, we’ll start before you even begin as a student! If you call us today, your personal admissions representative will research the job market for this career in your city, and help you decide if this program is the right path for your future. After graduation, we’ll help you find an interview with your prospective employer in the job market and coach you through the job hunt until you find the career you’ve been dreaming of. Apply now to ensure that you are accepted on your schedule.

MAIN CAMPUS: CANADA DIVISION Centre for Distance Education 222 George St., Suite C Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada B1P 1J3 BRANCH CAMPUS: USA DIVISION Centre for Distance Education 14502 North Dale Mabry Highway Suite 200 Tampa, Florida 33618 Toll-Free Phone: 1.866.446.5898 1.866.567.3010 Toll-Free Fax: 1.866.559.0131 Email: [email protected]

www.cd-ed.com

“I got recruited as a 3D Artist with Hydrant Studios Inc. in the Niagara region. We work on XBOX 360 titles developing assets and characters. As a 3D artist at Hydrant, I am responsible for concept development (character and environment assets), 3d modeling, texturing, sculpting and preparing the assets to be rigged and animated. My tasks are always different from project to project. One day I can be working on a vehicle or a building and the next day I can be making a three-legged creature from a fantasy swamp.” Alejandro Mendoza Graduate

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abbreviations R AA AAS

State residents Associate of Arts Associate of Applied Science BA Bachelor of Arts BFA Bachelor of Fine Arts BGA Bachelor of Game Art BS(c) Bachelor of Science MA Master of Arts MFA Master of Fine Arts MS(c) Master of Science PhD Doctor of Philosophy

MS OG RA PR

AT IO N LO C

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ME

IN CL

UD E

GAME SCHOOLS ARE GROWING MORE PLENTIFUL BY THE YEAR, AND IT CAN BE DIFFICULT TO KNOW WHAT SORT of school is right for you. This directory aims to give you an overview of a number of different schools, from art institutions to full-fledged traditional universities, to game oriented schools. This list should only be considered an introduction—all the information on these pages was gathered from our sister site www.GameCareerGuide.com, and you should visit pages of any universities in which you may be interested for further information. All the data included here is merely a quick overview of what these schools have to offer. One helpful tactic may be to browse student games via Independent Game Festival submissions, or university websites, and see which games align with your sensibilities. The types of games that come out of a school aren't 100% indicative of the quality of the programs, but it's a start, and can at least give you an idea of the school's games pedigree.

Academy of Art University

San Francisco, CA

3D Modeling, Background Painting, Character Animation, Games, Visual Development, 2D, 3D, Computer Graphics, Game Environments, 3D Animation

Alberta College of Art & Design

Calgary, Alberta

Visual Communications Design Program: Character Design Stream

Algoma University

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Computer Games Technology

Animation Arts Centre - Seneca College

Toronto, Ontario

Video Game Art & Design

Animation Mentor

Emeryville, CA

Advanced Studies in Character Animation

Art Center College of Design - Pasadena

Pasadena, CA

Digital Media, Entertainment Design

Art Institute Online

Pittsburgh, PA

Game Art & Design

Disclaimer: All information contained in the Game Career Guide 2009 game school directory has been provided by school officials and should be verified with the institution, including accreditation. This information was taken directly from schools' listings at www.GameCareerGuide.com. The exclusion or inclusion of any institution in this listing, both domestic and foreign, does not reflect its merits, ranking (official or unofficial), or credibility. Figures pertain to the academic year 2008 or 2009 as updated by officials. 76

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

T CO NT AC

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T/ FA PH CU ON LT E YR AT IO

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FIN

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MA/MFA, Associate’s, Online Programs, BFA

$670 per unit

Yes

Yes

15:1

800.544.2787

www.academyart.edu

[email protected]

BA/BGA

$13,832 per year

Yes

Yes

9:1

403.284.7600

www.acad.ab.ca

[email protected]

MSc

$22,000 for full program Yes

Yes

1:1

888.ALGOMAU

http://mastersingaming.com /algoma

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

No

No

–

416.491.5050 x 3850

http://aac.senecac.on.ca

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

Yes

No

–

510.809.1177

www.animationmentor.com

See web site

BSc, BFA

$13,155 per semester

Yes

Yes

–

626.396.2373

www.artcenter.edu

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma, BSc, and Associate’s

$407 per unit

Yes

Yes

15:1

877.872.8869

www.aionline.edu

See web site

WWW.GDMAG.COM

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Audio Institute of America

San Francisco, CA

Audio Diploma

Austin Community College

Austin, TX

Visual Communication, Video Game Art, Video Game Design, and Video Game Programming

Baker College Online

Flint, MI

Bachelor of Computer Science, Game Software Development

Banff New Media Institute (BNMI)

Banff, Alberta

Computer Technician Work Study, Video Production Work Study, Creative Electronic Environment

Bay Area Video Coalition

San Francisco, CA

Gaming and 3D Modeling

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AT IO AL AID UD EN T/ FA PH CU ON LT E YR

No

No

–

415.752.0701

www.audioinstitute.com

See web site

Certificate/Diploma, Associate’s

$1,500 per semester

Yes

Yes

12:1

512.363.3795

www.austincc.edu/viscom

[email protected]

BCS

$185 per unit

Yes

Yes

13:1

888.211.8915

www.baker.edu

See web site

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

No

No

–

403.762.6652

www.banffcentre.ca

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

$595 per course

–

–

10:1

415.558.2126

www.bavc.org

[email protected]

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF GAME AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA WELCOMES YOU IN FRANCE!

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Certificate/Diploma

Master degree in games and interactive media

World class professional and technical training and research opportunities Two years Master degree open to foreign students A two year graduate level program including international seminar, professional internship, pre-production of a game or interactive media (final project)

www.enjmin.fr [email protected] French Ministry of Education, High Education and Research

WWW.GDMAG.COM

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Becker College

Worcester, MA

Game Design, Game Development and Programming

Bellevue University

Bellevue, NE

Games & Simulation Design

Brown College

Mendota Heights, MN

Visual Communications - Multimedia or Graphic Design Emphasis

Brown University

Providence, RI

Computer Science

California Institute of the Arts

Valencia, CA

Character Animation, Experimental Animation

New England Institute of Technology

Game Development and Simulation Programming Technology Learn how to develop video and computer games for PC, XBox, and more. Focus on the hottest technologies such as C++, C#, Java, Torque, Flash, 3ds Max, XNA, Gamebryo, DirectX, Unreal and Photoshop. Class work is centered on developing games as a team using your creativity and technical skills. Earn an Associate’s Degree in as little as eighteen months or a Bachelor’s Degree in as little as three years.

401.467.7744 800.736.7744 2500 Post Rd. Warwick, RI

www.neit.edu

AMERICA’S TECHNICAL COLLEGE 80

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

Game Development Game Architecture Game Design MOD's and Engines C++/C#/Java Xbox Photoshop Multi-player Games DirectX Graphics and Animation Mobile Gaming Server-based Gaming Internet Gaming RPG, FPS, Side-scroll Lightwave 3D Flash

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FIN A

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BA/BGA

$12, 000 per semester

Yes

Yes

12:1

508.373.9731

www.becker.edu/gamedev

[email protected]

BSc

$320 per unit

Yes

Yes

24:1

800.756.7920

www.gamedesignacademy.com

[email protected]

BSc

Varies

No

No

–

888.574.3777

http://browncollege.edu

See web site

PhD, MSc

$3,0672 per year

Yes

Yes

–

401.863.7600

www.cs.brown.edu

[email protected]

MA/MFA, BFA

$29,300 per year

Yes

Yes

7:1

661.255.1050

www.calarts.edu

See web site

3D image: Emilie Courcelles

National Animation and Design Centre

New Undergraduate Certificate in 3D Animation and Digital design for: - Film and television

- Video games

30-week training offered at the NAD Centre in Montreal. Students who successfully complete the program will receive a University diploma

For more information or to register for our guided tours: 514-288-3447 [email protected] www.nadcentre.com

WWW.GDMAG.COM

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California Polytechnic State University

San Luis Obispo, CA

Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Art & Design, Graphic Communication, Music

Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center

Pittsburgh, PA

Entertainment Technology Center

CCBC Essex/University of Baltimore

Baltimore, MD

Simulation and Digital Entertainment

CDIA at Boston University Washington DC campus

Washington, DC

3D Animation, Visual Effects, Game Art & Design

CDIA at Boston University Waltham campus

Waltham, MA

3D Animation, Game Art & Character Animation

Centre for Digital Media Masters of Digital Media Program

Vancouver, BC

Masters of Digital Media Program

CENTRE NAD National Animation and Design Centre

Montreal, Quebec

Design and 3D Animation for Video, 3D Animation and Visual Effects for Film and Television, Certificate in 3D animation and digital design

Champlain College

Burlington, VT

Electronic Game Programming, Electronic Game & Interactive, Specialization in Game Design or Art & Animation

Cleveland Institute of Art

Cleveland, OH

T.I.M.E. - Digital Arts

Cogswell Polytechnical College

Sunnyvale, CA

Digital Art and Animation, Digital Audio Technology, Digital Arts Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering

Collins College

Phoenix, AZ

Game Design, Game Art

Columbia College Chicago

Chicago, IL

Digital Media Technology, Audio for Visual Media, Game Design, Interactive Arts & Media

Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences

Gilbert, AZ

MRPII

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MA/MFA, BA/BGA

$226 per unit

Yes

Yes

19:1

805.756.1111

www.calpoly.edu

[email protected].

MET

$15,000 per semester

Yes

Yes

6:1

412.268.9447

www.etc.cmu.edu

See web site

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

Yes

Yes

–

410.780.6412

http://student.ccbcmd.edu/immt

See web site

Certificate/Diploma

$21, 000 per course

–

–

12:1

800.808.CDIA

www.cdiabu.com

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

$22,500 per course

Yes

No

12:1

800.808.CDIA

www.cdiabu.com

[email protected]

MA/MFA

$10,000/semester (R)

Yes

Yes

–

778.370.1031

www.mdm.gnwc.ca

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

Yes

Yes

22:1

514.288.3447

www.nadcentre.com

[email protected]

BSc, BA/BGA

$26,655 per year

Yes

Yes

15:1

802.860.2727

www.champlain.edu

[email protected]

BFA

$29,000 per year

Yes

Yes

10:1

216.421.7000

www.cia.edu

[email protected]

BA/BGA, BSc

$8,184 per semester

Yes

Yes

12:1

800.264.7955

www.cogswell.edu

See web site

BA/BGA

$6,200 per semester

Yes

Yes

30:1

480.966.3000

www.collinscollege.edu

ccollegeadmissions @collinscollege.edu

BA/BGA

$17,104 per year

Yes

Yes

20:1

312.663.1600

www.game.colum.edu

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

$18,440 per semester

Yes

Yes

12:1

480.858.9400

www.audiorecordingschool.com

[email protected]

WWW.GDMAG.COM

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Cornell University

Ithaca, NY

Game Design Minor

Daniel Webster College

Nashua, NH

Video Game Programming

DArTT (Digital Arts Technology Training Institute)

Sydney, Nova Scotia

3D Animation, 3D Advanced: Character Animation, Graphic Design, 3D Game Artist

DAVE School (The Digital Animation & Visual Effects School)

Orlando, FL

Animation and Visual Effects

DePaul University

Chicago, IL

Game Development (Programming, Production & Design), Animation, Computer Graphics Programming, Interactive Media, Digital Cinema, Computer Science

 

DID YOU KNOW?

PEOPLE SPEND APPROXIMATELY

$55 BILLION

ANNUALLY ON VIDEO GAMES. Whether your favorite medium is paint or pixels, Ringling College offers an extensive palette of classes, programs and majors to help transform your creative passion into a viable career. Image: GREG HETTINGER ’09 WINNER OF THE ELECTRONIC ARTS 2008 ANDY PAUSCH AWARD

“Electronic Art’s ability to make some of the best videogames in the world relies entirely on our ability to recruit a talented and skillful workforce that is passionate about videogames. As a company that has hired dozens of Ringling College graduates, we are extremely impressed with the students from the College.” Steven Chiang / Vice President & General Manager / Electronic Arts, Tiburon

84

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

2700 North Tamiami Trail Sarasota, Florida 34234–5895 1.800.255.7695 [toll free in U.S. only] 941.351.5100 www.ringling.edu

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BSc, BA/BGA

$18,150 per semester

Yes

Yes

9:1

607.255.9196

http://gdiac.cis.cornell.edu

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

No

No

–

603.770.0090

www.dwc.edu

See web site

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

Yes

Yes

1:1

866.567.3010

www.darttinstitute.com

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

No

No

–

407.224.3283

www.daveschool.com/pages/ Gaming.htm

See web site

MSc, MA/MFA, BSc, BA/BGA

$27,055 per year

Yes

Yes

16:1

312.362.8381

http://GameDev.DePaul.edu

[email protected]

i\X[pkf^\kpfli^Xd\fe6 Passionate about video games? Then you’ve got the most important prerequisite for NATIONAL UNIVERSITY’s bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in video game art and animation or production and design. Be part of the industry that promises continued growth and opportunities for innovative game designers and producers. call today

1.800.NAT.UNIV or visit our website:

www.nu.edu

TM

The University of Values WWW.GDMAG.COM

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DeVry University - Online

Naperville, IL

Game & Simulation Programming

DigiPen Institute of Technology

Redmond, WA

Real-Time Interactive Simulation, Computer Engineering Computer Science, Production Animation, Game Design

Drexel University, Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design

Philadelphia, PA

Digital Media, Film & Video, Graphic Design, Screenwriting & Playwriting

Durham College

Oshawa, Ontario

Game Development

Edison Community College

Piqua, OH

Computer Games and Simulation Programming and Design

Emily Carr University of Art + Design

Vancouver, BC

Illustration, Animation, Media Stream

Ex'pression College for Digital Arts

Emeryville, CA

Animation and Visual Effects, Game Art and Design, Motion Graphic Design, Sound Arts

Flashpoint - The Academy of Media Arts & Sciences

Chicago, IL

Game Development, Visual Effects/Animation, Recording Arts

Full Sail University

Winter Park, FL

Game Development, Computer Animation, Game Art, Game Design

Gemini School of Visual Arts & Communication

Cedar Park, TX

Commercial Art & Illustration

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta, GA

Graphics & Visualization, Artificial Intelligence

Gnomon Online

Hollywood, CA

Online Classes

Gnomon School of Visual Effects

Hollywood, CA

High-End Computer Graphics, Maya Fast Track

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GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

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NC I

ED ITE

FIN A

Varies

Yes

Yes

–

800.231.0497

www.devry.edu

See web site

MSc, BSc, BA/BGA

$476 per unit (R)

Yes

Yes

13:1

425.558.0299

www.digipen.edu

[email protected]

MSc, Certificate/Diploma, BSc, BS, MS

$28,300 per year

Yes

Yes

15:1

215.895.1675

http://drexel.edu/westphal

See web site

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

–

–

–

905.721.2000

www.durhamcollege.ca

See web site

Associate’s

Varies

Yes

Yes

–

937.778.8600

www.edisonohio.edu/cit

[email protected]

BA/BGA, MA/MFA

$4,000 per year (R)

Yes

Yes

18:1

604.844.3800

www.ecuad.ca/www

[email protected]

BAS

Varies

Yes

Yes

–

877.833.8800

www.expression.edu

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

$25,000 per year

No

Yes

20:1

312.332.0707

www.flashpointacademy.com

admissions @flashpointacademy.com

MSc, BSc

Varies

Yes

Yes

9:1

407.679.0100

www.fullsail.edu

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

$17,000 per year

No

Yes

24:1

512.249.1237

www.geminischool.com

[email protected]

PhD, MSc, BSc

$11,475 per year

Yes

Yes

11:1

404.894.3152

www.gatech.edu

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

$1,650 per course

Yes

Yes

12:1

323.466.6663

www.gnomononline.com

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

$25,000 per year

Yes

Yes

12:1

323.466.6663

www.gnomonschool.com

[email protected]

ST

AC

CR

TU

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D

IN CL UD E ES DE GR E

BSc

WWW.GDMAG.COM

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Guildhall at SMU

Plano, TX

Art Creation, Level Design, Software Development

High Point University

High Point, NC

Game and Interactive Media Design

Indiana University

Bloomington, IN

MIME, Game Studies

International Academy of Design & Technology - Las Vegas

Henderson, NV

Game Design and Development

Los Angeles Film School

Hollywood, CA

Game Production

88

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

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FIN A

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D

IN CL UD E ES DE GR E

MIT, Certificate/Diploma

$51,000 for full program Yes

Yes

12:1

214.768.9950

http://guildhall.smu.edu

See web site

BA/BGA

$33,000 per year

Yes

Yes

14:1

336.841.9174

www.highpoint.edu

[email protected]

MSc, Certificate/Diploma

$22,316 per year

Yes

Yes

–

812.855.3828

www.iub.edu

[email protected]

BFA

Varies

No

No

–

866.400.4238

http://contact.iadtvegas.com

See web site

Associate’s

Varies

Yes

Yes

–

323.860.0789

www.lafilm.com

[email protected]

WWW.GDMAG.COM

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M.I.A. Training Center School of Visual Effects

Tampa, FL

Game Design

Madison Media Institute College of Media Arts

Madison, WI

Digital Media Design & Production, Video & Motion Graphics, Recording & Music Technology, Game Art & Animation, Entertainment & Media Business

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, MA

Comparative Media Studies, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Max the Mutt Animation School

Toronto, Ontario

Concept Art, Classical & Computer Animation Basics, 3D Computer Animation & Production

Mercy College - Center for Digital Arts

White Plains, NY

Game Design, Digital Media and Interaction Design, Animation

Michigan State University

East Lansing, MI

Game Design & Development Specialization, Serious Game Design

Montgomery College

Rockville, MD

Computer Gaming and Simulation (Art & Animation, Programming, and Production & Design tracks), Internet Gaming and Simulation

National University School of Media & Communication

La Jolla, CA

Video Game Production and Design, Digital Entertainment and Interactive Arts

NBCC Miramichi

Miramichi, NB

Media Studies (Art Fundamentals), Animation and Graphics, Electronic Game - 3D Graphics, Electronic Game - Design (programming)

New England Institute of Technology

Warwick, RI

Game Development and Simulation Programming Technology, Software Engineering Technology, Digital Recording Arts, Graphics

New York University - School of Continuing and Professional Studies

New York, NY

Digital Communications and Media

Northeastern University

Boston, MA

Interactive Design, Game Design, Digital Video, 3D Animation

Otis College of Art and Design Digital Media Department

Los Angeles, CA

Game Design, Animation, Interactive Design, Motion Graphics, Visual Effects

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GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

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RA TIO AL AID UD EN T/ FA PH CU ON LT E Y

No

No

–

813.888.8444

http://AnimationTraining.com

See web site

Associate's, BSc

$380 per unit

Yes

Yes

15:1

800.236.4997

www.madisonmedia.edu

admissions@ madisonmedia.com

PhD, MSc, BSc

$34,986 per year

Yes

Yes

7:1

617.253.3400

http://web.mit.edu/admissions

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

No

No

–

416.703.6877

www.maxthemutt.com

[email protected]

BFA

$8,000 per semester

Yes

Yes

12:1

914.948.3666 x 3311

http://artdesign.mercy.edu

[email protected]

MA/MFA, BA/BGA

$15,144 per semester

Yes

Yes

20:1

517.353.5497

www.tc.msu.edu

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma, Associate’s, MCS, AA

Varies

Yes

Yes

–

240.567.5000

www.studygaming.com

See web site

MFA, BA/BGA

Varies

No

No

–

858.642.8434

www.nu.edu/Academics/ Schools/SOMC.html

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

$2,600 per year (R)

No

Yes

10:1

506.778.6000

www.nbcc.ca/ content.asp?id=438

studentservices.nbccmir @gnb.ca

ASc, BSc

$16,200 per year

Yes

Yes

15:1

401.467.7744

www.neit.edu

See web site

BSc

Varies

No

No

–

212.998.7100

www.scps.nyu.edu/sm222

See web site

Certificate/Diploma

$514 per unit

Yes

Yes

12:1

617.373.2400

www.northeastern.edu/cps /digitalmedia

[email protected]

BFA

$30,414 per year

Yes

Yes

10:1

310.665.6800

www.otis.edu

See web site

UR

L

Varies

ST

FIN A

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Certificate/Diploma

WWW.GDMAG.COM

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Pacific Audio Visual Institute

Vancouver, BC

Game Design & 3D Animation

Parsons the New School of Design: School of Art, Media and Technology

New York, NY

Design & Technology

Platt (Media Arts) College

San Diego, CA

Graphic Design, Media Arts, Multimedia/Animation

Purdue University and Technical Animation

West Lafayette, IN

Computer Graphics Technology, Concentrations in Interactive Multimedia

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, NY

Game and Simulation Arts & Sciences

Ringling College of Art and Design

Sarasota, FL

Computer Animation, Graphic & Interactive Communication, Fine Arts

Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester, NY

Game Design & Development, Computer Science, New Media Interactive Development, New Media Design and Imaging, 3D Digital Graphics

Santa Monica College Academy of Entertainment Technology

Santa Monica, CA

Animation, Game Development, Visual Effects

Savannah College of Art and Design

Savannah, GA

Animation, Interactive Game Design & Motion Graphics, Sound Design, Visual Effects

School of Visual Arts

New York, NY

Computer Art, Computer Animation, Visual Effects

Seneca College - Game Art & Animation

Toronto, Ontario

3D Animation, Animation, 3D Gaming

Sessions Online School of Game Art

New York, NY

Game Art

Shawnee State University

Portsmouth, OH

Digital Simulation and Gaming Engineering Technology, Gaming and Simulation Development Arts

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FIN A

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Certificate/Diploma

$19,500 per year

Yes

Yes

8:1

800.601.PAVI

www.pacificav.com

[email protected]

MA/MFA, BFA

$31,000 per year

Yes

Yes

15:1

800.252.0852

http://cdt.parsons.edu

[email protected]

Associate’s, BSc, Certificate/Diploma

$22,350 per year

Yes

Yes

12:1

866.752.8826

www.platt.edu

See web site

BSc, Associate’s

$14,400 per year

Yes

Yes

16:1

765.494.7505

www.tech.purdue.edu/cg

[email protected]

BSc

Varies

Yes

Yes

–

See web site

www.gsas.rpi.edu

[email protected]

BFA

$10,600 per semester

Yes

Yes

16:1

941.351.5100

www.ringling.edu

[email protected]

MSc, BSc, MA/MFA, BFA

$28,866 per year

Yes

Yes

13:1

585.475.6631

www.rit.edu

See web site

Associate’s, Certificate/Diploma

$20 per unit

Yes

Yes

18:1

310.434.3700

http://academy.smc.edu

[email protected]

MA/MFA, BFA, Certificate/Diploma

$22,950 year

Yes

Yes

16:1

800.869.7223

www.scad.edu

[email protected]

MFA, BFA

$13,400 per semester

Yes

Yes

9:1

888.220.5782

www.sva.edu

[email protected]

MSc, Certificate/Diploma

Varies

Yes

Yes

15:2

416.491.5050 x 3850

www.senecagaming.ca

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

$5,529 for full program

Yes

Yes

–

800.258.4115

http://gameart.sessions.edu

[email protected]

BA/BGA, BSc

$2,915 per semester (R) Yes

Yes

20:1

740.351.3113

http://ssugames.org

[email protected]

WWW.GDMAG.COM

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Simon Fraser University - School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT)

Surrey, BC

Media Arts, Design & Informatics

Southern Adventist University School of Visual Art and Design

Collegedale, TN

Animation, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Interactive Media

St. Edward’s University

Austin, TX

Digital Media Management

Stony Brook University Texas State Technical College

Stony Brook, NY Waco, TX

Computer Science Specialization in Game Programming Game & Simulation, Game Programming and Design

The Art Institutes Systems Of Schools

Pittsburgh, PA

3D Modeling for Animation & Games, Computer Animation, Game Art & Design, Visual Effects & Motion Graphics

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¸7YVMLZZPVUHS:[\KPLZ¹JSHZZLZHYLH]HPSHISLVUJHTW\ZHUKVUSPUL

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(VUL`LHYM\SS[PTL[YHJRVMJV\YZLZKLZPNULK[VOLSWHY[PZ[Z KL]LSVW[OLPYWVY[MVSPVZMVYJHYLLYZPU[OLÄSTIYVHKJHZ[HUK ]PKLVNHTLPUK\Z[YPLZ

HIGH-END CG CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

([^V`LHYM\SS[PTLJLY[PÄJH[LWYVNYHTKLZPNULK[VWYVK\JL ^LSSYV\UKLKKPNP[HSHY[PZ[Z

MAYA FAST TRACK PROGRAM

0U[LUZP]LUPUL^LLRPU[YVK\J[PVU[V(\[VKLZR4H`H

Student work by Sanjay Chand

For more information and to register for courses go to www.gnomonschool.com

YOUR PIPELINE INTO THE INDUSTRY

94

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

323-466-6663 [email protected] 1015 N Cahuenga Blvd Hollywood, CA 90038

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RA TIO AL AID UD EN T/ FA PH CU ON LT E Y ST

NC I

ED ITE

FIN A

CR AC

TU

ITI ON

D

IN CL UD E ES DE GR E

PhD, MSc, MA/MFA, BSc, BA/BGA

$465 per course

Yes

Yes

–

778.782.7474

www.siat.sfu.ca

[email protected]

AS, BS, BFA

$6,500 per semester

Yes

Yes

12:1

423.236.2732

http://art.southern.edu

[email protected]

MBA

Varies

No

No

–

512.448.8400

www.stedwards.edu/business/ graduate/mbad/index.htm

See web site

BSc Associate’s, BSc

$4,970 per year (R) $1,400 per semester

Yes Yes

Yes Yes

1:19 15:1

631.632.8470 800.792.8784 x 4862

www.cs.stonybrook.edu www.waco.tstc.edu

[email protected] [email protected]

BA/BGA, Associate’s

Varies

Yes

Yes

–

See web site

www.artinstitutes.edu/game

See web site

WWW.GDMAG.COM

95

IN CL UD E MS OG RA PR

AT IO N LO C

ME NA

The PixelYard School of Art

San Diego, CA

Game Art

The University of the Arts

Philadelphia, PA

Multimedia

triOS College

Mississauga, Ontario

Video Game Design and Development

University of Advancing Technology

Tempe, AZ

Game Design, Game Programming, Software Engineering, Game Art and Animation, Game Production

University of California, San Diego

San Diego, CA

Casual Game Development, Digital Graphics and Web Design, Video, Sound, and Motion Graphics

University of California , Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz, CA

Computer Game Depth Sequence within Computer Science, Computer Game Design

University of Central Florida (FIEA)

Orlando, FL

Programming, Art, Production

University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs, CO

Game Design and Development

University of Denver

Denver, CO

Animation and Game Development, Computer Science, Digital Media Studies, Electronic Media Arts Design

University of Houston-Victoria

Victoria, TX

Computer Science - Digital Gaming and Simulation

University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Lafayette, LA

Video Game Design and Development

University of Michigan - Dearborn

Dearborn, MI

Computer Science-Game Design, Software Engineering-Game Design, User Interface and Game Design Specialization

University of Ontario Institute of Technology Toronto, Ontario

Game Development and Entrepreneurship

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA

Computer Graphics & Game Technology, Digital Media and Design, Human Modeling and Simulation

University of Southern California Interactive Media Division

Los Angeles, CA

Interactive Entertainment, Interactive Media

University of Texas at Dallas Arts and Technology program

Richardson, TX

Arts and Technology

Vancouver Film School

Vancouver, BC

Game Design, 3D Animation, Classical Animation, Digital Character Animation (Maya), Sound Design

Vancouver Institute of Media Arts (VanArts)

Vancouver, BC

Game Art & Design, 3D Animation, Visual Effects

Wake Technical Community College

Raleigh, NC

Simulation & Game Development

Westwood College Online

Denver, CO

Game Software Development, Game Art and Design

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Worcester, MA

Interactive Media and Game Development

96

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

L UR

CO NT AC

T

AT IO AL AID UD EN T/ FA PH CU ON LT YR E

NC I

ED ITE

FIN A

Varies

No

Yes

4:1

858.427.1616

www.thepixelyard.com

[email protected]

BFA

$27,220 per year

Yes

Yes

9:1

800.616.ARTS

www.uarts.edu

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

Yes

Yes

20:1

905.814.7212

www.getintothegame.ca

[email protected]

MA/MFA, BA/BGA, MSc, BSc, Associate’s

$8,400 per semester

Yes

Yes

14:1

602.383.8228

www.uat.edu

admissions @uat.edu

Certificate/Diploma

$14,500 full program (R) Yes

–

20:1

858.622.5750

http://dac.ucsd.edu

[email protected]

BSc, BA/BGA

$7,603 per year

Yes

Yes

17:1

831.459.5840

www.soe.ucsc.edu

[email protected]

MSc

$31,000 full program (R) Yes

Yes

6:1

407.823.2121

www.fiea.ucf.edu

See web site

BSc, BI

$2,790 per semester (R) Yes

Yes

25:1

719.255.3150

www.cs.uccs.edu/~chamillard/ GameOptions/GameOptions.htm

[email protected]

BSc, BA/BGA

Varies

Yes

Yes

13:1

303.871.2458

www.gamedev.cs.du.edu

See web site

BSc, BA/BGA

Varies

Yes

Yes

–

361.570.4201

www.uhv.edu/asa/Game/ default.asp

[email protected]

BSc

Varies

No

No

–

337.482.6768

www.louisiana.edu/Academic/ Sciences/CMPS

[email protected]

MSc, BSc, Certificate/Diploma

$3,000 per semester

Yes

Yes

10:1

313.436.9145

www.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS

[email protected]

BIT

Varies

No

No

–

905.721.8668

www.uoit.ca

See web site

PhD, MSc, BSc

$3,0716 per year

Yes

Yes

6:1

215.898.8560

www.cis.upenn.edu/grad/cggt

[email protected]

PhD, MA/MFA, BA/BGA

$30,000 per year

Yes

Yes

5:1

213.821.4472

http://cinema.usc.edu

[email protected]

MA/MFA, BA/BGA

$4,110 per semester (R) Yes

Yes

33:1

972.883.4331

http://atec.utdallas.edu

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

Varies

Yes

Yes

16:1

604.685.5808

www.vfs.com

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma

$28,750 per year

Yes

Yes

10:1

604.682.2787

www.vanarts.com

[email protected]

Certificate/Diploma, Associate’s

Varies

Yes

Yes

–

919.866.5949

http://cet.waketech.edu/ sgd/sgd.htm

[email protected]

BSc

Varies

No

No

–

888.996.6546

www.westwoodonline.edu

[email protected]

BSc

$34,300 per year

Yes

Yes

13:1

508.831.5000

www.wpi.edu/+IMGD

[email protected]

ST

AC

CR

TU

ITI ON

D

IN CL UD E ES DE GR E

Certificate/Diploma

WWW.GDMAG.COM

97

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ME

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INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS

Asian Institute of Gaming and Animation - AIGA

Bangalore, India

www.aiga.in

Blekinge Institute of Technology

Karlshamn, Sweden

http://gamescience.bth.se

Bournemouth University National Centre for Computer Animation

Poole, England

http://ncca.bournemouth.ac.uk

Charles Sturt University

Bathurst, Australia

www.csu.edu.au

Department of Digital Technology and Game Design, Shu-Te University

Kaohsiung, Taiwan

www.dgd.stu.edu.tw/en/index.htm

E.T.S.I.Telecomunicación. Universidad de Málaga

Málaga, Spain

www.uma.es

Edith Cowan University

Perth, Australia

www.ecu.edu.au

ENJMIN (National School of Video Game and Interactive Media)

Angoulême, France

www.enjmin.net

Games Academy

Shanghai, China

www.gamea.com.cn

Games Academy

Berlin, Germany

www.games-academy.de

Hochschule Darmstadt University Of Applied Sciences

Darmstadt

www.h-da.de

Högskolan i Gävle - Creative Computer Graphics

Gävle, Sweden

www.creativecomputergraphics.se

Istituto Europeo di Design

Rome, Italy

www.ied.it

IT University of Copenhagen

Copenhagen, Denmark

www.itu.dk/game

L.I.S.A.A. - L'Institut Supérieur des Arts Appliqués

Paris, France

www.lisaa.com

Media Design School

Auckland, New Zealand

www.mediadesignschool.com

Norwegian School of Information Technology

Oslo, Norway

www.nith.no

Queensland University of Technology - Kelvin Grove, QLD

Kelvin Grove, Australia

www.creativeindustries.qut.edu.au

Ravensbourne College Of Design & Communication

Chislehurst, England

www.rave.ac.uk

Swinburne University of Technology

Hawthorn, Australia

www.swin.edu.au

Trinity College Dublin

Dublin, Ireland

www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/msciet/5

University of Abertay Dundee

Dundee, Scotland

www.abertay.ac.uk

University of Gotland

Godland, Sweden

http://game.hgo.se

University of Hull - Department of Computer Science

Hull, England

www.net.dcs.hull.ac.uk

University of Portsmouth - School of Creative Technologies

Portsmouth, England

www.port.ac.uk/games

University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

Sydney, Australia

www.uts.edu.au

University of Wales, Newport

Newport, Wales

www.newport.ac.uk

University of Western Australia - School of Computer Science & Software Engineering

Perth, Australia

www.csse.uwa.edu.au

Utrecht School of the Arts/ Faculty of Art, Media & Technology

Hilversum, Netherlands

www.hku.nl

98

GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

>> GET EDUCATED

69K:GI>H:G>C9:M 9ECF7DOD7C;

F7=;

9ECF7DOD7C;

F7=;

9ECF7DOD7C;

F7=;

Academy of Art University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Gnomon School of Visual Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Savannah College of Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3, 64

Activision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Art Institutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Sony Computer Entertainment of America . . . . 14

Becker College. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

International Academy of Design and Art . . . . . 25

The Guildhall at SMU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Center for Digital Imaging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

IT University of Copenhagen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

triOS College. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Center for Distance Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 47, 75

LA Film School. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65, C3

University of Advancing Technology. . . . . . . . . . C4

Course Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Madison Media Institute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7, 66

University of Central Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

DePaul University. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Masters of Digital Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71, 95

University of Denver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

DigiPen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2, 68

Media Design School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

University of Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Enjmin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

National Animation and Design Center. . . . . . . . 81

University of Southern California . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Epic Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

National University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Vancouver Film School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Expression College. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

New England Institute of Technolhogy. . . . . . . . 80

University of Hull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Flashpoint Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19, 70

Pocket Soft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Full Sail University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Ringling College of Art and Design. . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Game Developer (ISSN 1073-922X) is published monthly by United Business Media LLC, 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107, (415) 947-6000. Please direct advertising and editorial inquiries to this address. Canadian Registered for GST as United Business Media LLC, GST No. R13288078, Customer No. 2116057, Agreement No. 40011901. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Subscription rate for the U.S. is $49.95 for twelve issues. Countries outside the U.S. must be prepaid in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank or via credit card. Canada/Mexico: $69.95; all other countries: $99.95 (issues shipped via air delivery). Periodical postage paid at San Francisco, CA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Game Developer, P.O. Box 1274, Skokie, IL 60076-8274. CUSTOMER SERVICE: For subscription orders and changes of address, call toll-free in the U.S. (800) 250-2429 or fax (847) 647-5972. All other countries call (1) (847) 647-5928 or fax (1) (847) 647-5972. Send payments to Game Developer, P.O. Box 1274, Skokie, IL 60076-8274. For back issues write to Game Developer, 4601 W. 6th St. Suite B, Lawrence, KS 66049. Call toll-free in the U.S./Canada (800) 444-4881 or fax (785) 838-7566. All other countries call (1) (785) 841-1631 or fax (1) (785) 8412624. Please remember to indicate Game Developer on any correspondence. All content, copyright Game Developer magazine/United Business Media LLC, unless otherwise indicated. Don’t steal any of it.

CAREER GUIDE 2009

|

G A M E

D E V E LO P E R

99

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT // MATTHEW WASTELAND

YOU GOT THE JOB, NOW WHAT? TIPS FOR JUMP-STARTING AND MAINTAINING YOUR CAREER SO, THIS IS IT. YOU’VE LANDED YOUR FIRST ACTUAL JOB IN THE BIG, legitimate video game industry. Congratulations! It’s what you’ve always wanted, the culmination of all your work thus far. Your first instinct is probably to charge ahead heedless of life and limb and kick ass all over the place. And that’s not a bad strategy, really. But keep in mind it’s a career too—something you hope to be doing not just for the next few years but next few decades. And that means being aware of some not-so-awesome but important truths about life in the industry.

THE CONTEXT OF YOUR BRAND NEW JOB

»

The first thing to know is, don’t worry about being accepted—you have no idea how much people are looking forward to your working at their company! You will be welcomed with open arms. The old veterans will be happy because not a few of them are burnt-out husks of what used to be men, and they need someone with actual enthusiasm around to remind them why games are cool (and possibly to actually do the work, depending on how things go at your particular studio). And the newer guys will be happy you’re there because they’re not going to be as new anymore!

greater than any of you could have made on your own. When others on the team criticize something you did, remember—they just want the best thing for the project too. It’s tough to keep this in mind all the time, especially in the heat of an argument about what to do, and you are right and they are wrong, but remember—this is a necessary skill for staying and advancing in the industry.

BEING IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME

»

You might have thought you got your break already by being hired, but if your ambitions are greater, it is only one of several breaks you will need, each of a type more rare than the last. So sometimes it comes down to waiting for that next break to come. You can’t really do anything about the “right time” but you can try to solve for “right place” and hope the time is lurking in your near future. Also, don’t neglect to become a pro at networking: for the best guide check out Darius Kazemi’s Effective Networking in the Game Industry, available for the very agreeable price of free, online at http:// tinysubversions.blogspot.com.

RENEWAL MAKING HEADWAY

» One of the frustrating things about joining a company as a brand new

but extremely talented employee is that there are a lot of other people already there. Something that happens when you’ve been around the block is you become good at figuring out how to avoid work, which means that a lot of the crap jobs will fall to your bright eyed, bushy-tailed self. Doing these thankless tasks will net you some points with the boss, but don’t kid yourself: that’s why they hired you in the first place. At best, it will set you up to offload that crap work to the next fresh kid out of school they hire after you ... the hellish cycle continues! (Just kidding. Sort of.) The other problem about this is that there are many people in line ahead of you for the big promotion, and there is such a thing as actually being too good at your job. You can create political problems if you routinely show up your boss; they can’t just fire your boss and put you in charge, even if they ought to—that would disrupt things even more. You may be tempted to play underhanded politics in response, but that sort of thing will come back to haunt you. Best is to treat it all as a learning opportunity: promotion or not, you’ll always be finding out new things.

»

In Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs, the burnout period for tech workers is pegged at about eight years. Keep this in mind, especially if you’re at a studio that works and plays hard. I know that burnout is not something you’re thinking of right now because all that’s on your mind is doing well at your first game industry job, and eight years sounds like it might as well be freaking forever away—but, seriously, you really do want this in the back of your mind. What will you do if you don’t do exactly what you’re doing now? If you can’t imagine not making games at all, think about how you could vary it up. Go from being artist #23 on a big budget FPS to the lead designer of your own Flash game ... or vice versa. The point is, you’ll occasionally need to keep things fresh and change as many things as you can: your role, the game genre, the project scale. This is a time-honored way to keep yourself sustainably engaged, interested, and creative. The other more drastic change is to think about doing something outside of the game industry for a while. Again, this is probably the furthest thing from your mind right now. But, like retirement, you’ll be glad you planned for it when the time comes ... and it will.

GET RICH OR DIE TRYING BE MORE POSITIVE, BE LESS NEGATIVE

» This one is going to sound obvious right now, but come back in a few

years and see how well you’ve really done. Try to stay positive! I for one didn’t get to where I am today by being negative. (I save all that for the columns I write! Just kidding. Sort of.) A negative personality won’t get far in the game industry, or anywhere else really. Respect others around you, be fundamentally decent, remember that most game development is a team process which means that you will be contributing to something 100 GAME DEVELOPER | CAREER GUIDE 2009

»

Good luck! I hope these words of perspective legitimately help you as you look to start a long and rewarding career making video games for a living. (“Why is everyone in the industry so cynical?” you might be asking. Oh, you’ll find out soon enough.) Thanks for listening! You may now return to your previously scheduled kicking ass. M A T T H E W W A S T E L A N D is a pseudonymous game developer who has a fairly common first name. Email him at [email protected].

[ GEEKED AT BIRTH. ]

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