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#33
02-14-2007, 07:24 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
cbloom,
It seems like 2006 will be a year remember by games (most specifically EA titles) that really sucked because people rushed them out for the next gen systems. Is this a fair assessment? In terms of plotting games, is that mostly done by people who are trained writers, or by coders? Say for whatever reason I write up a treatment and I want it to be a game (instead of a movie or whatever) can I just throw that at somebody? 
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#35
02-14-2007, 07:29 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
[ QUOTE ]
It seems like 2006 will be a year remember by games (most specifically EA titles) that really sucked because people rushed them out for the next gen systems. Is this a fair assessment? [/ QUOTE ] Yes. The year that new consoles come out is generally a dead year. The good games for a new console are target for 1-2 years into its life. Nobody wants to release a top game on the old systems because they're considered to be dying. I think there were some pretty strong games on Xbox360 in the 2nd half of 2006 and we'll see that continue now. It was a pretty good year for PC RPG's. [ QUOTE ] In terms of plotting games, is that mostly done by people who are trained writers, or by coders? Say for whatever reason I write up a treatment and I want it to be a game (instead of a movie or whatever) can I just throw that at somebody? [/ QUOTE ] That's generally the "lead designer" or "creative director". No, nobody wants your treatment. Everybody wants to plot the game, the top dog gets to do it because he's earned the right or is a part-owner of the company.
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#36
02-14-2007, 07:34 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
[ QUOTE ]
BTW here's a funny localization story. We had a ton of dialogue in one game getting localized by native speakers. One chunk of dialogue was classified as "General Dialogue", meaning like just background/miscellaneous. The localization people thought that meant like a General of an army, so they got a native speaker and recorded all the dialogue in this like pompous commanding voice. We got it back and were like WTF, this sounds really weird! [/ QUOTE ] This is pretty damn funny. Maybe I just appreciate it because I've had to outsource some stuff for localization.
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#37
02-14-2007, 07:35 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
Cbloom,
I assume your answer means that those folks are coming more from the progamming/tech side than the "writes good [censored] for a living" side. This explains a lot.
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#38
02-14-2007, 07:36 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
BTW I would say the #1 misconception about the industry is that everyone knows a ton about games. I don't; I'm sure lots of people on this site play way more games than I do. There are guys in the industry who play a ton of games, but they're mostly young designers/testers.
The #2 misconception is that's a lot of fun to work on games. Yeah, it's "fun" like hard work is fun when it's satisfying and you're making a product you believe in, but it's not like a relaxed party. You don't actually get to sit around play testing your game a lot, there's too much work to be done. It's very hard work and we put in crazy hours.
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#39
02-14-2007, 07:39 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
why hasnt there been a pc game worth playing come out in the past 2 years? i use to be the biggest pc gamer (specifically quake 3) and i really got out of it after Q4 was such absolute trash. it seems like the next gen really are destroying the pc gaming market. i mean, like 9/10 of the big clans i still know of have moved from PC to x360...is pc gaming gonna die soon?
really all i can see surviving is like mmporg/strategy games like AOE. and even those games could easily be moved to xbox360, especially with the inclusion of mouse and keyboard being so easily accessable for the xbox now.
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#40
02-14-2007, 07:40 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
[ QUOTE ]
Cbloom, I assume your answer means that those folks are coming more from the progamming/tech side than the "writes good [censored] for a living" side. This explains a lot. [/ QUOTE ] Not necesarily from programming, but you have to work your way up as a junior designer, designer, senior designer, and then you get a shot to do "your game". Unfortunately the game idea/script is not one of those merit based things, the director will want to do their own idea (or more & more often, licensed property). The other method is to get rich in some industry and start your own game company, then you get to do your game. This is actually pretty common (eg. Valve). In the old days you could get some friends together and start your own company in a garage but that's near impossible now.
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