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#21
02-14-2007, 06:36 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
describe your dream game, the game you would design if you had total creative control and lots of resources? not unlimited resources though, just lots. like, imagine you were in sid meier's or gabe newell's position, what would you do next?
do you like the people you work with? do your colleagues tend to be totally obsessed with gaming, or do they tend to have other interests? if so, what kind? how much crossover do you see with the film and TV industries among writers, artists, and executives? do programmers, artists, etc... keep apart, or do they hang out with each other? how much does that vary from company to company? which (if any) video game review rags/websites do industry insiders respect? (of course there will never be another oldmanmurray, but still) what do people in the industry think about the growing mainstream acceptance of video games & about the fact that critics and academics are starting to take them more seriously? is it possible to have a satisfying career in the industry without having programming skills? how might one approach getting a PR or writing job in a game company? do any designers get royalties? with the public starting to recognize more of the names behind the scenes, do you see designers and other video game creators gaining more power and starting to get a bigger share of the revenues? what do insiders see as the most prestigious awards, the Oscars or Cannes of the industry? do localization projects tend to be sourced out to freelancers? any tips on breaking into that side of the industry? top 5 games of last 10 years? 3 favorite designers / developers? how long do you think it will take for stream-to-buy and services like GameTap to eclipse the boxed game? how do people react when you tell them you work in video games? 
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#22
02-14-2007, 06:38 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
[ QUOTE ]
Do game companies consider feedback from gamers at any point? I'm thinking more on a series (yearly sports games, sequels, etc) this could be the case, if it happens. What's the best way to give feedback to the game makers, or do they just not care and rather rely totally on testers? [/ QUOTE ] Hmm, that's a good question. Most game makers do focus groups, but I'm actually not sure how they find the people to be in the focus group, I suppose they probably put a little add in the paper or something. (the publisher would do this for us and we'd just get the results). The truth is most developers don't listen to the players very much. The exception are people who do long open Betas in which case they will be listening a lot (Blizzard is famous for this). [ QUOTE ] Which company did you like working for the best? When working on a crappy game, does everyone know it (assuming you've been involved with at least one bad game)? [/ QUOTE ] Yeah, everyone knows it when you're working on a crappy game. It's worse than that, I've worked on several games that I knew would never ship. This is quite common - the game sucks so bad and is so far behind schedule that everyone with a brain knows it's going to be canned, but you still have to clock in and try your best so that the studio can keep getting checks from the publisher.
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#23
02-14-2007, 06:47 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
What year did you get into the game industry?
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#24
02-14-2007, 06:54 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
Ilya, I'm just going to pick a few of these to answer and you can repost ones that I skipped if you want answers.
[ QUOTE ] do you like the people you work with? [/ QUOTE ] Well I'm out of the industry now, but the last job I had was generally great people. It's generally 20-50 people making a game (or more) so you're never going to like all of them, [ QUOTE ] do your colleagues tend to be totally obsessed with gaming, or do they tend to have other interests? if so, what kind? [/ QUOTE ] Some of the guys are definitely obsessed with work & games. Some of the programmers are just generally nerdy, obsessed with coding and hacking and such. I used to always organize an ultimate frisbee team wherever I worked. Obviously there are lots of guys into RPG's and board games and such. [ QUOTE ] how much crossover do you see with the film and TV industries among writers, artists, and executives? [/ QUOTE ] The #1 crossover is actually in sound guys / composers. Artists/modelers & animators cross over quite a bit, as do producers somewhat - more often from commercials than movies. [ QUOTE ] do programmers, artists, etc... keep apart, or do they hang out with each other? how much does that vary from company to company? [/ QUOTE ] That varies immensely from company to company. Usually they keep pretty separate, which is partly just because they have different personalities. Some companies make a real effort to cross-polinate, like Valve. [ QUOTE ] which (if any) video game review rags/websites do industry insiders respect? (of course there will never be another oldmanmurray, but still) [/ QUOTE ] LOL in the old day we used to read a lot of oldmanmurray, somethingawful, and Voodoo Extreme. These days we just metacritic and look around. The Euro mag "Play" is pretty good. [ QUOTE ] what do people in the industry think about the growing mainstream acceptance of video games & about the fact that critics and academics are starting to take them more seriously? [/ QUOTE ] We love it. [ QUOTE ] is it possible to have a satisfying career in the industry without having programming skills? [/ QUOTE ] Sure, designers are the main people behind the games. [ QUOTE ] how might one approach getting a PR or writing job in a game company? [/ QUOTE ] Well PR would be at a publisher, so I don't know a lot about that, but they're big companies & I imagine it's just like getting a PR job anywhere. Game companies generally hire writers for contract jobs, or they'll hire a designer/writer who can do writing and also game layout. You'll have to have some kind of experience or something to show to get that job. [ QUOTE ] do any designers get royalties? with the public starting to recognize more of the names behind the scenes, do you see designers and other video game creators gaining more power and starting to get a bigger share of the revenues? [/ QUOTE ] Major name designers like Will Wright get huge royalties, yes. Video game royalties are sort of like movies - you get points on the back end, and only after all the advances are paid off, so unless the game is a huge hit you won't get a single cent, but if the game is a huge hit you will make it big. [ QUOTE ] what do insiders see as the most prestigious awards, the Oscars or Cannes of the industry? [/ QUOTE ] There aren't any. There're a couple different awards, there's one at the GDC, there's the IGDA awards, and they're all considered a joke. What matters are 1. sales, 2. reviews, & 3. peer opinion. [ QUOTE ] do localization projects tend to be sourced out to freelancers? any tips on breaking into that side of the industry? [/ QUOTE ] Localization is usually done by the publisher at large localization facilities. They will directly hire up people with language talent, it's an easy job to get. 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 ] how long do you think it will take for stream-to-buy and services like GameTap to eclipse the boxed game? [/ QUOTE ] Steam is also picking up steam. (hehe) Umm, dunno, obviously a lot of people want this to happen, but the big publishers are sort of sluggish and worried. I would guess this will be big in the next 5-10 years. [ QUOTE ] how do people react when you tell them you work in video games? [/ QUOTE ] Most people are like "wow that's awesome" and then they proceed to tell me about their favorite game and do I know how to get past level 4, etc.
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#25
02-14-2007, 06:55 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
How difficult would it be to break into the industry as a writer?
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#26
02-14-2007, 06:58 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
[ QUOTE ]
What year did you get into the game industry? [/ QUOTE ] 1997. It was still the early days of 3d, Quake 3 wasn't out yet, and just doing textured polygons was impressive.
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#27
02-14-2007, 07:03 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
[ QUOTE ]
How difficult would it be to break into the industry as a writer? [/ QUOTE ] in reply to ilya : Game companies generally hire writers for contract jobs, or they'll hire a designer/writer who can do writing and also game layout. You'll have to have some kind of experience or something to show to get that job. Getting any job with no experience at all is going to be difficult to impossible. However, a lot of game companies are still small and it is possible to break in with persistence. You'll have to demonstrate design skills with something like a mod. If you have writing experience in other fields (like TV) that would count and you could probably get contract work as a writer. Knowing someone (having an "in") is a big help. I did a lot of hiring, including for non-programmer jobs so I can tell you a bit about what we looked for. The #1 thing is a demonstration of previous work. We want to see work that you did (preferrably on a previous game). For artists you have to have a strong portfolio of work samples. For writers/designers you must have a portfolio of work we can examine. The #2 thing is experience, preferably shipping games. This is mainly to show that you can work with a team and be responsible and finish a product. When you're trying to break in, experience in other similar industries would count, such as launching websites, writing for film/TV, graphic design for paper ads, etc. If you really want to get in and have no previous work or experience you're going to have to go to one of the 6-month game schools. I can write more about the different schools if anyone cares.
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#28
02-14-2007, 07:06 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
Cool thread. Any chance RTCWolfenstein will be back? That was one of the all time greats. In your opionion what are 3 of the best games you think you put out?
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#30
02-14-2007, 07:18 PM
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Re: Ask me about the Video Game Industry
[ QUOTE ]
do you think the ps3 will end up successful like the other ps consoles or is it sol? [/ QUOTE ] That's tough. Technologically it's a disaster. Developers hate it. Sony is not helping developers much (as usual). IMO their advertising so far as been lame to awful. The price point and the Blu-ray are insane. OTOH that was all pretty true of the PS2 as well. It will definitely not be as successful as the other consoles because the competition is very strong now and developers are less interested in doing exclusives. I believe the key factor will be whether they can get one really amazing game exclusive. The PS2 was pretty much saved by Grand Theft Auto, so if they can get something of that magnitude again they will be okay. If not, this might be the last Playstation ever. [ QUOTE ] Cool thread. Any chance RTCWolfenstein will be back? That was one of the all time greats. In your opionion what are 3 of the best games you think you put out? [/ QUOTE ] I don't know the latest poop on Wolfenstein, but a few years ago I know that Carmack really really wanted to do Wolfenstein (not Doom 3), so maybe it will come out. He's in semi-retirement now and I dunno what's going to happen with Id, someone else here probably knows more than me.
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