Most of us love this stuff, creating games with the clickteam products. But who really wants to go into the gaming industry as a career?
Is there anybody here who is part of a production company? What kind of field is your speciality? Programming, graphics, sound, music, producing? I personally had to get into a creative industry, I would still love to get into the gaming industry but I'll stay with my movies for the time being. The gaming industry is booming at the moment but I still don't feel the love in games too much anymore. I think alot of them are made just for $$$ these days and don't have the spirit the older games had. Don't get me wrong, there are still great games out now.
So yeah what's your view on the industry and would you ever consider being apart of it?
Also, what do you do for a career if your not in the gaming one?
My present plan is to work on freeware and shareware in my spare time while doing regular IT work, and at some point eventually work in an independant commercial group. Maybe. You can't just walk into a design role, and I'm not particularly interested in starting as a coder either. QA maybe, but even then I'd just treat it as my 'regular' job and stick to the original plan.
I plan to study Computer Games Design, or Computer Arts at university, so I'd definitely be looking for a job in the games industry. Perhaps even start my own one later on in life (when I have a really good idea).
I am using games for education right now, and wanna keep doing that for a while. Currently I am teaching a group of kids how to create games using k&p.
I don't know yet. I'm designing an interface for some medical/kids machine to be put in clinics. Same team I'm working with also have plans on developinp for the Wii once uni is finished, if it actually kicks off I'll be there. Much rather stick to writing at the moment anyways.
I agree with Edwin Street in that I don't really like the way that the games industry is going at the moment - a family friend has just joined EA, which I would think of as a pretty terrible job due to the way that the company treats its employees. At the moment I'm working with a company that builds online database systems, so my job is part of what I'm interested in, and I can write games in my spare time.
I think that now, a lot of what the independent game-making communities create is genuinely much better than the endless GTA/Halo-cloned garbage being produced by the "real" industry.
Actually, I'm thinking about heading the journalism route. (Hence TIGSource)
Craps, I'm an old man!
DaVince This fool just HAD to have a custom rating
Registered 04/09/2004
Points 7998
27th December, 2006 at 18:52:14 -
I'm studying IT, and when I graduate I have a whole field of things computer related I can choose to do. I'll see it gaming will be in it. If not, at least software developing.
I'd like to have my own game business on the internet, i'd work all day on it.
But i wouldnt like to work at some game company, doing some guy's commercial 3D platformer game about christmas or something, to make him make some bux, doing overtime and stuff. I rather work at something else, with less hours, that gives me free time to do what i really want to do.
You and everybody else Dogzer, that's a good plan but you need to already be rich to afford your hobby / online company, or have a solid, steady "real" job already for backup.
I'll keep making games for hobby mostly, but if anything ever takes off in the future I'm all for it.
And yeah, I'd much rather see a lot of original games on TDC than the mad clones that plague every Gamestop anyhow.
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I currently work for EA and yes they suck but its better than nothing, im a tester atm but plan to use this job as a steeping stone into somthing more. Graphics is where i want to head but not with EA, preferably with somone less mainstream, and a company that still makes games for fun not just for money!
I'm currently studying game design so I'm hoping to get into the industry some way. I wouldn't mind working at DICE for a while. I'll probably work at some game studio and help with their games while working on my own games on the side.
Edited by the Author.
Mendokuse...
DaVince This fool just HAD to have a custom rating
Registered 04/09/2004
Points 7998
31st December, 2006 at 06:14:13 -
I forgot to say; I'm in a 2-man team now, creating a new RPG for moneyss. And fun.
Yeah, that sucks about EA but I spose you could always tell with there games. They were always lacking somthing and that of course was the spirit/soul of the game. Even though they had great graphics, gameplay and all those aspects they just never felt comfortable.
It's the most important thing I believe and you can always tell the games that have had so much love poured into them. Some that I remember over the years include Final Fantasy VII, the Donkey Kong Country games on SNES, the early pokemon series on gameboy/color, goldeneye on 64 and more latly Halo.
With these games, I'm just feeling it you know. All I can pin it on is the soul of the game. Some games have it and some dont. So I'm hoping that everyone here at TDC is making games because they enjoy doing it and love others playing their creation.
I'm hoping that one day alot of us clickers and x clickers will be able to join and become a big production company with a few studios scattered around the globe all working create something that is amazing.
I wish more game companies had more vacancies for the UK.. Most of the larger commercial companies only have jobs for those 40 year-olds on 6 figure salaries with 5208 years of experience :\
My friends uncle co-founded Rockstar games .. But that's in freakin NY .. and I'm about an hour away from London! I'd love a career in gaming, though I don't know about going to uni but I suppose thats compulsory these days.
UNI is not compulsory, you just have to be prepared to do the shit first. I think there are toooo many graduates now and for a game company, i would imagine somone with serious talent and willing to learn is better than somone who has little to no life experience and has never had a real job, Firstly an untrained but talented person can be moulded into whatever the company decides they need, whereas a graduate has already got habbits and believes themselves to be better quilified for any job over a nongraduate. Grades are just peices of paper. its all about what you want and what you can do.
Grades are pieces of paper telling other people what you can do.
SilverNova- Rockstar North is based in England, either somewhere in Scotland or Leeds. They initially were from Liverpool as DMA, but you knew that, right?
Thing is that those pieces of paper are what companies want because they give them some sort of idea as to what you can do etc. :\ Unless you're allowed to prove your talents etc I suppose but oftentimes thats not the case, eh?
Heh, the degrees are actually kinda useless for us that study graphics, since what the studios want to see from us is a cool portfolio. But that's what the graohical aspect of our education is all about. Making a good portfolio.
I'm majoring in business and minoring in economics and supply chain management, which is what interests me. Hopefully I'll keep writing freeware type games here and there but it's been something like 4 years since my last release. And until this MMF2 fastloop stuff happened to my current game, it might be longer :\
I worked for a software company for 4.5 years. I started off as a tester, then became tech support supervisor, then they finally made me a producer. Perhaps it's just the way I am personally, but I was happiest in tech support, where I managed a team of nine techs and we helped people make their games work. Being a producer quickly drained my life force, and I was relieved when the studio was finally closed (by the big corporate office in New York City).
I'm not pleased with the gaming industry. I'm happy keeping game-making (which I've only started with MMF2 in the past half a year or so) as a hobby. I work and make the world a better place in different ways.
He is one of three Cox brothers. The oldest is pretty stable, billybob not as stable but still a nice and funny person, but the third one is a stupid moron.
I am going to go into the field of coding and 3D model creation. I am currently going to school to learn C++ in one of my courses and hardware/programming ROMS/soldering in my other. I will major in hardware and software design hopefully.
I really wish how exactly I could break into the industry. But before that happens I need to learn how to do...something for games. Like I want general control on making the game, and I want to know how the game works and how it can appear to people.
So I want to be a programmer, but I guess I want to be a producer for the game? Or something? I honestly dont know the roles of a single person behind a game.
The games industry is like the 60s/70s version of Hollywood. It's just gotten to the point that it's highly profitable, but nobody knows why. As it is, it's a huge boom and all the big business guys are starting to look into it as something to invest in. So... point is, it's at the lowest point that any entertainment industry can get - making games purely for cash and forgetting that there should be a 'fun factor'. Heck, some game designers even oppose that a 'fun factor' is a vague term, something that shouldn't be used in academic game design principles.
But seeing some of the more recent games, the games industry is improving. There's still nothing that can be regarded as a true masterpiece, except maybe X-Com, FF7, and maybe Halo.. though Halo and X-Com are quite flawed.
So for most of you who even think of starting off in the games industry.. do what an actor for in 70s Hollywood would do. Become an extra. There's only 2 ways to break into the industry - as a programmer or graphics artist. Game designers are notoriously undervalued... heck, in some companies, even senior management thinks that they can be game designers. In most, game designers are promoted from interns or staff, depending on how rich the company is.
So, for you Mr. Lukas Hägg [WC], unless you're willing to accept ridiculously low pay, don't enter the industry as a designer. Game designers are artists, and like all artists, they probably have to do a lot of sidewalk art before they get noticed and paid millions. Even then, most of their patrons realize that they can be replaced.
And a tip... don't even bother to focus on making a good storyline, that's like a painter who focuses on being able to draw perspective right. It matters little, especially when you consider that the half of the best game designers in the world - Will Wright, Sid Meier, Chris Crawford don't even use storylines. The other half, um, like the persons who designed King's Quest and Monkey Island, did a good job of weaving the storylines with gameplay, but they fade out too quickly.
And a final tip... one of the main reasons computer-related graduates don't get jobs is because they're too damn academic. Game design is a very, very new industry, less than 2 decades old. Half the theories out now will be obsolete by 2015. Heck, if you tried to sell a remade 1995 hit these days, it'll flop, because nobody likes games where you have to restore more than 5 times an hour. Your best hope is to grab a history book from time to time and read up on the interesting bits. Or at least watch Discovery channel for an hour a day. Trust me, it'll do wonders for your creativity.
Oh and I'm personally too disillusioned by the games industry, that I quit on it a few years back. I'm currently taking a diploma in electrical (communications) engineering, final semester, 1st class. Planning to take an electrical (comm) degree, and maybe a comp sc. degree if I have time, then maybe a masters/phd in AI.
And when I tell lecturers that I plan to be a game designer, they look at me like I'm crazy . But hey, education in math/trigonometry helps in coding, my knowledge of control systems/calculus would really help when it comes to balancing a game. So, basically I have a way higher chance than most of you people of becoming a designer .
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
I claim the assistant game designer position for JonWoG's game . Or lead game designer. Whichever gets less pay and less work. Oh, and I don't have any experience with Java. I once did a good game design for a commercial game that flopped due to lack of direction and did the coding for another. At least I got a new comp and MMF 1.5 from one of them.
MMF isn't bad, it's just lagging too far behind modern game technology. It's perfect for making any game that doesn't rely too much on collisions, particles, or a lot of control. Now if they did a good MMF 3D, that could solve half of the problems and create 5 times as many new ones .
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
The games industry is like the 60s/70s version of Hollywood. It's just gotten to the point that it's highly profitable, but nobody knows why. As it is, it's a huge boom and all the big business guys are starting to look into it as something to invest in.
No-one (succesfully) enters the industry as a game designer nowadays, most studios require at least 1-3 years of industry experience and a hefty portfolio. The position of game designer is a sort of quasi-artist kind of thing though. The game designer comes up with the concept (not always though) and when the game goes into production the GD takes on more of a leader role. People tend to mix up 'producer' and 'game designer'.
I might end up in the movie business as well though. Since I found out making maquettes is hella fun! lolz
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Edited by the Author.
.. But that's in freakin NY .. and I'm about an hour away from London! I'd love a career in gaming, though I don't know about going to uni but I suppose thats compulsory these days.
. But hey, education in math/trigonometry helps in coding, my knowledge of control systems/calculus would really help when it comes to balancing a game. So, basically I have a way higher chance than most of you people of becoming a designer 
.
