9th February
Once I had decided what subject I was going to write about for my essay, I set about contacting the appropriate people in the industry with a few questions in an interview style. I started off going for the big fish, like Jean-Philippe Agati, the managing director of content design from Blizzard Entertainment and Paul Gower, the senior content designer for Jagex. I sent several emails, through several different paths in the hope that at least one of them would make it through and be replied to. Unfortunately, after 2 weeks I had no replies.
22nd February
I set my sights a little lower and shot out some emails less well known people. I sent emails of a similar kind to Mat Annal, founder of Nitrome games (flash games), Kyle Champ, creator of Shellshocklive and founder of kChamp Games... I waited 2 weeks again, no reply.
6th March
I'm running out of time now to find a viable source for first hand research, so I now will use my secret card in hope of some response. Using a personal contact I have obtained the emails of 2 of the designers at a online browser based game company called GameForge. Once again, I sent out emails of a similar nature and waited... again, 3 weeks later... No reply.
I do not know what to do now other than use second hand research. I will finish off my essay without the quotations and information I would of gained from first hand research, but leave certain areas where, hopefully, if I receive a reply by the hand in date I can amened and add in any additional information.
Showing posts with label BA2 - Project 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BA2 - Project 3. Show all posts
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Thursday, 9 February 2012
#040 GAD BA2 - P1: Contextual Studies - Job Roles Basics
For contextual studies, we have been given the task to research two job roles out of a list given to us. This list is as follows:
- Game Designer
- Technical Artist
- Artist
- 3D Modeller
- 2D Texture Artist
- Concept Artist
- Level Editor
- GUI Designer
- Assistant Producer
- Game Tester
3D Modeller/Artist:
The name pretty much sums it up, a 3D Modeller known better as a 3D Artist is a person who creates three dimensional objects, characters, structures and scenery. The 3D Artist will generate a 3D object, from a piece of concept art, usually using one of the major software aides such as Autodesk Maya, 3D Studio Max or Lightwave.
They will work on the model from start to finish, completing a majority of tasks such as:
The profession itself is fairly unique due to its combination of artistic skills and technology, someone who is a great artist can't do it without the technological background while at the same time it doesn't matter how much technical ability you have if you have no artistic ability; So really a 3D Artist is a combination of both of them as opposed to meeting in the middle ground.
Level Designer:
A level editor design what can be considered what makes a game, the level. While creating the levels within the game they must keep in mind how it will effect the players experience while playing and how the map will create possibilities in the game such as camping/ambush spots, sniper nests etc as well as considering the events and actions in the game that will define the difficulty of challenges that the player will encounter, thus having a great effect on the game play itself.
Being a level editor is not a first time job role, you must have a wide understanding of how the map effects the game. The role would typically be broken in to from the game testing side, where testers gain experience from their previous experience in the relation of map and level design to the experience of game play. People who wish to go into level editing would of gained the skills through modifying pre-existing games such as Command & Conquer, which has a variety of fan based tools made for creating completely new maps and levels with the option to add objectives etc.
They will work on the model from start to finish, completing a majority of tasks such as:
- Modelling
- Texturing
- Lighting
- Animating
- Compositing
The profession itself is fairly unique due to its combination of artistic skills and technology, someone who is a great artist can't do it without the technological background while at the same time it doesn't matter how much technical ability you have if you have no artistic ability; So really a 3D Artist is a combination of both of them as opposed to meeting in the middle ground.
Level Designer:
A level editor design what can be considered what makes a game, the level. While creating the levels within the game they must keep in mind how it will effect the players experience while playing and how the map will create possibilities in the game such as camping/ambush spots, sniper nests etc as well as considering the events and actions in the game that will define the difficulty of challenges that the player will encounter, thus having a great effect on the game play itself.
Being a level editor is not a first time job role, you must have a wide understanding of how the map effects the game. The role would typically be broken in to from the game testing side, where testers gain experience from their previous experience in the relation of map and level design to the experience of game play. People who wish to go into level editing would of gained the skills through modifying pre-existing games such as Command & Conquer, which has a variety of fan based tools made for creating completely new maps and levels with the option to add objectives etc.
#039 GAD BA2 - P1: Sean Miller
Today we had another guest speaker come in to talk to us, Sean Miller. He works for Sumo Digital, an independent developer based in Sheffield but with a studio in the U.S. Sumo Digital mainly develops games from the racing genera such as F1 2009, Split/Second Velocity and Race Driver 2006 but they do develop games from other genera's such as adventure and action including the following:
He talked about what Sumo Digital did in the industry as well as a basic outline of the game industry itself. Similar to what Drew Castalia said to us in his lecture, Sean said that it is important to put yourself out there along with your work on the internet (blogger, linkedin, tumblr etc...) to display your abilities as much as possible. Sean also mentioned that gaming companies tend to like to work on franchise games that already have a fan base as it is a fairly high risk that new ideas/concepts won't generate enough interest in the gaming community.
- Dead Space Ignition
- Doctor Who: The Adventure Games - TARDIS
- Doctor Who: The Adventure Games - Blood of the Cybermen
- Doctor Who: The Adventure Games - City of the Daleks
- Disney's A Christmas Carol
- Super Rub a Dub
- Broken Sword 4 - The Angel of Death
- Go! Sudoku
- England International Football
He talked about what Sumo Digital did in the industry as well as a basic outline of the game industry itself. Similar to what Drew Castalia said to us in his lecture, Sean said that it is important to put yourself out there along with your work on the internet (blogger, linkedin, tumblr etc...) to display your abilities as much as possible. Sean also mentioned that gaming companies tend to like to work on franchise games that already have a fan base as it is a fairly high risk that new ideas/concepts won't generate enough interest in the gaming community.
#038 GAD BA2 - P1: Drew Castalia
Today (12th January) we had a lecture with Drew Castalia, a free lanced writer. He originally graduated from the University of Eat Anglia with a Master of the Arts degree in scriptwriting and has worked on many titles such as "Sherlock Holmes and the Question of the Future" and "Exile".
Drew talked a lot about his experiences in a nice and relaxed manner, he didn't talk in the technical jargon that makes your brain start to do somersaults on a early morning start. He showed us a guide from Bioware that he got when submitting some work that he did for them for a star wars game (around 20,000 words over a three piece submission). He also gave us some advice/tips on working in the industry such as look out for dodgy contracts (He was the original author of "The Young Sherlock Holmes Adventures" but his name was wiped from the front cover due to a bad contract).
He also suggested that we make our presence on the internet well known, either by blogging, networking or having a personal website as well as displaying some kind of digital portfolio for potential employers to look at.
I had planned to go to the second lecture (the next day) but unfortunately due to a mix up of times I didn't make it in on time.
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