Developing a New Major

spector used to own junction point, worked for ion storm and looking glass, iwth disney gonna make not games for disney vehicles but games iwth disney spirit, warren.e.spector@disney.com, mark.meyers@disney.com, can do some traveling and give talks

remember - even reputable studios get projects cancelled a lot of projects, do a lot of concept development and nothing happens

quality of life in the industry getting better - more employees have families and want some time at home more than in past

find right studio for hte kind of games you want to make

games as cmplex as movies, teams can be 100+ people plus tons of outsourcing

sutiods and publishers always thinking about where games will be tomorrow but little innovations becuse industry also worried about high risk and high cost

graphics and game play both expected in AAA titles

player base is changing - more wormen, older people not just teen boys, families gaming iwth theWII, disney trying to raise age of its player base

future games will have high production values, 40-55 million budgets for console games will be common in order to meet player expectations

studios have to differentiate more and more as the game market gets crowded - 10k games on yahoo

people want new experiences, so increased emphasis on story telling and a lot more in and out players who want shorter game play but who still want to finish game, more choices of games to play so quality much more important than in past

industry needs innovative creative thinking, strong team players who are willing to push games to their limit, willing to take the crap jobs and make htem special need broad range of expeirence and skills, be good communicators specialists need to be the best in the biz - better to be flexible high quality generalist

only a handful of people like will wright and miyamoto willing to totally change the industry

as more consoles connected to the internet could see more mmos moving to consoles or mmos could have stand alone console meta-game, could download content, episodic content, new revenue

industry structure changing - more layers of management new development methods like agile and scrum schools can teach management/leadership skills, how to react to market data, how to reduce cost and development time

pre production more important now - define the game, get everyone together to agree on game concept, match expctations so work doesn’t have to be done over and over, give team picture of hte big project, create a shared vision, then time line management, project scheduling, changes on the fly easier, have to be able to communication that shared vision

management skills include mentoring skills, establish a career path ask about career path during interview, show initative, review other people on the team in terms of leadership and management skills, prof doesn’t have to look at ht ereviews - it’s for hte students

don’t need just vocational skills, or just specific software

need concepts behind the tools need to be flexible because media always changing new platforms - - gotta love chaos

need to be focused on tomorrow, be willing to learn new stuff because ya never know what you’re going to need to know

game content means you have to learn about weird stuff like how wwi airplanes flew

need to know behavioral psychology - how to reward people to geththem to keep playing

need analytical and critical skills - what makes game special, be able to talkg about how games fit in larger cultural picture

need broad liberal arts background - literature, psych, history, econ - be able to make games that can change the world

most game design students want to get jobs making games, way more people applying than there are jobs, need portfolio that makes you stand out - grades, class projects not enough game educaton preparing you for life, for change and to be better consumers of games, be better political leaders who don’t criticze all games for violence, be better game journalists, be better parents

need to teach students to be creative, to be critical to see how future of industry can be different

a lot of work is contracted out, designer does a lot of hte writing, bioshock had staff writers, need writers who can deal with interactivity but also who can program, need better AI and virtual actors
good game indigo prophecy

Trackback URL