Free Candy For Everyone

I always go to see Peter Molyneux talk. It’s getting to the point where I’m not quite sure why I persist, but I do. This year I made it to half of his talk, since I was at the Nintendo keynote which ran over since it took some time to stuff the thousands of us into the auditorium. But this is not a post about the keynote, so on to what I saw of Molyneux’s talk.

He’s worked on some of my favorite games - Populous was truly revolutionary, I loved Dungeon Keeper, and many of his other titles were quite exciting. But in recent years, he’s been known more for talking about his games than for the games themselves. He’s a very impassioned speaker, and he clearly is excited about his projects, so I do like to go and see him speak, just because you never do know what he will say.

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I was away for a short vacation, and I return to read all sorts of news in the game industry front. It seems Bioware and Pandemic are merging into a mega-international gaming entity. I find this dismaying. Possibly because I am a huge fan of Bioware’s products. They make wonderful roleplaying games, and I worry about anything that might mess with their mojo.

I’m sure Pandemic is quite a lovely place, but the titles they have put out are not of particular interest to me - Full Spectrum Warrior and Destroy All Humans may have good buzz, but they do not fall into a genre that I spend time on. It seems like an odd pairing, in that there is not any overlap in the titles they create. Currently, at least. And I think fans of both studios would prefer it remain that way.

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Here lies Part 2 of my discussion on getting into the game industry. You can find the first part here, a basic explanation of the business of making games and what a game developer really is. To continue, I’m going to talk about the specifics of the roles at a game studio. Specifically, the type of roles as I’ve seen them.

The clearest breakdown is into five areas:

1. Game Design
2. Programming
3. Art
4. Quality Assurance
5. Administration

Part 1: Game Design. There are two different types of jobs here: level designers and game designers. Most people that want to get into the industry think they’ll be the game designer. They have a great idea and they want to get it made. They’ll come in to a studio, share their brillance, and we’ll all oooh and ahhh and make their game. Honey, life don’t work that way. Even people that have been in the industry for years don’t always get to make the games they dream up. The reality is that unless you hold your own purse strings, you cannot make up whatever you want. (Reminder, see Part 1, most game developers also do not hold the purse strings. Draw your own conclusions here).

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I’ve been writing random thoughts for a couple of months now, and I haven’t really talked about my job directly. I’m a Lead Programmer at a game developer, and I’ve been working in the industry since 2000. One of the main things I’ve realized in talking to friends and family over the years is that most people have no idea how the game industry works. What is involved in making a game? What are the jobs involved?

Gamespy has a pretty thorough discussion on the topic that can be found here. I didn’t read it all, it’s pretty long. Maybe you don’t want to read it all either. Or maybe you just think I talk real pretty and you want to hear what I have to say. So I’m gonna post my own thoughts on how the industry works and what is involved in finding the right niche for you and your talents.

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That’s the branch of Blizzard that made the Diablo games. Two posts that I see take this to mean different things. Gamebiz seems to think this puts the idea of a Diablo 3 in doubt. Nooo! But. Gamespot takes the opposite view, as their headline reads “put on ‘unannounced project’–likely Diablo 3″

I’ll prefer the latter option, since I’m eagerly waiting for another Diablo.