Posts by FrieChamp

  • games that seem to make time fly by!

    Counter-Strike, Command & Concquer, Diablo II, I spent pretty much the majority of a summer vacation with playing Neocron, now looking back there are several more games I spent a lot of time with simply because I had so much of it.

    After playing the 14 days trial of WoW I drew the line, working till 6 and then playing the rest of the evening in the office, I knew if I dont stop now it will have bad consequences for my social life and health

  • Finding a mod team worth your while 101

    All these (virtual) studio names for MOD teams also started to annoy me a couple of months back, but NDAs and contracts? lol I didn't know it has become this bad

    This has to do with how the whole MOD scene is developing and how companies discovered MOD developers as main ressource for new talent and as a cheap, easy way to extend the lifetime of their products.

    So while companies support MOD developers, the competition in the communities becomes bigger, MOD teams try to gather talent by acting mature and professional (just like a real company !!) to finish their project and most importantly to stand out, so they get hired.

    I hope you see the connection, making fun games is not the main motivation for many people anymore, although I am sure there are still several projects in development out there, who just do it for the hell of it.

  • What areas should I focus on as a game dev?

    Most of the stuff I have to say about this topic, were covered by Klein and KFS, I think we have more or less equal views, but I'd like to give my input anyway.

    Take my comments with a bit of salt though, I haven't followed these suggestions exactly myself, since they represent pretty much the perfect way to do it and it certainly isn't the only way. It's what I learnt so far in the industry and each company doesn't work the same, it shoud apply to most of the big players working on current and next gen titles though.

    Specialize in what you want to do. As Klein said, there are more and more people doing specific things on a project. If you want to make levels look nice, become an artist. Seriously, if you care about the looks more than about the gameplay in your level, you can model and texture, kick some ass and become an artist!

    You don't want to be an artist but a designer? Well, you don't want to let your levels look like garbage but don't bother much about creating your own assets, instead focus on the gameplay! Once you work in a company as a designer, nobody will care about how your waterfall looks like before the art pass and then again it will be an artist you closely work together with who will help you to make it look nice. It is much harder to make your level fun than making it look nice!

    Gain experience in multiplayer AND singleplayer level design! I have the feeling the mp - sp custom made level ratio is 50 to 1, why is that? Because it's harder? Maybe, fact is, that it demonstrates your ability as a designer to come up with ideas for a cool mission, with a fresh story, good usage of AI and other gameplay elements.


    So which engine to make the level for? If possible, the engine the company works with you want to apply at. From my point of view, there is nothing better to get their attention by creating a kickass mission, with their tools, so they get tempted to hire you and slam you in the production schedule right away.

    MODs have become very big and it's still one of the number one ways to score a job. You show that you are able to work on a project over a long period of time, working with other individuals in a team. Leading and "finishing" the project means BIG bonus points.

    Quote

    Would let me design something entirely of my own, and hopefully due to the short development time of such games it would keep my focus more. Being able to walk into a job interview and hand over your phone to show one of your games would be a novel portfolio piece too

    If you want to apply for a company which makes cellphone games - yes

  • The Island & Product placement

    The Calvin Klein advertisement and stuff was fine, you barely noticed it. But when the virtual reality videogame thing has a big "X-BOX" logo on it, or the information booth to look up residents' adresses is called "MSN SEARCH", then the motives are too blatantly obvious.

  • The Island & Product placement

    I watched "The Island" with Ewan Mc Gregor and Scarlett Johannsson~ last night. Cool movie, nothing too extraordinary though. However I was surprised how much they blew up and trashed, didn't expect that. One thing which bothered me slightly was a distinct inconsistence in the design of the world, some parts looked very futuristic while others looked exactly like today. But I guess that is the compromise between "near" and "future".

    A different issue I noticed was the massive product placement in the movie. It started with X-Box logos in the virtual reality videogame arena, chevrolet cars, calvin klein advertisements, msn search and that futuristic boat which actually plays a role in the story IS a real boat! I don't know if videos of it have been posted here, but it's one of those f'kin expensive, high-end boats. Way to boost your sales ("Oooh look it's that cool boat from the island...").

    Anyone else here who watched the movie?

    Scarlett Johannsson was flamin' hot by the way, I didn't recognize her from "Lost in translation" at first. Amazing what losing a couple of pounds, a different haircut, makeup and tight clothes can do...

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    [Blocked Image: http://a.abclocal.go.com/images/012405_johansson.jpg]

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