Lauren Carter, Indie Developer: ‘Getting into the Industry’

Lauren was a an Indie game developer, but she hasn’t always been and wanted to be one. Lauren’s journey to get into the industry was far from being straight forward, as she had many different jobs before finding her talent of narrative play. She included that she didn’t even get brought up around games or were ever good at them showing that you don’t need to a stereo-typical hardcore gamer to be apart of the industry. Lauren also discussed the difference of being in a indie studio and AAA studio. Being in a indie team of studio, you get more of the say in the production of the game as well as being more apart of it . Whereas if you were working with a big AAA team, your contributions would be minuscule. Lauren enjoys working in small groups as they effectively need to work more as a combined team to fix the problems together.  The information and thoughts  I gained from this lecture were that not everyone has a set plan and knows exactly what they want to do has they haven’t found that passion yet. It is beneficial to have more of a path you want to go down, but you don’t always have to stay there, follow whatever you are passionate about and enjoy.

 

Alistair Aitcheson and the Incredible Playable Show-

When I think of games I almost always link it to being behind a screen and is electronic or digital. Alistair’s approach with games shatters that image in my head as he uses physical and human interaction to create his ideas from. Using human interaction and engaging with the audience is Alistair’s soil, its the root of his successful games so why change it.  I found his creativity admirable as his games were never too complex as he said he likes to use ‘soft skills’ meaning near everyone would be able to follow the game and understand what is going on. Although adding ‘soft skills’ into games could be tedious, they could also work as the most effective to help the game. One point that Alistair said in the lecture was how the same game will always play out different, as the audience will always change causing all kinds of different events to occur. I found this quite fascinating as the game stays the same, but the outcome of the play-through can always be different due to the interaction with the audience element. One game that look enjoyable was Dash and Bash where you would have a colour assigned to you, then having to press the button for what ever screen you see your colour show up on. He talked about the play testing for this game, as he found that people enjoyed using there bodies to get in the way of their opponents much more when would could only use you their arms. This just goes back to the human interaction and having that sense of playfulness.

 

Lucy Kyriakidou on Freelancing as a 2D Game Artist-

In Lucy’s lecture she talked about her journey as a 2D game artist, and what things she has learnt in the industry. She expressed how important it is to talk to people in or around the game industry as it could and most likely will help you in the future. She mentioned how she’s working on a game at the moment that got introduced by a friend she used to work in a studio with. So, knowing a range of people and being friendly can get you far in the gaming industry. As well as being a freelancer in 2D, she had also worked in studios in the past, but did not have pleasant memories of them. This was down to management through the company as the employees did not get given the information or direction they needed for, for the clients. The employees had too much freedom (which isn’t always a good thing she added) as they were not getting managed correctly, which can be bad for the company. She went on to talk about most 2D freelancers, their journeys are not always as straight forward and as easy as they would like but it does become like that sometimes. Coming back and reflecting from the lecture, it has taught me to be more interactive with the industry, and just start talking to people. I am definitely going to try to attend more gaming events so I can get to know people and step my foot into the industry. 

 

Kristrun Fridriksdottir from Sports Interactive: The Role of a Technical Artist-

Kristrun plays the role of a technical artist for the company, Sports Interactive. Being a TA underlines bits from all areas such as 3D modelling, coding, animation and various others. A TA basically solves the technical problems throughout the process of making the games. A TA needs to know a lot information about the fundamentals about making assets, character animations, blueprinting etc. Knowing these allows them to be able to solve various problems, or create tools to help fix them. Kristrun went on to talk about the company she works for which is Sports Interactive.  The work environment there sounded really pleasant and is how I would like to work in a studio. They seem like a really social and creative company, which is probably why 40% of the employees have been there for over ten years. I feel being a TA wouldn’t be the best role for me personally, as it would be very difficult learning all those different areas. I however do want to branch my skills out as an artist and not have one specific field I specialist in hopefully making me more employable. The areas I would like know lean more to the creative other than technical side such as being a concept designer, environmental artist, character artist, 3D modeller etc.

 

Presentation Slides- Pre work

These are some of the notes I have created before heading to our group meetings, so my team could get an idea of what I would be talking about hopefully linking it to their work and reference back to the question.

 

Pre-Digital (2600B.C.E-1962)

• [Pick-up Sticks (1800s)] – [TM]

  • The object of the game is to pick up as many sticks as you can, and whoever has the most at the end is the winner. To begin the game, a bundle of sticks are randomly placed so that they end up tangled in a pile. The more tangled the better, as it will make it a more challenging game. In some versions of the game, any isolated sticks, or sticks lying alone, are removed.

• •  Simple games like Pick-up sticks can always lead to inspiration for future games .e.g. Jenga is quite a similar game in the fact that you have to collect the blocks without allowing the tower to fall over. The fundamentals of Jenga could have been inspired by Pick-up sticks.

• • The interesting features about this game is that the tangled pile of sticks will never be the same, allowing each game to be different. Because the sticks will always be randomly placed, it means that the difficulty will constantly be changing where some games will be harder or easier than others to collect the sticks.

 

Arcade (1962-1986)

• [Crazy Balloon (1980)] – [TM]

  • The player controls a box tied to a floating balloon, which swings left and right continually, within a maze filled with spikes. If the balloon or box has any contact with the spikes, the balloon will pop causing the player to lose a life. Using a four-way joystick, the player moves the box through the maze and toward the goal, hopefully keeping the swinging balloon away from the spikes.

• • This game hasn’t has a big influence to the history of games, but it does symbolise just one of the many small enjoyable games in the arcade era. However is does have fundamentals that we see in games today, such as having start and finish points and have progressive levels that require more skill.

• • Most of the features in the game have been implemented into it to make it more challenging for the player e.g. moving spikes start to appear when you start to progress through the stages of the game. Another feature was making the level start to shake and move causing the player to think carefully apart their next steps. Again this feature is added to further the difficulty, making it harder for the player to complete the level.

 

Console (1986-2007)

• [Halo 2 (2004)] – [TM]

  • Halo 2 is a first-person shooter game developed by Bungie. Like all the other Halos it was released for the Xbox game console on November 9, 2004. The game is the second instalment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved. Like Halo: Combat Evolved, the Xbox version of Halo 2 has a multiplayer system that allows players to compete with each other in split-screen or online in the multiplayer type using Xbox Live.

• • On release, Halo 2 was the most popular video game on Xbox Live and was getting played by millions of players. 2 years later by 2006, more than 500 million games of Halo 2 had been played and more than 710 million hours had been spent playing it. The main attraction to Halo 2 was the multiplayer, competing against other players creating skill gaps of who has the better shot. Halo 2 has had a huge impact to gaming today, as esports blew up around the competitiveness of Halo 2, that there even events to compete in solos or teams.   
  • Halo 2 was the first Halo to introduce the three bullet, burst, battle rifle. The battle rifle took over the assault rifle from Halo CE as the main gun for Master Chief and the players. Halo 2 also allowed you to play as the Arbiter with the Covenant, the force that Master Chief is set to destroy.

 

Contemporary (2007-Present)

• [Halo Wars 2009] – [TM]

  • Halo Wars is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was created only for the Xbox 360 console as it was an exclusive and a Microsoft-owned property. Like most games Halo Wars features a story-based, campaign game mode that can be played alone or cooperatively online over servers to Xbox live. Another addition in Halo Wars is a plot-less mode called “skirmish”. This is essentially the main multiplayer mode where you can face opponents or play with friends in different game types (1v1, 2v2, 3v3).

• • This was the first Halo game to be expanded in the franchise from a first person shooter, and still got a lot of good feedback from the community. The feedback and sales were good enough for them to create a Halo Wars 2. This can show that companies can branch off and experiment with their games as long as they are gaining positive feedback from the community.

• • Some features that are added into Halo Wars are the elements of each unit having a strength and weakness. This allows you to outwit your opponent and have the stronger army of units.e.g. vehicles > infantry, vehicles < air, infantry > air. You can also level up units in their specific building types after enough resources have been collected from the built supply pads.