LCVP Interview for Computer Games Design students

RunningShovel

Hey all,

I'm currently in 5th year and I'm doing LCVP. As part of our course, we have to investigate a career path that we might be interested in, and we also need to interview someone in our chosen career. Obviously game design isn't the most common career choice in Ireland so finding someone locally was out. Hopefully I will be going to Carlow IT, so I decided to come here and ask a student to answer a few short questions:

Why did you decide to pursue a career in game design?
What do you need to become a game designer?
What are the benefits of this career?
Are there any downfalls to this career?
What are the most and least enjoyable aspects of this career?
Do you have any advice for a prospective game design student?

No need for any essays or anything, 3-4 sentences or so. Oh, and if you know anyone who does CGD could you point them this way? This needs to be handed in on the 14th.
Thanks guys

~RS

RealistSpy

Best way to do this would be to call the IT Carlow student union and ask if they can email the games development students for you.

GL

mentor07825

RunningShovel wrote: »

Hey all,

I'm currently in 5th year and I'm doing LCVP. As part of our course, we have to investigate a career path that we might be interested in, and we also need to interview someone in our chosen career. Obviously game design isn't the most common career choice in Ireland so finding someone locally was out. Hopefully I will be going to Carlow IT, so I decided to come here and ask a student to answer a few short questions:

No need for any essays or anything, 3-4 sentences or so. Oh, and if you know anyone who does CGD could you point them this way? This needs to be handed in on the 14th.
Thanks guys

~RS

Hello, my name is Alexander Lannoote, and I currently go to Carlow IT for the Computer Games Development course. Currently I'm in my second year. My brother saw this post and he pointed it out to me, so I will be happy answering your questions.

1. My course only briefly touches upon game design. We try to learn all things that goes into computer games development but our strength is in our programming, especially physics based programming. I hope to become a Senior Programmer one day. As I know this doesn't exactly answer your question, anyone can become a game designer, even a programmer such as myself.

2. Ah, a question I can answer. To become a game designer it always helps to be passionate in the games you play and gaming itself. You need to play loads of games constantly to see what works and what doesn't. You always need to be interested in loads of things for new ideas. You also need a pen and paper to write these ideas down. A varied designer is one that can draw upon loads of ideas and inspirations. Did you know that the very first Zelda game, from Nintendo, was thought up because the lead designer was playing with his desk for a half hour? No joke. All you need to become a designer is an idea and the passion to carry it through, with structure. An unstructured idea will, no matter how great it is, will be your undoing.

3. The benefits of this career are, in short, money. It is a career with laughter and tears, as it is hard work with lots of hours, including overtime with no pay. It is fun and difficult at the same time. You will also, depending on how good you are and how established your name is, will be invited to do many talks, including the GDC and college talks as well. Peter Molyneux, the creater of the Fable series and famouse British Designer, is often giving talks in the GDC, attends and is promoted by Microsoft for development in the country because how good he is. He also gives lectures in Design in a college in England as well. Other benefits include the good feeling you get of a job well done when it receives good acclaim and sells like hot cakes in the shop. Also, depending on the contract you have with the publisher, after-sales-bonuses as well.

4. The downfalls is that for ordinary game designers the pay isn't the greatest, especially starting off. Also the bonuses are affected by the sales of the game and, in some cases, the Metacritic score these games get. Also it is a lot of work, it takes about a year or more to make a triple A game. A lot of time is invested in it and it's hard work, often working late shifts with no extra pay. It has been known that marriages have been broken apart because the family hasn't seen the person enough, or spend much time, as it is exhausting work. It is hard work, for you and the family. Also if you design a bad game, that game will follow you for a long time. You always have to set the bar a little higher to gain recognition and have a badass CV.

5. The most enjoyable aspects of this career could be the satisfaction you get of making a game. Also meeting interesting people and having fun in the studio. Sometimes the studio even does stress relieving exercises, and they can be tons of fun too. Least enjoyable is the amount of work, the stress and seeing your game flop both commercially and in the Metacritic score.

6. If you want to go into Game Design then England has some wonderful courses. The one in Carlow IT does cater to designers, and we often have to think new things to implement in old games and sometimes entire new games as well. We are heavy into programming though, but not a bad thing as anyone can become a designer and designers should know what is capable and what is not. Keep practicing, write down any ideas you have.

I also suggest you do the following things:

1. Purchase the 12 month (digital) subscription to Game Developer magazine. It talks about things going on the industry, what worked and what didn't in games and the wages of all the different positions in the industry etc. If you're really interested in game design, I highly recommend you get this. http://www.gdmag.com/homepage.htm

2. There is a fantastic book I use for Game Design. I have it because I want to broaden my horizens and learn more about designing a game. It is incredibly good and is used in colleges that specialises in Design rather then programming. It's very good read and you could learn a lot from it. It is called "Fundamentals of Game Design" Second Edition by Earnest Adams.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fundamentals-Game-Design-Riders-Games/dp/0321643372/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267376653&sr=1-1

3. I also recommend two video game magazines called "Games(tm)" and "Edge". They're both excellent in that they do interviews, reviews, columns, previews and gobs more. This month on "Edge" they're doing a several page feature on "World of Warcraft", the smash hit MMO, and interviewing the people behind it. It is an incredible in depth feature.

4. Go on the internet and look at a few sites and subscribe to their newsletters. One I highly recommend would be http://www.gamasutra.com/

and

http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/home/

5. Keep practicing in writing down ideas and such, and if you buy that book then follow the questions.

Good luck, and if you have any more questions then please feel free in asking them.

RunningShovel

Cheers man, thats great! Thanks for answering so quickly and tell your brother thanks as well.

~RS

mentor07825

Not a bother, glad I could help! Good luck!

RealistSpy

Nice mentor I enjoyed reading that.

I wanted to be a games developer aswell but I feel in love with raw programming so I am doing software development instead :P

I even dream about programming while sleeping awwwww.

mentor07825

If you wanted to do video games and programming then you could've easily gotten into the industry! There's always need for programmers!

Or you could work as a middle-ware and supply the tools for developers >_>

Good luck though, as I myself am mainly interested in programming!