Table Of Content

£DG£ IY OUR GUIDE TD WORKING IN THE VIDEDGAME INDUSTRY G e t into G o m e s oeoo•o••••• II he videogame industry is famed for being cyclical. Each new generation of hardware drives a pattern of growth: budgets, demands and team sizes all go up, and then there's a period of consolidation in which the unsuccessful studios go under and the recruitment drive tapers off. All things being equal, that's the situation we should be looking at now. But the videogame industry isn't quite the same animal it used to be. Partly that's down to the power of the technology: both Xbox 360 and PS3 are going to be capable of sucking up what ever-expanding teams can throw at them for a while yet. And partly it's because those games aren't just prettier, they're being made for a much more complex world, where users expect to be able to create and share content, where publishers want to be able to leverage micro payments, where Hollywood actors are beginning to view videogames as a credible medium. And that means new roles are required: network programmers, scriptwriters, community managers, voice-acting co-ordinators. More interesting still is the effect of the industry's diversification. In the old days, you could make one game and port it from SNES to Mega Drive, or from PlayStation to Saturn. Now, with Wii, DS, and PSN/Live Arcade all offering distinct possibilities and making unique development demands, studios need different games - and different teams - for each. So this time around, the hunger for new staff seems to be sustaining, rather than tapering off. Which means there has never been a better time, or a wider variety of ways, to get into games. Hopefully the knowledge shared in this dedicated supplement will help you on your path. Get into Gomes oeooeooe oe Designer Tools · Interview • • programmer • Create worlds, start wars, What's it like to make the and make enemies Without them, there's chaos switch to another country? Writer • Audio designer Interview • • Most games have lousy Making the sounds that Matthew Jeffrey, EA's plots. Can you change that? make you flinch and cheer recruitment chief Programmer Tl?Chnical Interview • • director • Writing the code that Stig Strand and Peter makes everything else real Keeping the coders on track Leonard, Amiqus recruitment Artist · PR manager Courses • • • and training The visionaries behind the Gamers can be a jaded lot. visions we get to play Can you fire them up? Graduate into gaming Animator Producer Course Listing • • • If it moves, we shoot it. Their job is making sure Detailing courses in the UK, If it moves, they draw it everyone else is doing theirs and institutions worldwide Overview Profile: Designer It may be the game job most gamers want, but there are few The keenly coveted job can be the hardest to land roles available, and no guaranteed way to get started. Game design courses are still not highly ~ respected, and sending studios an 80-page precis of the convoluted Iiiow did you get started in magazine called Edge. Edge was . everyone to have fun playing backstory to your epic FPS will only get you ignored. A better the videogame industry? the first magazine where I saw job the games we make. The biggest bet is to get some hands-on I've always been a huge fan advertisements for the games industry, compliment you can get as a designer experience, perhaps by madding of videogames. My earliest memories and as soon as I realised jobs like this is that someone you meet in 'normal' levels of existing games, or building a prototype in Flash. Or, if of playing them are when I was about existed my mind was made up; I was life has bought and played one of you want to sell yourself on ideas eight years old and my parents would going to get into the games industry. your games, not just the internet alone, write a short, structured take me on caravanning holidays to I knew it was going to be tough. I forum guys or the hardcore gamers. I design document, emphasising how your game will play and what France. Instead of spending time had no relevant qualifications other want the guy who works at the local makes it different, rather than outside in the sun I'd always find than that fact that I was really good pub to have played Burnout or Black getting bogged down in story or whatever arcade machine they had at playing games, read all the right and have had a good experience. setting. It can also be worth including critiques of existing at the campsite and play it non-stop magazines and cC?uld talk passionately games. Don't try to review the until I'd finish it. During high school about what I was playing and what I What's the best preparation for whole thing: pick an element - I was heavily into art and design and thought made a good and a bad someone hoping to become a how levels are unlocked, say, or how health works - and explain did particularly well in those subjects. game. I sent out about 20 CVs with game designer? why it's flawed, how you would improve it, and what the "I did nothing but work and sleep. r figured consequences of those changes would be. Or there's the old fashioned way: get that job in I'd be the hardest worker on the QA team QA and work until you drop. and show everyone I was capable of more" When I finished high school I wasn't letters attached and went to three Play everything and always have really interested in going to university, or four interviews - all for a job as constructive opinions. Be open I just wanted to get out into the real an entry-level tester in quality minded and try to be innovative. Be world as soon as possible and start assurance (QA). able to break a game down into working and creating - the quickest On the 364th day of searching I specifically what's good and bad and way of doing this was to go on a was offered a job for £6,500 working what you would change to make it two-year BTEC course in Design as an entry level tester at Millennium better. Anyone can say something is and Reprographics. Interactive. I moved into a bedsit in shit for no reason; not many people Two years later I finished college Cambridge which cost £4,000 a year can make the right changes to make and went straight to work for a in rent. For the next year and a half I something great. Write a list and test national newspaper specialising in did nothing but work and sleep. I yourself - the detail is always the DTP. Good fun but ultimately a little figured that I had no money so I hardest thing to nail. limiting on the creative side. All wouldn't even try to have a social life Madding and personal game " through this period I was using my - I'd be the hardest worker on the QA projects are always good. When I earnings to buy videogames and team and show everyone I was interview people who show me that consoles, mostly imported from Japan, capable of more. It worked. I was games are their passion and they have and would meet with my friends every promoted a few times quickly and done something that will prepare Saturday at the local arcade to play managed to get a job on a them for the industry it's always a Burnout Paradise is typical of modern games: the newest releases. Work at the development team working in a good sign. more than 100 people work to make real the vision of a group of collaborating designers newspaper was good and I was being design role on a new project. paid well for a 20-year-old, but I knew How has the role of game it wasn't something I wanted to do All gamers have those moments designer changed over the last for the rest of my life. I had just where they think: 'I could have five years? started buying a new videogame designed that better'. What It's changed massively. Gone are the do you think people most days of lone designers and small underestimate about the job teams. On Burnout Paradise we have of being a game designer? a team of ten designers and a wider The biggest mistake I see designers team of over 100. Design is now making is forgetting who their highly collaborative and happens in customer is. We are making groups around whiteboards in the entertainment that should be fun and middle of the team area. Moving accessible to as wide an audience as forward we're going to have to be possible. It's not about making the quicker and more iterative, and use most hardcore game in the world, or cross-discipline groups to get ideas Games like Black showcase a designer's ability making something so niche that it to software quicker, and always to closely observe existing games, and find ways to refine them, or to introduce a new empahsis only appeals to a small market. I want push for quality. Profile: Writer Is your pen mightier than a BFG? ow did you get started wanted a 12-page sample, so I sent H in the industry? them what they wanted, along with . I guess it was pretty two feature-length screenplays and a urtconventional. I never got any kind massive document of design ideas. Of of writing qualification or anything course, they didn't need my ideas - like that. I started writing but it went a long way to proving just professionally about ten years ago how much I wanted it. I'm as excited while I was still doing my degree - about what I do today as I was then. Writers need to make a whole world come alive, Fine Art Contemporary Critical Theory not just the action. Detail is therefore important and Studio Practice, if you're What's a typical day like for you? interested. I was writing three It all depends on the stage of the alongside the game, it's pretty rare for different series for an Indian cable TV project. Some guys here have a pretty the guys to design something that network. It was great because it was steady, constant workload, but mine is doesn't fit into the story anyway. so obscure that the ITC never kept very much peaks and troughs. I might tabs on it, which meant I had a go two or three· days with basically What's the best preparation for freedom I really shouldn't have had. very little to do, but then have to someone considering becoming a Paedophile gags at 3pm on a Sunday churn out a new draft in a matter of game writer? isn't something most channels will let days, sometimes hours. I'll leave it to Play a shitload of games. It sounds you get away with. Anyway, oddly, other people to say whether I'm obvious, but we've seen some great that was a bit of a break for me, actually any good or not, but the one 'Hollywood screenwriters' have a because it woke me up to something I thing I can say about myself is that I'm go at writing a game, but without enjoyed doing. So, from there I did my fast. With all that spare time, I didn't an understanding of how games hard yards in script reports and book want to be sitting on my arse eating and interactivity actually function, right reads, before graduating to carrot cake, so I've become heavily they're just trying to crowbar feature development. What led me to involved in casting and directing the something rigid into something Free Radical specifically was a sitcom I voice actors, as well as assisting with flexible. It might get by, but it won't wrote. It was shortlisted for a TAPS the screen direction in the animation. be the better for it. As for me, I didn't get any writing "The playability of a product qualifications. When I was doing film and TV, I just read a few Syd Field is a Lot more important than books, and watched as many movies as my brain would allow. The same my disgustingly obese ego" practice applies here, I think. Just understand your medium of choice, then start writing until you get good. award, and TAPS happened to be one Alqngside that I also write the of the organisations that Free Radical website, and do a bit of our PR. approached when they started looking I also eat carrot cake. for a screenwriter. As soon as I heard about it, I absolutely savaged the How much interplay does a writer application. I've always loved games - have with designers? Do your the storytelling possibilities and all that story ideas inform their game - so I asked everyone I'd worked with design decisions, or do you have to send recommendations. I was lucky to fit around them? enough to have kind words from I'd like to think it's a two-way street, Momentum Pictures, Crystal Sky, ITV but I'm a firm believer that design and a bunch of others. Free Radical should come way before the story. On a creative level, that can be a little restrictive, but the playability of the product is a hell of a lot more important thari my disgustingly obese ego. Well, some of the time at least. That said, the overarching story is basically my domain, but I definitely follow their lead when it comes to individual game units. I'm lucky - Without a good story, one gun battle can feel Game writers now have to make worlds like that of Free Radical's Haze come the same as the next, no matter how thrilling because the story is developed alive via the use of scripts, websites, press releases and preproduction notes --- • ow did you get started in implementing and debugging the . thinking about what speciality H Overview the videogame industry? code required to accomplish the areas may suit them? I started in the industry about of the game for which I am the I'm not sure the roles have become In some respects the path into game programming has been eight years ago. At the time I was programmer responsible. This will significantly more specialised during more stable than many others in working for a non-games software often depend heavily on input from my time in the industry. By which I the industry. A relevant degree, company and interested in switching artists and, especially in my case, mean there have been graphics which by no means needs to be game specific, from a good to games - I was very fortunate that a designers. For example, when coding experts, physics experts, etc, for some institution is still the most friend in the industry recommended vehicle handling there's usually daily time. Some of these roles are very straightforward door opener. The me. I expect my PhD in physics discussions with the designers who specialised but every game requires an good news is that the industry is crying out for able programmers played a significant role alongside decide how the game should play. awful lot of code that doesn't fit into of all sorts - general, audio, the recommendation in me getting Towards the end _of the project most a neat specialist area. My advice physics, online, etc - so able the job. days are a frantic scramble of bug would be not to worry about graduates have a fighting chance of getting a good game job. fixing and optimisation work. specialising but to get a good overall Integral to every stage of the What is a typical day like for you? knowledge of programming and think design process, programmers Early in the project there are lots of What languages/tools do you use? about the particular issues that games aren't any more necessarily working from scratch, or even meetings with designers and artists to Pretty much all my programming is programmers face. A company directly on a single game. The need to create stable tools and "It's easier to match the requirements of a pipelines, to ensure that technology can be used across a number of different projects, 'general' programmer and you can then find means that game programming is becoming more like general out what the different roles are really Like" software programming in its emphasis on collaboration and consistency, rather than the establish initial requirements for the done in C++, though Python is used looking to fill a very specific niche role working practices of the renegade game programming game itself and any tools. There are for controlling the data build pipeline. is likely to turn to someone with geniuses of the '70s and '80s. also lots of meetings with other I use Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET for experience anyway. However, it's programmers for usually broad-strokes all my code writing, plus debugging easier to match the requirements of a discussions on code and scheduling. on the 360. For PS3 debugging I use 'general' programmer and you can At this stage I might not write any real the ProDG tools. Version control of then find out what the different roles code for weeks at a time. the source code is done with AccuRev. are really like and decide how you During the bulk of the project my want to specialise in the future, if at day is mostly taken up with designing, Traditionally, programmers all. Of course, if you're really implement the designer's ideas; is interested in a particular area then that flow of ideas reversing now learn more about it but don't feel th~ that things like physics effects are need to specialise and keep hold of driving game decisions? the bigger picture. I think it's been something of a two-way process for some time now. How do you think the job of a Design decisions have always been game programmer will change affected by what programmers can over the next five years? actually implement, which sometimes In my opinion, the main trends will may be something the designers be driven by the move to the ever hadn't even considered. Though larger team sizes. I believe this will things like increasingly realistic and require game teams, especially the complicated physics are playing programmers, to become increasingly their part, in my experience this is organised and think more in terms under the control of design, not of conventional software engineering the other way round. My personal than the 'old school' clever but fast opinion is that games should always and-loose approaches - working as be strongly design led - who cares part of a team is more important how good the physics is or how flashy than ever. Also, due to the huge the graphical effects are if the game is amount of content, programmers no fun to play! will have to devote more effort on tools and the art/design pipeline Games like MotoGP '07 are prime examples of How specialised is programming than has been necessary in the past. how more detailed and complicated physics becoming? How early on should Middleware is also likely to play a models can affect decisions made about control schemes or differing game modes or difficulties prospective programmers start larger role in the future. Profile: Artist Can you draw yourself into a gaming job? ow did you get started of the new consoles, people are A lot of asset production across H in the industry? having to specialise more and more. the industry is now being It was a happy accident! I Pretty much the days of the jack of all outsourced. Is working for an was doing a degree in maths and trades are gone; however, there are outsourcing agency a good way computing when one of the students still roles, especially in the setting up to get a start in the industry? on my course needed some graphics and technical aspect of the project, for Any way of getting your foot in the doing for a computer game he was people who have talents in multiple door is good. The way to get good at writing. I jumped at the chance to do areas. People are probably best to anything it is to do it, so any kind of Overview some art again. After the degree he start by trying out various disciplines hands-on industry experience is set up a small company working on a and then focusing on areas that they extremely useful - along with an We call them videogames because game for Psygnosis and asked me if I are more comfortable in, feel better appreciation of deadlines! It also gets they're a visual medium, but the range of artistry they require is wanted a job. I definitely landed on suited to and more importantly enjoy a portfolio together. A good way to one of the things that makes the my feet and I haven't looked back. the most. improve yourself is amongst a team common comparison with film so all striving for the same result - you flawed. A game's art team has to see everything: a film's production What tools and programs do How much more demanding have can't put a price on the support and designer isn't worried about the you use? Xbox 360 and PS3 made your job? shared knowledge this can offer. casting. A casting agent isn't We use Maya and Photoshop for The amount of time needed to worried about locations. A location scout isn't also designing the the most part. We also have a lot of produce good quality next-gen art What's the most frustrating - and opening titles. But game artists do in-house editors and tools that work is the area I've noticed the biggest rewarding - aspect of your job? the lot. It's part of why art jobs are either in Maya or on the console change so either projects need longer The biggest frustration is the consoles becoming increasingly specialised, but it's also why game art is such themselves. For the most part the level development time or significantly never have enough power! They are an appealing proposition. From is built in Maya, but a lot of the level increasing team size. If the project is a getting better and massively improved designing characters to visualising detail and gameplay is placed in movie tie-in, as a lot of our games are, from when I first started 13 years ago. alien landscapes, from researching early breech-loading rifle designs afterwards using the editors. The the deadlines are very inflexible. This Also, with increasing team sizes, more to photographing Monument instant feedback for both gameplay itself brings more demands on the management has meant less actual art Valley, it can be a hugely varied and visuals is essential and it gives management side of the art creation time. I really enjoy the direction side and stimulating environment. Although now heavily technically great power to the artist to make their as there are more people to manage but I do miss my roots in the industry. dependent, there's always strong The best part is it's a job that you demand for artists with good "It's the challenge that can pretty much make as fun and classic skills and bottomless imaginations, so a good portfolio exciting as you want. Set your own is key. You'll need to show drives me to do the best I goals and keep bettering yourself, aptitude for a variety of styles, working with a team of very talented and it's worth tailoring what you can with what I've got" show to a specific studio's output. artists. There is always something new to learn, and the projects we have been lucky to work on have been levels full and extravagant. It can also and support. However, it's these new really exciting and often surreal. It's make it extremely easy to adjust the consoles that are allowing us to get great to be able to do a job I lo~e and incidental parts of the level to allow the beautiful visuals that all artists one my children seem so proud of! for the odd gameplay tweak. · strive for. How has the role of a game artist The videogame industry is changed over the last five years? often criticised for being too As the quality of the art is rapidly conservative - too reliant on guns improving, especially with the power and cars, etc. How much scope for real creativity is there? Games can be as creative and stylised as the design wants to make them, but generally it's less of a gamble to stick with tried and tested. From a level artist perspective my creativity comes from the look of the level, and even when it's dictated by a film you can still get your personal touches in and make it as realistic or Some games -such as Super Monkey Ball interesting as you can. It's the Adventure -deliver on the artist's long-held challenge that drives me to do the ' dream of being able to use games to make The Lego Star Wars games demonstrate that even within a doubly licensed product, their colourful, fertile imagination come to life best I can with what I've got. there's room for real flair in how your interpret well-known scenes and characters Profile: Animator A move into games could put the moves into games ow did you get started full-blown production, inheriting all· platforms themselves and clever H in the industry? that was good and bad before me. programming that will be what keep I have been interested in The words 'learning curve' took on a pushing it forward. games for some time, but I just kept whole new meaning. Where I was ticking along in film. But then the very well experienced in film How easy is to move across opportunity came along to not only production, which is essentially linear, from other animation fields into work for EA but to work on Harry I had no idea how large and complex game animation? Potter! I'd spent my entire career in building a game was. Moving over to games from film is the arena of family entertainment in comfortable enough if and only if you film, and to be able to move to games What tools and programs do keep your eyes and ears open and pay at this time on such a wonderful you use? attention. They have plenty of things franchise was clearly a win-win. I think I'd have to say my most in common but the other stuff - the important tools are my senses - game-specific stuff - takes, I think, What's a typical day like for you? more specifically observation and more enthusiasm and maybe wits At this point I'm not sure there is a listening. So often we end up than anything else to get you across. typical day for me. I know that sounds scurrying around looking for answers cliched but I joined in the middle of or solutions when they are in plain Now that so many games are "Moving over to games from film is comfortable enough if and only if you keep your eyes and ears open and pay attention" sight. In terms of programs, I use aiming at realistic human mainly Maya, XSI and Photoshop. movement from their characters, is there less scope for expression in How rapidly is game animation game animation? evolving at the moment, as This depends entirely on the game's motion capture and procedural direction. Again, caricature of design techniques become more closely and kinetics are key here. There can integrated with traditional still be a human look but subtle animation methods? enhancement will actually make it Good question. It appears that there more human. So as far as expression" is now a very real evolutionary bell goes it is only limited by the character curve acceleration technically and, itself not the medium. With the for lack of a better word, spiritually exception of cutscene versus in-game regarding games. The word 'games' animations, everything else is pretty is itself morphing into interactive much the same. entertainment, active being an interesting piece of the latter. Look at Game programming and art the simple but brilliant Wii - a game production are becoming platform you could physically knock increasingly specialised. yourself unconscious with. How much is the same true Motion capture has been around of animation? in one form or another for many The field is certainly growing all the decades. While in the right hands it time, even if people aren't specialising. can be a tremendous boost to a The most frustrating thing is that I production - Disney and Pixar Films wish I knew it all end to end - I sure have it down pat - inversely when let am trying. loose without an artistic hand to shape it, a mind-numbing outcome is What's the most rewarding aspect ensured. Choose examples for yourself of your job? - there are plenty! As far as It's simple. The most rewarding aspect Games like Harry Potter, based as they are on procedural animation goes, I'd say of my job is watching someone, another visual medium, might seem to stifle that's still an open book. Certainly the without an interest in me, enjoy creativity. But a good animator will still need to find ways of conveying each actor's personality software is up to the task, but it's the playing our game. Profile: Tools programmer As consoles get more complex, so must their support software Iii ow did you get started in What's a typical day like for you? dominated by the shouts congruous the videogame industry? We take customer SlJpport very with the passionate application of I graduated from Cambridge seriously, and we have a close PES 6 on PS3 - I can be found scoring in 2004, where I read General relationship with game developers; a goals from 12:30 most days. Engineering, specialising in electronics few hours in the morning will involve and information processing. After the discussing support issues and requests What languages/tools do you use? usual post-university round-the-world from game developers with our Development is done in C++ and trek I landed up in Bristol, and started customer support team. we've just moved over to Visual Studio to pursue a career in software. Whilst After that, it really depends on 2005 from VS2003. We use Perforce not a main part of my degree, I was what stage of our release schedule the for source control and use Python able to apply my skills to the role debugger is at. We decide upon the quite a lot for miscellaneous scripting and have progressed ever since. I feature set for a particular release a tasks. We find Boundschecker useful wasn't looking for a job in the few months prior and assign tasks for checking for memory leaks after industry specifically, but I enjoy between the five members of the big changes and we have cruisecontrol gaming and I'm delighted to be a team. So for a standard release cycle running regular builds, unit tests and part of its future. of approximately a month, weeks one, generating reports. "One of the advantages of working in such a small team is having responsibility for all aspects of the d~velopment" two and three I'll be implementing the Being a tools programmer, are features assigned to me and working you envious of those working on on any bugs from the previous release glamorous titles, or does this job that crop up in the mean time. have its own rewards? Week four I'll integrate my feature It definitely has its own rewards and changes into our release branch, benefits. We're in a unique position document them, and spend the week at SN Systems in that our tools are testing changes from other members used extensively on all the PlayStation of the team and fixing any bugs. We systems so we have a critical role take it in turns to manage the release to play within the industry. From itself; one of the advantages of getting very early exposure to the working in such a small team is having development hardware all the way responsibility for all aspects of the through to the maturing and development. As I've mentioned, we'll broadening of the platform, it's make decisions about what major essential that we provide developers features a release will include about with what they need. two months prior; our roadmap is Working in any aspect of the largely driven by the game developers' industry is exciting. At the end of requests. Along the cycle we'll often the day, when I see the·games on have room to fit in a few features if the shop floor, I know I've played a we think they'll be helpful. small part in getting them there - My job also sometimes involves not just a few, but lots of them! the opportunity for travel - I recently presented to around 250 game What do you think is the biggest developers at the SCEE DevStation 07 misconception people have about in London and at the SCEA DevCon your job? · conference near San Francisco. I've Often games developers aren't seen also visited many studios in Europe as 'serious' programmers - that and North America, listening to developing games is an extension of feedback and trying to make sure they a hobby, but not a real job. Although are getting the most out of the tools. it is a young industry that is still SN Systems' Tuner tool, now available for PSP Working hours are flexible, but I finding its feet, it is still a highly and PS3, has long been heavily relied upon by try to keep a 9-to-5.30 routine, give professional and structured industry many studios for optimising their game code, no doubt part of Sony's decision to buy SN in 2005 or take. Lunch in the kitchen is with many talented individuals.