Wanna work in the gaming industry?

As promised: If you're interested in working in the gaming industry, I just might have some tips for you!

At PAX East, I attended the So You Want to Get into the Game Industry panel. The biggest thing they pushed was networking. In particular (if you don't already have some contacts) interning can be a great option. If you do land an intern job, work hard. It sounds like common sense to me, but supposedly a lot of people get in and then think "I won't work hard until I get paid", and of course they end up not getting the job at all.

If you're going after a job, start working at it before you apply. Build some game mods, or maintain a blog. (^_^) Try to attend unofficial meetings / groups of industry insiders. Apparently in the urban hubs, there are plenty of these around and newcomers are welcome.

Include a cover-letter with your application. A well written cover-letter. Mention any people you know; name-drop. If you met the person at a panel years before, mention it. Also talk about games that you love (show your passionate side) and in particular games from the company you're applying for.

When going for an interview, don't overdress. Apparently (and I'd double check but this is seriously what they told us) the industry frowns upon people who dress super business-like for their interview. Something business casual is preferred.

Make sure you do your homework before the interview. When a company asks if you've played their games, don't be in a position where you have to say no or lie. Play some of their games & know what the company is about!

Once you have the job, don't act entitled. Work your butt off. Meet deadlines. And don't think that it isn't a real job just because its in the gaming industry; maintain an appropriate level of professionalism. Also, don't be discouraged by setbacks. Layoffs happen a lot in this industry, and the industry is relatively small. Do not burn bridges, or take a layoff personally.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is all that I'm willing to share. (Hey, its a competitive industry after all; gotta keep an edge.)

Good luck in your futures, and hopefully we'll meet up to work on Fallout 4 or Civilization 6 together!

Civilization 5

I remember the first time I played Civilization 4... the game loaded, and then began singing to me. I had been worried about all the changes they were making to my beloved series, but in the end it turned out to by my favorite iteration yet! A lot of folks are similarly worried about Civ 5, but I have to say that after seeing the demo, I'm not too worried. Our highly anticipated game is in safe hands.

The game world is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Now bear in mind, the build we were shown was an early Alpha, so this information may not remain accurate. From what we were told: roads are no longer going to be integral for your empire, but rather will act as a trade link. You'll want to build roads as minimally as possible, because they will actually hinder resources gathered from the tiles they exist in.

Did I say tile? I meant to say hex. If you haven't heard, Civ 5 is switching to a hexagon system that I think looks pretty interesting. It will certainly add a lot of new strategic possibilities when units are engaged in combat. The design team said that they really wanted to revolutionize the way wars occur in Civ 5. To this end, they're limiting military units to one per hex, giving ranged units the ability to fire from afar, and making units a lot more expensive and a lot more powerful. Combat will no longer necessarily leave one unit wiped out, and ranged units can play a significant role in backing up melee units.

They are also limiting cities to where only one unit can garrison them. The general idea is that wars will occur and be decided outside of the cities. And obviously, no more Stacks of Doom. I love the direction combat is taking since one of my least favorite aspects of Civ is unit spam.

I asked a few questions towards the end of the session. From what I was told:
-Civilization/Leader traits will be very distinct and heavily contribute to the playstyle
-Unique Units will truly be unique, not just a small stat bonus but something that other units can't do
-City States are in the game to "make things happen" between the larger empire-like civilizations, and are very effective at that; they provide substantial bonuses if you're friendly with 'em (depending on the city's focus, such as war or economics), but can also be captured
-Conquest no longer requires you to eliminate all over civilizations; just take and hold all their capitals (which I'm not too thrilled about, actually)
-Barbarians will have a "home city", and if you capture the home city you stop the barbarians (unknown if this is going to be literally one home city on a world, or if it'll be lots of home cities that spawn barbarians continuously and can be captured one by one)
-You can spend gold to "purchase" an expansion of your cities borders
-Cities will expand an additional hex, rather than two like in previous games it'll go out to work up to three hexes away

Overall, I'm really excited about what I saw and looking forward to the finished product. I can't wait!

PAX East, Part 2: Panels and Games!

The first panel I attended on Friday was Online Gaming Communities and "Real Life" Relationships, which I thought was quite interesting, having met several good friends online prior to meeting up face-to-face.

After that, I had hoped to attend Storytelling in the World of Interactive Fiction, but it was unfortunately already full by the time I rushed to the auditorium after the former panel was finished.

I also attended Girls and Games: The Growing Role of Women in the Game Industry. In an industry / subculture that's overwhelming dominated by males, I thought this would be quite interesting. Unfortunately, it turned out to be sort of ridiculous. There was a male moderator who kept repeating the questions, like verbatim, to the panel... as if they needed a translator or something. Everyone could hear just fine, the questions were spoken into a microphone the first time. It seemed almost sexist, as if they couldn't have an all-woman panel without a male to make sure things worked well.

There were plenty of other panels without a moderator, so I'm just not sure what was going on there. But to me, the worst part of it all was that there were tons of questions and these repetitions really ate into the time-slot. The moderator kept making stupid jokes (which also tended to be border-line sexist) and generally seemed unnecessary.

During the weekend, I also got a chance to try out 3D gaming, which was pretty awesome. I played a first person shooter and had to admit, the 3D technology was pretty amazing. Just like the movies, only its interactive! Pretty rad stuff.

I also got to see a hands-on preview of Civilization 5! I'll talk more about that next time, but I will say that the game is absolutely gorgeous.

My favorite panel, by far, was So You Want to Get into the Game Industry?  It was ran by several industry insiders, including the legend: Chris Avellone. He wasn't fielding any questions on Fallout: New Vegas, unfortunately... but it was pretty amazing to actually see the man behind some of my favorite games.

This panel was extremely informative for those of us interested in joining the industry, and I took copious notes. This Monday, I'll share the advice we were given; look for it then.

PAX East, Part 1

So arriving in Boston, I was immediately surrounded by a throng of folk obviously there for the same reason, and who took the same train. In fact, on the train itself it was fairly obvious that there was a large contingent of nerds on their way to PAX East.

From the very beginning, I noticed how loud and annoying and obnoxious they were. Not to say that every person heading to PAX on the train was engaging in such behavior, but I do think that a general lack of awareness / concern for social norms is the rule rather than the exception throughout the "geek" subculture. I find this interesting, and ponder why it is so.

Don't get me wrong. I'm the last person to try and subject societal norms on people arbitrarily, just to "fit in". But there are certain behaviors that I would consider "anti-social"; things that you don't do in public because it is rude and disruptive to everyone around you. And based on my experience at the convention, I suppose that just isn't commonly understood amongst geeks.

In all seriousness, this convention really opened up my eyes to why there exists so many negative stereotypes about the geek subculture. I hadn't realized, I guess because I am a hybrid geek / normal person who drinks alcohol, attends parties, etc... It was disappointing to realize, because I love geek culture!

That said, there were plenty of normal folks with normal social skills at PAX East so please don't mistake my meaning.

The convention wasn't too crowded outside of events, but a lot of the time panels and such that I wanted to attend were quickly at full capacity. I missed out on a few that way (quite disappointing!) and hope that in the future they'll work on having bigger spaces available.

I never had to look hard for an enforcer (the helpful go-to folks) so that was nice. They had food within the convention area, but I tended to end up with a chunk of free time every day so I always left the convention itself and bought something in the mall. The con food smelled nice, though!

All in all the area was quite nice, and I feel like they chose the venue well.

Next time, I'll talk about some specific panels.

PAX East: Initial Report

OK so I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of cool things, but I also caught a case of ConCrud, some nasty amalgamation of various regional colds all mixed up in the big meat-vat that was the teaming masses of convention attendees... I feel terrible!

Anyways, saw Civ 5, that was awesome. Saw and played Red Dead Redemption, that also looks awesome... it's the latest offering from Rockstar Studios and particularly comes from the team that makes the GTA series. Might be time I buy a PS3 or XBox 360.

Will give more detailed reports as I can, but I just woke up and feel awful. My head is pounding, my nose is stuffed in between sneezes, my throat is parched... ugh.

PAX East

I'll be attending PAX East and have a lot of work to get done beforehand, so I'm gonna take the week off from updates.

Hopefully Monday I'll be able to write about how PAX went. Looking forward to it!