In Melbourne, while attending Unite, I bumped into an ex-student of mine. Found out how he went from developing apps in Malaysia to doing game development in China to currently being in Melbourne.
Here he details his progress from being a programmer, to an Associate Producer to considering into delving into design.
Jin Kai describes his process of discovering his strengths in game development and the importance of making time to find those strengths.
I did this interview for KDU’s Interplay Symposium early this year. The Symposium was trying to tackle the negative perspectives the public has on gaming activity, so I went out and compiled video interviews of people whom gaming has been very positive for them. A good change from doom-and-gaming-addiction-gloom.
Sam here talked about what players knew regarding the storytelling app Episode. In the video she details how a fan can evolve herself or himself into a superstar by recognition from their peers – and eventually earn an income – due to how Episode is designed.
Bert Monroy at SEA Connect 2017
Lecture from SEA Connect 2017. As he puts it, he was the guy that learned Photoshop before it’s called that, and has been guiding its development since. He was quite proud to point out the Grass and Maple brushes in the Brushes set: “That’s my brush.”
The history talk was fascinating as he was telling it as he lived it. Here, upon discovering the Mac, he created a Clip-Art like package of human parts. Continue reading
Trying out some game character ideas.
By 2015, using the Cerny Method the design students were able to create evolved prototypes of their game design. For example, the student above was able to create a Beat-Em-Up/RPG game within 10 weeks, and was able to showcase the game as a portfolio item along with other deliverables. Another problem then appeared: art. Or rather, designers forced to consider art issues. So this was the problem I tackled from 2015 till now.
This is MAMJ reviewing Light Up, a game by an all-designer team for their FYP. Having no programmers or artists on their team – which was the worst case scenario I was concerned would happen – they had to figure out how to deliver a fun, playable game. They settled on using RPGMaker and was able to deliver a horror game hacked into the engine.
The game was playable, created memorable responses among testers and MAMJ seemed to truly enjoy trying it out. As a proof of design, the game worked. We did however get a comment from the industry that the art is not impressive. This was settled by explaining the designers had no ability to work on the art, but it did made me realize that in the end, games are still judged by their art. Design, unfortunately, is obfuscated; you won’t get it until you play it.
Now, if art blocks people from playing a game, is it possible for a designer to do something with art? Especially if they’re stuck in a situation where they have no access to artists?
Should designers even consider dealing with art?
Design student prototypes circa 2014.
The fact is, design students do come with varying abilities in art. Sometimes we do get ‘purple unicorns’: design students who can do art and programming thus are able to create a very tight integration of all three aspects in their prototype. Andrew Sin’s Geminate (Image:right) is an example of this. However, we can’t rely on students coming in as all-rounders and an educational program should be catered to an average expectation of what students can do. Expecting design students to be able to do art on their own is unrealistic. Furthermore, game design is best proven with prototype art. If a game is proven fun with ugly art, then good art can only make the game better. Benny Chan’s Rect-y 2 (Image: center) and Tyle Ooi’s Ponch (Image:left) are good examples: they both have serviceable art that allow players to test the game to see what the game can offer.
If there is one good reason to get designers to do art, it is because it will allow them to not wait for artists in order to prove their designs. The design students cited above were able to convey the experience they wanted by generating their own assets. This ability has two advantages:
So if it’s good for designers to have some art ability – but not be able to learn to do art by themselves – what should they learn in order to do a good game design?
Cleaning up old doodles from 2016.
Top: Introducing the gun.
Middle: Introducing the newbie.
Bottom: Drone tanker trucks.
There are three problems I found with training design students:
In summary, I will have students who have to graduate alone, show expertise in creating work that can only be proven by others working on it, and may be unable to communicate what he and she can do.
Was in The Arcade in Melbourne during the Melbourne International Games Week, and Ben Britten, Technical Director of Mighty Games Group was more than happy to show his workplace.
Seeing that wall of animated gameplay in the background, I asked what it was.
Hearing his answer…. I had to ask him for a video interview. It was that mindblowing.
Richard Wnuk is a veteran Game Business executive, having served in various high-level positions in Konami Digital Entertainment, Majesco, Jaleco and Red Storm Entertainment. He was giving lectures in KDU for the past four weeks – giving out stories on Rainbow Six, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Dance Dance Revolution – so had the pleasure to hold this quick interview with him.
Here, he was addressing a question he heard from a student. He chose to address it here as the question reflected a student concern he wanted to settle.