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Part 3 || Anatomy of Game - Khel Khel Mein
by , 04-03-16 at 04:21 PM (3635 Views)
Part 3: Khel Khel Mein : Anatomy of a Game
AoA Guys, its cold here - Snow, actually I would call it frost, is freezing my fingers. Also the train was 2 mins late.
I hate RB25 trainline. Koi is driver ko is thaand mein bahir khara karke do chittar lagaye.
So this post is going to be a little more about practical advice and a little offtopic, as that might be exactly what some of you want.
We will get back to exploring the depth of design from BLOG POST 5 of this series. This post is about the steps to take to enter
game industry and in next one( BLOG POST 4) I will give the comprehensive list of softwares and resources (mostly free) that you
will need and talk about why you might need them..
As far as I am aware, there are no proper game related degree in Pakistan as of yet, which is a shame but understandable.
We have a large pool of potential but currently we are short of talent and resources in this field. Also it takes a handsome
amount of money to market and develop a game so that’s another factor. While we have a decent number of programmers
– we still lack game designers and artists of caliber.
So before we truly being, understand that there is a difference between being a gamer and being a game developer.
Most of the work game developers are doing involve not having time to actually play the game, that’s the job of
Quality Assurance, especially in a big studio. It is hard, hard, hard work with one of the worst working conditions.
Remember how EA was voted the worst company for a few years running. Development cycles means that people
are laid off every rotation so job insecurity is immensely high, as there are 100s of recently graduated glossy-eyed,
pimple faced teenagers begging to work for chump change for long hours (basically me :P) just so that they can say
they worked on xyz game and see their name flash pass for 0.01 sec in credits (sometimes even that doesn’t happen).
Also make sure you understand that crunch time is real and crunch time IS most of the time. You are making a world,
a physical interactable new world. The only difference between you and earlier man is that they did it with sand and stone,
you do it with digital tools. Oh, and also earlier man didn’t need to think about generating physics or assets or artwork, you do.
Ever wonder why it takes a team of more than 1000 developers to make GTA. In most games, every little detail you see and
every NPC you run over has been placed there by hand and a particular job has been assigned to him. You can procedurally
generate these things, but those tools also need to be developed somehow and by highly trained programmers.
I would highly suggest reading read this article: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why.../1100-6384982/
I don’t want to burst your bubble or anything, but I do want to show you the bad side of things aswell.
Yes, there are many studios where you may not face some of these challenges, but working for most AAA studios is a tough job.
You have to be highly passionate and driven to succeed.
So, if I haven’t already turned you off from working in this field: P lets begin to tell you what steps you might take.
IMHO, for a Pakistani teenager/young adult, generally speaking (since every situation is slightly different and depends on individual’s interest)
these are 3 most common ways to enter game industry. I will mention them and talk about some of the pitfalls as well, also even if you fall
under one category, I would highly suggest you to read them as you will find useful information under all 3 and these are not hard fixed rules:1) Best way to go is if you have a bachelors in Computer Science or computer related field, move abroad to get a masters in CS,
Software Programming, etc (you can’t really go wrong here). Make C++, C# and Javascript you main languages. Unity 3D uses c#/Javascript,
Unreal Engine uses C++ and most AAA inhouse engines use mostly C++ or C#. You can also look into getting masters in Game/ Digital media
from America/Australia/ Germany/UK/Japan/other EU country. It depends on your interest, how much money you have, how willing are you to
learn a new language, and other personal factors. America and Japan are more suited for AAA studios, UK and EU countries do have AAA,
but they are too few and far in-between. UK and EU have a lot more browser, mobile, AA and indie studios (but these often guarantee slightly
more job security).
2) If you have a bachelors in a fields other than programming based field, then look for a masters in digital media research, media management
or look for a masters which merges your current masters with technology. i.e if you are interested in music studios look for audio engineers, if artwork
is your passion than look more into digital illustration degrees. If you are an accountant, you are f***d.j/k . Accountants, finance, management guys,
all are needed. It doesn’t have to be about just being a programmer or artist. Also keep a lookout for graduate programs, assistance-ships, internships
or seminars, big companies offer these.
3) If you don’t have a bachelors yet, I would suggest getting a bachelors in Computer Science or Digital Art (we have a decent institutes for both).
These two fields are most needed at even small studios. Also start learning specialized programs (I talk more on this below this list).
Now for most important part, and this is for all the groups, the 3 included above and beyond that :I tried to give you concise and useful information. Next post is going to be about exactly what software you should learn, how you can learn them and how
o Start working on your own game or collaborate with someone online. There are multiple resource websites, where you can meet other programmers,
artist, designers, musicians, writers, etc and collaborate on a project. You bring your own specialty and usually a finished game is greater than the sum
of its parts. This will also give you that all important experience. Majority of game industry, even to this day, hire people based on projects and experience
rather than name of their degrees.
Places where you can find others : Many many facebook groups // http://www.indiedb.com/ // http://www.teamups.net/find-team /
/ http://www.gamedev.net/index // https://forums.tigsource.com/ // https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/
o Start small, your first couple of games are going to suck, but you will love them.
Also make your first game in something like Twine, Stencyl or Gamemaker, I will list a more comprehensive list of easy out-of-the-box game engines in
next post (Post 5). Be ready to fail and iterative and improve and then rinse and repeat the process. Game development is an iterative process, where
you will make multiple things, but decide to choose only a fraction of those elements. Also look into how board games work, all the basic knowledge of
video games comes from board or physical games.
o Plan ahead by thinking from a company’s prospective. Also take a look at their job listings and see what you already have and what you need to
improve upon. Go to company’s website and search job listings which match your specific want. Look for key words and highlight them, you want to
develop those particular skills. i.e for project management if a company states experience in JIRA or Agile, then watch tutorials on Agile softwares,
learn Scrum and use JIRA in a project. If they say experience in unreal engine, then show them unreal and C++ experience, gamemaker experience
wont help you there. So look ahead of time and be conscious about this.
o Find your specialty. There are 100s of “Idea and Concept” guys in every studio (in Karachi we call them khalifas :P) Everyone wants to make a game,
so everyone, even non-gamers have ideas on games. It’s all about the execution. Find your passion in the mess on game industry. If you like artwork,
learn and be the best artist that you can be. If you want to program game mechanics then learn exactly how you can manipulate the code, be the master of it.
Execution of ideas is EVERYTHING. And you don’t want your product to be mediocre, you want your product to shine. You can’t be jack of all trades
when starting out. It will take YEARS for you to get there, so start now.
they will help you. I remember that there was no one who mentioned these softwares when I was a teen and had to I had to learn about most of them on
my own, so hopefully I can provide at least some sort of path to follow.
Till then GG WP.7 Likes, 0 Thanks
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