How to Make Games (and maybe get paid for it…)

Posted on January 30, 2012 by jacob

A friend of mine’s little brother asked me how to get into game development, and this is the response I wrote. I think it’s pretty good explanation.

“Sure Spencer, I’d love to offer some help!

The main advice I can give you is that if you want to make games, you should start making games. This is true of anything – ie if you want to learn how to sing, you sing a lot, etc.

That being said, the path to getting paid to make games is a hard one. Making games present a different challenge because a game is composed of many different forms of media. Videogames require programming, illustration, animation, music composition, as well as a strong design sense to find the fun. If you’re interested in making games, it’s really helpful to pick one of these areas and learn it well before you branch out into others. The good news though is that there are tons of resources, both in schools and online to help you learn these.

Programming can be very difficult to learn, but it’s probably the most useful skill you can gain. Since – after all is said and done – digital games are computer programs – anyone who knows even a little scripting will have a leg up in those who don’t. It’s also useful due to the fact that if making games doesn’t work out in the end it’s fairly easy to find work as a programmer, even in a bad economy. All schools – as far as I know – offer some sort of programming classes. There’s also some great resources available free from MIT OpenCourseware. You can find a basic programming class here: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/
I went the programming route, majoring in computer science for my undergraduate degree, and it’s really nice now that I have a family, because I know I can fall back on it if I need to.

You could also study illustration and animation. I know there’s a lot of online resources for this – as well as classes you can take. http://drawspace.com/ seems like a good place to start. It’s somewhat harder to get in as an animator or artist, because there seem to be a lot of people with similar skill sets trying to get in. It’s also more difficult to find work as an artist if games don’t work out. That being said, if you get good at 3d modeling you can do pretty well.

Music is another route, although its hard to get in with music alone. I know a lot of great composers that can’t find a job in the industry – because there are only a few positions needed.

You could also try getting in on design only. In this case, there are fewer resources available, mostly because we’re only now figuring out design as a practice. In this case you should try making simple board games on your own to figure out the basics of what makes a fun experience. (regardless of what you do you should try this!) from here there’s really not a solid path to making games. I do, however, recommend the undergraduate or graduate Interactive Media program at USC – which will give you a good design base and connect you to a lot of people in the industry. A lot of people I know also recommend the ETC program at Carnegie Mellon.

Regardless of what you do, the games industry runs on networking. Knowing people, making friends, etc. is the most important thing you can do to get in. Most people working in games got in through their friends. Meet people, work with people, find people with similar interests online, and you can do it.

After looking at this, I can think of two more methods of getting in:

First, I know people get into the games industry via the administration/business angle – but I know very little about that from a career perspective.

Lastly you can get in as a game tester, but I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy. Game companies need people to test their games, and hire people who play games to do this. If you do this, you will work long hours for very low wages, and nobody – really nobody – will respect you. You will be like a slave, and you will spend all your days walking into some wall on some game level to make sure it doesn’t glitch out. If you manage to put up with 10+ years of this someone will eventually have to move you into another – more creative – position. Although now that there are more schools it isn’t clear that this practice will continue. You might just be fired and have wasted a lot of your life.

And with that negative note, I end this post.

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Farosia Winter Synopsis

Posted on November 8, 2011 by jacob

Farosia is an experiment in incorporating the symbolic gesture-based storytelling found in religious and cultural rituals into a digital interactive experience. As a new-comer to the city of Farosia, the player must participate in a series of rites in order to become an accepted citizen and illuminate the city.

During the winter show, players can perform the first of these rites: The Act of Jumping. The rite will play as a simple 2D sidescroller where the players jumps take on symbolic meaning.

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Farosia: Game Design Outline

Posted on August 27, 2011 by jacob

Introduction

The city of Farosia stands out as a single bright light surrounded by an endless dark desert. Every evening, after the market lanterns are lit, the children of the city set up small booths and stages and call out to visitors to come inside. Those who enter the children’s stages are suddenly recruited to act out characters in the children’s plays and games. Throughout the evening you can always hear the surprised laughter and joy coming from these market booths.

Though most see this as a simple form of merriment, the elders of the Farosia know better. They understand that these nightly activities are the only thing keeping the city lights on and the darkness away.

Treatment

Farosia is the culmination of my graduate research on the interactive nature of rituals. It is both an explanation on the power of ritual in game form, and an exploration on how understanding the nature of ritual informs the game design process.

So what does this fancy sounding paragraph mean?

Farosia is a 2d sidescroller consisting of a hub-world and four “levels.” Each level will be developed independently as a short game.

The hub-world serves as a way for the player to move between the different levels – giving her agency as the order in which the levels are experienced. (maybe…) Additionally the hub-world is a place to contextualize the experiences of the player and introduce the ideas the player will experience in the different levels.

Each of the short games will consist of interplay between a fundamental gesture and an opposing force. Additionally each level will relate to a topic from ritual studies that strongly applies to games. These topics are:

  1. Creation -The ritual (or game) creates and defines a subjective world for the participant to reside in.
  2. Sacrifice – The ritual (or game) requires something of the participant. How far must the player go to satisfy the demands of the game?
  3. Story – The ritual (or game) tells a story in which the participant both acts as and truly is the protagonist.
  4. Masking – The ritual (or game) concretizes, conceals, and embodies the identity of the participant or player.

Hub World – Creation

The hub-world is the market square in city of Farosia at evening. As the player moves through the space there are 4 separate booths that the player can enter into – with children outside calling out to the player and trying to get them to come in. Additionally there will be city elders sitting near the booths. When the player talks to the children manning the booths they will tell him the topic of the level as if it were the title of a play. The player can then enter a booth and play the corresponding level. After completion of a level the player can talk to the city elder near the booth to receive some additional context about the topic.

The hub-world will explore the topic of ritual creation. As a world, Farosia only exists when someone is playing it. Consequently the people need players in order to be alive. As more and more people play the game the city becomes brighter and more lit. But as people play the game less the city gradually becomes darker.

Sacrifice

Rituals require the participant to give up something of themselves, but in doing so the participant creates.

In this game the player must move through a space several times, sacrificing an ability each time. Initially the player can jump, double-jump, and dash – as well as move left and right.

At the beginning of the game the player meets with an old man who informs him that the creatures of the underworld have stolen his son and the player must rescue him. The player moves through the underworld only to be stopped by a demon who informs him that he cannot procede because he has broken the law of the underworld by dashing. The player is deposited back to the beginning and told he must enter again without dashing.

This continues until the player can no longer, dash, double-jump, jump, and move left. At this point the demon informs him that he is breaking the law of the underworld by having legs and must allow them to be sawn off in order to continue. The player moves through the level again without any legs. Then the demon informs him that he is breaking the law of the underworld by having eyes. The demon plucks out the players eyes, causing the screen to go blank.

As the player attempts  to proceed using only sound cues he will fail miserably at this. When all seems hopeless he will hear the child calling him: “Papa!” When the child calls the screen will briefly flash into existence again allowing the player to see the child and move through the level.

At the end the player will take the child’s hand allowing him to see again. The demon will be cast away and the player and child will walk out of the underworld. The game will end in a scene similar to the beginning, where this time the player is an old man who informs the child that a demon has stolen his son into the underworld and that he must save him.

Masking

While the full game will be determined in future brainstorming sessions, the fundamental gesture for this game will be moving through a series of platforms (similar to my prototype for Jubal.) The player performs these gestures by copying computer controlled characters in the game – and in doing so becomes more like a computer-controlled character.

Story

Story is a simple exploration of the nature of progress and climax in rituals and games. The fundamental gesture will be defeating enemies by jumping on their heads like Super Mario Bros. In future brainstorming sessions we will explore what this gesture measn, and what it’s opposing force should be.

Change

The final topic I want to explore is change. Change is an exploration of threshold rituals such as baptism and marriage. I’m not yet sure what this will entail, but it will have to be set up from the beginning as a big deal. In this level the player must make a hard decision which will alter his avatar and possibly the hub-world. This may link with the light/dark mechanic of the hub world.

 

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Making Meaningful Games

Posted on August 14, 2011 by jacob

In order for a game to have meaning it must employ three aspects.

1. A Fundamental Gesture
2. An Opposing Force
3. The Back and Forth Interplay between the two.

Fundamental Gesture
The fundamental gesture is an action that the player repeatedly performs throughout the game. This can be a simple single action – press shift to rewind time – or the result of a more complex process – kill a colossus. The gesture must effect the game system in a manner desired by the player, and this effect is generally termed “the core mechanic.” The gesture must also embody a symbolic feeling or idea, that is consciously or unconsciously understood by the player when performing it. Importantly, the gesture dictates the feeling – you must first implement the gesture and then discover the feeling that results in performing it.

Opposing Force
The opposing force is in direct contrast to the fundamental gesture. When the fundamental gesture effects the game system in one way, the opposing force either reverses the effect of the fundamental gesture or reasserts the original state of the system. The opposing force also embodies a feeling or idea that is understood consciously or unconsciously by the player – and in direct opposition to the fundamental gesture. The controlling omniscience of Glados, vs the freedom of movement offered by the portal gun.

Back and Forth Interplay
The player ultimately derives meaning from the game by experiencing back and forth progression between the fundamental gesture and the opposing force. The player performs the fundamental gesture to bring the game system to a desired state, and then the opposing force reverses the players action or reasserts the original state. The player performs the gesture again, and the opposing force reasserts again. This interplay continues back and forth until a final climax where the power of the fundamental gesture is triumphant. (or the power of the opposing force is triumphant, or both are vindicated in their own way.) When the interplay is correctly balanced the final climax will be a profound – almost sacred – moment for the player.

Examples:
Braid – the fundamental gesture of reversing time. The opposing force of futility “The princess is in another castle.” The back and forth interplay – you progress but never seem to get any closer to the princess – culminating in the climax, where the fundamental gesture is revealed to be pushing her away rather than bringing her closer.

Shadow of the Colossus – the fundamental gesture: killing colossi, which will seemingly bring your beloved back to life. The opposing force: the awe-inducing size of the colossi and your insignificance to them. How can you defeat death when it is so huge and you so small? The interplay: each new colossus a seemingly insurmountable challenge.

Sliding block puzzle (or rubics cube)
The fundamental gesture: moving blocks onto the correct order. The opposing force: the disorder of the blocks. The interplay: though some blocks are in the correct position, you must move them out of it to get all the blocks correct. Reassertion of chaos.

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The Fundamental Gesture – The Basis for Meaning and Story in Ritual and Games

Posted on August 14, 2011 by jacob

Ritualization – what I have be primarily focusing on recently – involves ascribing meaning to a gesture. Although you could also call it the act of ascribing a gesture to a meaning – as the meaning does not preclude the gesture, nor the gesture the meaning. The goal of ritualization is to unify intellect, emotion, and bodily sense – logos, pathos, praxis – to discover a gesture that is intrinsically understood by all three.

Ritual, then, is the next step. With this unified gesture in hand, ritual prescribes a way to invoke the gesture in order to effect the larger world. In its most basic form, ritual uses gesture to combat an opposing force – either to ward off evil, or to ensure good. Those suffering from OCD universally follow this pattern. An imagined evil is present, and I must combat it by performing this ritual.

At this point meaning and story become possible. A meaningful story pits a true controlling idea against and equally true counter idea. The ideas fight back and forth throughout the story until the climax where one idea wins out and is affirmed. (This is WAY oversimplified, but I’m using to make a point.)

Meaning, in both rituals and games comes when the opposing force – the evil – is in true opposition to the fundamental gesture. The symbolism of the gesture must truly counter the symbolism of the evil.

We live in an evil world – the domain of the devil. By being here that evil seeps into us making us carnal and devilish. In opposition to this we partake the sacrament or the communion. We absorbe the body and blood of Christ to become like Him. This gesture gives us power to ward off the evil that the world puts in us and ultimately become godlike.

We are stuck in a series of rooms, a deadly test chamber. The only paths and exits we can follow are the ones prescribed by the evil one – ensuring that we can never truly escape. In opposition to this we have a magical gun that allows us to create two portals and instantly move through them. This gesture gives us the freedom to avoid the evil paths, to move about on our own terms, and ultimately escape.

In game design we often talk about the “core mechanic.” The core mechanic is the procedural way in which the fundamental gesture effects the game system. This is what gives the fundamental gesture its power. The evil, then, must have some contrary effect on the game system.

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Farosia Visual Design

Posted on August 2, 2011 by jacob

Farosia

The city of Farosia stands out as a single bright light surrounded by an endless dark desert. Every evening, after the market lanterns are lit, the children of the city set up small booths and stages and call out to visitors to come inside. Those who enter the children’s stages are suddenly recruited to act out characters in the children’s plays and games. Throughout the evening you can always hear the surprised laughter and joy coming from these market booths.

Though most see this as a simple form of merriment, the elders of the Farosia know better. They understand that these nightly activities are the only thing keeping the city lights on and the darkness away.

The city is a hodge-podge of various sized mud-brick buildings clustered together. In the center of the town stands an enormous lighthouse – dominating the city’s landscape. Streets in Farosia do not remain solely at ground level, but instead ascend a vast network of stairs, to the rooftops, traversing bridges, and climbing ladders. To a foreigner, the city appears as a vast labyrinth of paths that would be easy to get lost in – however, the children living there move through the streets as if they were a vast playground.

References

Mardin
 

 

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