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Replies may be delayed, but I'll get to them. Game devs are awful at acknowledging NDAs, as well as hardware companies (amd, nv, qualcomm, imagination, etc.). Ask me about development process, other high profile games, how to get hired, what to study, ama. I've been here over a decade.

Replies may be delayed, but I'll get to them. Game devs are awful at acknowledging NDAs, as well as hardware companies (amd, nv, qualcomm, imagination, etc.). Ask me about development process, other high profile games, how to get hired, what to study, ama. I've been here over a decade.

33 comments

[–] jobes [OP] 4 points (+4|-0) Edited

I'm a graphics programmer who is used to interacting with art directors daily and telling them if i hate it or like it, and cause hundreds of thousands of dollars to change something I disapprove of.

[–] SilverBanana 2 points (+2|-0)

Do you sometimes have desire to create game by yourself and have control over the whole process?

[–] jobes [OP] 2 points (+2|-0)

Yes, all the time. I have many friends and co-workers who have either become millionaires or are still paying off debts from companies they started. 90%+ of them fail. It's truly a brutal industry. Your best chance at success is literally knowing someone, preferably someone at a publishing company so you can ink a contract.

[–] [Deleted] 2 points (+2|-0)

What do you think of Trove?

Sorry I don't have a better question off the top of my head but I'll try to think of something.

[–] jobes [OP] 2 points (+2|-0)

I know nothing of that project, so I will not speculate. I'll bring it up at lunch tomorrow.

[–] [Deleted] 2 points (+2|-0) Edited

It's a MMO from Trion with some Minecraft-esque elements. It's free with micro transactions. Normally I hate those types of models but this one seems very well done to me. I guess it's been out on PC for a while and it's just been ported to console in beta.

[–] jidlaph 2 points (+2|-0)

What developments are you most looking forward to in your field?

[–] jobes [OP] 2 points (+2|-0)

AR. VR opens up the playing field in a new way, but it will cap out on innovation after a few years. AR I think will be a complete game changer that will fundamentally cause a shift or branch in games and hobbies alike.

[–] PMYA 1 points (+1|-0)

I am also more interested by AR than VR. There is probably a lot of potential for gaming (I have actually already seen this, there is a place in Japan that has an AR version of dodgeball), but I'm more interested in the concept of it eventually becoming a normality, rather than certain individual things being made in AR.

I can't find the podcast now, but I remember hearing one with a guy who who works at Singularity University where he was talking about AR being adopted as a kind of overlay for everything, rather than for specific purposes.

Here is an article that kind of talks about the concept of it.

[–] jobes [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

Utah is having some great shit with AR. I'm no market genius, but I kind of want to start investing in random AR companies there.

[–] SilverBanana 2 points (+2|-0)

How much influence over design do you have? For example, I find that minimap with the directions is more distracting, and would be better turned off by default.

Who in the chain of hierarchy could make that decision?

[–] jobes [OP] 2 points (+2|-0) Edited

That really depends on the company and the publisher. In reality, I could complain about the minimap at lunch and it might get fixed (or get an added checkbox) if I know someone well on the gameplay team. Otherwise I pretty much have no say unless I complain enough for it to become a gameplay concern.

[–] jobes [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

I didn't give "The publisher" a real shout out above. Imagine being a professional game dev and knowing that XYZ is awesome, then someone at a low budget job , at the publishing company hates it, so something you literally put years into designing is discarded because some faggot didn't like it. I don't mean "faggot" as derogatory towards gays, I just hate publishers

[–] jobes [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

I guess similarly related, I had a news article written about me for some because I made some render modes on the wii

[–] Violentlight 2 points (+2|-0)

What languages are required to get into game development?

Do you need to get a degree, or can you get a job with self-learned programming?

[–] jobes [OP] 2 points (+2|-0)

C++. Learn the fuck out of it if you want to make games. I suggest reading "Effective C++", and then reading it again a year later. We've actually hired a few people solely because of their deep knowledge of the language even though they didn't meet some other requirements. If you want to do purely gameplay, then you can get away with knowing C# and Lua, but most engines actually moving away from those.

As for a degree, no it's not required, but it helps to get your foot in the door. Two of the best people I have worked with never graduated high school. One of them was my lead several years ago. If you can demonstrate that you know your shit, then you can easily get hired with or without a degree. My advice is to pick a specialty (graphics, audio, physics, gameplay, etc.) and focus on that for a few years. Then you can easily start applying for jobs in the industry in that specialty.

[–] PMYA 1 points (+1|-0)

Which game released in the last decade has had the biggest effect on the gaming industry in relation to the way games are made now?

Also, what sort of game do you think is going to be the next one?

[–] jobes [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

Which game released in the last decade has had the biggest effect on the gaming industry in relation to the way games are made now?

Nothing had as large of an effect as GoldenEye 64. That was over a decade ago, but genre defying. Outside of that, DOTA would be my next choice. A mod that created a genre.

Also, what sort of game do you think is going to be the next one?

CrossCode. It has its flaws, but it took the 2D RPG to an entirely different level.

[–] PMYA 1 points (+1|-0)

I only half agree with CrossCode. I think it is probably too soon to know what sort of an impact it is going to have. It is a fantastic game already, but the art style is a problem. Pixel art is coming back in a big way, some of it is shitty, but the newer looking stuff isn't, it is glorious.

Owlboy has it too. Apparently the creators of Owlboy have coined a term for it - Hi-Bit. The problem with it though is that Owlboy took nine fucking years to be released, and I don't think people are willing to put that amount of time into a game.

[–] jobes [OP] 1 points (+1|-0) Edited

I agree that CrossCode is too early to have an impact. It did, however, make every other 2D puzzle solving game look like shit already. It may go unnoticed like Crystalis did back in the NES days. That still holds the slot for my favorite game ever.

Pixel art I think will come back. There are a lot of people out there who put gameplay over art, and people who value pixel art.