Train2Game featured prominently at this year’s Develop Conference, with a stand promoting students on the courses. Jonathon Robinson is on the Train2Game Game Design course, and helped promote Train2Game and also got an insight into the games industry.
The Train2Game blog caught up with Jonathon at the event to find out what he gained from the experience. Listen to the interview at www.audioboo.fm/train2game Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog or on the Train2Game forum.
Train2Game featured prominently at this year’s Develop Conference, with a stand promoting students on the courses.
Towards the end of the show, the Train2Game blog caught up with Train2Game Course Directly Tony Bickley to find out how successful Train2Game’s time at Develop 2011 had been.
The interview is also available to listen to at www.audioboo.fm/train2game
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Train2Game Game Developers will be especially interested in this, Lead Programmer at Relentless Software, Lizi Attwood has been speaking to GamesInustry.biz about what she looks for in a graduate programmer.
On the key skills a graduate programmer should have, Attwood said:
“Obviously, really strong C++ skills, on top of that really good de-bugging skills, some optimisation skills, knowing that you need to profile code before you start optimising it. Really good communication skills are important, some exposure to source control, I’m interested in that, and knowing why that’s good. And just really friendly, relaxed happy people.”
While when quizzed about whether programmers shold specialise in a certain area, she replied:
“Personally I look for generalist programmers. I don’t see any reason to be really specific but if you’re going to go for graphics then specialise in it, but you better be really good at it because it’s very competitive.”
“A lot of people see it as the most exciting part of the game and really try to go for that but there is so many people doing that so you have to be exceptional”
And when asked about how long before a graduate programmers becomes a productive member of a game development team, Attwood responded:
“At Headstrong I will throw you in the deep end but we will assign you a mentor to guide you – give a lifebelt – who will guide you towards doing something productive as soon as possible. We might say ‘Okay here’s your task’, something that might take an experienced programmer half a day to do but it might take you a week.”
“At the end of that week you’ll have produced real functionality that contributes to the project and you’ll have learnt so much about the code base. I think that good graduates can become productive and useful pretty quickly and that’s something that we encourage.”
Of course, some Train2Game programmers are already getting hands-on experience building games be they working as part of a student team, or on a Train2Game industry experience placement.
Nontheless, Attwood gives all Train2Game Game Developers a useful insight into what to expect in that first role in the games industry.
The full interview is available on GamesIndustry.biz.
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Attwood’s advice? Is it useful to you if you’re a programmer?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
There are plenty of women on Train2Game courses aspiring to work in the game industry, they may therefore be interested to hear that LucasArts creative Director Clint Hocking says the games industry needs more female employees.
In a column in Edge magazine – a useful publication for Train2Game students – Hocking criticised what he called the ‘Viking Culture’ of the game industry, and says that it needs to change.
“Game development studios and their teams are largely staffed in the same way that Viking longships were crewed. Consequently, the culture is overflowing with beer and pent-up aggression, and a very significant portion of our overall cultural output is fart jokes. I think we can do better.”
He adds that establishing a more balanced culture in the games industry would go a long way to games reaching a “truly mass market audience.”
Hocking believes the best way to do this is to encourage more women into the industry.
“This means that we need to better position the industry as a desirable workplace, one in which female artists, designers, programmers and project managers would want to be employed. It involves reaching out to universities and colleges to help them attract more female applicants to their programmes, enabling us to benefit from a greater number of female graduates.”
“Like the Viking expansion itself, this transformation probably needs to be driven from the bottom up. Like it or not, the culture onboard your ships is the culture you’re exporting. Fart jokes have their place in culture, but when fart jokes become your culture you have a problem.” he added.
There are plenty of women on Train2Game courses who definitely want to become part of the games industry, and there are certain organisations that could help them.
As reported by the Train2Game blog last month, the Women In Games Jobs event that takes place in September could be of great benefit to female Train2Game students.
And as posted by Train2Game Course Director Tony Bickley on the Train2Game forum, WIG will be holding networking event for women working, or planning to work in the games industry, during the Develop Conference later this month.
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Hocking’s comments? Is there too big a male culture in the games industry? Do you think it needs to change?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]
Here’s something for anyone studying with Train2Game, particularly those on the Game QA Tester course.
Football Manager developers Sports Interactive are looking for people to join their QA Testing department on a temporary basis to test Football Manager & Football Manager Handheld across PC, Mac, Sony PSP & Apple devices.
As the advert itself says, it’s the ultimate job for “someone looking to gain some experience in the games industry.”
The job specification as listed in the advert is as follows:
* You must be at least 16 years old to be considered for the role.
* You must be able to commute to our Central London office in the UK.
* You must be able to work Monday to Friday based on a 37.5 hour working week.
* You should expect to work some overtime when requested.
* You should be a dedicated gamer with a passion for Football Manager.
* You should be a keen football fan.
* You should be comfortable using a PC, Mac, Sony PSP or Apple iPad/iPhone/iPod.
* You should have great attention to detail with the ability to spot issues.
* You should have a good standard of written English.
* Previous experience in QA is welcomed, but not necessary.
For more information about the Game QA Tester roles at Sports Interactive, see the relevant thread on their forum.
And while this could provide a great opportunity for Train2Game students, it’s worth pointing about that the Sports Interactive QA Testing roles are in no way affiliated with Train2Game. However, they could potentially provide someone on a Train2Game course with hands on games industry experience.
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Codemasters are hiring staff for a new browser based Formula 1 game. – encouraging news for Train2Game students keen to see jobs being created in the video games industry.
The new game development team will lead the development of what Codemasters describe as a ‘service-based online game.’ The announcement from Codemasters states:
“Set to deliver a fully official and high quality FORMULA ONE browser gaming experience, the as-yet-unnamed game will focus on being highly accessible, thanks to an innovative design approach to car control, while offering persistence and depth of gameplay for a mainstream online gaming audience.”
“FORMULA ONE is incredibly popular in many countries around the world, particularly in countries where online gaming is either already big or rapidly growing such as India, Brazil, Korea and China, the potential is clear” said David Solari, Vice President and General Manager for Codemasters Online.
“We have proven F1 is a major games brand and what we have planned will build upon that”.
No date has been given for the release of the newly announced project.
F1 2010 proved massively successful for Codemasters last year, with the game even taking top spot in the UK Charts during late September. The provided the Warwickshire based company with their most successful ever game.
What are your thoughts on the announcement? Are you pleased to see more jobs being created in the games industry? Do you think targeting a ‘mainstream online gaming audience’ could point towards Codemasters looking towards social media gaming?
Leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog or on the Train2Game forum
Ever since LittleBigPlanet 2 was first mentioned here on the Train2Game blog, we’ve been trying to push home that the in-game creation tools could provide a Train2Game student with their big break in the industry. Now LittleBigPlanet 2 creators Media Molecule have revealed that the studio has hired developers after being impressed by their community designed levels.
John Beech is a level designer for the Sony Studio, and now uses his skills to help build LittleBigPlanet 2. Until a year ago, John was a self employed builder, but a builder who was good at designing user made LittleBigPlanet levels. Speaking in the latest issue of Games TM, Media Molecule Creative Director Mark Healey explains how the former builder ended up working on LittleBigPlanet 2.
“We’ve hired people from the community, people for whom LittleBigPlanet was their first chance to have a go at making games,” He said.
“John didn’t have a clue about how to make games but he got LittleBigPlanet, managed to alienate his girlfriend and was just making this stuff and really stood out in the community.”
Healey reveals that John isn’t the only member of the LittleBigPlanet community that has been hired by Media Molecule. He added that he himself also skipped the academic route into the games industry
“I just taught myself, and I hated the idea that the only way to get into the games industry was through various degree courses.”
Media Molecule built LittleBigPlanet around the Ethos of ‘Play. Create. Share’ and the game is based upon the sharing of user generated content. There are many, many highly creative and excellent community built levels available to play.
Not only will LittleBigPlanet 2 continue to allow players to share their user-created levels, but it’ll also let players share entire games with fully formed stories and cut scenes. LittleBigPlanet 2 is currently in beta but plenty of excellent looking levels and games have appeared in videos online.
New games created within LittleBigPlanet 2 by the beta community so far include a recreation of Street Fighter and a LittleBigPlanet First Person Shooter, a user created version of beautiful indie game Flower, and perhaps most impressively, a reimagining of Portal complete with Portal Gun.
And these are only a handful of user generated levels created during the LittleBigPlanet 2 beta, what can we expect when LittleBigPlanet 2 is released for PlayStation 3 in January next year?
However, one thing is certain. Any Train2Game student with a desire to create games should get themselves a copy of LittleBigPlanet 2. Create great levels, and not only could they be played by a vast audience, but if Media Molecule like what you’re doing, you could find yourself working for them like John Beech.
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Media Molecule hiring community developers? If you don’t own a PlayStation 3, are you tempted to get one for the chance LittleBigPlanet 2 could give you? And do you have any ideas for games or levels you want to create using the LittleBigPlanet 2 user creation tools?
Leave your thoughts about Media Molecule and LittleBigPlanet 2 here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
(Source: Develop Online)
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