It’s difficult to get into this industry because you have to show success, and you can’t do that without having experience.
I took a degree in Computer science, worked for a while, and then did a Master’s in Computer games technology. We got into a competition called ‘Dare to be digital’ as a team of five students. Our team won the prize for ‘Greatest marketing potential’. Thai got us noticed and gave us a demo. So that’s how I got started.
Another way in is to be a Games Tester. It’s the hard way. You play games for eight hours a day , trying to make them fall. But quite a lot of people have become Level Designer from that position. You can script events in the game.
I work as part of a development team. A few years ago you only needed a couple of Programmers and an Artist. Now we’ve got team. A few years ago you only needed a couple of Programmers and an Artist. Now we’ve got teams of sixty or more. In addition to Games Designers like me who are responsible for creating ideas for games, there are Concept Artis.
They’re normally trained Illustrators who draw 2-D characters. There are 3-D Artists who do all the 3-D modelling. There are also 3-D Animators who make the characters move. Of course, you have your Producer – to oversee, make sure deadlines are kept, and the work goes to budget, that kind of thing. You’ve got your Programmers to write the code. If you want realistic slow-motion action, you need CGI experts.
The way it’s going is more film techniques are coming into games. More people are getting broadband so online playability is important. Massively multiplayer online gaming, MMOG. That’s also proving really popular and is sure to grow. They’re role-playing games you play online with other people. As other hardware, what you play you games on will become less specific; plan your next moves on your mobile phone on your way to work.
It all sounds good fun, but there’s a serious side to games, too. Companies make military simulations and medical simulations, for example, dealing with a neck injury, responding to a disaster