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Start Now: Advice for Game Developement Students.

With the potential next Jane McGonigal in my class I knew that I would face some tough competition in securing a job in the games industry after I finished my degree and left college. Now close to 6 months on and I'm still unemployed, well I have a casual job delivering pizzas, but I don't really count that, and after close to 40+ games industry application and 80+ retail applications I'm beginning to worry that my start in the Australian games industry is a lot further away than even I imagined.

I wasn't a bad student, I wasn't the best, I graduated with a distinction average. It's not like I don't have real world work experience, I have close to two years retail management experience, I've got hospitality management experience, I have no games industry experience, and that is the major setback, the catch 22 of getting a job in the industry.

There is junior positions out there, but with recent closures around the country there are many people out there willing to take a step back to get back into the industry, and they have the experience, I don't. I'm not just saying this, I've heard it straight from the proverbial horse's mouth, in email conversations with one of THQ Asia Pacific regions head recruiters. I didn't think I would walk out of college and into a job, but I didn't think that it would take this long, or be this hard. Admittedly I have looked a gift horse in the mouth, and I will be kicking myself for a long time to come about that one. Sorry for all the equine clichés but they seem to fit.

The purpose of this small piece of commentary is to pass on some knowledge to those students currently undertaking studies in games development, I don't profess to know it all, nobody does no matter how renowned they are, I wouldn't even claim to know 5%. But in the past couple of months I have gained a little wisdom that I think should be passed on.

Start Now! That's it. 

I will elaborate on this for those whom find this concise piece of advice a little vague. I don't mean for you to on start day one of your degree, give yourself a trimester/semester (depending on where you study) to settle into tertiary study and get to know your peer group. Students who are currently studying are in the best position for networking, best position for collaboration, best position for making a game. By this I mean that most colleges that have a  focus on game development have all three major disciplines, Games Design, Programming and Art, this is a great pool to draw from, everyone is in a creative mindset and the ideas a flowing.

If there is one thing that I wish my studies included, it's an extra credit subject or extracurricular group, which with guidance from faculty staff went through the entire development process of creating a game. Now I did have a subject that focused on this, but to be honest the time frame for the project didn't allow for our team to overcome the major problems that we ran into, and while I was and am happy with what we had at the end of the whole process, I wasn't ecstatic. 

Looking at that idea realistically though the teaching staff already have enough on their plate, even though I'm sure that they would all be willing to help guide and provide input, I don't think they would have the time to run a program like this.

That leaves it to you students to take the initiative, get together with people from your class, college or university, if you don't have lots or any contact with the other disciplines then post notices on campus notice boards, Facebook etc, once you get a group of people together who want to make something happen, you need to form a team. 

I don't just mean a group of people who want to make something, I mean a team with defined roles and a leadership structure, with one or two whom will have the final say on what happens with the project. This is something that you're going to need to get used to, because let's face it you're not going to get into a lead role straight out of college, you are going to have to follow the creative lead of someone else for a long time before you get those reins yourself, you can change up this structure for your second project if you want.

With your team set up come up with your idea, Start small, don't over stretch yourself or your ability, bounce your idea off your teachers, off other students. My suggestion is to pick your target platform as a group, then allow individual team members to come up with a game idea. Just because an artist is an artist doesn't me that they aren't going to have a good idea for a game.

Every idea is pitched to the group as a whole, and then with every idea on the table as a team you can pick one, or combine two or more to get the basis for your game. Define your core mechanics, and set to work. Fill the role that you would fill in a real world job, it will help you hone your skill set, sure you can provide feedback and input on the art, or design, or the code, but remember that it's just that, feedback and input, it may be taken up or it may be discarded.

Use and established game engine that is widely used in the industry, this will make the development process easier, and also make overcoming problems you may run into that little bit easier, published materials, and online communities will help you overcome these problems, and the more users there are for an engine the bigger the community.

Set up a development time line, set milestones for yourselves, allow for the fact that this will not and should not be a priority for every team member, but try to make a commitment to work together as a team or in discipline teams at least once every two weeks. Also allow for setbacks and the like. While you're studying I think that two projects per year is a reasonable output, but aim for one polished project the first year.

Don't set out to make money, this is experience for experience sake. If you start the project with the frame of mind that this is going to make you money, then you may lose focus on what is important at this stage and that is your studies. It will also mean that you can avoid paying for the use of game engines etc. 

Make sure you cover all your legal bases, do everything by the book, I assume that you can all take my meaning from this. There are lots of free software packages out there make use of them, they are not as bad as your preconceptions may lead you to believe.

Get your game out there. Once you have something worth showing, show it, create a development blog, put videos on YouTube, generate exposure for your game, not only will it help you get players interested, it will also help to keep you on track with development.

There are lots more things to consider, you won't know the half of it until you start your own journey and walk the road yourself. I wish this advice had been given to me in a more direct manner when I was starting out in my studies, and I wish that the subtle hints had not been so subtle. It's a tough environment out there in job hunters land having even one published title under your belt will help you land the role you want.

Up Next - Heavy Rain

Amnesia : The Dark Descent

I had a sense of nervous anticipation starting up Amnesia: The Dark Descent for the first time. People had been telling me that it was the scarcest game they have ever played, or that they were not going to play it because of what they had heard about it. This had me wondering, would I find it scary? The survival horror genre is one that I have not gotten into before, but after playing through Amnesia, I think that it is one that I will be looking to play more of.

The small instructions at the start of the game help to heighten the sense of anticipation for what's to come, I do suggest following them, they do help to make the game an amazing experience.

The Story:

Throughout Amnesia you find pages from the diary of the protagonist Daniel, in which the tale of how you came to be at Castle Brennenburg, what you are doing there, and why you are in your current state of Amnesia is told. They convey the story for each "chapter" well, the first time the you pick them up they are read to you by Daniel. 

However when it comes to telling the overarching story of Amnesia there is a lack of flow in how the chapters link together, they feel disjointed. Picking up one of these diary pages also breaks the feeling of immersion that the levels create, this has both a negative and a positive impact on the gameplay, at some points this is excellent as it provides a brief period of calm, but for the most part I feel the game loses its flow when these are read to you. 

Amnesia also uses flashbacks to tell sections of the story, and these are much better executed, the flashbacks generally involve a change of textures and lighting, and are accompanied by audio tracks that convey the story, all the while gameplay can continue if you wish you can keep moving through the level. At the end of the game, I was left feeling a little disappointed that the whole story was not conveyed, however despite all these detraction's the story is great.

The Fear Factor:

The first hour or so of gameplay has an amazingly eerie feeling, creating atmosphere with the sound track, sound effects, screen distortions. I got the feeling of excited nervousness I get when I watch a horror movie. The feeling that at any moment I'm going to get the scare of a life time was present for a long time, and when it finally came I cursed out loud, ran the other way and closed a door behind me.

There is a strategy for avoiding the Monsters and once you get it worked out, the fear factor drops off a little, and you get into survival mode. Getting caught will usually result in your death, typically three hits and your dead, the game does a good job of not punishing you too hard for dying though.

Towards the end I found that I had grown accustomed to the fear, and I had developed a standard way in which to deal with enemy approach to allow me to continue with the game. The appearance of an enemy also became predictable and thus a lot of the fear dwindled.

The Puzzles:

As a Game Designer, this is where my greatest criticism of Amnesia lies. For the most part the puzzles are excellent, their solutions are hinted at, and the player is given the tools to complete them.

However there are some puzzles that are frustratingly annoying to solve, in one for example (spoiler incoming) you have to stop a series of gears spinning to disable some machinery, open my inventory and select the most appropriate tool for this a iron bar, but this item is not usable in here, I tried it from a different position, still didn't work. I spent a good twenty minutes back tracking and looking in every room accessible to make sure I hadn't missed anything. After a frustrating search turned up nothing I resorted to a online walk through, and it tells me the solution is to use a rock. I was flabbergasted with this solution, why couldn't I use the Iron bar that I had, it would have served the same purpose. Regardless of the small quibbles the puzzles in Amnesia will get your brain muscle working.

Final Say:

Amnesia: The Dark Decent, fell short of my expectations, I may however be a victim of hype here, I had been told and read that this game was the scariest game ever released, and while I have not previously put time into any survival horror games, I'm sure that there must be scarier games out there, sure there was some scare moments, but it was not as though I was too scared to continue playing.

I am still a little conflicted about this game, as has probably come across in my writing of this review. One the one hand I am in awe of the atmosphere that the game creates and the effect that it had on my state of mind while playing, with no mechanisms to fight you are almost always in a flight state of mind. But on the other hand the small detractors added up to dampened my enthusiasm for this game. I do recommend that everyone play this game though, if you are one who scares easily, think of it as exposure therapy, if you don't play it you are mission out on one of the best indie games I have played recently.

All game designers should give this game a play through though. It demonstrated exceptionally well how to create atmosphere and effect the psychology of the player, and while the effect you are trying to convey in your games may be very different, Amnesia gives an excellent demonstration of the extremes that you can go to, as well as how subtle things can have a huge impact on the experience of the player.