New Location!

Greetings and thank you for the visit.

New posts are moving over to Make-Better-Games.blogspot.com.  Some of the most popular content from Games of Taste will be displayed on Make Better Games, so please visit that location for the latest best-practices and game documents.

Take care,
Jimmy

PAX 15 - So You Want to be a Game Writer

Like many posts before this, I'd like to cover here both a talk from a major Game Industry gathering (PAX Prime) and a how-to for those looking at entering/maintaining their place in said industry.

On the last day of PAX, Toiya Finley, Qais Fulton, Anne Toole, Bobby Stein, Tom Abernathy, and Leah Miller laid out a lot of what they've experienced, both personally and professionally, to a packed room of aspiring, struggling, or plainly curious (me) writers.  Here's some of that content:

What do we need to know about writing in the Game Industry?

• Know how to write a good, fleshed-out story.  Then write it shorter.  And shorter.  And shorter.
• Level-up: Write someone else's story idea.  Then have them point out what parts to cut.
• This is part of how a writer will never get their way (exceptions do exist).
• Throw all rules for sequence, timing, and most of how to write for a page-flipping book out the window.
• Games are non-linear, being for a player (not some fictional character) that can (and will) do anything at any time.
• Have recent, presentable material about at all times.

OK - how do we define 'presentable' or 'portfolio' material?

• Make a collection of stories show diversity in both genre and form (keep in mind length, too).
• Genre: Horror, romance, sci-fi, western, etc.
• Form: Novel, screenplay, dialogue, technical documentation, etc.
• Hide any raw notes.
• Think of dirty laundry - it shouldn't be left out if company is paying a visit.
• Include art, audio, and any other medium to help communicate the feel of a story.
• Don't steal!  Get permissions, in writing, of any copyrighted work.
• Take no concept, phrase, history, or saying for granted.
• Assume any- and everyone knows nothing.
• If it's worthy of the portfolio, protect it.
• PDFs, watermarks, and excerpts of material makes it harder for others to claim that content.
• Consider applying these preventative steps on all work, even if it's merely an email to a friend.

Where do we go to make our game stories?

• Twine.  Twine!
• (With resounding enthusiasm, this is the number-one tool recommended by the panelists.)
• Twine allows for branching narratives, easy use, and complex additions to any tale (not to mention being able to be published nearly everywhere).
• Use a robust level editor.
• This shows how scenes are laid out and some technical prowess.
• Write a pen-and-paper RPG campaign.
• Show-off tool versatility while keeping the barrier of entry incredibly low.

Now that we've covered all the basics of the craft itself, is there anything else?

• Yes!  The type of employ is important:
• Full-time staff jobs on a resume are good to be seen.
• Versus having temporary contract work.
• Freelancers cannot be writers first; they must be a sales-person and collections-agent foremost.
• When lacking the support structure of an established company doing a lot of the labor, a freelance writer must set higher priorities on how to sustain themselves before dedicating work to the craft.
• Again to freelancers, never give up rights to work until compensation has been paid in full.
• Become familiar with "work for hire" agreements.

---

Do you agree with the panelists on these points?  Would you add to it or offer a counter opinion?  In any case, both the panelists and I hope you could gleam something from this in how you go about your art into the future.

Question Etiquette

Going to conferences or conventions can be some of the best times of your life.  You see old acquaintances, make new friends, improve your network of connections, learn a lot, and hopefully come away with some sweet schwag.

When attending sessions, there's usually time for Q&A, which can be a great opportunity for being rude and embarrassing everyone in the room.  To save yourself, here are a few things that I've learned can make the most of your experience:

• Turn off phones/other noise-makers.

• Is a Facebook update or robo caller more important than where you're at right now?  Then leave.

• Move to the middle.

• Defragging, saving space, making friends, or merely moving to the middle of the row, save the chairs at the end of a row of seats for those that are coming in late to a presentation.  If you have to leave early, stand at the back (if allowed) and take the most unobtrusive place possible.

• Use mics for questions.

• If the room as a microphone or mic runner, use them (remember, walk, don't run) versus merely yelling from the seats.  When one's not available, standing and speaking in a clear, concise tone is the next best bet.

• ... But only if you've thought through the question.  Twice.

• Save the life-story for a biography.  Multiple questions?  Go to the back of the line to give someone else a chance.  Deliver these questions in 1-2 quick sentences (this is tough to do if you don't think about it first).

• In the end, know the rules and respect those helping run the event.

• Taking pictures/videos, necessary identification, restricted hours/places, and other caveats are usually outlined when you register for the conference/convention - breaking the rules could seriously harm a lot of people at worst, make you a jerk at best.  Additionally, if someone who's clearly marked as a volunteer for the event is asking for attention or is giving directions, following their lead will help ensure you have and help deliver the best time possible for everyone.

I'm sure other opinions are out there, so feel free to share.

A Question: Keeping it Fresh

The question that starts the week is this: What can you do to keep players directed to the most recent version of a mod if older versions have been shared out?

I was contacted yesterday about getting access to an old version of a Risk mod from back in ’13.  It was found by a player looking for adding zombies to their Risk play on Google’s front page, but it was for a file long since moved to an unshared folder for old game design docs.

It was a simple matter to get a link for the player while also directing them to the newest version, but having to do this for the mod could definitely be optimized.  Any ideas?

Return of the Blog and to the Industry

Wow – long time, no see since I moved to Wisconsin.  Let’s blow some dust off of this!

To business: any good game dev knows that this week is host to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.  For the third year in a row, I’ll be returning as a Conference Associate to help serve the attendees of GDC, taking the opportunity to work with the best group of people I’ve ever had the pleasure to know: my fellow CAs.

Goals for this trip:

1. Ensure that no-attendee feels unattended.
2. Catch-up with the friends and professional associates that will be attending GDC.
3. Prove my technical strengths in design, development, quality, and team-based game projects.

Lofty goals?  Not so – how these will be met:

1. Be more than a passive observer or a ‘yes-man’; actively find those at GDC and do those things that will make this Conference a fantastic experience (just like the other five GDC-related events I’ve volunteered at).
2. Simple – display the friendliness, helpfulness, and entertainment prowess that is my charisma.  (Oh, and play a few games, too!)
3. Network with the fantastic CA family to see what their teams are looking for (development, design, personality, etc.), explore the Expo floor for those companies whose products I enjoy and could see myself making, and introducing my skillset at the many after-hours professional gatherings.

Going forward, this blog will get more attention.  Several mods and projects have been completed since the last post with new ones underway, so stay tuned for a look into how I work to make better games.

Best,

Jimmy

What I Learned - 22

This post is covering 2 weeks - moving to Madison, WI to start work with Epic (no, not Epic Games) takes a toll!

As we move into the new year, What I Learned may change or even go away.  Don't worry - if it gets replaced, it will be with updates on my monthly game projects that'll start on January 1st!

With that, read on and enjoy.

What I Learned - 12/15 to 12/28

1. Suggesting that a job applicant play the games of the company they are applying to  is pretty smart to help drive up user numbers.
1. KIXEYE Submission Confrimation Email
2. 
2. A writer is, has to be, the most flexible person on a development team.
1. Jason Blair; Game Writing: 11 Things I've Learned
3. (Reminder:) Making things RIGHT NOW is the best way to learn and show skills needed in creating games, with or without a college degree.
1. Brian Albert; How Not to Become a Game Developer, Game Informer #247 pg. 27
2. 
4. Being nationally accredited (like the infamous Westwood College), rather than being regionally accredited, offers very few other schools that credits may be transfered to.
1. Brian Albert; How Not to Become a Game Developer, Game Informer #247 pg. 27

What I Learned - 21

Apologies for making this late!  However, there's some big news at the bottom of the article...

What I Learned - 12/8 to 12/14

1. Getting an interviewer to agree that a question applies to a position is an effective technique.
1. Success Patterns LLC; Word-for-Word Job Interview Answers to Use to Get Hired
2. No valid reason exists to not use version control when programming.
1. Edward Guiness; Ace the Programming Interview: 160 Questions and Answers for Success, pg. 358
2. 
3. Hard-coding numbers without an explanation is, well, just wrong.
1. Edward Guiness; Ace the Programming Interview: 160 Questions and Answers for Success, pg. 367
4. Hash tables are a saving grace for many programming projects with elements of uncertainty.
1. Edward Guiness; Ace the Programming Interview: 160 Questions and Answers for Success
5. Games cost 30 times more to make now than they did during the Playstation era.
1. J. F. Sargent, Dave Williams; 5 Reasons the Video Game Industry is About to Crash
6. Making a game just about destroying a city with great graphics and physics would be kinda cool.
1. J. F. Sargent, Dave Williams; 5 Reasons the Video Game Industry is About to Crash
2. Who hasn't destroyed a SIM City or blown something up for the heck of it?
7. Hashtables are great in programming, but Dictionaries are even better!
1. Sam Allen; C# Dictionary

Moving to Wisconsin!  There's been an absolutely fantastic offer that, well, would be foolish to refuse.  It's at Epic, the nation's top electronic health records company with one of the best employee bases of any organization.  There's no telling what will come in the next few weeks, but please stay tuned!

What I Learned - 20

This last week saw me wrapping-up the final phase of an interview.  Being flown to the company headquarters, I was able to exercise my software development skills, team collaboration ability, and problem solving prowess.  Engineering programs for this awesome company is looking good!

Then my application failed to meet the minimum qualifications for an entry-level, black-box QA position, likely to be given a bare-bones hourly salary.  My best guess is that it's location, location, and location.  What do you think?



What I Learned - 12/1 to 12/7

1. It has now been seen that mobile developers are paying more to aquire users than those users are spending in-game.
1. Dean Takahashi; Developers, Brace for a Bloodbath: The Cost of Getting a New Mobile Gamer Exceeds Revenue that User Generates
2. .Net and similar off-shoot programming structures are forcing-out a lot of entry-level developers due to the high overhead needed to be learned by the dev before they may even be considered competent in it.
1. Justin James; How Entry Level Developers are being Squeezed Out of the Job Field, and What They can do about it
3. A suggested show of competence with Java and .Net frameworks can be done in a project(s) using: C#, ASP .NET, XAML-based systems, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, different frameworks, SQL, and LINQ.
1. Justin James; How Entry Level Developers are being Squeezed Out of the Job Field, and What They can do about It
4. The Flood in the video game series Halo was designed with how soldiers carry their weapons; right handed people have exposed left flanks!  (A Flood's host has a huge bulge on their left side where they were attacked.)
1. Titan Books; Halo: The Art of Building Worlds, pg 99
2. 
5. If a game maker ever feels down about making games, watching an inspiring documentary will light the spark again.
1. Realization after watching the movie Us and the Game Industry

What I Learned - 19

Not much for this week - after studying Programming Interviews Exposed, I've learned much more about software development, but not as much about making games.

Let me take this time to ask a question: Do you care for any game analysis that is done via a Let's Play or similar recorded play-through?  For me, it's a lot easier to have a game running in the background while I continue to work than to stop and dedicate numerous hours to new entertainment.

Just a thought.

What I Learned - 11/24 to 11/30

1. Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job is the best, most thorough educational text on not just developer interviews, but also the foundation of computer science ever come across.
1. John Mongan, Eric Giguere, Noah Kindler; Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job
2. 

Wish me luck this week!  As you may have guessed, there's a company flying me out to interview for a dev position.  It'll be fun.

GDC Next - The Evolution of e-Sports as a Sport, Entertainment and International Pastime

The Evolution of e-Sports as a Sport, Entertainment and International Pastime
By Marcus Graham (djWheat), Dustin Beck (Riot Games), Kevin Lin (Twitch), Jason Ng (Garena Premiere League), Jack Etienne (Cloud 9)
Thursday



MG: There has been a 60% e-sports growth rate in the last 3 years.  How has e-Sports evolved for you in the last 12 months?
DB: People can put their careers into this profession.  There is a new stability and regularity present.
KL: We had to build tools for pros and casual people view streams on Twitch.  You wouldn't see growth if devs didn't support teams.
JN: Imaging the worst internet you've ever experienced.  Times that by at least 2.  That is what it is like in many places in South East Asia.  GPL has had to put infrastructure in to give more internet to players.  Already, users are running out of bandwidth just to play League of Legends, not to mention streaming!
JE: Visibility now gives the freedom of teams to select who gets to sponsor a team.  1.5 years ago, League of Legends would have to be explained to possible financial persons; not so anymore!

MG: How does Twitch fit into the ecosystem?
KL: Twitch is a 1-stop shop for distributing and viewing great content.  We want to make this a true international pastime.  People are starting to view Twitch as much as regular TV.
MG: How about gaming teams?
JE: The personality of players determines the avenue the team will represent.
MG: Now where do tournaments fit today?
JN: Prepare to spend a lot of money when starting a league.  In South East Asia, you have to even pay teams at the start.  There's also a shortage of shoutcast talent.  Finally, getting gamers to understand that this is a job for competitors is hard.
MG: Publishers?
DB: We wanted to create a symbolic league to the game.  The game was designed as a sport; LoL is a success where there are paths of aspiration to higher tiers of competition (the League of Legends ranked system).

MG: What's missing from e-sports?  What can we do to support growth?
KL: Sponsors!  It also relies on audience participation with the groups financing competition.  Does the audience ever affect the outcome of games?  This is a future game dev question.
JE: Not a lot of educational material to get newbs up to speed is out there.  They have to figure out what-the-heck is going on quickly by themselves.
DB: There's no central location to get an overall rundown of what has happened in a game.  Espn.com and SportsTV are good examples of what is out there for non-digital games.



Audience Q and A:

What are the demographics of players and viewers?
DB: The age is concentrated in the 18-28 range, with 80-85% being male viewers and 70% being college educated.
KL: 18-35, with most being male.  The percentages by continent vary, but none are above 35% of the total viewership on Twitch.  Otherwise, we are, by nature, reaching a technically savvy audience.

Have you thought of reaching out on the educational level for instructing potential players earlier?
KL: We've given college scholarships for players.
MG: (To the panel.) Do you feel this is something we don't need to rush into?
DB: Video games are still stigmatized in the public eye.
JE: The reflexes needed for competing in e-sports are around the 17-22 year-old range.  You may need to postpone educational plans if you are going to be playing.
JN: Vietnam is super hostile to games in general, so getting into school is difficult.  (Vietnam had banned all video games, lifting the ban only just a few years ago.)

How will console and mobile be as major as PC gaming?
JN: Access to consoles is harder in some Asian countries.  Gamers aren't necessarily picky of their platform, so long as they can get their entertainment.
KL: If it was just a question of access, mobile should be huge; it isn't, at least not yet.  How do you make it fun to watch?
MG: There's a natural segregation on consoles.  It's a a huge problem keeping consoles from reaching PCs.



What is your opinion on including fighting games?  What do you think of athletic players playing e-sports?
DB: I don't get why there is a clash.  There's a lot of room for other games in e-sports.  As for the second question, I have a lot of respect for them.

MG: How long until e-sports players have a huge following as traditional sports?
JE: We are pretty close.  It continues to grow!
DB: Our players can interact while playing and streaming already!
KL: It has to be an authentic passion to play that brings people to the game.
JN: When a team won EPA, they were as big as any icon in Asia.

How did you come to define League of Legends as a sport?  What are the advantages/disadvantages of making a competitive game?
DB: Sport and competition are the foundation of the team (at Riot Games).
JN: A competitive game makes more sense since you can't make content fast enough!  Don't sell power, so players can then become the content.

How would e-sports on TV affect the scene?
KL: We want to be unrestricted with our contact.  Can e-sports make the TV transition?  Yes.  Does it need dev and design thoughts?  100%.  How do you monetize on a television?
JN: TV is low definition.  Fighting for a shared screen is another problem (other people in a home wanting to watch TV).
DB: Regional preference.  It's already easy to go online.  Again, a lot of fighting over the airwaves would result.

How can we get younger players in earlier?
JE: We already can!  There's a place for a huge age range in games.
JN: People will get better faster.
KL: We are breaking down the stigma now!

What I Learned - 18

Not on this list, but should be: programming on the back of envelopes is very satisfying.  Thought you should know.

What I Learned - 11/17 to 11/23

1. Holy awesome game list of the last generation, Batman!
1. Kirk Hamilton; The Games that Defined the Last Generation
2. 
2. There is a lot of controversy over how a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) compares on a company totem pole to a regular Software Dev.
1. Intensive research into the SDET position.
3. The Ninety-Ninety Rule in software development is hilarious (and shockingly accurate).
1. Wikipedia; Ninety-ninety rule
4. Attention Scope will allow people to have multiple ideas in their head, but once about 13 are 
1. Nils Phil; GDC China 2013 - The Psychology of Freemium
2. Checkout this attention scope test.
5. Higher incentives can lead to poorer performance.
1. Dan Pink; Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation
6. The 10,000 hr rule to learn something is false, applying only to being highly competitive in a narrowly focused field doing only a certain few actions.
1. Josh Kaufman; The First 20 Hours - How to Learn Anything
7. 20 hours of focused practice will allow a person to acquire a skill.
1. Josh Kaufman; The First 20 Hours - How to Learn Anything
8. There are 4 steps to rapidly acquire a skill.
1. Deconstruct the skill - decide exactly what is supposed to be done.
2. Learn enough to self-correct - don't let books or other media to allow for procrastination.
3. Remove practice barriers - internet, TV, games, etc.  Willpower!
4. Practice for at least 20 hours - 
1. Josh Kaufman; The First 20 Hours - How to Learn Anything
2. 

GDC Next - Luck and Skill in Games

Luck and Skill in Games
By Skaff Elias (Three Donkeys)
Thursday

Why should we care?  There "should" be a bit of luck in every game.

Let's define some types of luck:

• Overt Randomness - This is very easy to have, and is often noticed by the player right away.
• Game Theory, physical limitations, and complexity can hide other forms of luck.

Are there games with no luck?  Some would say Chess, but even that game of skill still has randomness.

• Luck hinges on the game and the player.

Another game of "pure skill" that still has elements of luck:

• Compute the digit of pi in 30 seconds! (There is randomness in how many digits are computed.)

Now consider this game:

• Compute the xth digit of pi.  (This is skill based.)

Now let's define skill:

• It is the ability to do something well when compared to something else having a similar ability.
• How do we measure this?  Well, a max win percentage, a percentage of wins compared to another tier of ability, or Elo are all good measurements.
• Higher numbers are better for determining if a game is skill based!

New game, Rando Chess:

• Roll a die at the end of a regular Chess game.  On a 1, the loser of that game actually is the winner.
• In this example, the amount of luck goes up, but the skill required remains the same.

From Rando Chess, and similar games like it, players may reject the addition of luck as it moderates their reward (5 wins and a loss with luck vs. 6 wins based on skill).

Why we need luck:

In a situation with no luck, it is only a measurement being taken.  ("Who's taller?")

In other situations, some people love unexpected outcomes (i.e. slots).

The best case dealing with a player and an element of luck in a game of skill: they blame defeat on luck, but success on skill.

• This only works for new players.  Once "deep knowledge" is gained, delusions of wins/loses disappear.

The number of people that can play goes up when a game has elements of luck.  Now, some of those elements may only be accessed by high/low levels of skill (i.e. accessing a bonus level).

In conclusion, know your audience.  What is the key value proposition (what should the player get from the game)?  How is the game going to gain revenue?  Does the revenue model require replays?  Does PR/Marketing match the skill/luck interaction in-game?

---

Checkout the last post, On Demand Compute Power for Games!

What I Learned - 17

Late again, but full of valuable info!

What I Learned - 11/10 to 11/16

1. In the game industry, age is huge; the older you are, the easier it is for managers to think that an employee can't pull the epidemic "crunch" (41+ hrs/wk) of the industry.
1. Trusted associate not willing to reveal either their name or age.
2. Again, don't disclose your age!  Anywhere!  Ever!
1. Jon Jones; LinkedIn for People Who Hate LinkedIn
3. Link your published, written, industry-relevant material on LinkedIn.  It shows you take time to contribute insight into what you like.
1. Jon Jones; LinkedIn for People Who Hate LinkedIn
4. Personal LinkedIn updates can be disabled! Settings -> Profile -> Turn on/off
1. Jon Jones; LinkedIn for People Who Hate LinkedIn
5. Visualizing an encounter where all parties actually come away happy is a great gauge for confronting another; if you can't see it, then a meeting shouldn't happen.
1. Kathy Caprino; 5 Critical Steps to Fearless Confrontation
6. Goals can be "S.M.A.R.T." (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely).
1. Kathy Caprino; 5 Critical Steps to Fearless Confrontation
7. I am not good at League of Legends.  I must work on getting better.
1. Personal admission after seeing a 1:1 win-loss ratio
2. 
8. Mike Capps, a head of Epic Games, once said that the company would not accept employees willing to work less than 60 hours in a week.
1. Ian Williams; 'You Can Sleep Here All Night': Video Games and Labor
9. The word "passion" is very cliche in the game industry while also being used to excuse some poor labor practices on the part of game companies.
1. Ian Williams; 'You Can Sleep Here All Night': Video Games and Labor
10. Degrees concerned with game creation, especially those from for-profit universities, are worth nothing.
1. Ian Williams; 'You Can Sleep Here All Night': Video Games and Labor
11. Playing (and enjoying) games affects the brain.  The changes there could possibly act as therapy to a number of brain disorders.
1. Melanie Pinola; Study Shows Playing Video Games Really Can Make Your Brain Bigger
2. 
12. There are a number of quick, efficient security steps to protecting an online, social presence.
1. Jess Fee; You Aren't Using These 10 Simple Security Settings
13. Websites are best if layered in a broad fashion, not a deep one.
1. Jon Jones; Your Portfolio Repels Jobs
14. Luck is a defining factor for the success of an Indie title in such an oversaturated game market.
1. Jeff Vogel; Marketing, Dumb Luck, and the Popping of the Indie Bubble
15. "If your game can't succeed based on word-of-mouth marketing, unless you get real lucky, you need to adjust your budget, your quality, or both."
1. Jeff Vogel; Marketing, Dumb Luck, and the Popping of the Indie Bubble
16. The IGDA has a "fiduciary" policy for its board members, therefore causing things such as "pointing out bad studios to work for" is replaced by "highlight[ing] some good studios to work for".
1. Darius Kazemi; Some Thoughts on the IGDA (Or: Why I Quit)
2. Fiduciary - Involving trust in a relationship between a trustee and beneficiary.
17. The IGDA tends to waste the energy of more niave members when that energy should be spent on organizing labor in the game industry.
1. Darius Kazemi; Some Thoughts on the IGDA (Or: Why I Quit)
2. 
18. There have been bad feelings in and out of IGDA for years.
1. Adam; Leaving the IDGA(2) - What Happened?

GDC Next - On Demand Compute Power For Games

On Demand Compute Power for Games
By John Bruno (Microsoft)
Tuesday



What could you do with near unlimited Cloud computing?
Bigger worlds, huge multiplayer, etc?

There are some challenges with that:
Server costs can be prohibitive and client resources are finite.

So why would you Cloud compute?
It would enhance the game experience and monetization opportunities.  Creating differentiation with the Cloud drives a new kind of engagement.

Here are some scenarios that are present on platforms:  Shared online worlds, dedicated servers, compute task offloading, games as a service (tune/balance, dynamic game modes, etc.).
ex: Titanfall has dedicated servers, cloud-based AI, and more goodies.



XBLC Services focuses on packaging, discovery, and management.  Using the Cloud, predictive pooling determines load needs of any system.  Therefore, you keep play busy, not delivering "server busy" messages.

Some audience questions:

Q: Will I experience clock drift?
A: The worst case scenario would be a little bit, if at all.

Q: Is there enough bandwidth to support this system?
A: Oh yes!

Q: Can the host OS or other neighbors steal my games or financial information?
A: Nope!

Contact bruno@xbox.com for any additional inquiries.

Personal note on the presentation: Don't put words at the bottom of a slide.  Heads sitting in an audience get in the way!

---

Checkout another GDC Next article: Luck and Skill in Games.

What I Learned - 16 ( Way Late )

OK - this is really late.  However, this update shows-off a plethora of new content (soon to be followed by all I learned at GDC Next).  Read, enjoy, learn something new!

What I Learned - 10/27 to 11/9

1. Saying that something is "released" instead of "finished" is a great way to counter any issues that arise post a game's launch.
1. Bungie Podcast 10/25/13
2. The order of receiving benefits / let-downs is very important.  Examples: a good thing followed by a "less" good thing will decrease happiness; a very bad thing followed by a not-as-bad thing will increase happiness.
1. NPR story about Halloween and happiness after receiving candy
3. Just because something has mechanics, points, levels, challenges, etc. doesn't mean that a game is present.
1. Nils Pihl; What are Rewards?  Decoding the Game Ep.2
4. A person playing a finite game, where some quantifiable measurement is present, will take more risks than a player in an infinite game, where they wish to keep going.
1. ex: Tetris players going for a high score vs. those wanting to last the longest.
2. Nils Pihl; What are Rewards?  Decoding the Game Ep.2
5. Tokens (finite points) displayed ingame will generate very different playstyles than if a timer (infinite points) is shown.
1. Nils Pihl; What are Rewards?  Decoding the Game Ep.2
6. "A point is only rewarding when it is a token of a currency that the player values."
1. Nils Pihl; What are Rewards?  Decoding the Game Ep.2
7. All editable settings in Windows 7, 8, and maybe more are available if this code is entered as the name of a folder: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
1. NOTE: I have not tried this!
2. Imgur
3. 
8. "Necessity is a poor motivator", therefore, to force a player out of their way for something because they 'have too' is a lacking design.
1. Nils Pihl; What is Play?  Decoding the Game Ep. 2
9. Giving instrumental (something valued because it leads to something else that holds value; ex: money) compensation for work (done because it is necessary) can lead to worse results than doing something otherwise voluntarily.
1. Nils Pihl; What is Play?  Decoding the Game Ep. 2
10. Intrinsic motivators (unnecessary things done because they are valuable in their doing / experiencing) come in three types: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.
1. Nils Pihl; What is Play?  Decoding the Game Ep. 2
11. Approximately 188 games arrive in the iOS app market every day, compared to the 254 total games released in 5 years for the Sega Saturn.
1. Seth Sivak; State of the Industry: Four Frightening Facts
2.  
12. The top 20 best-selling games of 2012 weren't new IPs :(
1. Seth Sivak; State of the Industry: Four Frightening Facts
13. Just because hardware will run at a higher-than-average setting, doesn't mean it should.
1. Dave Baggett; My Hardest Bug Ever
14. Use sound cues to remove UI visuals.
1. Michel Henein; 6 Ways 3D Audio Can Expand Gaming Experiences

What I Learned - 15

What I Learned - 10/20 to 10/26

1. The designer that knows how to code is someone who provides what a user requires while also implementing aesthetics appropriate to the function of the requirement.
1. Garry Tan; The Value of the Designer Who Code
2. Facebook uses coders that know how to design on its design team (+1 billion users are on Facebook).
1. Garry Tan; The Value of the Designer Who Codes
3. "Gamer" is becoming an unwelcome and exclusionary slur for people who play video games.
1. Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw; Don't Use the Word "Gamer"
4. "If you are a jerk, but your work is amazing, people aren't going to hire you because you are so hard to work with."
1. Anthony Eftekhari; Interview with the Masters Featuring Anthony Eftekhari
5. $10 is a horrific hourly rate for anyone in an urban area not wanting to live in poverty.
1. Discussing new jobs with friends at a Halloween party

Just a heads-up: This coming week will likely be pretty slim in new posts.  Getting ready for GDC Next / ADC in November is going to own my schedule for a while!

My First Downloaded App: Clobbr

--- '+' for positive perceptions of the game; '-' for negative aspects with a suggestion to fix it; '?' for neutral questions left unanswered by the game. ---

• + Different puzzle pieces alter approaches in going around, over, or even through obstacles.
• + Every new area escalates what was once a simple solution in the last area into a completely new challenge.
• + New in-game items encourage experimentation early-on and throughout play.
• + The game is just pleasant to look at, with each item and figure being easily recognizable.
• + Music intensifies as time runs down.
• + Even if time runs out, the puzzle will run its course (sometimes lucky guesses happen).
• + A single game lasts about 30 seconds, perfect for filling blank spots in the day.
• + Brilliant catch phrase: "Contains precious, adorable mild violence."
• - The animation of a puzzle being solved is slow enough to allow the user to start thinking of doing something 
• A Fix:  Increase the run-time of the puzzle-solving animation by increments of .25 seconds until the player can jump straight from one scene to another.
• - There is only one music track for the in-game interactive portion of the game.
• A Fix: If time is short, warp and alter the current soundtrack into a few more pieces.  Otherwise, give more time to new music development.
• - The game lacks a high-score board, thereby leaving the work of a player to only be seen by themselves and removing a competitive component of the game.
• A Fix: Include a global ranking system to keep users coming back to better / protect their score as seen by other players.
• - The bad-guy cat gets all the abuse.  (I like cats!)
• A Fix: I'm sure PETA would have one.
• ? Where are the purchasable themes?  The style of this game cries-out for monetized aesthetic downloads.

Clobbr is a really sweet game.  Simply executed while maintaining a complex design, the entertainment in the cute game is accessible anywhere.  Have a minute?  Play a round.  Have two?  Wrap-up an area.  Have more?  They can easily be lost going through the plethora of puzzles (100 in all), trying to unlock more or perfect their own score.

Give Clobbr a chance from the Google Play Store and check it out online; you'll fill much spare time if you do so.  Considering it is the first game from a small group of people, they've gone beyond most new apps out there!

What I Learned - 14

"TIL what TIL means..."

What I Learned - 10/13 to 10/19

1. 'TIL' means 'Today I Learned'.
1. Urban Dictionary
2. 80% of hires really are referrals.
1. Bill; Discussion about jobs and the state
3. Rockstar Games only ever consider potential hires if they are already in the Bay area, and those are for low-entry positions!
1. Bill; How his friend, the VP of Operations, handles recruiting
4. We picked a bad time to graduate.
1. Roy Baron; Discussion over employment opportunities in the game industry
5. Steepled fingers are an unconsious sign of confidence.
1. Vanessa Van Edwards; 3 Tricks for Improving Your Body Language in the Office

OK.  Not a whole lot this week.  However, if you didn't catch the Poster article earlier this week, be to check it out!

Designing Contest Visuals for Bungie - The Posters

Bungie is a world-leading game development studio with an awarded mantle of games.  The Halo series serves as the pinnacle of the company's accomplishments, but the design team has moved on to new ventures.  Destiny is the next title coming from these champions of entertainment, where the hope is to outdo even Halo.

Bungie has been hosting Destiny themed contests for most of this past summer.  I've tried to be a steady competitor, so I'm here to talk a little about the design considerations used in submitting.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Third challenge!  Destiny Movie Posters!  Right after winning the Your Worst Nightmare contest, another event was raised.

Way too much time was spent on these distractions.  It was hard trying to find iconic, easily manipulated, unlikely to be imitated posters for the Destiny game.  Though there were a few that were gathered to paint on, but things like Watchmen (not a movie poster, but the novel is really legit), District 9, 300, and Avatar are real winners.  (Google the titles to find my resources; all rights reserved to their respective owners.)

To take on the Watchmen, all that had to be done was to remove the old smiley-face and text on the cover and replace it with Bungie-centric design.  Pretty self-explanatory, and probably the easiest of the four pieces created (though faking thin shadows is uber-lame).

District 9 was the longest piece out of all of them.  Reasons for this came in the form of the choppers on the original poster, but for Destiny, the space needed jets and spacecraft.  If only I had studied industrial design...

Be sure to check the smaller details, like a destroyed skyline and the Vex baddie on the sign!

300.  What a testosterone-fest.  I've messed with the image for school projects before, so jumping back in to redo the setup was pretty easy.  Adding the Traveler orb in the back, gun fire, extra arms and red eyes on the baddies, and replacing the title were all rudimentary Photoshop tricks (no Space Magic here!).

Lastly, the titan-of-a-movie Avatar.  There's a race of playable characters called "Awoken" in Destiny, and they have grey skin, yellow eyes.  With an eye and nose adjustment on the original portrait, the Na'vi (blue cat people in Avatar) became somewhat human in structure.  Desaturation, color layers, and a bunch of levels-adjustments rendered the final product.

And the final result!  (Psst - recognize anything in the background?)

Really fun stuff - all of it.  Before I get too nostalgic here and return to my tablet, I best wrap this up and program some game mechanics.  Or play games (hey, that's research, too!).

If you missed the Hero or the Nightmare, please give them a read.  I'm skipping a write-up of the final challenge I participated in, but you can see it here - can you guess who's playing Destiny?

What I Learned - 13

Go to the GDC Vault; there's some really cool stuff there, and most of it is for free!

What I Learned - 10/6 to 10/12

1. When highlighting and shading, other than the primary color, matte surfaces should resemble 2 additional shadows, while shinier surfaces have 1 shadow and 1 highlight.
1. Adrien-Luc Sanders; Flash Animation 5: Creating a Complex Character of Movable Parts
2. "That which gets measured gets done."
1. Travis George quoting Mark Merrill; Letting Go: Creating Self-Managed, Self-Directed Teams
3. Let the individual members of a team do their own retrospective; they and everyone else knows what went wrong, while they get to own what went right.
1. Travis George; Letting Go: Creating Self-Managed, Self-Directed Teams
4. Scheduling early peer review that is positive and free of repercussions is a great way to check the progress on projects their creators are coy about.
1. Tom Cadwell; Designers are Human Too - Causes of Poor Design Decisions
5. "Psychology research shows a drop in creativity and attention after 15 minutes, and major deficiencies by 1 hour."  Long design meetings.  Don't do them.
1. Tom Cadwell; Designers are Human Too - Causes of Poor Design Decisions
6. "Game development is a team sport."
1. Marc Merrill; League of Legends Retrospective: One Year Later
7. A game requires a monitization strategy that "compliments" it from day one, otherwise it will be a lot of wasted effort and subject of scorn.
1. Marc Merrill; League of Legends Retrospective: One Year Later
8. [Not something learned but something that needs reiteration] "Gameplay trumps art needs."
1. Marc Merrill; League of Legends Retrospective: One Year Later
9. Service can be seen as an investment by an organization into their community and product base.
1. Marc Merrill; League of Legends Retrospective: One Year Later
10. Jealousy is a great tool that can be used for weeks and weeks, if not longer.
1. My aunt Linda; Reference to an older dog not bolting when a puppy is around
11. Numinous - Describing an experience that makes you fearful yet fascinated, awed yet attracted - the powerful, personal feeling of heing overwhelmed and inspired".
1. Martijn Schirp; There's a Word for That: 25 Expressions You Should Have in Your Vocabulary
12. The sky is as much a character in games of this millenium as anything else.
1. Dave Dunn; Pubcast Happy Hour 3: Bungie Studios Special
13. NBCI attacks = Nuclear Biological Chemical Information attacks available in the modern age of hostility and warfare.
1. Neal Stephenson; Snow Crash