Great Success! Student Game Developers Who Made It Big Big Money, Big Prizes How Much Could You Make in Your Profession of Choice?
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PRESENTS Great SucceSS! student game developers who made it big BiG money, BiG prizeS how much could you make in your profession of choice? F A L L 2 0 1 0 Steps above the rest... LOCATION Surrounded by over 150 game companies SUCCESS More IGF student awards than any other college or university REPUTATION North America’s first bachelor degree in game development Bachelor of Arts in Game Design Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production Animation Bachelor of Science in Game Design Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering Bachelor of Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation Master of Science in Computer Science Part-Time Master of Science in Computer Science www.digipen.edu 9931 Willows Road | Redmond, WA USA 98052 | Phone (866) 478-5236 | FAX (425) 558-0378 | www.digipen.edu DigiPen_GD_0610.indd 1 6/4/2010 1:48:27 PM PRESENTS CONTENTS.FaLL.2010 STU d E N T P o ST m o RTE m d EPa RT m ENTS 32 IgneouS 2 GAME PLAN By Brandon Sheffield [EDITORIAL] It all started when four Digipen students banded together to try to Think Different! "win IGF." What began as a complex arena combat game eventually evolved into a simple, refined platformer that went on to be featured 4 Who to Know & What to DO [G A M E D E v 101 ] in the IGF student showcase. Read on for valuable lessons from the A guide to the industry's important events hectic development process behind this successful student project. and organizations By Ben Gable 9 EDucated PLAy By Jeffrey Fleming [E D u c ation ] FE aTURES A collection of tales from student and indie developers on development and design 25 Flash Forward The Flash platform has recently had a resurgence in game 17 Salary SuRvEy By Brandon Sheffield development, from indies to traditional game prototyping. On top of and Jeffrey Fleming [ c A R E E R ] being quite powerful for 2D game creation, it's also quite free! This A comprehensive breakdown of salaries for tutorial, written by Canabalt and Gravity Hook creator Adam Saltsman, entry-level developers will take you from start to finish making a simple platformer in Flixel. By Adam Saltsman 48 Top 10 STudent Games By Tim W. Boon [I N D I E F O c u S ] An overview of several important indie games 41 MAKE Games, Not WAR that went pro You don't need to be a trained programmer to start creating games on your own. Many tools and resources enable even the most 51 Hobby Video GAME DEvelopment inexperienced aspiring developer to design and develop their own By Chris DeLeon [G A M E D E v 101 ] projects. Even simpler than Flash is Game Maker, which has both 13 questions to help those who want to make free and pro options, while still remaining affordable. Here, karosHi free games on their own maker Jesse Venbrux takes you step by step through the creation of a simple shooting game. 62 CompetitivE Spirit By Tim W. Boon [G A M E D E v 101 ] By Jesse Venbrux An introduction to popular Indie game competitions 54 The Big Leap Student games have been getting more and more notice from big 64 STudent PROjEcT Disasters! By Matthew Burns [G A M E D E v 101 ] publishers and developers over the last few years. Whether the Tips for how to use development mistakes students were absorbed into a developer like Valve's Portal team, to your advantage or a new company was created, as in the case of thatgamecompany (Flower), more student games have been making professional 80 School Directory [ ed u c ation ] transitions. In this interview, four such developers talk about A list of schools with game development how they moved from the student world to the professional game programs in North America and overseas industry, and what aspiring developers should do to prepare themselves. 104 ARRESTED DEvELOPMENT By Matthew Wasteland [ h u MOR] By Brandon Sheffield Cliffy B Mine cOvER ART: Vincent Perea www.gdmag.com 1 GAME PLAN // BRANDON SHEFFIELD www.gdmag.com 600 Harrison St., 6th Fl., San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES THINK DIFFERENT! FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND HEADLINE ADDRESS CHANGES USE YOUR TIME AT SCHOOL TO MAKE SOMETHING UNIQUELY YOURS t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 DEK e: [email protected] FOR DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION IF YOU'RE READING THIS, IT'S LIKELY THAT YOU'VE AT best of what resources they have, and striving for www.gdmag.com/digital least entertained the idea of attending a school with something innovative. Developers appreciate new a game development program, or using your time at ideas, even if they can’t always implement them into EDITORIAL school to work toward a career in the game industry. their own games. PUBLISHER Assuming you do go to school, more questions How should you do this? Korba has more to say Simon Carless l [email protected] EDITOR-IN-CHIEF emerge. For instance, how should you best use on the matter: “I think you just have to do something Brandon Sheffield l [email protected] your time? Obviously, you want to make something personal,” he says. “Whatever makes you unique PRODUCTION EDITOR that will either land you a job or become a viable and your own personal experience, use that. A lot of Jeffrey Fleming l [email protected] commercial (or indie, or freeware) product in itself. times, in student films, people reference other films, ART DIRECTOR Joseph Mitch l [email protected] If your passion is to work on the next HALO and it’s becoming the same way in games. It’s like PRODUCTION INTERN or CALL OF DUTY, you have a straightforward people are referencing a lot of other games. But if Tom Curtis yet incredibly difficult path ahead of you. It’s you take something that’s outside of games in your CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jesse Harlin straightforward because it’s the most traditional, life or your experience and put that in, it’s always Steve Theodore and thus the simplest to quantify. During your going to be unique because nobody else has that Daniel Nelson time at school you may want to focus on working experience besides you.” Soren Johnson Damion Schubert in teams, specializing in one area, but diversifying Some might argue that more experimental ADVISORY BOARD with knowledge of other areas (such as learning games might not put you in the good graces of a Hal Barwood Designer-at-Large a scripting language as a designer, or some more traditional game developer who’s just looking to Mick West Independent Brad Bulkley Neversoft programming as an artist). hire someone to tidy up textures. I submit that these Clinton Keith Independent By the same token, it’s difficult because this is experimental games demonstrate creativity and Brenda Brathwaite Independent Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment the area that everyone will be competing in, from forward thinking that all developers will appreciate. Mark DeLoura Google all levels of experience and all other disciplines. It Not only that, your demo reel or the games you Carey Chico Independent can be hard to differentiate yourself when everyone submit to prospective employers may stick out more has a couple UE3 mods under their belt, or a decent in their minds simply by virtue of being different. ADVERTISING SALES portfolio of Maya-based school projects. Make sure GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR you go the extra mile, and inject some passion into ITERATE, ITERATE! Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] t: 415.947.6227 your work. As THE MISADVENTURES OF P.B. WINTERBOTTOM If you just put in your hours and coast through » MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAGER creator Matt Korba says in our panel interview (pg. your classes you’re not going to get a very exciting John Malik Watson e: [email protected] 54), “School is a great time to be in a safety net to job when you emerge. You’ve got to go above and t: 415.947.6224 GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, RECRUITMENT create something. So, that’s what you should do. You beyond. Kellee Santiago of thatgamecompany Gina Gross e: [email protected] should make something. If you want to be an artist, (FLOWER) says that polish is a good way to rise t: 415.947.6241 you should make art. If you want to be a designer, above. “Certainly, if you look at IndieCade and at GLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAGER, EDUCATION Rafael Vallin e: [email protected] you should design things. Nobody is going to give the Independent Gaming Festival now, every year, t: 415.947.6223 you a job for something you haven’t already done. the bar is getting raised on the level of polish in So, you should really use school as a time to do both festival games and also what’s coming out of ADVERTISING PRODUCTION something and show it off.” schools,” she says. “I think that’s a new standard PRODUCTION MANAGER that we’re seeing ... as a way of standing out, just Pete C. Scibilia e: [email protected] EXPRESS YOURSELF having a polished project.” t: 516-562-5134 »If you’ve ever thought of making something a Kim Swift, designer of PORTAL, agrees, saying “... little different, this is when you should do it. School for you to get that polish, do not bite off more than REPRINTS is safe place to try new things, and that extends to you can chew. It’s incredibly tempting to go, ‘Oh, I’m WRIGHT'S MEDIA game development.