you can make games now! ANNUAL FALL 2012 INSIDE: HANDS-ON HOW-TOS FOR THE UNREAL DEVELOPMENT KIT, THE SOURCE ENGINE, AND MORE! Change Your World DOWNLOAD FREE* 2013 AUTODESK SOFTWARE The future is closer than you think. Join a whole new class of artists in the Autodesk Education Community, and receive free* access to the same software and tools used by professional digital artists. autodesk.com/freesoftware *Free products are subject to the terms and conditions of the end-user license agreement that accompanies download of the software. The software is for personal use for education purposes and is not intended for classroom or lab use. Autodesk is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2012 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. DigiPen student games have won 40 awards at the Independent Games Festival—more than those of any other school. Download and play them at digipen.edu/gamers. NOUS PIXI NITRONIC RUSH 2012 IGF Student Showcase Winner 2012 IGF Student Showcase Winner 2012 IGF Honorable Mention DigiPen Institute of Technology offers bachelor's and master's degrees in hardware and software engineering applied to VLPXODWLRQYLGHRJDPHGHVLJQDQGGHYHORSPHQW¿QHDUWVDQG digital art production, and sound design. www.digipen.edu ANNUAL FALL 2012 CONTENTS postmortem 44 SNOWFIELD THE SNOWFIELD is an experimental project in emergent narrative set during World War I, made in eight weeks by a team of 10 student interns from Singapore and the U.S., that was featured in the Independent Games Festival 2012 Student Showcase. Project owner Matthew Weise walks us through what went right (ambition, art, and Unity) and what went wrong (personalities, leadership, and Unity) with their storytelling science experiment. By Matthew Weise features 7 DIY RPG If you have a Steam account, you have everything you need to make your own game. Learn how to make a basic quest-driven role-playing game mod with Valve’s Source Engine. By Ben Evans 17 GAME CHANGERS Game modifi cations (“mods”) are third-party add-ons to existing games that range from minor gameplay tweaks, to new levels, characters, and even new games entirely. Mods can be an easy way to get your foot in the door of the game industry without having to try and make a game from scratch. We’ll show you which games are good to start modding, some modding history, and stories from game developers who started their careers by working on mods. By Luke Parkes- Haskell 23 TEST DRIVE THE UNREAL ENGINE The Unreal Engine is the tech that drives BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY, BORDERLANDS 2, MASS EFFECT 3, the GEARS OF WAR series, and several other major games—including yours, if you’d like it to! Learn how to get started making a basic game and interactive game level in the Unreal Engine. By Sjoerd de Jong departments 2 Game Plan By Brandon Sheffi eld [EDITORIAL] The game of making games 4 Who to know & What to do By Staff [GAME DEV 101] A guide to the industry’s most important events and organizations 14 Competitive Spirit By Staff [GAME DEV 101] Test your developer chops and get noticed by entering game competitions 33 Salary Survey By Patrick Miller [CAREER] A comprehensive breakdown of salaries for entry-level developers and beyond 51 Quick and Dirty Game Art By Robin de Jongh [GAME DEV 101] Make placeholder art for your brilliant game prototype 56 Microsoft Excel for Game Designers By Ira Fay [GAME DEV 101] Use Excel to distill design data 58 You Can Make Games! By Mare Sheppard [CAREER] Never give up, trust your instincts 63 Game Jams By Staff [GAME DEV 101] Meet people and make games 64 School Directory [EDUCATION] A listing of schools with game development programs in North America and the rest of the world 91 Make Games For Free By Patrick Miller [TOOL BOX] Professional-caliber game development tools on a starving student budget 96 Educated Play By Tom Curtis and Patrick Miller [EDUCATION] Interviews with student developers who made a mark on the indie scene 120 Job Interview Don’ts By Matthew Wasteland [HUMOR] Situations to avoid when interviewing with a game studio COVER ILLUSTRATION BY KEN TAYA BY ILLUSTRATION COVER WWW.GDMAG.COM 1 game developer GAMEGAME PLAN // BRANDONBRANDON SHEFFIELDSHEFFIELD magazine www.gdmag.com UBM LLC. 303 Second Street, Suite 900, South Tower THE GAME OF MAKINg GAMES San Francisco, CA 94107 t: 415.947.6000 f: 415.947.6090 WelCome to the wild woRld oF Video gAme deVeloPmeNt! SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES FOR INFORMATION, ORDER QUESTIONS, AND //////// Welcome to Game game like CALL OF DUTY or HALO, Markus Persson just made the ADDRESS CHANGES Developer magazine’s you’ll need to join a large team. game he wanted to play, and it t: 800.250.2429 f: 847.763.9606 2012 Game Career Guide! Regardless of which path you turned out other people did too. e: [email protected] If you like games and take, you’ll find some information You may worry that people www.gdmag.com/contactus think you want to make about potential salaries and won’t latch on to your idea. But EDITORIAL them, we’re here to get you compensation in our Salary none of us is unique, as much as PUBLISHER started. At the very least Survey (page 33). These are we might like to think so. There’s Simon Carless e: [email protected] you’ll be able to determine not guarantees, of course, but almost certainly someone else EDITOR-IN-CHIEF whether making games is they do tell you what developers out there that likes the things Brandon Sheffield e: [email protected] early in their career are reporting you do. And even if your initial EDITOR something you truly want Patrick Miller e: [email protected] to do. income-wise. games don’t set the world on fire, MANAgER, PRODUCTION Within these pages, we have No matter how you want to they’ll prove to yourself and to Dan Mallory e: [email protected] tutorials that can take you from make games, having some projects everyone else that you can do ART DIRECTOR zero to game with no cost, and under your belt is the best way to it. The more you learn from your Joseph Mitch e: [email protected] minimal learning curve. Whether show a potential employer (or a failures (and there will be some!), CONTRIBUTINg wRITERS you want to try out level design in potential indie team) that you have the more you’ll improve as a game Tom Curtis, Ben Evans, Sjoerd de Jong, Matthew Weise, Luke Parkes-Haskell, Ira Fay, Robin de Jongh, Unreal Engine 3 (page 23), learn what it takes to work with them. developer. It’s often a good idea to Matthew Burns, Mare Sheppard to prototype game ideas in 3D It’s that chicken-and-egg scenario: do a postmortem of your project, ADVISORY BOARD space (page 51), chart gameplay You need experience before you to figure out how you can improve Mick West Independent metrics in Excel (page 56), or can get a job, but how do you get next time (see page 44). Fail Brad Bulkley Microsoft Clinton Keith Independent make RPG quests in the Source experience making games if you early, fail often! Brenda Brathwaite Loot Drop engine (page 7), we’ve got you can’t get a job in the industry? If you’re not confident going Bijan Forutanpour Sony Online Entertainment covered. And if you’re worried that Answer: Start making them on your it alone, that’s no problem. Game Mark DeLoura THQ you’re not technical or talented own, or with associates at school, jams (see page 63) are a great Carey Chico Globex Studios enough to make games, don’t or however you can! way to meet other developers that Mike Acton Insomniac worry—with enough time and the are at or above your level, and try ADVERTISING SALES right attitude, anyone can! (See OKAY, wHAT NOw? to make some games together GLOBAL SALES DIRECTOR more about this on page 58.) » Game schools can be a good with them in a team. In a jam Aaron Murawski e: [email protected] Once you’ve gotten your feet way to network with future environment, you form a team on t: 415.947.6227 wet, we have an extensive list of developers, and gain a solid the spot and try to make a game MEDIA ACCOUNT MANAgER Jennifer Sulik e: [email protected] many (though not all!) free game foundation of knowledge across in (usually) 48 hours. The time t: 415.947.6227 development tools you can use all disciplines. But even if you pressure may sound troublesome, gLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAgER, RECRUITMENT to start making games (page can’t afford school, you can work but it’s a great introduction to Gina Gross e: [email protected] 91), and game engines you can on your own and make your way creative problem-solving and t: 415.947.6241 freely mod (page 17). If you want in the world of games. keeping a project small. Game gLOBAL ACCOUNT MANAgER, EDUCATION Rafael Vallin e: [email protected] more tutorials, check out our The key when making your jams are happening all the time, t: 415.947.6223 past game career guide issues, own projects is to scale small.