Here we are again, explaining what I did and didn't like about ECGC. Lets mix it up and start with what I didn't like. I was extremely disappointed with the Narrative Design track this year. On the second day, they only had 1 talk in which you could even attend, which was literally just going to be someone complaining about how being a Narrative Designer is difficult, which literally every other interaction with a Narrative Designer explains. Really, there is no need to make an entire talk about it. However, I did get to go to a talk that I feel really should've been in the Narrative Track, an Indie talk about empathy in games. It was interesting take on story telling in games, putting the feeling back into characters, making them human again, and making this an expectation from the industry as well. I got to speak with Renee Nejo, the person who gave the talk, and she had some interesting personal insight. I asked her about the morality of the gaming industry essentially making a profit purely off of emotional response rather then necessarily game play, in sue of her using the game "That Dragon, Cancer", a game about a cancer patient that would be more akin to something of an experience rather then a game. She responded, in short, by saying the people who make these kinds of games really aren't looking for money, and are rather looking to share their thoughts and emotions with the world abroad, and if the world abroad wishes to give them money for their efforts, then they would gladly take it. Her primary example of this was her own games, which are paid for through donations, rather then actually applying a fee to the game itself. This has really helped me further my own plans of working in this field. I feel that, I should take monetary risks to join teams like hers, ones based more on spreading a message and making an emotional game then making a profit. Or, at the very least, while working on monetary focused games, I should have projects going on the side that do tell the stories I want to tell. Because, really, at the end of the day, this isn't about the money. This isn't about making a perfect game that will get me famous and that everyone will love. This is about telling a story. Telling the stories I want to tell. Developing and creating stories I will want to tell. That'll be a lot of fun. Ain't going to make me a lot of money, but I'll make ends meet. As long as I get to tell my stories I think I'll be happy.
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So, for the last 2 days the game design classes have visited the East Coast Gaming Conference, or ECGC. And, it's good to be back over there, it's a really fun conference. Unfortunately this year we couldn't stay as long as we did last year, so we went to a lot less talks, and the second day was sorely lacking any talks in the Narrative track, which are the ones I personally enjoy going to. But, it gave me an opportunity to branch out a bit, and I noticed a pattern with the kinds of people who were giving talks in different pathways. I don't know if this was just a coincidence, but it seems that all the programmers who talk are really dry and straight forward with their topics, having one thing on mind and just talking about it for an hour, while the people in the Indie track seem to be, well, amateurs when it comes to public speaking. I went to three Indie talks in a row, and the first one hadn't even set up yet and we only got going half way through the session, and he still managed to end 15 minutes early, and he even admitted that he was an amateur and actually had social anxiety. The second basically just kinda looked down and read a script, and while the third was a lot better, actually ending up to be my favorite talk out of all the ones I saw, it was still obvious that she wasn't exactly a master of public speaking. Maybe those were just coincidences, but I think it gives an insight to the kind of people I'm going to be working with in each of the fields, which in turn really pushes me to follow the Narrative path, because I really like the speakers. Its a really tight knit community, I saw some of the same speakers and audience members as last year, and everyone has interesting topics and well put together topics.
*Error in line 25, except the error is actually in line 12 but its still kinda right, but it only being kinda right screws this area up so I'm going to point you here
*You forgot a semicolon *You forgot a semicolon *Stop forgetting semicolons *You forgot to capitalize something *You forgot to put a space here *You screwed up *You screwed up *You screwed up You screwed up. That pretty much sums up coding in a nutshell. So many little things can go wrong, that just, absolutely tear hours of work down, and create even more work trying to undo the mess you made. And I can't even blame C#, its doing its job fine (though Unity crashing doesn't help), I'm the idiot telling it to look for "score" instead of "Score". It doesn't know what the hell "score" is, so because of that it doesn't destroy an asteroid flying at a spaceship. And everyone on that spaceship would be dead, if the asteroid didn't just pass through the spaceship, causing an explosion, but not actually damaging the spaceship in of itself. Its frustrating. Very, very frustrating. But, little by little, I'm getting a better understanding of what I'm actually doing. And the more I understand, well firstly the more I don't understand because everything works and meshes together and if you understand one thing you have to understand the 20 other things it works together with, but the more power I gain over the medium I'm trying to manipulate. The more I can actually do in virtually constructed world of error messages and semicolons. And that's encouraging, and very invigorating. If I develop the skills necessary, I'm sure I'd enjoy doing this for a living. This second half of the year has been, quite frankly absolute hell on a personal level. I've lost, so much motivation to depression and anxiety that its a miracle that I'm not failing any classes. I've learned things about myself that I never wanted to know, and now have to live with knowing. These past few months are filled with regrets and horrible decisions that I wish with everything I have that I could take back. But, even through this, quite literally, living nightmare, Game Design is still something I want to go into. This is going to be my job in the future. Life can throw another year of hell at me and I don't think that my mind is going to be changed from that conviction. I understand that after a few years in the actual business that mindset might change, but I want it, at the very least, to be something I spend a few years doing. Maybe after that I'll go into Quantum Theory and try and harness the smallest intervals of our universe to mankind's benefit, but until then, video games.
My introduction to the Unity interface has reasonably well, though there are some issues. Though its quite similar to 3DS Max, which is what I'm used to using, its slightly different. Getting used to the new camera controls is slightly annoying when every thing else looks and works the same. As for scripting, I'm fairly used to seeing it. The only real difficulty should be memorizing C Sharp's language. From there, it should just get easier and easier. The Roll-A-Ball tutorial was a really good introduction to the software. If you actually pay attention and follow what hes saying, its also a fairly decent introduction into scripting. Overall, this has been a much more intuitive and interesting experience then Game Maker, and more useful in the foreseeable future.
So far throughout this year, I think that the most widely useful skills in which I have acquired have been management based. Being able to maintain my own work ethic, as well as other's, will be an invaluable skill both in the gaming industry and beyond. I also think that changing the curriculum so that we get more of this experience, more actually working on games together and actually going through the process, would be a good way to better prepare students for next year, college, and whatever job they will pursue, within the game design field or not.
Getting back into working with 3D Modeling for the first time this year has been great. I'm glad the that the majority of my skills continue to remain fresh, such as maneuvering the camera around and actually molding the shapes into the positions I'd like them to be. However, some of the nuances behind texturing and rendering are still a bit fuzzy, but I imagine those will start to come back to me with time.
I am very excited to be moving into solely 3D for the rest of the year. When I first joined the Game Design pathway, this is exactly what I was expecting to be going into. I've been waiting for two and a half years to be told "All that's left now is 3D and programming." No more distractions, no more worrying about learning color theory or "Why do we yellow banana?", just 3D and programming from here on out. I am going to have a lot of fun in the up coming months. This has been one hell of a year. I have seen myself develop a lot on an educational scale, and AGAD certainly hasn't been an exception. On the contrary, I believe it has exemplified my development. Everything from managing the development of a Board Game, to escorting kids during Game Night, has really made me think about this industry in a new light. I, really could make it in the Game Design industry. This really could be the job option that I could spend a good, long portion of my life dealing with. Its weird to think about how I took this class on a whim. I wasn't allowed to take theater, so I had to look for a replacement, and this was it. And now, I'm looking at a serious career that I'll need and want to do well in.
This year has also helped me understand that, this is a job. This is serious business, this is something that companies spend millions of dollars a year doing, and making millions back. They look for professionals, people willing to work hard and do what needs to be done, and if you don't stop being childish and goofing around, there can be serious consequences. Your personality, your day to day decisions, can and will determine whether you stay at your job, and this year, with the tightening of the noose on who gets to proceed further into Advanced Studies, has really opened my eyes to that. The most difficult part of making your own sound affects is making just the perfect sound to fit in with the scene. You have to make the same kind of sound over and over again to make it just perfect, because editing can only do so much, and if you don't have the base for the sound, no amount of editing is going to make it work. There really isn't an "easist" part about it, but some of the sound affects just, "click". You look at them, hear the sound in your head, and you immediatly think "I know how to make that sound" and that can make the process go by a lot quicker.
The sound track in which I have chosen for the Sniper Video is an edited version of the Hungarian Dance. Normally, the peice is very fast and happy, but when slowed down to the extent that I have it, it gives it a kind of an insane, but somber feeling to it. This, combined with what I've named the video, "The Necessary Evil", gives the whole peice a feeling of muted glee, reflecting a story in which I've come up with in my mind. This is a happy occasion, the sniper is taking down a horrible militeristic dictator, and should be feeling happy, but its a shell of what should be a joyous freedom from tyranny. The main difference between linear and non-linear editing systems is freedom. Non-linear editing systems, such as Audition and Premiere, allow you to edit each sequence free of order, allowing you to jump back and forth along your timeline as you please. However, linear editing forces you to edit as you go, in chronological order. Its typically only used with physical tapes, rather then softwear. Non-linear editing systems are so important for the development of video games, as it would be near impossible to do with only linear editing. It allows for rough drafts to be created and then expanded on, it allows for changes to made much easier, it just generally allows for a lot more freedom, at the draw back of being more expensve and complicated then linear editing procedures.
Oddly enough, working with audio was a lot more enjoyable then I first anticipated. I'm fairly hard of hearing, which at first I thought would make this a lot harder, but it actually helped me drown out the background noise and focus on the audio I was trying to edit. It was generally very interesting to see the wavelengths of the different noises, and really helped me appreciate some professional techniques that I never fully understood, such as counting down before reading a part. While yes, it helps those in the booth be ready for you to start speaking, but it also helps a lot while editing. It provides a very obvious and uniform pattern to indicate when a new take is being done. |
AuthorI am 17 years old, and currently enrolled in Durham School of the Arts. Within the Game Design field, I'm looking to become a game writer or a programmer, preferably a combination of the two.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent those of Durham School of the Arts or Durham Public School Archives
June 2018
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