#game development career

[askagamedev]

Hello, I'm an aspiring game developer generalist but I honestly have no clue where to start, and my lack of attention span does not make it any better, do you have any advice on how to start learning to become a generalist?

It really depends on what you want to do. If you want to be a hobbyist, then I suggest reading my guide on the [minimum competence needed] to be able to contribute to a game development team. Then, start doing each of these things - write code, create art assets, build a level, make something playable. As you learn to do these tasks and level up, you'll become a generalist that's able to make a lot of contributions to a dev team.

If you want to be a professional generalist, the requirements are much more stringent. Generalists in the game industry really only exist at the upper mid-senior level, there really aren't any junior generalists because the juniors really lack the experience shipping and finishing games. A junior might enter without a specific specialty, but they have a lot of learning to do. It's much easier to learn one major thing at a time than it is to learn many things all at once, especially when the goal is delivering shippable quality results.

The minimum bar for competence for professional generalists is much higher. A professional generalist isn't someone who knows a little of everything and can get something started, it's someone who can finish a wide variety of tasks. A professional generalist can operate and produce work of shippable quality in multiple areas. I've personally worked on cameras, economy, combat, monetization, characters, AI, progression, animation, cinematics, localization, and lots of other game systems in my career.

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[shadowen]

I call this piece "The State of American Labor, 2024".

[enobariasdistrict2]

katniss literally calls the career districts the capitol's lapdogs (this is mostly her aggravation towards the tributes who are obnoxious and her most dangerous/direct opponents, so it was easier to hate them because they were easier/closer targets and hating the capitol openly the way gale does is a death sentence, but that's not important rn) and yet: district four was openly in rebellion after her games. so was district one. literally every district, even d1 and d4, the supposed "lapdogs" according to katniss, declared war against the capitol in mockingjay and were openly anti-capitol in their actions. so even if the career districts are in fact the capitol's favorites, d1 and d4 clearly were not content with snow's regime.

the only true career district that stayed loyal, despite the fact that their children die too as much as those from any other district? district two. district one and four apparently (at least, from katniss's pov) receive the same benefits as d2, yet they were bold enough to rise up against the capitol regardless. so what's the difference?

it most probably has to do with sejanus and the lessons snow took from that tragic death. snow has personal experience with district two people, he watched a boy from d2 adhere to his principles, openly defy the games, and reject the wealth and opportunity he had been given despite his animal-adjacent District status (snow's words) that snow believed he should be grateful for. he watched that d2 boy hate what the capitol does so much that he was willing to rebel, and that boy got hung for it, at snow's discretion. then snow profited off of that boy's family's grief by deceiving and manipulating them.

the point is, he knows from personal experience the dangers that d2 people and their convictions possess that harms snow's philosophy of power. he literally saw it happen. yes, d1 and d4 get preferential treatment as well (d1 supplies the cosmetics/luxury and also it as well as d2 literally surround the capitol according to a map i saw online, so they pose the most threat). but they still rebelled anyways six decades later. d2 stayed loyal to snow because whatever his strategy was between the 10th games and the 74th, whatever he gave to d2, clearly it worked out so well that instead of moral and kind and justice-driven people like sejanus, d2 gave panem bloodthirsty murderous children like cato and clove.

even the original career tributes (coral, mizzen, tanner) weren't nearly so crazed and violent and enthusiastic about their violence as the d2 tributes, and d2 had little to no advantage in the earlier hunger games which means that career tribute culture that we see in the 74th and 75th games obviously hadn't developed yet. so the fact that d2, and its children, grew so powerful during the next six decades can almost directly be traced to snow's desire to prevent a man like sejanus from ever returning to d2.

[bloodigutz]

*coding, having the time of my life*

DAY AND NIGHT I WORK LIKE A DOG

*kicking my legs and giggling*

MY FUCKING RETINAS ARE WORKING OVERTIME

[swan-codes]

DisabilityIN is hosting a virtual disability recruiting showcase on Sept 27, Wed.

Locations: Germany, UK & France. Companies: Google, Adobe, MasterCard & more

This is completely free. You can book any of the available locations if you'd like; they are being hosted at different times on Wednesday, September 17.

Please register and include your resume! If you are unable to attend, you can catch up on demand.

Please ignore the deadline date mentioned. I registered today and received an invitation via email!! Link

[jcmarchi]

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Preview - Revving Up An Old Engine - Game Informer

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/fatal-fury-city-of-the-wolves-preview-revving-up-an-old-engine-game-informer/

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Preview - Revving Up An Old Engine - Game Informer

An entire generation of fighting game fans have been born, hit puberty, graduated college, found a career, and possibly started a family in the time between the last Fatal Fury game and the upcoming City of the Wolves. The most recent entry, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, was released in 1999 for arcades (and 2001 for Dreamcast in the West), meaning the series has been dormant for over 25 years. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves sees the series make its long-awaited return, and it already feels ready to stand alongside the big boys of the genre.

I had a chance to play over an hour of City of the Wolves at the SNK World Championship Finals last weekend, where I also spoke with producer Yasuyuki Oda. Fatal Fury has been an arcade mainstay since 1991 but hasn’t quite created the mainstream footprint of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. With this new entry, Oda says he believes the series’ penchant for more technical fighting, along with modern revisions to fan-favorite systems, will help it stand out in the now crowded space. Additionally, he also hopes these tenants help the game appeal to unfamiliar younger fighting game enthusiasts who may only know Fatal Fury by name.  

[embedded content]

You eat with your eyes first, and City of the Wolves looks sharp thanks to a stylized art direction, with bold, heavy shadows that give the game a vibrant comic-book-like look reminiscent of Marvel vs Capcom 3. The returning fighters available in my demo were Rock Howard, Terry Bogard, Hotaru Futaba, and Tizoc. I also got to try a new character named Preecha. This bespectacled, bubble-gum-haired young woman is a quirky but brilliant scientist. Interestingly, she’s less interested in proving her fighting superiority and more interested in finding scientific explanations for how her rivals can perform seemingly impossible feats like shooting fire or energy out of their fists. 

“She’s coming at it at a little bit of a strange point,” says Oda. “It’s almost like [how] a scientist would try to bring a little bit of reality into this world of special moves and telekinesis and all that stuff. So she wants to know exactly why is this possible, how is it possible, and how I can use this.”

Preecha is also a Muay Thai master and star pupil of series comic relief Joe Higashi. She devastates foes with furious, wind-powered kicks, including lobbing small cyclones as projectiles. I enjoyed using her the most out of the available roster, but each character offered a good time, whether I was German suplexing foes as the masked wrestler Tizoc or firing uppercut blasts as Rock. In addition to looking cool, the roster speaks to a broader audience, quite literally, thanks to a new English localization. 

The REV system serves as City of the Wolves’ big new addition, giving players enhanced attacks to bolster their offense. REV Blows are powerful, near-unblockable supercharged attacks; REV Guard serves as an enhanced block; REV Arts are flashy cinematic combo attacks; and REV Accel is a speedy assault of sorts. Using these moves gradually fills the constantly draining REV meter, which replenishes when you land attacks. However, filling the meter sends the fighter into an overheated state, rendering REV moves unavailable until they “cool off” and the meter empties. Managing this meter creates an interesting pendulum swing that kept me from relying on REV moves too often, lest I lose them entirely and give my opponent a window to unleash their own REV-based assaults. Thankfully, the REV meter also doesn’t feel restrictive or like it discourages REV use overall due to how rapidly the meter drains.

The T.O.P system from Mark of the Wolves returns in expanded form as the S.P.G. (Selective Potential Gear) bar. At the start of each fight, players choose to place this bar at the front, middle, or end of the health meter. When your HP falls within the S.P.G. section, you gain benefits such as increased attack power, the ability to unleash Rev Blows, and health regen. Thus, the placement of the S.G.P. matters. Are you an aggressive player from the jump? Place the S.G.B bar at the front so you begin the match at your strongest. You could place it at the end to act as a powerful last stand. I enjoy the strategy the S.G.B. bar brings, both for myself and for knowing when to turn up the heat when my opponent’s vitality approaches theirs. 

These systems complement a fighting system that already feels very fine-tuned. Playing matches against A.I. and other journalists was a challenging blast. I loved unleashing combination attacks while leveraging my REV meter. You can also execute Feints, special fake-out moves to trick your opponent into rushing in or backing off. Braking allows you to cancel out of combos in progress. Using returning mechanics, like Just Defend, in which you block at the last second for a quicker recovery, adds to the game’s enjoyable technical-based combat. 

In a nod to recent fighting game trends, City of the Wolves features an optional, streamlined control scheme called Smart Style. This option simplifies the execution of dazzling special attacks by mapping them to a single button plus a directional input. For veterans, Arcade Style offers the default, more technical control setup, and it’s nice to see Fatal Fury continue the positive trend of inviting players of all skill levels to its world. 

I’ve never been the most enthusiastic Fatal Fury fan in the world, but I’m very impressed with how thrilling City of the Wolves is, especially this far from release. SNK has a promising start, and while Oda wasn’t ready to divulge details on other modes and features, the core one-on-one fighting is in a strong place. Fighting game fans have feasted well the last few years, and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves looks to offer another delicious serving in early 2025.

[mirrren]

What job would Nico di Angelo have tho?

[stonerzelda]

i need a new vidyod. game <- has no life direction and is running out of time to find one

[vaguelyhauntedcornfield]

Idk if anyone will see or respond to this, but if you’re in game design/development, what advice would you have for someone looking at trying to make a transition into the field? My undergraduate degree was in studio art--ceramic sculpture specifically--so I know I would definitely have to do some portfolio work/skill building. What about masters programs? Are they worth it? Is there a difference in how online vs traditional degrees (both from accredited institutions) are viewed when hiring? Any general tips?

[centi-pedve]

unbearably embarrassing getting told by our favey teachers that we're so smart and we have so much potential and we're their favorites too and then while trying to get recommendation letters having to confess to them that this whole time our goal was to become a video game dev. literal 12 year old mindset. they think we're one of the few people in the school capable of becoming a scrum master or cybersecurity g*dsend oooh connor you need to learn how to do hacking in linux here's a course i paid for just for you oooh connor you need to teach the computer science majors how to do computer science SHUT UP vido gajme . hehe

[askagamedev]

Have you, or some of your colleagues, ever worked on a game you didn't particularly like? Not like "the creative team is wrong and I hate it", but more like your taste didn't align with the director's, or the game wasn't something you'd care to play. If so, how do you cope with that, given that projects can last for several years, often with intense working conditions?

Thanks for the blog!! It's always a great read.

My very first job in the game industry was working on a game in a genre I had little personal interest in, programming parts of the game I never had any particular interest in. I was quite far away from the kind of games I grew up playing or dreamed of making, but I did my best anyway because I knew that it was the best opportunity I had to get to where I wanted to be. Since then, I've worked on projects that I thought were great until they got cancelled, projects where I didn't see eye to eye with the creative leadership, and all sorts of other projects besides.

Even if the big picture game isn't in my particular wheelhouse, that doesn't mean I can't do my best to solve the problems I'm tasked with. I enjoy coming up with creative and engaging ways to grab the attention of the target players. Even if the game isn't to my taste, the problems I solve are still interesting and the solutions I deliver can still be clever, elegant, and robust. I can still do work that I can be proud of. This is what it means to be professional - I'll always deliver high quality work at a shippable level, even if I don't personally enjoy the game I am making.

Taking a step further back beyond the personal circle, I've also learned that the project itself doesn't mean much if I'm not working with people I can enjoy collaborating with, no matter what dream IP or concept it might be. What really matters are the people I work with, not the project itself. If I work with great people, the project will be great. If there's no team cohesion or camaraderie, the project can't be great. I remember going from a team with little cohesion and noncommittal leadership (leading to terrible morale) to a team with stronger leadership and cohesion. I know that my morale palpably improved after transitioning off of the first team and onto the second.

That's really the long and the short of it - on a personal level, I get more job satisfaction when I'm solving interesting problems and challenging myself to level up as a designer, engineer, and developer. On a project level, my morale is higher when I'm working with people I feel I can trust to do their jobs and that we can all work towards well-defined common goals. The particular game idea, story, genre, etc. tends to take a back seat to both my role and my team. Without a good role and team, I'll be miserable and even the most interesting game idea or IP in the world wouldn't be enough to keep me from looking to jump ship.

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[mariocki]

A young Barbara Murray stars as travelling theatrical artiste Pat Dawn, getting mixed up in murder and intrigue in Mystery Junction (1951)

[prowerprojects]

I think it's completely normal for Tails; considering his character, to have the emotions that he has when insecurities pop up. The problems often lies in how they're prompted or carried throughout the story. They don't often do those flaws justice and it comes off as messy, unflattering and incomplete. Not unlike some other characters in this series. (Then again, I have noticed some think it's strange for Tails to any emotion that isn't happy, determined or cheerful all the time. Anything not deemed "cute".)

Him beating himself up over failures, locking himself away until he fixes it, getting frustrated when he think his feelings aren't being listened to or downplayed, feeling insecure when his efforts aren't good enough, "logical outcome vs doing what's right", pride being wounded at times and not knowing how to deal it. These are all fine, but we need to see his strengths in tangent to balance them to push him to new heights. (This is why I really hope he gets a solo story by himself with no Sonic in sight so we get a better sense of how he handles his struggles and tackles his ambitions on his own. More "what does Tails do", "what does Tails want", "keeping the peace his way", etc.)

Hm true. Even if I have a soft spot for what Lost World was trying to do, for example, the story itself is kind of a jumbled mess that switches emotional direction multiple times (Some people having trouble imagining Tails being anything but cute is interesting, because I feel like this is also connected with the massive amount of villain!Tails aus out there. It's like people want to see Tails express less "cute" emotions, but feel like if he does, he wouldn't be in character anymore. (But also there's a subsection of people who just straight up hate kids when they aren't perfect little angels and it translates onto the fictional children as well))

The other post was just about the flaws, but you're right. While having interesting flaws is good, for the character to be likable they need to be balanced with the strengths, but lately it's been mostly just the flaws, at least in the ways that really stands out to people.

It's kinda sad that for Tails to shine he needs to be completely isolated from Sonic. It comes off almost as if there's an issue with the character itself, as if everyone else is more interesting and would take attention off of him. But at this point I feel like there's also an issue of the reputation that he had developed, he might unfortunately need to be isolated to undo said reputation (But also who am I kidding I would love to have a solo story that is all about Tails and how cool he is and what he actually wants in life!!)

Though I'm not holding my breath tbh, at lesst not for a solo game, I feel like what's gonna happen is they come back the next game and act exactly as they usually do. Maybe Tails would be a bit more confident as the result of his self-discovery journey.

[freemorphmemes]

[skiitter]

deciding at THIRTY that i wanna be a video game writer sure is a fucking choice.

[9hikers]

going to start making a collection of knock-off games that can run on a potato and cost $5. store-brand soda kinda vibes.