Blog - SIEGE 08

Sunday, October 5, 2008

I just got back from the SIEGE 2008 convention.

To those who met me there and found your way here, welcome to my blog!

I had a great time, and networked harder than I ever have before as I really pushed myself to talk to people even if I was nervous.

Given that every guest speaker who worked with EGD's Atlanta camp were people I had met at SIEGE 07, I decided to wear my Emagination work shirts for most of the con. After all, it is a game industry-related company in the Atlanta area, so it deserves some representation there. So, if you saw an Emagination shirt there, that was me.

Speaking of shirts, I won a t-shirt there as well, as my team had the winning game pitch for Brenda's Iron Designer Challenge, a game design challenge ripped straight out of her recent book with Ian.
It was a brutal challenge: in a short time limit, we had to create a pitch for a game that simulates a battle from the civil war which does not involve eliminating enemy soldiers or acquiring territory.

Needless to say, that is a difficult game to design, so I'm glad we accomplished the feat along with all of the other teams, and our game was selected as the best by the judges.
Congrats to the rest of my team should any of you stumble your way onto my blog (I know at least some of you got my card...) and honestly, to everyone who participated and completed such an insane design experiment. :)

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posted by Brian Shurtleff @ 9:12 PM  2 Comments Links to this post



Blog - Getting into Project Teams

Friday, March 21, 2008

Nearly forgot to post today!
I been working hard on a secret and not at all game-related project all day.

But secret projects are the subject of today's post, however!

On two separate online conversations I've had recently, I've been telling people about the projects I've been doing lately. They were impressed I was working on so many projects, and one even asked "How can get to work on 'secret projects' too?"

Well, the first thing I told him was that in game development, most projects are 'secret projects' because of NDAs, so really, he should just get into game development, and the secret projects will come rolling in. ;)

Okay, not quite rolling in. So, it's a good question, particularly for the game development hopefuls out there.
Working on a team project gives you not only experience developing a game, but experience working with a team and if all goes well, an end product that's suitable for one's portfolio.


So here's some slightly slapped together advice on how to find yourself getting offered to work in project teams:

-As Darius mentions in his networking articles and lectures, it's always good to make your own luck. In other words, don't just let things come to you, but actively seek them out yourself.
Get together a group of students yourself and do a project. Make it happen.

-Do good work, consistently, until people take notice.
You could also call this one "Be known for being talented in general."
If people know you'll work hard on their project, they're more likely to consider you
for their team if they're looking someone...

-Have some unusual specialty:
I just got drafted into a game development project because they needed someone to build the controller and one guy on the team knew I know electronics to some degree and make controller-like interfaces for the electronic instruments I build.

This is the reason Game Designers love to learn about everything. You never know when some obscure knowledge will be useful for a game. If you happen to already know that obscure knowledge and a team is looking for that knowledge themselves, you'll look valuable.

-Hang out with select groups of people that can benefit you:
This can work for many of the above techniques.
For example, if you're hanging out with a group of people who all do not have a current project occupying their time, suggest everyone team up to make a game...
Or once you become known for being a generally talented person, you can hang out with another group as they work, and maybe you'll get passed an opportunity to take on someone's overfilling workload...
Finally, try hanging out with an entire group known for some unusual topic of expertise.
As mentioned on one of my earlier entries, I got asked to work on a game through Urban Interactive because I was the president of my school's improv club here and the company was searching for local improv actors to work in their game. Being known for being a member of that group got me the gig offer.

-Word spreads:
If a person you have impressed is someone other people take seriously, you have now just made yourself seem impressive, indirectly, to all those other people. Congratulations!


I sort of raced through this entry, so I can get back to work.
Really, pretty much all this advice is networking advice, and there are better sources out there for that source of thing than me. Like Darius's site (see link above).

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posted by Brian Shurtleff @ 2:57 AM  0 Comments Links to this post