[MUD-Dev] JOB: How to get into Game Design / Game content

[Neil Brown]

--- Matt Mihaly <the_logos at achaea.com> wrote:

> Could create your own job. You know, 150 years ago, the majority of
> Americans (I believe) were self-employed. Industrialization brought
> the possibility of that to an end because of the efficiency of
> scale, particularly in resource intensive industries. The internet
> and the possibility of remote networking in general allows one to be
> self-employed in numerous fashions. It doesn't even take much money
> to do it. It mainly requires that you're willing to live sparsely
> for awhile, but if you're designing, writing and coding 15 hours a
> day, you don't have time to spend money anyway. Luckily, that sort
> of thing doesn't last forever (though I certainly wondered
> sometimes).

I'm glad to see that the hard work paid off for one person at
least. It seems like everywhere I look these days there are articles
and posts bemoaning the difficulties getting started in the gaming
industry, and what a nightmare it is once you get in, and how you
don't stand a chance unless you're sleeping with a publisher or are
independently wealthy yourself.  So far I've managed to make my
saving-throw for 'disbelief' every time, but sometimes I wonder.

Despite having heard all this, our group has decided to take the
do-it-yourself approach anyways.  Our development team is composed
mostly of software engineers who have grown bored with writing billing
engines and other mundane real-world applications, and are looking to
spice up our careers by writing something 'fun'.  We're all
experienced programmers, and we've all paid our dues in the business
software world.  Not a one of us would have trouble finding other jobs
in the software industry, but if we wanted to write more business
software we wouldn't be in this situation ;) We can, however, apply
our combined knowledge of high-transaction billing systems with
back-end databases to the online gaming industry rather than the
banking, telecomm, or online trading industries.

None of us really wants to start off at the bottom of the food chain
in the gaming industry though.  A job as a junior developer, tester,
or night-shift GM is just not going to cut it - it would be too much
of a step in the wrong direction.  Those of us with families can't
afford to stop paying the mortgage and live on Kraft dinner while we
prove ourselves in a game development shop, so we're stuck with an
all-or-nothing approach.  We have to design and prototype in our spare
time, and when we're ready, we'll have to get out there and sell our
idea as an independent studio.  It means lots of hours and far less
free time for many, many moons.

> The joy of being your own manager is hard to underrate, at least for
> some people.

Amen to that!  I've wanted to be my own manager as long as I've known
what it was to have someone else be my manager.  I just haven't had
the guts to make the move until recently.

> And if you do it my way, you don't really get paid (aside from
> whatever investment money you can raise that can be used to pay you
> a salary) until you have customers.

Does anyone have any war stories about acquiring venture capital
investment money for an independent game studio?  It's an avenue we've
considered, though again, I've heard it's getting more and more
difficult to get with the economy the way it is.  ( where did I put
that die... )

> You know, that sounds good, but I'll give you a completely different
> take on it. I had _no_ idea what I was doing, in retrospect, when I
> started. I mean I was really quite clueless. I hadn't coded a thing
> since Basic and a _bit_ of Pascal in high school. I was a poly sci
> liberal arts guy. I never read any gaming sites, had probably never
> heard of Bartle's types, etc etc. However........

I've found this list and sites such as gamedev.net and Raph's homepage
( Thanks to Raph for mentioning these at GDC ) to be a veritable river
of knowledge for a game designer.  I've amassed a great collection of
links from these sources with more content than I could find in any
book.

> You know, I'll sum up by saying that I'm starting to believe what
> people tell me. I've somehow lucked into having this ridiculously
> good job running a text MUD for god's sake.

Luck?  Doh!  There goes another saving throw... ;)

-o-
Neil 
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