Last year I had the opportunity to compete in the TSA video game design competition. I learned a lot about creating games and most importantly not to keep my ideas more organized. Many people have great ideas for a video game, and if they could make it the game would probably be spectacular. However most of these people including myself don’t understand the processes behind how games are created, or the sheer manpower and or talent behind a major studio, which can be hundreds or even thousands of employees in some cases. In my experience this means that more experienced game designers are far more humble than an absolute beginner. An important principle I learned that can be applied to nearly any discipline is minimum viable product, this is something very important for a beginner to understand, and I’d like to think I have a better grasp of it then I used to. Minimum viable product does not mean you can’t make the games you want to make. For example if your dream is to create the next big space sim with a to scale galaxy ala Elite:Dangerous or No Man’s Sky maybe you should see if you can remake galaga first. It’s Important to keep these ideas though, write them down and store them in memory because they won’t be impossible forever. Another aspect of this is that simple can be better, a simple and well done game mechanic will be better than 3 dozen different and complicated systems thrown together. Remember those epic space adventure ideas you wrote down? Do them one at a time, goal setting is important to not losing your sanity. I like to give myself a certain amount of time to complete a feature before continuing onto another.
Another Opportunity I had last year was the chance to be a teacher’s assistant for the game design class. At the time I had only made one very simple game and had very little knowledge, but neither did the only teacher who volunteered to teach that class after the former teacher couldn’t. I think it went better than I expected, having to explain ideas to someone else made understanding them for myself much easier and I had fun helping the class. During this time me and my friend Sam created another simple game and learned how to create simple ai enemies and weapons.
I didn’t work on game design over the summer as much as I should have but I have been applying what little skill I have on a group project with a motley crew of online friends. Most of us organized together because of our shared enjoyment of the slightly niche and obscure standalone source mod Neotokyo (NT). NT has a very small but passionate player base, many of whom believe a new game in the vein made with a more modern engine would be very successful. In out group we have 3d modelers, 2d artists, Source mappers, coders,and other assorted talents. Most of us are still pretty amateurish so before we attempt to recreate the experience of NT (our epic space adventure) we are working on smaller projects at the moment. At the moment this project is a very early in development top down shooter inspired by the robotic tachikomas of the ghost in the shell series.As of now I am continuing work on the game I started during the first inquiry block which I intended as a concept for this year’s TSA game design competition. But more on that in another post.
Another Opportunity I had last year was the chance to be a teacher’s assistant for the game design class. At the time I had only made one very simple game and had very little knowledge, but neither did the only teacher who volunteered to teach that class after the former teacher couldn’t. I think it went better than I expected, having to explain ideas to someone else made understanding them for myself much easier and I had fun helping the class. During this time me and my friend Sam created another simple game and learned how to create simple ai enemies and weapons.
I didn’t work on game design over the summer as much as I should have but I have been applying what little skill I have on a group project with a motley crew of online friends. Most of us organized together because of our shared enjoyment of the slightly niche and obscure standalone source mod Neotokyo (NT). NT has a very small but passionate player base, many of whom believe a new game in the vein made with a more modern engine would be very successful. In out group we have 3d modelers, 2d artists, Source mappers, coders,and other assorted talents. Most of us are still pretty amateurish so before we attempt to recreate the experience of NT (our epic space adventure) we are working on smaller projects at the moment. At the moment this project is a very early in development top down shooter inspired by the robotic tachikomas of the ghost in the shell series.As of now I am continuing work on the game I started during the first inquiry block which I intended as a concept for this year’s TSA game design competition. But more on that in another post.