Posts Tagged presentations
Of students, MMOG-fests, and getting a job
Posted by Rockjaw in Breaking In, Jobsworth, MMO-related on June 8th, 2008
I’m a little behind on here, and as you’ll see, I’ll be going in reverse for the next few posts. Now I’ve done and dusted the MCM Expo write-up, here’s a few thoughts on a much more recent event; I’ll get back to UK Games Expo before too long, too.
This week was half-spent in the beautifully sunny and green surroundings of Stafford. In Staffordshire. At Staffordshire University. I was a guest of the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Technology, who had organised MMOG-fest 2008 to celebrate the launch of their new degree in Multiplayer Online Games Design.
I was attending primarily as a speaker, but also went to sell some games and just generally meet and greet with students and staff. Overall, I had a great time and I’m really glad I did go. Hopefully I managed to tell a few people things they might find useful, as well.
I fully intend (when I’m really happy with it, and that might be a while) to put some sort of summary of my talk on here. For now though, here’s just a few random thoughts about the event, students, and that tough nut they all want to crack: getting a first job in games. Read the rest of this entry »
Things that are tough
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related on June 2nd, 2008
1. Presentations
Work on my Staffordshire University talk – which I’m giving on Thursday – is proceeding slowly, despite a lot of caffeine and what I feel is a pretty good basic structure.
The subject of of ‘breaking into games’ is a bit elusive, though, to be honest. It’s a bit like asking Tom Cruise how to be a movie star. (I am not, in any way, comparing myself to Tom Cruise. I’m taller, for one thing.) The point is, it’s kind of hard to tell anyone about how to achieve something as nebulous as a career goal. But since I doubt anyone would want me to just stand up on Thursday, shrug my shoulders and go “I dunno!” for 45 minutes on Thursday, I’ll keep working on it.
Doesn’t help that I insist on trying to make every presentation I do better than the last.
2. Judging
Related to the above, I’m helping to judge a competition for the students there. It’s split into various categories for things like Games Environments, Modelling/Animation and so on. Those categories were easy enough to pin down, but Game Design – where I’m looking at trailers and pitches for full games, or mods – man, that’s tough.
Tough because I’m trying to figure out if what I’m seeing would really be a good game, or whether it’s just a good trailer; tough because while some of the ideas are original, their presentation is weak (and vice versa) and just tough, really, because it’s so damn judgemental. Of course, that’s what you deal with when you’re a judge, so….
3. Casting
As I think I’ve mentioned before. We’ve got over 200 applicants for our two roles, now… I’ll be back on that by the end of the week, I expect. It’s not getting any easier. If I feel bad judging student’s games, imagine how I feel rejecting people for having a funny looking nose.
Ah well, back to it.
Hello Wednesday my old friend
Posted by Rockjaw in Day Today, MMO-related on May 28th, 2008
Before I even get to the office, I’m on the phone to our costume designer. Busy executive type, me.
What really strikes me is that I can’t walk up the (pathetically small) incline to our office, and talk on the phone at the same time, without feeling a bit out of breath. Fitting that I’ve got my gym kit with me.
First thing after I get my breath back: Spaff’s nearly finished on our Secret Little Video Project, and wants me to do a dialogue polish on what he’s written. Between the two of us we add about 20% more gags. That’s science, Bobby! Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday; it’s the new Monday
Posted by Rockjaw in Day Today, MMO-related on May 27th, 2008
Haven’t done one of these for a while, and I’ve got 20 minutes, so let’s see if it’ll fit in that time:
Start the day trying to clear out the Inbox. I generally do my very best to keep my email as light as possible, but it’s stacked up a bit by my standards… 50+ in the Inbox. To most people that really is nothing – most people have hundreds, if not thousands.
In the process, fire off a few emails to people trying to confirm and cajole. Trade emails back and forth with Andrew Wildman about the upcoming UK Games Expo, and also about a Secret Prize Project he’s helping us with, which should be revealed fairly shortly.
With the Bank Holiday yesterday, all of the usual Monday meetings are bumped forward by a day, so we do our weekly ‘Management Operations’ meeting at 11:15am. It’s pretty much business as usual; all of the company managers in a room going through what’s going on right now. I talk mostly about UKGE, the trip to Staffordshire University next week, and casting. Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday. It comes after Monday.
As Rorschach might say, “Huurrrrmmm.”
- First thing, some emails about finalising the sketchbook. We have a few more due to come in, so we’re going to up the page count. Awesome.
- A day late, I pick our ‘CrewNC Sidekicks’ from the application. We were thinking about going for four, but go with five in the end. You can never have enough gophers…
- Decide today’s the day to announce the final artist line-up at the MiniCon. Finally I get to publicly confirm that David Nakayama is making the trip over to join us – David was the official artist for a lot of issues on the City of Heroes comic, so we’re really excited to have him coming.
- Lunch is in our new staff room – Monkey Ranch – and is officially ‘band practice’. As in, Rock Band. And someone (Me) needs practice on vocals; Nirvana’s In Bloom starts me badly. I get a bit better during a Clash song, quite enjoy My Sharona, and then actually do pretty well on Wonderwall – but that isn’t saying much.
- Nip out for coffee and more player meet planning. Already we’re giving the Sidekicks tasks.
- Have to get back for a 4pm conference call, but it gets pushed to 4:15pm, which gives me time to…
- Check out some lovely videos of Aion: The Tower of Eternity, which our community guys have captured and want to use as part of a ‘demo-on-video’ for the MiniCon. Dang that game looks good.
- I look at a slide Spaff’s done for the Big Secret project. It involves Ghostbusters, as many of our references do. Everything in life is better with Ghostbusters. Therefore said slide is awesome.
- Caffeeeeeeiinnneeee kicks in from the coffee, just as the phone rings. I talk with a US colleague for about 45 minutes about Dungeon Runners and what we can do to promote it; we have the same thoughts on lots of stuff, which is great.
- Get off the phone at 5pm knowing lots more than I previously did about DR… quickly resolve a couple of queries about Draw the World Together with Chris.
- Check out some of the responses to the artist announcement – specifically the reaction to David coming. One particular response is worth quoting: “Ohhhhhhhhhh I think I just wet my pants”. I do, in fact, LOL.
- Design t-shirts for the MiniCon. The Sidekick ones are pretty cool but seriously, we want to own the TaskForce: Omega t-shirts that we’ve got for winners. They are, in Spaff’s exact words, ‘dope’. (They may also be ‘fly’.) Consequently, Chris and I design TaskForce: Omega crew shirts just for us, because we can.
- I start to checkout and buy said t-shirts aaannd… my password disappears and suddenly I can’t log back in. ROCKJAW ANGRY. ROCKJAW SMAAAASH!
Ahem. Which necessitates a trip to the gym and some aggressive exercise.
You said what?