so like i said in my last post, i had a chance to meet James Jen, president of TipCat. they develop and produce some games for mobile or online platforms.
to start with, i know i have an interest in the games industry. so james asked me, "what do you want to do?" a very easy question, but i had no idea how to answer. i love everything about the games i play and want to be in every part of their creation, except for back end production. doing back end work is tedious, requires knowledge and training which i dont have (and dont want to waste effort learning), not to mention it doesnt pay very well. creative thinking is where all the moneys at, but is that what i want to do? perhaps.
so james saw me struggling to answer his o-so-simple question and asked me something else, "what kind of games do you want to work with?" like which platform, or what genre i like. still, i really didnt know! i now i realize that "i want to do it all!" is not an acceptable answer. development and production varies greatly between genres and platforms.. GREATLY. theres no way you can work in multiple genres effectively, unless youre some kind of creative genius.
after some thought, i know how i can answer his first question. what i love about games is how they implement gameplay into just about anything, and most importantly make it fun at the same time.
for instance how developers can take a story element and convert it into an aspect of gameplay. heres an easy example: Assassins Creed. you play as Altair, legendary assassin. he has all the best equipment, ability, everything an assassin needs. so the player starts the game and has everything he/she needs, making the beginning VERY easy, and that is exactly what developers wanted. to introduce a new game style and ease the player into it, essentially a tutorial. story wise Altair fucks up in the end of the tutorial and gets stripped of his rank, removing all his high tier equipment. now Altair is basically an amateur and has to regain his rank, slowly unlocking his lost privileges while doing so. this way the protagonist also relates more to the player, making it more attractive (in some cases). and who doesnt love the sense of achievement whenever you unlock some awesome new gear.
its these kind of concepts that i want to be a part of. it may sound simple but it must have taken some effort to come upon.
so i now have a better idea of what i would like to do, i just need to pick a platform to dive into. i'll find james and have another chat with him one day to see if we can work something out. more to come in pt2. maybe.
[edit] there will be no part 2.
