Author Archives: A.H.

Deadlines Don’t Exist Anymore…

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Well, I came back from that second interview from that game company. I told them I had already made commitments to graduate school, they were really nice about it and agreed I should finish school, and may skip the interview process a bit should I apply again next year. Also gave me some free swag, including their most recent game for PS3 (here’s a hint: it made over a billion dollars within the first few days of its release). Great guys, couldn’t ask for better people or location to work. UPDATE: Although, every other student I talk to says I’m an idiot for not holding out to try to get the job… but they don’t know my plans for indie development, my need for a “break,” my plans to use graduate school research for other means, or that the company agreed I was probably better suited for another position that was already filled. I might be making a huge mistake, but I think I know what I’m doing…

Also thought about game deadlines. One of the reasons I like game development is that there is a set product at the end, a final stage, at which point you ship out the final product, take a break for a few weeks, start fresh on the next project.

Not anymore.

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How Long Does It Take To Make A Good Game?

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Video games are difficult and time consuming to make. Every year, we hear of Hollywood films costing hundreds of millions of dollars, and we see credits at the end with thousands of names. Games are more complicated than that: they often require all the narrative, audio and visual prowess that films do today, and also require programming expertise on making these worlds interactive, further adding to the complexity.

But how long does it take to make a game?

“Duke Nukem Forever” reportedly took 15 years of development time. And yet, we see several games from large publishers (“Call of Duty,” “Assassin’s Creed”) get made in under a year. What’s the difference?

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What Have I Been Up To? (“The Great Penny Robbery”)

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I haven’t made a post in a few weeks. Why? Because I had exams. I am a student after all. Thankfully, that’s over, and I can focus my time on important things for the next few months.

But I’ve done a lot in the last few months, too. None of it is really important or “complete,” but some of it is actually pretty darn impressive given the short amount of time it was completed in.

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An Important Decision…

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(A open letter of personal conflictions.)

If you religiously scan everything about me on the Internet, you would be a little creepy. And, while there isn’t too much out there to go on, you’ll know I am a university student. I am finishing soon, expecting to graduate within months with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science. As my classes come to a close, I have some important decisions to make.

Most people are asked throughout their student lives the same question: “What will you do when you graduate?”

How do we answer? Often, we don’t know yet. Some people, even after college or university, don’t know exactly what they want to do.

At least, that’s what they say. I think, deep down, everyone knows exactly what they would like to do. The problem is that it may or may not be viable or realistic, or are just too strange for people to be willing to admit. If you have a passion for becoming a Fortune Cookie Writer or Professional Whistler, then great, but that might be a difficult job to obtain, let alone the fear of what your family or friends would think.

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