Just got a response back from a AAA game developer I had interviewed with months ago. They changed their mind and there’s a chance they may want to hire me.
Graduate school and revolutionary research. Independent game development. Working for one of the most respected developers in the world.
I probably can’t do all three. Damn…
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?
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.
(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.
It’s always fun to see the world change. Most changes of the last decade revolve around the Internet.
It’s hard to imagine the world without the Internet. Where would you be without email? Google? Wikipedia? YouTube? Most students don’t know how to use libraries anymore. If these websites were to suddenly disappear, we’d be screwed.
But there’s the thing. Libraries still exist. If the Internet died, we’d still be able to function, if somewhat inconveniently.
That’s not true with games anymore.
