make video games

I got a brilliant game design book from my brother for Xmas. Usually I get hampered down by technical jargon but this one is just effortless to read through and pick up points about game design. I’m currently reading through that now, so thats helping me with achieving this rather long term goal.

Also in a few weeks time I’ve got an open day at University where I’ll be shown round campus and have an informal interview for a ‘computer games design and programming’ degree (BSc). Hopefully I’ll get accepted into the University and will have a job working in the games industry in the future!

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival. This was a really cool industry/consumer event where you can go and get a sneak preview of new video games which won’t be coming out for a while such as the new Zelda (Twilight Princess), Burnout Revenge, Diagossi Band Bros (obscure Japanese music game for the Nintendo DS) and other cool games.

Another really cool thing about this was that there were some talks about how to break into the industry from industry insiders who do programming, sound, modelling and graphics, writing and level design. It was good to hear from the industry people themselves about how they got where they are today. I also got to have a chat with them after the talks, and after talking with them I feel positive that this is the industry that I want to break into.

I also did a machinima workshop and the guy there was really impressed with what I could produce given the really short time frame. I’d like to get more into machinima because it combines my experience in film making and television work with my love of video games.

This event was really good for me, because its confirmed my hopes that a job in the video games industry really is for me.

I won’t really have a chance to think about this goal until my next semester at University… right now I’ve got tons of things to be getting on with for the mid-Jan deadlines!

The good news is that next semester I’m definitely doing a games audio unit! That should be interesting, I think in my 3rd year there will be an opportunity to make a game too!