Good Game Designer Reads

I’ll refrain from linking to articles on Gamasutra very often because frankly it’s rather redundant. There’s always something good to read there, so you may as well bookmark that bad boy on your web browser of choice.

Since I am on a learning kick, high off my recent graduation from game design school, I was very keen to check out this reading list and very happy to identify a couple of these tomes among my own collection. And no, I’m not even close to finished reading those books on this list that I actually have.

Time to put down that controller and get back to reading!

The Power of Code

A friend and mentor posted a great link on Facebook to a blog article written by veteran designer, Brenda Brathwaite. Actually it is a transcription of a talk delivered by Brathwaite at GDC just a few days ago. To summarize her point, it is this:  aspiring game designers today must know how to code.

It’s a very good read and I plan to keep it on hand as a friendly reminder if ever I start to deviate from my personal studies.  It’s so good, I’d also recommend all my former classmates to read it as well even though I would be indirectly drumming up more competition for myself.

As a designer, I want to make something happen, to create. If I can’t manifest something, I feel helpless. I don’t like feeling helpless.

Ideas to paper, paper to code.

Graduation

Last night was graduation for the VFS Game Design class of GD17.  We said our good-byes, reunited with some of our friends and family and shared many laughs. The grad ceremony and award show was really well put together.  Barring a few technical hiccups and delays, the proceedings went smoothly and it felt really good to give my mother, girlfriend and buddies a glimpse of what it was I was so consumed with for the past year.

I was pleased to graduate with Honors and be a finalist for 4 awards that night:

1. Best Design Document – Desert Blood
2. Best Portfolio Website – clintonma.ca
3. Best Flash Game (group) – Carpocalypse: Route 666
4. Best Final Game (group)  - Kinesis: Project Wolf

After the last award was handed out, we said good-bye to our family and friends before scurrying off to the bar to celebrate our graduation in style. Collars and ties were loosened. It was fantastic to finally share a drink with the instructors who had been by our side for the entire year.

I count myself very lucky to have ended with in a class filled with so much talent, ambition and personality. Now it’s time to leave the safety of our school lab behind and embrace the real world.

Good luck, GD17! You will be missed.

Industry Night Approaches

I am overdue for my bed time but the excitement has clearly gotten the better of me.  The Pitch n’ Play industry presentation night for the GD17 class takes place tonight at the Vancouver Film School campus on 420 Homer St..

This is a culmination of our efforts that began back in March of 2010 when we first set foot inside the school as fresh-faced hopefuls. But really, this night is made to celebrate the hard work we have all put into our final game projects.  I’ve had the pleasure of working with four of my talented classmates on Kinesis: Project Wolf,  a uniquely styled first-person action game developed with the Unreal Development Kit.

The coaching we’ve received from our mentors and instructors to help us prepare for the big night has been amazing and a real blessing.  Strangely, I’m not nervous at all about our team’s presentation.  We’ve really put in the practice time over the past week to set the right pace and tone, so I’m really not worried at all.  I think we all just want to enjoy ourselves, relax and have fun tonight!

To all my peers in GD17:  best of luck! May you and all of your games shine bright for all to admire tonight.

That Lived in Feeling

I’ve come into the design lab this Saturday to finally get some quality time with UDK. Oh, how she’s teased me for the better part of the week. I had to knock out my board game and my group game pitch final, then tackle the rest of my visual storytelling project. As with everything else in life that’s worth doing, each task takes far longer to complete than I originally expected. And there never seems to be quite enough time.

The design lab has that lived in apartment feeling now. Most of this can be chalked up to all the paper and cardboard piled into the corners and beneath desks, remnants of our ongoing board game assignments.

I’m probably a good 3 hours into my first UDK level and it’s reminding me of the very painful learning curve I had touching Photoshop for the first time about 11 years ago. It’s taking me a long time to do anything and all I can do for now is take inspiration from the work being done by some of my classmates. They are many hours ahead on the assignment so their levels are getting nicely textured and set-decked with spiffy static meshes.

I’m jealous.

Meanwhile I’m just trying to get this ramp to look right.

The Inevitable Shameless Plug

Before I joined the VFS Game Design program, I was a working stiff and a some-time writer for NextGen Player.  And before that, I was a soulless husk of a man.

But really, my stint at NGP is a big part of why I am here losing sleep each night building board games, tweaking levels and hashing together crazy game concept presentations. My seemingly unhealthy fandom for video games lead me to start my own blog, which then lead me to start writing for the NextGen crew. From there, I was able to attend some great local events in 2009, including the VFS Game Design Expo and the inaugural GDC Canada. It was there at the exhibition hall at GDC where I decided it was time for me to make a go at a video game career.

But I’m not here to give you my origin story. I’m only here to put out a good word to my compatriots over at NextGen Player. Based out of Toronto, ON, the blog’s audience has grown exponentially since its humble beginnings in mid-2008. The blog itself is uniquely Canadian, even when compared against other Canada-based gaming sites. Co-founders Paul Hunter and Andrew Shin keep the content light, informative and fun week after week. And to pull this off without aping the editorial style of  their more established American counterparts is a real testament to their commitment to games journalism.

I’ve had the pleasure of writing for NGP beginning in February of last year. Since then I’ve published numerous game reviews, features and interviews.  I’ll continue to write articles there when I can finally get my homework under control. In the meantime, do stop by and take a look around. I think you’ll find it a refreshing change of pace from the unrelenting snark that pervades a lot of gaming sites these days.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2: The Speed Review

I find myself becoming more feeble at online shooters in my advanced age. My eye sight is going and my reflexes have been dulled by years of binge drinking and sleep deprivation. Thankfully, a game comes along once in a while that allows players of all skill levels a chance to contribute something meaningful to their team, no matter how bad a shot they are or miserable their situational awareness is.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 delivers a high-caliber FPS experience on the level of CoD: Modern Warfare 2 but has achieved the holy grail of team-based shooters: it actually encourages you to work as a team. Furthermore, the public lobbies are miraculously devoid of screaming pre-teens, racial epithets… replaced by a cool, silent serenity.

This game has superb graphics, eerily realistic sound effects and online modes that go beyond the mind-numbing repetition of team deathmatch.

Highly recommended. 9/10

Clinton Ma’s Portfolio Blog

Another Monday morning, another blog is born.