Some high-level observations about games, and observations about the gaming industry. Because i'm actually inside it, at a low level. Front line, in the trenches.
metaphorically speaking.
It means i at least see decisions being made, maybe have a hint about why. See the high-level decisions, and they affect people all down the line. their effects on the game. It's interesting. What else is interesting is i see a little bit more of this now because i'm a part of the process.
try to explain. One thing that's great about smaller companies and start-ups is that you move up fast. I call it "battlefield promotion" but that's not quite right. This is not when someone is fired and you get their job, but just that the company is expnding so rapidly that jobs are being created and shifted around all the time. People getting promoted, getting more responsibilities all the time. It's cool. i like it. There's a lot of things great about start-ups. Remind me to tell you sometime.
But anyway, so now i'm in charge of a group of testers.
It's weird.
Friday, October 01, 2010
So hey i uh
Am working, now, in QA, at a game company. I am back doing QA again, not too happy to be kind of back where i started, down at the bottom, but i am working in the game industry. i think that's the important thing really, to be working in the same indusrty as where you want to be, ultimately.
They're called ngmoco:). They make games for the iphone and ipad. It's a whole different set of circumstances from what i'm used to( which is console game testing, PC game testing) iphone game testing is different from all of those. So i've had to learn a whole lot of new technical stuff. But at some level, it's testing, which i know how to do. Experience tells you where programs are likely to fuck up, what areas of the software to hammer on.
metaphorically speaking.
i hope to maybe share some of my ideas about
They're called ngmoco:). They make games for the iphone and ipad. It's a whole different set of circumstances from what i'm used to( which is console game testing, PC game testing) iphone game testing is different from all of those. So i've had to learn a whole lot of new technical stuff. But at some level, it's testing, which i know how to do. Experience tells you where programs are likely to fuck up, what areas of the software to hammer on.
metaphorically speaking.
i hope to maybe share some of my ideas about
Monday, September 27, 2010
about working in games
as i guess i do now.It's almost possible. What we dreamed about has become possible.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
as an aside
, I think that was PIXAR's success with the sequel to Toy Story(a monstrously successful movie in it's own right) , was that they took the same approach as a video game company would which is to save unused ideas for use later and to keep improving the product.
From what i've been able to glean from listening to commentary tracks, most of the characters, situations, gags, etc. were things planned for the original Toy Story movie but were cut for various reasons. Mostly time. One thing that always amazes me about Toy Story is how fast it moves. snap snap snap It's a short movie, but you feel like you've been a lot of places.
I've seen it a lot lately. My kid loves it so... i've seen it a lot. it's good, it really holds up.
From what i've been able to glean from listening to commentary tracks, most of the characters, situations, gags, etc. were things planned for the original Toy Story movie but were cut for various reasons. Mostly time. One thing that always amazes me about Toy Story is how fast it moves. snap snap snap It's a short movie, but you feel like you've been a lot of places.
I've seen it a lot lately. My kid loves it so... i've seen it a lot. it's good, it really holds up.
when you see a whole series and are deciding which one to get...
For video games, always get the "2"
For movies, always the first one is the best.
There are notable exceptions, though, actually i can think of a lot of sequels, movie sequels that are better than the original.
But with video games, almost always you want to get the second one. That's how games are, they improve. For the sequel, the developers put in all the stuff that they had to cut out to make the deadline on the first game.
Oftentimes, by the third in a aseries, the game is larded down with features, controls, super-moves(meta-controls) and and is overall less fun to play.
For movies, always the first one is the best.
There are notable exceptions, though, actually i can think of a lot of sequels, movie sequels that are better than the original.
But with video games, almost always you want to get the second one. That's how games are, they improve. For the sequel, the developers put in all the stuff that they had to cut out to make the deadline on the first game.
Oftentimes, by the third in a aseries, the game is larded down with features, controls, super-moves(meta-controls) and and is overall less fun to play.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
im not sure i made that clear enough
Valve circumvents piracy with Steam. They do it by making it almost as easy to go legit. Click a button and the download begins, it's just about that simple. And they throw additional features into the bargain.
Also i believe the Steam service is free. It costs money to buy games of course but measure that against having to go out into the real world to a game store, buy a physical media, come back, install the game, update drivers, and play the game.
The downside is not having a physical media for the game. i can see that being a big deal for some people. it's completely virtual. You don't 'have' anything. Which is true.
But the upside to that downside is that it's not constrained to any one computer anymore. You can go to another computer, download Steam, install it, give it your password, and have access to all your games, with the correct drivers to work on the new computer.
This is really pretty cool and a true shift in the way we do things.
Also i believe the Steam service is free. It costs money to buy games of course but measure that against having to go out into the real world to a game store, buy a physical media, come back, install the game, update drivers, and play the game.
The downside is not having a physical media for the game. i can see that being a big deal for some people. it's completely virtual. You don't 'have' anything. Which is true.
But the upside to that downside is that it's not constrained to any one computer anymore. You can go to another computer, download Steam, install it, give it your password, and have access to all your games, with the correct drivers to work on the new computer.
This is really pretty cool and a true shift in the way we do things.
Steam
is wonderful. I think i 'get' Steam now. Or maybe they've added so many features that they're useful to somebody.
I think of Steam as my "Game Job"
It's so well-organized. Everything is cross-referenced. And worst of all, buying games is easy. Of course that's best for them. What Valve did is they made they're system slightly less easy than pirating games. They realized that's their competition. And they also realized that most people- probably the mass of people, won't pirate software if a legitimate, and equally easy system exists.
And, actually, itunes is a pretty successful example of that. but Steam. They actually seem to offer a lot of features- friends list, achievements, etc. I actually like that Steam takes care of updating your drivers automagically- the games just run.
and they make it so darn easy to buy games. You have to exert self-control.
Also, having all the demos available in one place for games. You used to have to go hunting all over the web.
in the old days...
of the internet...
Anyway, Steam is your "Game Job" You belong to workgroups, You can arrange meetings in different games, your own avatars remain. A meta-level game...
It shows you all your friends' status in real-time.
It's an insanely well-organized Job, i myself have worked at plenty of jobs that could have benefited from this kind organization, or any organization at all.
But it seems something like a Job. i don't know. maybe it's a 'Leisure Organizer'.
I think of Steam as my "Game Job"
It's so well-organized. Everything is cross-referenced. And worst of all, buying games is easy. Of course that's best for them. What Valve did is they made they're system slightly less easy than pirating games. They realized that's their competition. And they also realized that most people- probably the mass of people, won't pirate software if a legitimate, and equally easy system exists.
And, actually, itunes is a pretty successful example of that. but Steam. They actually seem to offer a lot of features- friends list, achievements, etc. I actually like that Steam takes care of updating your drivers automagically- the games just run.
and they make it so darn easy to buy games. You have to exert self-control.
Also, having all the demos available in one place for games. You used to have to go hunting all over the web.
in the old days...
of the internet...
Anyway, Steam is your "Game Job" You belong to workgroups, You can arrange meetings in different games, your own avatars remain. A meta-level game...
It shows you all your friends' status in real-time.
It's an insanely well-organized Job, i myself have worked at plenty of jobs that could have benefited from this kind organization, or any organization at all.
But it seems something like a Job. i don't know. maybe it's a 'Leisure Organizer'.
Friday, April 30, 2010
This is one of those things
That makes Valve such a top developer as they are.
These two stories:
119!!(
andthis
The fact that they're going this far to put new (completely free by the way, once you have the game) content into Team Fortress 2, a game that is so old as to have had 119 updates.
It seems like they consider it a responsibility to keep people happy. or something.
These two stories:
119!!(
andthis
The fact that they're going this far to put new (completely free by the way, once you have the game) content into Team Fortress 2, a game that is so old as to have had 119 updates.
It seems like they consider it a responsibility to keep people happy. or something.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
if you're curious about what happend
about the 'tester bug'? As far as I know, it's still in the game. There's much worse problems with the game.
Which reminds me, that's another way things can fuck up in the game industry. What the developer will do is not be able to fix small bugs because they just can't achieve stability. Which means it runs. without crashing. That's of course on a whole different level of severity and must be addressed.
But what happens is that- oops, that little stuff just isnt important. It's just polish anyway. Which is of course what separates good, from bad, from mediocre games.
Then, timewise then, you get the worst thing in the game industry right now. Consoles can patch. Oh shit, now they can update! Which you'd think would be agood thing but what it means is that as soon as you pick up a new game, as soon as you connect, you have to download the update for it.
This makes developers lazy. This makes developers lazy. They don't fix things because they know they can put out a patch for it. I know for a fact A lot of bugs got waived, pushed to the next version because of this. I'm not even kidding. A lot of people in the game industry i've talked to have said the same. Makes 'em lazy.
So the worst games, you'll have to download multiple patches, or the patch will be a really high number. bad sign.
DLC!
Which reminds me, that's another way things can fuck up in the game industry. What the developer will do is not be able to fix small bugs because they just can't achieve stability. Which means it runs. without crashing. That's of course on a whole different level of severity and must be addressed.
But what happens is that- oops, that little stuff just isnt important. It's just polish anyway. Which is of course what separates good, from bad, from mediocre games.
Then, timewise then, you get the worst thing in the game industry right now. Consoles can patch. Oh shit, now they can update! Which you'd think would be agood thing but what it means is that as soon as you pick up a new game, as soon as you connect, you have to download the update for it.
This makes developers lazy. This makes developers lazy. They don't fix things because they know they can put out a patch for it. I know for a fact A lot of bugs got waived, pushed to the next version because of this. I'm not even kidding. A lot of people in the game industry i've talked to have said the same. Makes 'em lazy.
So the worst games, you'll have to download multiple patches, or the patch will be a really high number. bad sign.
DLC!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
how's it going?
So my contract finally expired at Sony. i guess i'm looking for work now. I can animate and model & texture in Maya. I can do character design.
http://thejeremycampbellexperience.com/index.html
Let me know if you find out anything.
http://thejeremycampbellexperience.com/index.html
Let me know if you find out anything.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
definiton of a 'tester bug'
Here's a bug i found awhile back. I can't tell you what game i'm working on (even though it has been released) or where i'm employed at, so i don't get into trouble NDA-wise. but i just can't let this one slide because i think it illustrates how it is that things go wrong in games.
When the user's character throws a grenade, the pin is still attached.
WTF? I mean damn, how does something like that get by? you may be asking yourself. i mean, anyone who's seen any movies knows you gotta pull the pin to arm a grenade. And this game is supposed to be 'realistic'.
A 'tester bug' is a bug that only testers would find. We find them by doing weird, counterintuitive shit that doesn't win us the game. It's also kind of a negative term, and often used as a rationale to close bugs. Ordinary people supposedly never do these things. To find that grenade bug for instance, you'd have to walk over and inspect a live grenade, instead of running in the opposite direction. But do you think it will never be noticed by anyone, ever?
Little things like this send a message: We don't care. Polish. Polish is what separates the good developers from the ones who are in it for the paycheck.
How does something like this happen? Probably, the modeler was given the assignment 'model a grenade'. He does it, checks in the asset. Goes to the pub. Programmer writes code that spawns a grenade when the user gives the command to throw one. He just makes a reference to the asset, he never even sees it. It's neither of their job, really, to make sure it's used correctly. But no one looked to see that the user's haracter was throwing a grenade with an attached pin. No one's looking at the big picture and that's the problem.
It's Test's job to find it. Okay, we found it. What happens now?
By the way, the bug was closed. (waived, actually, which means it's pushed back to the next patch) Will it ever be addressed? Who knows? That's another thing mediocre developers do- slack off on everything until something gets to a crisis point and then use that as an excuse to only work on the most egregious bugs. Again, i'm not mentioning any developer's names here, please don't sue me.
When the user's character throws a grenade, the pin is still attached.
WTF? I mean damn, how does something like that get by? you may be asking yourself. i mean, anyone who's seen any movies knows you gotta pull the pin to arm a grenade. And this game is supposed to be 'realistic'.
A 'tester bug' is a bug that only testers would find. We find them by doing weird, counterintuitive shit that doesn't win us the game. It's also kind of a negative term, and often used as a rationale to close bugs. Ordinary people supposedly never do these things. To find that grenade bug for instance, you'd have to walk over and inspect a live grenade, instead of running in the opposite direction. But do you think it will never be noticed by anyone, ever?
Little things like this send a message: We don't care. Polish. Polish is what separates the good developers from the ones who are in it for the paycheck.
How does something like this happen? Probably, the modeler was given the assignment 'model a grenade'. He does it, checks in the asset. Goes to the pub. Programmer writes code that spawns a grenade when the user gives the command to throw one. He just makes a reference to the asset, he never even sees it. It's neither of their job, really, to make sure it's used correctly. But no one looked to see that the user's haracter was throwing a grenade with an attached pin. No one's looking at the big picture and that's the problem.
It's Test's job to find it. Okay, we found it. What happens now?
By the way, the bug was closed. (waived, actually, which means it's pushed back to the next patch) Will it ever be addressed? Who knows? That's another thing mediocre developers do- slack off on everything until something gets to a crisis point and then use that as an excuse to only work on the most egregious bugs. Again, i'm not mentioning any developer's names here, please don't sue me.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
game development
i'm gonna use this space to put down a few things i've learned from my time in games. From the test point of view, which is where i am now. I've been on the development side as well, so i have an idea of what goes on there. i have an idea of what's blame-worthy or not. because sometimes, you'll just have an honest bug. Look- all games have bugs, before they go out- that's the facts of life in software development. I'm saying that you can judge a developer- you can tell if the developer is any good or not by the quality of their bugs.
And whether they get fixed or not.
And in what order.
And does fixing them cause more bugs?
And do they stay fixed, or reappear later?
(oh my god i have stories for each of these) I'd probably violate my NDA if i told these, and probably get fired, so i'll have to generalize.
Notice that all of these factors have nothing to do with whether the game is fun or not.That's a whole nother can of worms, but that tells you a lot about the developer as well. Ask yourself questions like this:
Does the game make things that you would think would be fun into tedious chores?
or
Does the game make things you might not think of normally as fun into fun experiences?
Is it fun just to move around in the game?
more to come on this subject for sure...
And whether they get fixed or not.
And in what order.
And does fixing them cause more bugs?
And do they stay fixed, or reappear later?
(oh my god i have stories for each of these) I'd probably violate my NDA if i told these, and probably get fired, so i'll have to generalize.
Notice that all of these factors have nothing to do with whether the game is fun or not.That's a whole nother can of worms, but that tells you a lot about the developer as well. Ask yourself questions like this:
Does the game make things that you would think would be fun into tedious chores?
or
Does the game make things you might not think of normally as fun into fun experiences?
Is it fun just to move around in the game?
more to come on this subject for sure...
Thursday, August 28, 2008
QA
I also wanted to tell you my idea for a tv series. It'd be an episodic ensemble-cast comedy sort of in the vein of 'the Office'. But it's about testers for a major software company. i think there's a lot of potential for humor(i see it as very grim, Dilbert-style humor) in that sort of setting. Also, I think now everybody knows about video games and enough people are in the tech industry that i think a lot of the jokes wouldn't go over people's heads.
Ensemble Cast- There's a lot of potential for weird, interesting characters. It's really pretty diverse bunch of characters, different races, different genders, different stages in life, all in it for different reasons.
Yeah, really original, i know. I'm inspired by my real life. But i think i could make it interesting, funny and watchable. I suppose what i should do now is write out a pilot. I'd like to shoot a video of a sample episode. Some vignettes, maybe, slices of life, really, they don't have to fit together into a plot yet. I think it'd be cool to use people from work as my actors, i guess i should have at least a script ready to approach them with. I know some people who would be totally down with it.
right now i'm putting ideas together to see how much material i have.What do you think? Good Idea? if you want to give me money to film my idea please email me at :jeremy.campbell@gmail.com
Marketing department:
Everyone's young, beautiful, chuggin' red bulls all the time and pulling mad crazy overtime, then going out to the club 'cuz why bother to go to sleep
Ensemble Cast- There's a lot of potential for weird, interesting characters. It's really pretty diverse bunch of characters, different races, different genders, different stages in life, all in it for different reasons.
Yeah, really original, i know. I'm inspired by my real life. But i think i could make it interesting, funny and watchable. I suppose what i should do now is write out a pilot. I'd like to shoot a video of a sample episode. Some vignettes, maybe, slices of life, really, they don't have to fit together into a plot yet. I think it'd be cool to use people from work as my actors, i guess i should have at least a script ready to approach them with. I know some people who would be totally down with it.
right now i'm putting ideas together to see how much material i have.What do you think? Good Idea? if you want to give me money to film my idea please email me at :jeremy.campbell@gmail.com
Marketing department:
Everyone's young, beautiful, chuggin' red bulls all the time and pulling mad crazy overtime, then going out to the club 'cuz why bother to go to sleep
changes
So now i've got a job working at Sony. FPQA Test.First Party Qa Test. Testing games for the PS3. There's not much more i can say. NDA you know. But anyway, it's limited. Short term contract. Big company, well established ways of doing things. Reminds me a lot of when i worked at SEGA, way back in the days of the Saturn. Yeah.
You don't hear much of me lately cause i'm dealing with setting up my life around my new job and the baby. The game i'm on is going into crunch time so it's overtime for everyone.
Another thing i remember from way back when i worked at SEGA. i was a younger guy back then and living by myself, i could take as much overtime as they offered. But now i have to have someone set up to take care of the baby. Takes up more of my time.
Which is why my second demo reel is moving so slowly. I'm going to make a second one, put it up on YouTube again. It's going to be modeling and texturing. But theres also going to be some animation. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about the music.
You don't hear much of me lately cause i'm dealing with setting up my life around my new job and the baby. The game i'm on is going into crunch time so it's overtime for everyone.
Another thing i remember from way back when i worked at SEGA. i was a younger guy back then and living by myself, i could take as much overtime as they offered. But now i have to have someone set up to take care of the baby. Takes up more of my time.
Which is why my second demo reel is moving so slowly. I'm going to make a second one, put it up on YouTube again. It's going to be modeling and texturing. But theres also going to be some animation. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about the music.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
here's my demo reel
Up on YouTube.
It's just my animation work. I'm trying to get a job at Pixar. I know, everyone wants that.
It's just my animation work. I'm trying to get a job at Pixar. I know, everyone wants that.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
a modest proposal
Something really bothers me about the animation industry right now. Everybody seems to send their stuff to Korea. Why? Even good animators like Genndy Tartakovsky and Craig McCracken. There's more new animation being made now than for a long time and there's a distribution channel for it (cable) but none of it is actually being animated here. It's apparently 'just how it's done now'. This is distressing for a couple of reasons.
One- Outsourcing Creative work. This isn't just labor. This isn't just something anyone can do. This is creative work. Even inbetweens are creative work. Which brings me to the second point:
Work for new artists. Used to be, young artists would get to build up their skills on the crap work like inbetweens. Then they'd have a foundation for drawing animation, and know what's required to work in a studio. Now, no one can get those skills. School teaches you basic principles (if you're lucky), but you need to work on a real series to apply those principles. So, there's never going to be a native animation industry here. It's all overseas.
How come this is the way it's done? Money? Probably.
Also, I should probably say that I have nothing against Korea or their animation industry. They're selling a product that people want to buy- more power to them. What i don't like is the people who made the decision that outsourcing jobs was a good idea.
The real point of this diatribe? Someone needs to found a studio that will do that, if that's how the industry works now, no one does animation in-house, then someone needs to make an inbetweens studio in America. There are a ton of people who want to get into animation- i went to school with a bunch of them. Probably i have enough connections to staff a studio like that. i don't really know. I don't really know the size of the staff or the amount of money involved. We'd of course need it to be very cheap, to compete with Korea. Office space is pretty cheap in some places here, and no Aeron chairs for anyone. Is that cheap enough?
This studio would have these benefits:
Rapid turnaround.-It just has to be faster to FedEx stuff to Burbank than to send it overseas.Has to.
No Language barrier.-This shit should be obvious.
No culture differences-This is a little more subtle. Animation depends on physical acting. A lot of physical acting is gestures and poses, a lot of which are culture specific. An American company would know what you mean.
Possibly starting a new industry in the Bay Area.
what do you think?
-jeremy
One- Outsourcing Creative work. This isn't just labor. This isn't just something anyone can do. This is creative work. Even inbetweens are creative work. Which brings me to the second point:
Work for new artists. Used to be, young artists would get to build up their skills on the crap work like inbetweens. Then they'd have a foundation for drawing animation, and know what's required to work in a studio. Now, no one can get those skills. School teaches you basic principles (if you're lucky), but you need to work on a real series to apply those principles. So, there's never going to be a native animation industry here. It's all overseas.
How come this is the way it's done? Money? Probably.
Also, I should probably say that I have nothing against Korea or their animation industry. They're selling a product that people want to buy- more power to them. What i don't like is the people who made the decision that outsourcing jobs was a good idea.
The real point of this diatribe? Someone needs to found a studio that will do that, if that's how the industry works now, no one does animation in-house, then someone needs to make an inbetweens studio in America. There are a ton of people who want to get into animation- i went to school with a bunch of them. Probably i have enough connections to staff a studio like that. i don't really know. I don't really know the size of the staff or the amount of money involved. We'd of course need it to be very cheap, to compete with Korea. Office space is pretty cheap in some places here, and no Aeron chairs for anyone. Is that cheap enough?
This studio would have these benefits:
Rapid turnaround.-It just has to be faster to FedEx stuff to Burbank than to send it overseas.Has to.
No Language barrier.-This shit should be obvious.
No culture differences-This is a little more subtle. Animation depends on physical acting. A lot of physical acting is gestures and poses, a lot of which are culture specific. An American company would know what you mean.
Possibly starting a new industry in the Bay Area.
what do you think?
-jeremy
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