Edcase

Ok as a board newbie, and a Scooby newbie (I pick mine up tomorrow) I notice there are a few industry people on here, and I KNOW they are a popular car amongst developers, so who's who?

I currently work for The Bitmap Brothers, but have previously worked for Acclaim and NMS Software.

BoxerFlat4

edcase - you've seen my resume, so you know who I worked for.

18 year writing computer games, man and boy. Left beginning of this year, to explore other oppurtunities, currently trying to get back in again !

stevencotton

I once had an interview at Funcom in Oslo in 1998 if that counts!

Steve.

Rob Walker

I'm out of the games industry these days.. mostly web and interactive tv stuff now.

but in the past I've worked at.. Software Creations, Ocean, Origin, Imagitec and DMA design...

It all lost its fun for me years ago doing crap like the fifa games. part of a 60 man team. fifa 1998 world cup spring/summer edition....

bring back Amiga's I say!! was a good laugh back then! lol

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Edcase

You know that "Mitch" has a scoob as well - don't you?

Dream Weaver

Ed, you lucky git, always wanted to work in the games industry, and would still like to at some point.

Still believe I could project manage a game better than some of the lamos that do it now

BoxerFlat4

DW - A donkey could do it better !

Problem is, nobody wants an experienced coder/designer to project manage a games team - as I found out when I tried to move into that area !


Or maybe it's just me....

Edcase

Puff are you the guy with the green wagon parked outside on Wapping Wall? I see it all the time (although not recently)

Yeah I did a 355 track day with mitch a while back and drove his home, which was my first taste of the Impreza.

So where are you based if you park outside my work :s

Edcase

Dream Weaver....very likely, it's one of the weak spots of the industry, although its getting better.

Dream Weaver

Boxer - games companies still seem to make fundamental errors - why?

Look at Colin McRae 3 - great game, but if I was on the testing team, sraight away I would have asked why you cant look at the stage times properly, why only 2 modes of play, why no choice of camera angle in the replays etc etc.

They always seem to miss vital things out. Same with Medal Of Honour - fantastic game, but i have given up on it as you cant save games in the middle of each mission - schoolboy error!!! You end up needing about 3 hours to do one bit of the game, rather than being able to have a quick half hour to progress.

I am a perfectionist though - would probably be good as a tester (or a nightmare for the developers )

BoxerFlat4

DW -

The problems are because the industry, for whatever reason, can't seem to drag itself from the "one coder in his bedroom" days of production. Management of game production is haphazard and inconsistent, with little emphasis being paid to design and development in the early days of production. Too little is done in the design stages, too little prototyping, and too much slap dash programming. When I was Lead Programmer on my last title, an XBox project for Warner Brothers, my programming team would regularly rebel against such ideas as consistent code format, specified function naming schemes, etc etc.

With the complexitity of the hardware getting higher and higher, and teams getting bigger and bigger, I can see the problem only getting worse.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Edcase

Used to work in D3 until I walked out in September after 8 yrs

So unfortunately no longer nearby...

Edcase

Shame. I used to look at the car every day...I actually was planning on getting a wagon wrx as the missus prefers the shape, but I got so fed up with my unreliable saab 900 i decided I wanted a new car with a warranty, so got an 02 coming tomorrow In green

DavidRB

BoxerFlat4: Your post is applicable to most of the IT industry.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

So how long before the new game is out?

Also how are things going at Mitch's other job as the industry rumour mill is rife with doom & gloom...

Edcase

New game is out Q1 next year.

As for Mitch, he's doing OK as far as I know...don't see so much of him nowadays...

Dream Weaver

Games developers seem to have forgotten the back to basics rule.

I noticed in both the latest Codies games, CMR3 and Toca RD, a lot of time is put into pointless cut scenes, whereas they should spend time getting the game basics right.

It is one of them things that really bugs me, as it is an industry that is difficult to get into, but onethat I know I could make a difference in.

I am currently writing a document for what I believe to be the ultmiate racing game. I know nothing will ever come of it, but it just has snippets of ideas, details and wording for the game. Wish I could code them myself.

DazV

DreamWeaver, if you don't want to dive into the maths, get yourself a games API.

Head over to BlitzBasic for more info. Write yourself a prototype and send it to all the games companies. You'll be RICH I tells ya, RICH!!!

BoxerFlat4

yeah, right !

DazV

BoxerFlat, don't ruin his DREAMS

Beside I've a mate who runs his own games company and has a nice Aston Martin DB7 so there must be money in it somewhere!

BoxerFlat4

Daz-

The days of starting up on your own and making a fortune are gone - I bet your mate started up quite a while ago, yes ?

DazV

Yes, must've been about 10 years ago now, and his company has been sold several times, each time he started a new one.

DazV

BoxerFlat - besides with all the retro stuff coming out on Mobile phones, PocketPC's - don't you think the bedroom coder days are back for a bit ?