by Annie | Jan 31, 2011 | Game Design
You know how some people seem to be absolutely amazing at one thing in particular? They can wipe the floor with you in foosball or complete every Sudoku puzzle you put in front of them or cook like a five-star chef. Well, I’m not one of those people. Those people are well-lopsided, and all my life, I’ve been well-rounded. In other words, I’m good at a lot of things but not great at any one thing. I’m a decent writer, good at math, enjoy puzzles, win board games every so often, and am getting better at Street Fighter. Though there are days when I wish I could just focus on one dominant strength, most days, particularly in game design, I’m quite thankful for my well-roundedness. The title ‘game designer’ encompasses a wide array of skills and tasks. Sure game designers work on designing game concepts and mechanics, but they must also possess the communication skills to express their ideas, the scripting savvy to throw together quick prototypes, and knowledge of basic visual design principles. In the past few weeks, shoulder-deep in brainstorming sessions and preproduction document writing marathons with my final game team, I’ve capitalized on my well-roundedness as much as possible. My left brain has been tasked with creating working prototypes, and my right brain is busy designing a cohesive and memorable visual experience for our game. I guess I’ll never be truly well-lopsided. But when there’s so much to learn, so much to do, and so much fun to be had in game design, I’m quite happy to be...
by Annie | Jan 28, 2011 | Game Design
The latest issue of In Focus magazine focuses primarily on the VFS game design program. Take a...
by Annie | Jan 24, 2011 | Game Design
I am not a social butterfly by any means. Social caterpillar, maybe. But after a weekend at the Game Design Expo surrounded by people passionate about game design, I’m starting to grow quite fond of networking. I prefer to think of networking as making friends. You never know when you might hit it off with someone or find someone who shares common interests and aspirations. Sure networking can be incredibly intimidating. You’re almost guaranteed to run into awkward situations. But keep in mind that people are there because they want to get to know you. So be yourself, ask honest questions, and be an attentive listener. That’s all there is to it. I can’t begin to tell you what an amazing experience the Game Design Expo has been. Meeting so many people so interested in game design makes me fall in love with it all over again. Here are my top five moments from the weekend: 5. Coat Checking I was up at 5am Saturday morning. Why? So I could get to the Expo by 6am to help with setup and coat check. Volunteering to hang up people’s coats for 4 hours might not sound like the most glamorous job, but it allowed me to get to know a lot of the attendees and speakers as they arrived, ready and excited about the day. 4. VFS Open House I think yesterday’s open house was one of the largest that the VFS game design program has ever held. Me? I got to help man the main VFS booth, meeting dozens of potential students interested in diving into the field of...
by Annie | Jan 19, 2011 | Game Design
Did you know that the first software bug was an actual insect? Indeed, in 1947, Grace Hopper found a moth trapped in a relay of the Mark II at the computation laboratory at Harvard. And people have been debugging ever since. As we prepare for our final game projects, one plan we must prepare is a testing plan, complete with an estimate of the total number of bugs in our game. Wait a minute. Estimate the number of bugs before the code has been written? Seems like a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled. Why not just write code that’s bug-free? While this did occur to me, I imagine that most seasoned programmers would laugh in my face. Programming is a combination of trial and error, critical thinking, and on-the-fly problem solving. Throw in some time constraints, changing requirements, and evolving ideas, and things are bound to get hairy pretty quickly. I guess all I can do is brace myself and code...
by Annie | Jan 18, 2011 | Game Design
You know how some people seem to have a knack for languages? They effortlessly learn new terms, nail pronunciations, and possess a seemingly limitless memory. I am definitely not one of those people. My first language was Mandarin. I’m told I was quite the talker when I was little, telling stories to strangers left and right. I could read and write over 500 Chinese characters by age three. Of course, most of that was lost when I moved to the U.S. at the age of four. Nowadays, I can barely guess my way through a simple newspaper article. I went on to study Latin all four years of high school, progressing through advanced classical texts and nabbing prizes in Latin exams and competitions. Now? I can barely remember what carpe diem means. In college, I decided to give Mandarin another shot. I was still fluent in speaking and listening but struggled with reading and writing. A few courses later, I was writing essays and reading short novels. But as with before, as soon as those courses ended, my memory of the vocabulary quickly dissipated. So how does all this relate to games? As a game designer, I’m constantly learning new languages, not only in terms of new game mechanics terms and design vocabulary, but also in terms of different scripting languages. I am by no means a great programmer, but I can say unequivocally that I love learning scripting. I find an unexplainable beauty in the process of breaking down the most complex events and actions into simple if/then statement building blocks. While world languages may be based on verb...
