by Annie | Dec 22, 2010 | Game Design
Consider this my official apology for scoffing in the faces of all those who tried to warn me of the intensity of a year at VFS. You were right. And I was wrong. Now that winter break is in full force, I can take the time to fully appreciate just how intense the past 6 months have been. Between tight deadlines, team projects, game pitches, and late night UDK crashes, there was barely time to blink. Coffee became my drug of choice, and piles of junk food containers crowded my desk at all times. We are now officially 50% done with the year. People are often surprised when I tell them the program is only a year long, and I can definitely understand their surprise. There’s enough crammed into these 12 months to last several years. But of course, the year wouldn’t be what it is without the intensity and craziness of it all. Here are the most important things I’ve learned over the past 3 terms: Term 1: No game designer is an island. One of the most valuable pieces of the VFS experience is the people you get to go through it with. Over the months, I’ve gotten to know the people in my class extremely well. There are the jokers, the workaholics, the wallflowers, and of course, a few nuts. But I dearly love them all, and this experience wouldn’t be the same without every last one of them. Term 2: Level design is hard. But fun. Not too long ago, level design class represented the three most dreaded hours of my week. UDK is not...
by Annie | Jul 9, 2010 | Game Design
If you’ve ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller Blink, you might be familiar with the power of thin-slicing, the ability to gauge the essence of something or someone within a very narrow period of experience. In the blink of an eye, say. Think about the last person you met. Chances are, you were able to tell within the first few seconds of conversing with them whether or not you could be great friends. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing with games. Game-slicing, if you will. Luckily, the VFS resource center is stocked with enough Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii titles to entertain me for at least a few thousand hours, so I’ve been checking out about 10 games at a time and playing each for about 15-20 minutes. The downside of playing games for such a short time is that I spend a lot of time getting used to the controls and aiming with minimal accuracy. But the upside is that I get to sample tons of games. So far, my game buffet plate has been filled with titles like Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, God of War, Guitar Hero II, and even The Urbz: Sims in the City. If you have any suggestions for games I need to add to my list, feel free to let me...
by Annie | Jul 8, 2010 | Game Design
Those of you who know me well might have been surprised when I declared a move to Vancouver to study game design. After all, I don’t have much game playing experience under my belt, and it was only recently that I’d even heard of such acronyms as MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) and RPGs (role-playing games), terms commonly thrown around by gamers in the know. I haven’t been completely engrossed in a game since Super Mario Bros. back in elementary school, as my allowance couldn’t quite keep up with the ever evolving consoles after that. Thus, I’m currently undergoing a baptism of fire of sorts. It’s now nearing midnight, and I’ve been playing or thinking about games since 7am this morning. Our class of 30 spent most of the day playing a team-based diplomatic relations strategy game, then moved on to a multi-game, multi-console tournament, which lasted until dinner time. A quick meal later, we rounded out the day by discussing pre-production techniques and trying to come up with effective pitches for medieval Japanese fighting games. Within the last 15 hours or so, some people completed open heart surgeries, prosecuted infamous criminals, or piloted trans-Atlantic passenger jets. Me? I played games. All day. And I loved...
by Annie | Jul 7, 2010 | Other
I had my first experience with Canadian healthcare today. Well, not Canadian healthcare proper, but I was injured, and a Canadian cared for me and helped me regain health. I’d say that counts. On my way to school this morning, I realized that I’d forgotten to remove the lights from my bike last night. Dangerously close to being late, I frantically tugged at the lights, forgetting that they had release switches. Swearing under my breath, I managed to yank off the rear light. One down. The front light was a little more stubborn. I was about to give up when I decided to make one last attempt. One hard jerk later, the light was free, taking along with it a chunk of my left index finger. The chunk, while not huge (~4mm in diameter), was just large enough to draw a decent amount of blood, enough to stain my bike gloves and be annoying. Thus, without a band-aid handy, I alternated between gripping the handlebar and sucking on my bleeding finger during my ride downtown. When I arrived, I couldn’t find any staff members to beg for a band-aid, so I settled for the security guy. Figuring he would point me in the direction of a first aid cabinet or the student services office, I was shocked when he grinned with excitement and pulled out a duffel bag full of first aid supplies. “I’ve trained extensively for this,” he explained, eager to assess my injury. With purple latex gloves on, he carefully cleaned the wound, warning me of possible stinging, and followed up by applying a fresh band-aid. As...
by Annie | Jul 6, 2010 | Game Design
Today was my first day in the game design program at the Vancouver Film School (VFS). Game design has long been a male-dominated field, which is clearly showcased in my class of 30 people: 28 guys, 2 girls. (So far, the one big bonus of the male-female skew is that there’s never a line for the ladies’ room. That’s gotta count for something.) Being a typical female gamer, I spend most of my game time with popular casual games like Bejeweled, Zuma, and Plants vs. Zombies. Thus, I spent most of my day thinking, “WTG?!” or, in other words, “What’s that game?!” as title after title were thrown out in casual conversation with most people in the room nodding in agreement and stroking their chins at the awesomeness of the games while reminiscing over hours of gameplay. Me? I spent most of the day nodding and smiling obliviously, secretly adding titles like Ocarina of Time and Mass Effect 2 to my to-play list. Never before have I heard of so many games I haven’t played all in a single day. Luckily, we have a “study hall” in the building (i.e., a games lounge stocked with PCs, playstations, Wiis, etc.). I’ll definitely be doing tons of “studying” within the next several months. Yes, be jealous. So after the first day, I’m definitely overwhelmed, but also tremendously pumped and excited for all that I’m going to learn within the coming months. Awesome people, great discussions, fun games – what more do you...
