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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2006)
BACK TO CAMPUS 2006 Students: So You Want To Be a Game Maker You’ve mastered the final level of Tomb Raider: Legend, you’re bored with the new titles at Big City Gamin’, Dance Dance Revolution tour- naments aren’t landing you any mates and The Sims are turning out to be a trifle more intelli- gent than Sea Monkeys: What do you do? Why not start making games yourself? It’s not as hard as you might think. GarageGames is a good place to start. Their Torque line of game-making software allows novices to focus on their overall game design GarageGames president using pre-wired code. Mark Frohnmayer says Mark Frohnmayer about 70,000 developers are registered within the Torque community. And it’s no accident GarageGames shares a “garage” fore- name with Apple’s Garage Band software. Both are consumer-level tools hobbyists can use to polish their digital multimedia creations, only now the gaming field just got a lot more fun. This holiday season, Microsoft will be releasing the XNA Game Studio Express. The XNA will allow consumers to author games on their PC and then test them out on an Xbox 360 for a $99 yearly fee. Closer to home, GarageGames will be releasing their own version of Torque (dubbed Torque X) that will be XNA-compatible. For the first-time game maker and seasoned professional alike, the future prospects of game play will break wide open. Indeed, at the August announcement of XNA at Gamefest 2006, Microsoft’s general manager Chris Satchell said, “We are looking forward to the day when all the resulting talent-sharing and creativity trans- forms into a thriving community of user-created games on Xbox 360.” This community has already been cultivated at GarageGames. Building off the suc- cess of social networking sites such as MySpace and YouTube, GarageGames will soon be launching a website geared toward game makers, allowing them to share their lat- est creations and discuss strategies for improvement (stay tuned at www.garagegames.com for a link). But this technology won’t be limited to your desktop. College game development programs, such as the University of Southern California’s prestigious Gamepipe Labs, are eagerly hopping on board with GarageGames’ and Microsoft’s cutting edge tools and technology. But if universities are teaching from the same software you can prac- tice on at home for cheap, is a college degree worth it? Dan Duncalf, of Pipeworks, thinks so. “Formalized education is now a requirement, not optional,” he says. Sophisticated game making is highly complex, he says, requir- ing advanced knowledge in math, physical science, programming, design and engi- neering. Duncalf recommends focusing “on a solid education,” noting that “somebody with a four-year degree in physics, who then takes four or five classes in computer programming, is more likely to get into the field then somebody who goes to an 18- month trade school.” But working in game making isn’t all just code and computing. Games are becom- ing increasingly cinematic, requiring animators, story boarders, scenic designers and other media art skills. Barry Drew, Buzz Monkey’s art director, says he looks for some- one “with a solid understanding of lighting, design, color theory … principles that can be used in multiple software packages.” In other words, this is a job like any other: Success requires constant sweat, toil and real world experience. GarageGames co-founder Jeff Tunnell asks in his online article, “Realistic Steps to Starting a Game Development Company”: “Why should making games good enough that people want to buy them be any easier than any other artistic profession? I always like to think of making games as a lot like making rock music. It takes a group of people that all have specialized skills and it takes a long time to learn your ‘instru- ment’ or craft.” OK, say you’ve been working at a game company, you’ve finally mastered your craft, but still you’re itching for more. Or, in Tunnell’s words, you’re tired of “kissing corporate ass or dealing with the internal politics of large companies.” Is it time to start your own game-making studio? “It’s worth starting a studio,” says Tesseraction Games Chairman Kelly Asay, “but do your research … You are going to make some great and lifelong friends and you are going to make some enemies. It helps to think of it like a pig sees breakfast, not how the chicken does: You’re in it whole hog or you aren’t in it.” — Chuck Adams buy, sell, trade hard to find 258 E. 13th. Avenue CDs, vinyl, DVDs new & used 541-342-7975 LOCAL GAMING COMPANIES Bu z z M on ke y 576 Olive St. Suite 205 Eugene 97401 484-7030 www.buzzmonkey.com G a r a ge Ga me s , I nc . 245 W. 5th Ave. Eugene 97401 345-3040 www.garagegames.com Pi p e wo rk s S of tw ar e, I n c . 555 Lincoln Ave. Suite D Eugene 97401 685-0644 www.pipeworks.net OCTOBER 5, 2006 13
