As part of our longstanding commitment to help students prepare for careers in our industry, we had the pleasure of hosting a group from Quinnipiac University's Game Design program once again this year.
Los Angeles City College is celebrating its third year of offering Game Art Design to high school students. Despite the allure of summer break (sleeping in late, etc.), these students chose to dive into college-level coursework, earning 6 UC/CSU transferrable units in the field.
In a world where video games have evolved into a massive industry encompassing mobile games, Twitch, and global gaming communities, the foundation lies in the creation process – from a simple game with friends to a potential career path. An essential aspect highlighted in this article is the significance of diversity in industries, "When industries aren't diverse, especially industries in entertainment or storytelling, they end up telling stories to the same people."
A heartfelt thank you to Eric T Elder for facilitating the connection and Rupert English for the warm welcome to Treyarch Studios. Such experiences provide invaluable insights and opportunities for aspiring game designers and creators.
#youbelonghere#cteworks#lacc_edwe#gameartdesign
Link to the article for further insights:
https://lnkd.in/gC4n99nd
In what has quickly become one of my December traditions, I watched The Game Awards 2023 yesterday with great expectations and a lot of curiosity regarding the latest world premieres and announcements from the industry.
And oh, boy, from an award perspective, they didn't disappoint. As Adam Chapman, Giselle Mendez and I accurately predicted, Baldur's Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 took the most prizes home, with Larian Studios netting an outstanding six awards – including Game of the Year and Best RPG – and Remedy Entertainment Plc getting three of the most important trophies of the night.
Seeing this, I jumped straight on Remedy's recently released Alan Wake 2 Art Blast on ArtStation, and it's just breathtaking. I have always admired Sam Lake's writing chops and creative direction – I loved to see both of his skills getting awarded yesterday – but the level of this game's art direction is simply off the charts.
This fact should not come as surprising by any means, considering the impressive, genre-defining art direction of Control – which I still hold is Remedy's magnum opus – but it's nevertheless astonishing to see a studio knocking it out of the park with such consistency and attention to detail.
If this is the 'Remedyverse', I'll gladly live in it!
#Haptic#Friday#TheGameAwards #2023 #TGA2023#Game#Games#Gaming#GamingIndustry#GamingCommunity#GameDev#GamingDevelopers#GameDevelopers#Awards#Art#ArtDirection#GameArt#AlanWake2#Remedy#Remedyverse#TopArt#GreatArt
🌌 Today marks the 3rd week from launch of Helldivers 2 which has been one of the most talked about titles of the year so far. We've updated our review breakdown, originally published on 15th February 2024, to see how things stand now!
The number of reviews have increased from 44 up to 142 taking the average review score up from 81 to 83, causing it to move up a position when ranked against all games released since the start of the year!
🎆 Congrats to Arrowhead Game Studios for all the positivity and support for this game, which doesn't seem to be suffering too much from the initial server issues that have occurred.
Stay tuned as we share more key findings and observations on newly released titles with you in the coming days. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts on Helldivers 2 in the comments below.
👉 Keep up to date with #GamesIndustry insights ▶ https://shorturl.at/krEN4#VideoGames#Data
Making time to attend events like this is very important not just for students, but for active professionals, as well. Learning new things, even if it's only how other people see things, is refreshing and vital. Meeting new people is part of what I love most in the industry. Whether it's networking to try to make cool things happen, or just getting to know people and expanding your experience of your fellow developers, it's worthwhile.
And it gets you out of your head and house.
#gamedev#womeningames#networking#getoutofyourcomfortzone
The Coachella of Nerds is just a week away!
It’s Morphin’ Time at #gamescom where we put our ranger suits on and power through 5 days of fandom culture at its finest. We got a few spots left to walk with you through the holy halls, have a coffee chat or battle it out in a game of your choosing.
The Megazord forms out of the Power Ranger NERDs Jonas Selzer, Martin Z.H. Zhang, Jasmin Pfeifer, Dorjee Lhamo Gerhard, Xenia Brahm, Alexandra Kaiser and Pia Lucienne Bänecke. Shoot us a message to meet up and get down in the heart of gaming.
Why we attend gamescom: the convention can only be described as a mega-melting-pot of pop-culture. It is a place that represents the physical connections between all kinds of fandom passions. For over a decade nerds proved the cultural relevance of gamescom. It is the pinnacle of the world’s greatest entertainment industry and at the same time, it is so much more than gaming. It is a place for big publishers, brands, independents, upcomers, creators and most importantly, fans.
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#NerdCulture is #LoveCulture#CommunityCentricCreativity
The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall - a love letter. I just watched this documentary about Bethesda and it reminded me of my first encounter with The Elder Scrolls. The year was 1998 and there was a computer shop near my violin teacher's flat. One Tuesday afternoon, while waiting for my class, I found The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall (1994) in this shop, forgotten on a dusty shelf at the very back, still in its original packaging. The box and the screenshots on it immediately captivated me and never let go. Looking back, I'm pretty sure there was magic at work.
Even though it was a four-year-old game, it was still too expensive for me. It hurt but I had to be patient and save every bit of pocket money so that I could eventually buy it. Unfortunately, money came in very slowly back then and so the weeks went by and the tension grew: would it still be there next time? What if someone bought it? (it was kind of a unique opportunity, because old games were hard to get back then).
Finally Christmas came round and I was lucky enough to persuade my mum to buy the game and put it under the tree - that Christmas I was the happiest elf in the whole of Hamburg. For weeks I blocked the families computer, moved to Tamriel and ignored my brothers calling me - once again - a total nerd. I joined the Dark Brotherhood, bought a house, became a Lycranthrope and fought my way through endless dungeons.
As in the pen & paper games, I was completely free to make my own decisions in Daggerfall. I could go where I wanted, do what I wanted, and be whoever I wanted to be. Since then, few games have given me that feeling - even the following titles of the series felt a little limited compared to Daggerfall.
Don't get me wrong, the game was far from perfect. And of course this freedom came at a price, especially in a time when the performance and possibilities of games still depended on CD-Rom and a few megabytes of RAM (and apart from the monotonous enviroments & textures, swinging a sword in a computer game never took so long) - but it was still very immersive on the "social" level: You could be a law-abiding citizen, an outlaw or a wolf in sheep's skin. But no matter which path you took, every decision counted. People reacted differently to you, depending on their attitude and your actions, background, reputation and behaviour.
Looking back, it all makes sense: I was already looking for a playground for my own stories. No wonder I later became a storyteller & writer for films and games. And no wonder the only logical cure for my Daggerfall fever was the discovery of the Duke Nukem 3D level editor. Suddenly I could build my own dungeons full of deadly traps and hidden doors to battle my brothers and friends for days and nights at local Lan parties. But that story is for another time...
#daggerfall#elderscrolls#bethesda#duke3d#leveleditor#narrativedesign#gamedesign#videogames#rpg#openworld#tamriel#teso#adventure#fantasy#storytelling#childhoodstories#skyrim
A little overdue, but no less heartfelt: Last month, I had the incredible opportunity to teach Game Design to a group of talented Black game development students in Los Angeles! Special Thanks to Activision Blizzard and Entertainment Industry College Outreach Program for helping myself, TreaAndrea Russworm, Andrew Nealen, Nitesh Sridhar, and Yu-Jen Wang put this together!
It was an honor to share my passion for game design with such a motivated and creative group. Over the course of 4 and half weeks, we explored Game Production and Process, the Formal and Dramatic Elements of Game Design, and creative and collaborative elements needed to produce playable games, machinimas, and lean documentation to get games to the finish line. In the process, we worked to empower students to unleash their creativity and technical skills in the gaming industry.
Teaching this course was not only a rewarding experience but also a reminder of the importance of diversity and representation in gaming. The students were challenged to think about their unique contributions to the game space as black creators, designers, and developers. I'm thrilled to have contributed to tradition of throwing the rope back and creating a more inclusive space for aspiring game developers of all stripes.
I look forward to seeing the amazing projects and successes that these students will achieve in the future! (And you should check out the profiles of the 21 students in the comments section below!!)
#GameDesign#DiversityInTech#GamingIndustry#BlackGameDevelopers#STEMEducation#TeachingExperience
Last night’s Super Bowl sports commentary by SpongeBob and Patrick was a major moment in entertainment history but to explain why I want to revisit a presentation I gave two years ago at the Pocket Gamer Connects Beyond Games conference in Seattle.
The presentation was called “The Real-Time Revolution” and was about how virtual production and real-time animation would unlock a new universe of entertainment possibilities.
To support this I looked at the top grossing movies of all time, virtually all of which are either animated films or rely heavily on computer animation (e.g. Avatar or Avengers).
Then I turn our attention to TV, a much bigger industry, where virtually all top programs are live — live sports, live news, live events, live talk — and which use barely any animation at all.
The discrepancy is due to the fact movies can use Hollywood’s traditional animation rendering process which can require millions of hours of rendering for a feature film, a process incompatible with live TV.
But virtual production allows for real-time rendering, which finally makes computer animation possible in live TV. As such you can now have a talk show hosted by Buzz Lightyear, or in the case of last night’s Super Bowl — live sports commentary by SpongeBob and Patrick.
Over the coming years, expect to see more and more television augmented by the use of real-time virtual production. Last night's Super Bowl was only just the beginning.
Congrats to the team at Silver Spoon and Nickelodeon for pulling it all off.
#virtualproduction#superbowl
Happy Monday Gamers,
I think I've just about recovered from Guildford.Games fest on Friday.
What a day!! Being able to catch-up (even if briefly) with the likes of Andy Coley, Holly Blockley (CertIHR), Tim Browning, Oli Lavender, Pascal Gane and Alex Camm was a pleasure.
Meeting Jon Torrens, John Stopforth, CertEd and Nicola Head in the flesh for the first time too.
I was present at a number of the panels that were set up through the day and I want to speak about one of them specifically.
Lauren Kaye hosted a #diversityandinclusion / #EDI panel with Dom Shaw, Naveen Yadav and Elizabeth P., it was FANTASTIC!! 😍
Each of the speakers stories were equally inspiring and filled with challenges. It was quite emotional how each of them overcome their individual barriers, and I took a lot away from the almost 60 minutes back and forth.
Including.......
How the room was half empty 😪
In comparison to the panel about #AI where it was standing room only, it got me thinking 🤔
With so many members of the #gamescommunity in some way shape or form also a marginalised person, why was that room not filled with industry leaders, prepared to listen and understand how they can change their studios for the better?
We already know that an inclusive team, with diverse set of people and backgrounds, make better more commercially viable games, it's a fact.
Players want accessibility, players want options when it comes to characters and narratives, players want EDI friendly games.
In 2024, it should not still be the case that a brave few, with their heads above the parapet, are asking nicely to be included, nor should they have to break down doors or shatter glass ceilings, the door should be left wide open with a welcome mat.
Let's use the comment section for debate/solutions, and hope that next year, an EDI panel can tell their stories to an auditorium!!
Interaction Developer | dandylion.dev
3moDid you get to prepare them for layoffs as well?