RE: OT: Demo suggestions

"Brandon J. Van Every" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.games.devel.opengl
Organization Fat City Network Services, San Diego, California
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Stephen J Baker wrote:
>
> Personally (and I'm not in the games industry - just an
> amateur tinkerer
> with games) - a flashy demo doesn't impress me much.

Gee, that's such a ringing endorsement of what matters to game
developers.  Free clue: flash will help your cause with game developers,
no matter what aesthetically unaware non-game-developers may say.

> The thing about writing a demo is that you get to put in the
> things that are flashy and easy -

Who the @!#$#@!!#@$ believes that it's easy to be flashy??!?  Do you
know anything about getting an art production pipeline done?

> but anything that's actually difficult can just be
> left out - you aren't forced into making these flashy effects
> work with the rest of a large and complex system.

Let's translate Stephen's words for the home audience.  "I'm a
Simulations guy.  I work at L3Com/Link Simulation & Training.  I'm
impressed by the kinds of things I do at my job, and am not terribly
aware of the difficulties of things outside the scope of my job.  I
expect everyone to do what I do, if they want me to be impressed."

> IMHO, a complete, playable game would be more impressive than
> a demo of a few very fancy-looking canned effects.

Sure it would be.  But the issue is what's needed to get a job, not
promising people the moon.  Substantive demos can certainly convince
employers to hire.  It shows you can get something done, and that you
have talents.

> If you are looking for a way to stand out in the crowd, I
> would concentrate
> on being really good at Physics, Networking and Shaders
> because those are the hard parts right now.

Assuming your ambitions in game development are programmer-centric.
Don't forget about art, audio, game design, and all the tools and
technologies that go into supporting those efforts.  The important thing
is not doing Physics, Network, or Shaders because some guy like Stephen
said so.  The important thing is to do *something* well.  And while
we're throwing around programmer-centric areas one could concentrate on,
I'll toss in AI.


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

When no one else sells courage, supply and demand take hold.

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