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CO1301 - Games ConceptsWeek 24

Employment & Industry

CO1301 - Games ConceptsWeek 24

Employment & Industry

Gareth BellabyGareth Bellaby

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ReferencesReferences

• Rabin, Introduction to Game Development, Chapter 1.1

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Lecture StructureLecture Structure

• Games

• The games industry

• Culture

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PopulousPopulous

• Populous, Bullfrog, 1989

• Populous II, Bullfrog, 1991

• Populous: The Beginning, Bullfrog, 1998

• Peter Molyneux

• God game

• Isometric projection.

• Progressive levels.

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Black & WhiteBlack & White

• Black & White, Lionhead, 2001

• Black & White 2, Lionhead,

• Peter Molyneux.

• The game incorporates machine learning. One of the few games to include machine learning.

• Uses learning trees. We'll look at this technique in later years.

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Doom 3Doom 3

• id Software, 2005

• More a thematic remake of the original Doom than a sequel.

• Good use of tension and lighting.

• Parallax mapping.

• Shadows.

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Games you ought to playGames you ought to play

• Play a representative of every one of the main commercial genres: FPS, RTS, RPG, Platformer, TBS, etc.

• I'll do a lecture on the history of games and this will touch upon some important games.

• There are other games which are widely recognised within the industry and which an employer would expect you to be aware of.

• No need to play a game in full. Download the demo, 15-30 minutes play to at least have a basic knowledge of the gameplay.

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Games you ought to playGames you ought to play

• Civilization.

• Starcraft. (A SF-themed sequel to Warcraft). Regarded as one of the best RTS's. In particular viewed as being the best balanced RTS.

• GTA: San Andreas.

• The Sims.

• Final Fantasy VII

• Silent Hill (any of I, 2 and 3).

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Games you ought to knowGames you ought to know

• Fallout

• Zelda (Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess)

• Deus Ex (the original not the sequel)

• Halo

• Mario

• Sonic

• Tomb Raider

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The games industry

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People you ought to knowPeople you ought to know

• Ian Livingstone (Eidos)

• Peter Molyneux (Fable, Black & White)

• John Carmack (lead programmer on Doom, Quake, id Software, authored several important graphics papers)

• Sid Meier, (Firaxis, Civilization)

• Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda)

• Chris Crawford (founder of the Game Developer's Conference)

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People you ought to knowPeople you ought to know• Brian Reynolds (Alpha Centauri, Rise of Nations)

• Richard Garriott (Ultima series, Tabula Rasa)

• Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy)

• Warren Spector (System Shock, Deus Ex)

• Roberta Williams (King's Quest)

• Will Wright (SimCity, The Sims, Spore)

• John Romero (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Daikatana)

• David Braben (created "Elite" with Ian Bell, now head of Frontier)

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ManufacturersManufacturers

• Nintendo

• Sony

• Microsoft

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NintendoNintendo

• Nintendo, Japanese, 1889

• NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Game Boy (portable)

• Current: Wii, Game Boy Advance

• Game Boy Advance still strong especially in the East

• Publishers

• Need to adhere to their requirements

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SonySony• Sony, Japanese, 1946 (name in 1958)

• PlayStation, PlayStation 2

• Current: PlayStation 3, PSP (PlayStation Portable)

• PS2 games still being published

• PS1 is still supported

• Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) (technical help, profiling, testing)

• Need to submit games

• Need to adhere to their requirements, e.g. max loading times

• Publishers

• Developers

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MicrosoftMicrosoft

• Microsoft, American, 1975

• XBox

• Current: XBox 360

• Software developers, Windows, Office, etc for the PC

• DirectX (used for PC and XBox). Work closely with video card manufacturers.

• Developers (Microsoft studios)

• Some hardware (XBox, some peripherals such as mice, NOT computers or components such as video cards)

• Need to adhere to their requirements for the XBox

• No control over the PC releases.

• XBox Live Arcade becoming increasingly more important.

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PublishersPublishers

• Eidos Interactive

• EA

• Paradox

• Capcom

• Koei

• Vivendi

• Take-Two Interactive

• Ubisoft

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UK employmentUK employment

• If you obtain employment within the games industry it is almost certain that it will be in the UK.

• Employment in the non-English speaking world requires knowledge of the language and, possibly, a visa.

• US requires a visa and this is difficult to obtain especially for a graduate job.

• Therefore you need to know about UK games and the UK industry.

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UK DevelopersUK Developers

• Over 200 UK Developers. This doesn't include developers of games for mobile phones, Interactive TV or Flash games.

• Some important names and product you need to be know.

• Companies change names frequently, e.g. Climax Racing now Black Rock Studio, acquired by Disney Interactive Studios (MotoGP)

• Almost all of the large internatational studios have UK offices as well.

• Microsoft and Sony a significant UK presence. Nintendo to a lesser degree but still important.

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UK DevelopersUK Developers

• Blade Interactive (World Snooker Championship, Hydrophobia)

• Traveller's Tales (Lego Star Wars)

• Bizarre Creations (The Club, Project Gotham Racing)

• Kuju (6 studios in UK, Battalion Wars, Buzz, SingStar (latter now Zoe Mode))

• Evolution Studios (Motor Storm)

• Rare (Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Pinata)

• Team 17 (Worms)

• Blitz Games (Spongebob, Bratz the Movie)

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UK DevelopersUK Developers

• Creative Assembly (Total War series)

• Lionhead Studios (Fable, Black & White)

• Codemasters (Turning Point, Clive Barker's Jericho)

• Rockstar (Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar North in Glasgow)

• Climax Studios (Silent Hill Origins)

• Eutechnyx (Big Mutha Truckers)

• Relentless Software (Buzz! The Game)

• Real Time Worlds (Crackdown)

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UK DevelopersUK Developers

• Activision (Call of Duty 4, studios all over the world)

• GameLoft (mobile games)

• Midway (Stranglehold, offices in Newcastle, London as well as US)

• Rebellion (Gun: Showdown)

• Stormfront (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

• Studio Liverpool (part of SCEE, Wipeout Pure)

• Revolution Software (Broken Sword)

• Frontier (Thrillville)

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World DevelopersWorld Developers

• The UK developers are the companies you need to set you sights on. However, you should know about the main non-UK companies as well.

• Konami (have a branch in the UK, PES2008, in Japan Resident Evil)

• Firaxis (Civilization)

• Blizzard (World of Warcraft)

• id Software (Doom)

• Valve (Half Life)

• Insomniac (Ratchet and Clank)

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World DevelopersWorld Developers• Koei (Dynasty Warriors)

• Lucasarts (Star Wars)

• Namco Bandai (Warhammer: Mark of Chaos)

• Naughty Dog (Drake's Fortune, Crash Bandicoot)

• Maxis (Spore)

• Ubisoft (primarily publishers, also developers, have a UK branch)

• Square Enix (Final Fantasy)

• Epic Games (Unreal)

• Tecmo (Project Zero)

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Graphics Cards ManufacturersGraphics Cards Manufacturers

• NVidia

• ATI

• Companies work closely with games developers.

• Work closely with the developers of DirectX and OpenGL.

• Both companies employ graphics programmers.

• White papers.

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Industry newsIndustry news

• Gamasutra

• Game Industry biz:

• http://www.gamesindustry.biz

• MVC

• Develop magazine

• The Edge

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Industry conferencesIndustry conferences

• Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH). Presentations printed in the ACM Transactions on Graphics.

• Game Developers Conference (GDC)

• Develop conference. UK conference in Brighton.

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Industry organisationsIndustry organisations

• International Game Developers Association (IGDA)

• The Independent Games Developers Association (TIGA)

• Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA)