Welcome to Mark Baldwin's Games Ed
A site for game education resources!
I've developed (and continue to develop) this site to provide various resources for game students. This is primarily for my students, but I hope it will also be of value to game students in general.
If you have additions you would like to add or corrections to make, please contact me at mark_baldwinconsulting.org .
Mark
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Some thoughts on your eduction and future success:
Many times, I'm asked how should a student prepare themselves for their future careers? The game industry is a very competitive industry, with many more applicants than there are jobs. As a potential game developer, you have to prepare yourself such that the industry wants you for a job, not someone else. This is critical, you have to be a better applicant than the next girl or guy! So what is the best way to succeed?
Many of you have already taken the first important step. You have hired a school to provide you with an education. And you probably have spent a lot of money in the process. Notice how I phrased this, you are the customer that has hired a school. It is up to you to insure that the school performs, just as you would with any other purchase. Make sure you get your monies worth. Take responsibility for your curriculum, and if it doesn't meet your needs, then correct it.
Education is also not passive. There is the old saw that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. You can hire and attend a school, but your school cannot make you drink of the knowledge and skills they are making available to you. It is absolutely YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to learn, and no one else's.
One area that you might have to take into your own hands is the breadth of your education. You will be entering a creative field, even though it is highly technical. As a creative field, knowledge of the human condition is very important. Philosophy, history, psychology, literature, mythology, art, culture and even religion, i.e., the humanities, all speak to that human condition. All are important if you are going to be creating the next great work in computer games, to allow the game to speak to the audience. As such, it is my opinion that not only is the technical important, but the humanities are important to your future. If you have the time in your curriculum, fit in whatever humanities classes you can. Or extend past the school to your own education in the area. One outside source that I can recommend is college lectures that can be purchased in audio and video formats. They are generally given by some of the best teachers in the field and I'm constantly using them to advance my own education. I believe there are several companies that do this, but one company I can recommend is The Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com) You can also find their courses resold on eBay.
I would also recommend staying up to date on the latest technology and methods. Game Developer Magazine (http://www.gdmag.com) is a must for your continuing education. I highly recommend subscribing, it's worth it.
Another way to prepare for your future is to start making contacts with the industry. If there is a local group of the IGDA (International Game Developers Association, http://igda.org), start attending their meetings. Also, in the spring of each year there is a major Game Developers Conference (http://www.gdconf.com) If you can, start attending it. The conference has a volunteer program for students where you can exchange work for admittance to the conference (http://www.gdconf.com/volunteers) which is a great opportunity.
My last piece of advice is to start building and designing games. Get together with other students and start creating mods or even full projects. If your school has a games club, JOIN IT! Not only is this important in building up your portfolio, but you will learn a great deal with every project. But you can also do work outside of teams. If you're an artist, keep making more art and models. If you are a programmer, start writing your own programs. If you are interested in design and writing, start writing proposals and design documents and scripts. With every new piece you create, you will learn more.
Now for one last question for you to consider. You are going into a world of creativity and creation, so my questions for you is "What have you created today?" I'm not necessarily saying what games or games ideas have you created today (although that's a great area in which to express yourself), but anything. Perhaps you have taken a moment to write a haiku or maybe you wrote a program to write haiku's. It doesn't matter what, but at least once a day, take a little time to create something, anything. It adds to your own creativity and it adds to the world that we live in.
I wish you all the best of luck, and hope I was a little help in you archiving your goals.
Preparing for
Your Future
Here are a few articles of mine that might be of interest:
Mark's
Articles
Below are a list of interesting web articles you might find of value:
Web
Below are a number of example industry documents of interest:
General Documents
Proposals and Concept Documents
Game Design Documents
Other Planning Documents
Industry
Docs
Below are some interesting student papers.
Note that they are not necessarily perfect but each of them
excelled in some aspect of their work.
Student
Below are some great web resources:
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences - A not-for-profit professional membership organization serving the entertainment software community.Blue's News - An excellent, objective source of the latest PC gaming news (not much console content) and issues, as well as some amusing commentary. Colorado Game Developers - A group of individuals in the Denver/Boulder/Colorado Springs area that meet once a month to talk about the computer game industry and network with one another. We have been meeting regularly since 1987 and consist of professionals in the computer game industry, and others looking to break into the industry. Some of our members can be considered among the fathers of modern computer gaming. Entertainment Software Rating Board - Rating gamesGamasutra - A fantastic resource on the art and science of making games.Game Biz Advice - Articles on the game business.Gamedev.net- Great development resources and news.Gamespot - GameSpot is a great site that gives you the scoop on all the new games coming out and it has a database of not so new games. Game Spy- A site created by the authors of the GameSpy game connection/chat utility, this is actually a decent news site with consistently good feature articles and reviews. More console news than Blue's, but not as frequently updated. Game Developers Conference- The premier conference for those in the industry. Note that if you are interested in volunteering at the conference, check out Conference Associates Registration.Garage Games- The source for Torque game engines and builders.Inside Mac Games - The premier site for information about games for the Macintosh platform International Game Developers Association - The International Game Developers Association is a non-profit membership organization that advocates globally on issues related to digital game creation. The IGDA's mission is to strengthen the international game development community and effect change to benefit that community. Moby Games - A database of games, both current and past. Users can contribute to the database! Second Life - A virtual world where you can explore game ideas.The Video Game Revolution - Supporting web site to the excellent PBS show.
Webography
Please report broken links here.
Getting experience is one of the catch 22's in most industries, but especially the game industry. Companies want experienced people, but you can't get experience unless someone hires you.
There are a number of solutions to the problem, but one way to build experience is doing free work. In this case, doing free beta testing.
The sites below maintain list of companies with open beta test. Try a couple and get some experience. Make sure you submit effective beta reports, perhaps even reports much better than the company is asking of you. Who knows, you might even hire you as a tester. But even if they don't, you have one more experience and one more document to put in your portfolio.
http://betawatcher.com
http://fileplanet.com
Beta
Testing
Mark Baldwin's Bio
I received both a Bachelors and Masters in Engineering from Purdue University. This led to a successful career working on the Space Shuttle as a flight designer. Interestingly enough, this work was very similar to computer games in that it involved designing and developing complex computer models.
I had always had an interest in designing games having my first game (miniature rules) published while I was a teenager. By the early 80s I was writing computer games part time and by the late 80s was working full time creating computer games. I have written, programmed, designed, directed, and/or produced over 30 commercial computer games over my career, and have won numerous awards for my games, including Game of the Year.
Through the years I have watched computer games evolve from small amateur projects to major multimillion dollar productions. I currently am a consultant in the game industry as well as enjoying the teaching computer games.
Contacts amd Webs
About
Mark Baldwin's
Games Ed
