My First Game Gone Gold

rockhero

rockhero

CAGiversary!
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No it's not Half-Life 2 =)

Some of you may know that I work as a game programmer. I just wanted to let you know that my first game, Zoo Tycoon 2, has now gone gold and will be on the shelves in a few weeks. You can read the IGN post here.

It was such a blast working on it, and I hope some of you guys play it and have fun with it =)
 
Wow, that's awesome. As a game programmer, what all did you do? Did you do the real techy stuff while others did things like art and such?
 
Wow, that's awesome. As a game programmer, what all did you do? Did you do the real techy stuff while others did things like art and such?
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seems like you need a little video game education. umm as you say programmers do all the "techy" stuff and artists and modelers do all the "artsy" stuff. i know things yayyyyy!!!
 
Yeah, through the project I did a lot of different things, but all of them were definitely "techie stuff". Basically at work we have:

Engineers - Like me, we work on the "techie stuff"

Artists - Work on the art and the animations

Designers - Actually design the game, decide which direction we are going on, what is going to be included, etc.

Business - These guys handle the marketing, publishing, money, etc.
 
i remember playing this game, well the demo. it fricken rocked!! i would build a really big park, then let all the lions out. =D
 
This game SUCKS, nah i'm just playing. Congrats man, thats great that you are so closely involved in the industry and i hope the game does well. What sort of "techy" stuff did you do?
 
I worked on a lot of different things throughout the project... Probably the coolest (and most noticible) thing I worked on were the campaigns/scenarios/challenges. It was lots of fun working on those. One of the designers layed out exactly how they were supposed to work, and I implemented them (made them work in the game).
 
[quote name='xspeedracerx']Congrats! I'm planing to go to Fullsail to learn to make games next year. Any tips?[/quote]

What do you want to do specifically? Programming, Art, Design?
 
[quote name='rockhero'][quote name='xspeedracerx']Congrats! I'm planing to go to Fullsail to learn to make games next year. Any tips?[/quote]

What do you want to do specifically? Programming, Art, Design?[/quote]
Design.
 
[quote name='xspeedracerx'][quote name='rockhero'][quote name='xspeedracerx']Congrats! I'm planing to go to Fullsail to learn to make games next year. Any tips?[/quote]

What do you want to do specifically? Programming, Art, Design?[/quote]
Design.[/quote]

Design is tough. The problem is that just about every designer started off as something else and worked their way over. The majority of the time they either began as an artist, programmer, QA tester, etc.

If you want to do design the #1 tip I can offer is that you should get any job you can at any game company, even if it means working for free. QA testing is the most popular - Send your resume to any companies you can find in your area.

Also, spend your spare time working on game-related stuff. If you don't have any technical skills, sketch out a few game design documents for ideas you have. Search around online (gamesutra.com is a good site) for design document template ideas, read postmortems, etc.

Good luck =)
 
[quote name='pimp_daddy_smurf']im going to fullsail too. im going to do art in games hopefully.[/quote]

Alright! I will might see you there. We might even be in the same classes.
 
Congrats. I'd like to go to the Guildhall after I get my bachelor's, that is if I can ever get my head around programming.
 
[quote name='rockhero'][quote name='xspeedracerx'][quote name='rockhero'][quote name='xspeedracerx']Congrats! I'm planing to go to Fullsail to learn to make games next year. Any tips?[/quote]

What do you want to do specifically? Programming, Art, Design?[/quote]
Design.[/quote]

Design is tough. The problem is that just about every designer started off as something else and worked their way over. The majority of the time they either began as an artist, programmer, QA tester, etc.

If you want to do design the #1 tip I can offer is that you should get any job you can at any game company, even if it means working for free. QA testing is the most popular - Send your resume to any companies you can find in your area.

Also, spend your spare time working on game-related stuff. If you don't have any technical skills, sketch out a few game design documents for ideas you have. Search around online (gamesutra.com is a good site) for design document template ideas, read postmortems, etc.

Good luck =)[/quote]
Thanks, I'll get a job doing something I'm sure.
 
Yeah, awesome!

Actually, I'm majoring in Comp Sci in the hopes that I too can one day become involved in game creation... any tips on how to get my foot in the door?
 
[quote name='Pylis']Yeah, awesome!

Actually, I'm majoring in Comp Sci in the hopes that I too can one day become involved in game creation... any tips on how to get my foot in the door?[/quote]

Comp Sci is the way to go, my man. From what I've seen, a traditional CS degree is definitely more valuable than one of those game-specific schools. I got extremely lucky. I'm a senior in college right now (CS). After my sophmore year, I got an internship at this company and I've been there since.

I would basically offer you the same advice as I offered above. Get a job any way you can. QA, whatever, even if it's not what you want to do in the long run.

Also, work on things on the side. I had a decent amount of stuff I had worked on by myself when I went for my internship, and I definitely think that helped me.

Good luck =)

-- Steve
 
I thought the first Zoo Tycoon was good and this game looks pretty awesome. Depending on the reviews of this game, I might pick it up on release.

Hope that it will be a great game and that you might get some recognition and start on other games in the future.
 
If you liked the first one, this sequel is a million times better!

Also, I am already working on a new project, but it's still NDA as far as I know. I'll let you guys know as soon as I can.
 
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