Slashdot Mirror

I think you may be interested in Tom Sloper's 'sloperama' website, with tons of info on game design, marketing, production, management, etc. It's all about what to do and what not to do if you have a game idea. I don't want to put you off, but I think you'll be better off for having read some of those pages.

I'll give HR the benefit of the doubt and say HR is trying to use a degree as a proxy for the ability to see a project through to completion.

Mod parent up for beating me to it. This is the standard link I give to every person who tells me "You are in the industry? Help me get rich from my awesome idea!"

Specifically, article 1: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/idea.htm

http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html

From the site:

Welcome to the GAME BIZ ADVICE zone of Sloperama.com.

My intent here is to help game biz aspirants learn what it takes to get in and move up in the game business. I write occasional articles to answer Frequently Asked Questions ("FAQs") about designing and making games - computer games, video games, even board games.

Required reading for everybody (and their brother) who has a great idea for a game:

"I have a Great Idea for a video game... how do I sell it and get rich and famous?"

Its like what everyone else says. Use NDAs and finish the game. I find that this website gives good advice about being a game designer and the business behind it. Your question sounds exactly like one on the website's Q&A page.

Ideas are worthless without an implementation. There are more ideas than people in the game industry. People go into that line of work becasue they have an idea; sometimes more than one. This article is an interesting read for anyone under the illusion that ideas alone are worth anything.
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/idea.htm

As for accepting whatever pay terms and work hours. The fact is that making video games is one of the "passion" things. Jobs that people love can pay less than being say an actuary, database programmer or professor.

I might re-install NWN1 and take a look at it just for fun.

This is a job fair with a cover charge. $45 advance/$60 at the door, and they are not even offering a lunch.

This 'conference' comes down to 3 hours to cover the most basic industry information ("Industry Overview", "Getting in at the Ground Floor", "Applying Transferable Skill Sets"), then 90 minutes to find your own lunch, and 90 minutes of "Resume Workshop".

What a scam. If you want industry info, try http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html or http://www.gamedev.net/reference/start_here/.

Offtopic: What in the hell do I do with my game, assuming I do finish it?

I'm surprised he didn't claim that he programmed the AI for the 2nd ghost in Ms Pac-Man as well.

The one thing I always liked about the Activision designers of old (i.e. Atari 2600 games) is that they were amazing programmers that knew the console in and out. Yes, gameplay is always number one, but to have an outstanding game, you have to add something new. David Crane did his platform thing with Pitfall and Carol Shaw (?) did River Raid. With those games, they pushed the limit and added something completely new. I wonder what innovative things Tom did?

Cheers,
Hooky1963

I remember last year I had the opportunity to ask Tom Sloper a few questions on a newsgroup, I forget which one, a games design one I think.

Anyways, he gave really good answers to my questions and was generally very helpful. Take a look at his website aimed at giving advice to budding games designers-->> Sloperama.com