IT'S MY BIRTHDAY...WHAT WILL I BE WHEN I ...GRADUATE?

I completed this course on Junes 22nd but the class was so impressive that after completion I was inspired to do more.  So I got side tracked in posting to this blog. Remember, I did warn you that there may come times when you will not see a post from in a while as I live, breathe, work, sleep, eat and go to school. I wish I could stretch 24 hours but oh well! Now let me explain that this course came a the right time as I was about to celebrate a birthday, I started asking myself what, why am I doing this pursuit. Do I still have the drive/desire? Will I truly get anything out of all that I learn and a dare I wish job that makes sense to my desired quality of life. This class had me reaching deep into my desires, goals and mental limitations seeking the meaning of it all. And guess what?

Let me tell you first what this class is all about (Taken from the school catalog)

The course promises to introduce the student to basic game theory (including game play and strategy) as well as the historical development of all types of games (sports, board games, video games, etc.) as they were affected by world and market conditions. In addition, the specific history of the video game industry will be examined, as will the overall processes involved in developing a video game from basic concept to selling the proposal to production and marketing.

INTRODUCTION TO GAME DEVELOPMENT

Each week I read until my eyes bled and I thought I would hate games when I was done with this class…where was the “Exit” signs. I started wondering….What went wrong? I thought I liked this stuff.

When your forced to learn “History of the Electronic Game Industry in the same week as “Player Market” you realize there is just no way to make statistical reading sound like fun facts you just can’t wait to whip out at your next office party. I got through this week with little sleep and lots of coffee…begging for my birthday to arrive.  Only then would I feel like I had an excuse not to log into my class on time...but wait till the last minute to submit my first few assignments. The second week made me perk up and get curious. I think I was learning something. These were some of the headings of the reading assignments. 

Game Applications & Goals 
Game Platforms 
Game Genres 
Player Mode
Time Interval 
Game Analysis
Traditional Story Structure and Game Narrative
Just to name a few.

By the third week I was giving birth to a game story and shocking my classmates, teachers and even myself. Here I have to elaborate because you have to get the whole picture to know what happened next.

I thought I had traditional story that read well, but the type of story I wanted to write I am not too proud to say I had never played anything similar or even understood well enough to build on. I had classic characters in mind all most too many Archetypes. I think I started with 20 main characters and had to reel it in to 5 main characters. I think I started with a futuristic world and then changed to medieval. Here is where I found that unless you’re a History buff, you have to do the research…players are not dumb.

I found my characters to be one dimensional and predictable and the story also predictable. I was challenged week after week by my instructor to give him more. Make my characters speak to the players, make my environment a living character in the game. I changed character heights, clothing and even the way they would sound if they could talk on paper and many times in my dreams. I was told to create rules of the game and did not have a clue what could be a rule to my game. Sure, I was still doing the reading assignments but what helped the most in this class was get this, drum roll……Playing Games. I got a PSVita and started playing games on my lunch hours, late at night before bed, in the park while supposedly walking my dogs.

This class had me desperately reaching levels in Assassins Creed: Liberation, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Mortal Combat, Metal Gear 2 & 3, Skyrim and even The Floor Escape on my cell phone. I got an insatiable thirst for games and became a downloadable freak. I went to game stores and shook my fist at clerks when they told me for the 6th time that Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate would not be available on my PSVita till October. Why? Oh! Why? Was I the last one on the list to get my copy?

By the time Week 4 came around I had my story, knew my characters intimately, lived in their city in my dreams and knew the rules to the game like I knew passages in my Bible. Yeah! I said it …Bible.

This would be the week that my Birthday came and went and I still cannot remember what I did to celebrate. OH! Wait I got an external hard drive for my laptop. Yeah! Boy! I’m a Proud Geekita (my word…you can use it, means female Geek)

Week 5 had me proudly producing my baby of a game Idea to the class with trepidation of “Will they get me?”, “Will they like my game?”  See the section on "Introduction to Game Develop

And finally Week 6th had me finding a job in the industry that I thought would fit my career goals. This last assignment freaked me out. I was scared to not be able to find anything that fit my idea of what I wanted to be. In the end I found....

Hey!....You're going to 2013 East Coast Game Conference!

The East Coast Game Conference, the largest gathering of video game professionals on the East Coast, returns for its 5th year!. The conference provides video game professionals, academics and industry with an engaging program and opportunities for networking and collaboration. The conference is presented by the Triangle Game Initiative, a non-profit trade association of video game companies in North Carolina and the International Game Developers Association, a non-profit trade association of video game developers around the world.

The core and focus of the two-day conference are seven simultaneous tracks of talks and panels covering a wide range of game development topics appealing to programmers, artists, designers, producers, students, academics and business executives. The seven tracks are: Design, Programming, Art, Writing, Serious Games, Education, Mobile, and Career.

 

 

 

 

In 2012, more than 1,100 people attended ECGC and this year we are expanding the content with additional tracks, content and speakers from around the world. We are expecting significant growth this year with our new IGDA partnership and are hard at work to bring you a bigger and better ECGC for 2013!

 

Attracting artists, game designers, developers, producers, programmers, industry experts and gamers from Europe and North America, the East Coast Game Conference 2013 promises an in-depth look at the future of gaming, as well as an opportunity to meet and learn from this industry's leading innovators.

 

Whether you want to build your business, network for your career, learn about the newest gaming technologies, sample the latest game or simply enjoy two days of camaraderie with other gamers - ECGC 2013.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Cliff Bleszinski

Former Epic Games
Video game designer
Video Game Designer and Industry Veteran Former Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski, a 21-year veteran of the video game industry, shipped his first commercial title, "Jazz Jackrabbit" before graduating high school. During his tenure at Epic, Cliff was a key visionary behind the award-winning, multimillion-selling "Unreal" game series and the billion-dollar "Gears of War" franchise, which has eclipsed 19 million copies sold worldwide and crossed over into novels, comics, film, action figures and merchandise. While at Epic Cliff also lent his creative expertise to Epic's games, such as "Fortnite" ChAIR Entertainment's "Infinity Blade" series and multiple unannounced projects, and the scope of his work crossed over into other entertainment sectors as well. Bleszinski is currently on hiatus planning his next personal and professional moves.

Jason Vandenberghe

Ubisoft
Creative Director
Creative Director at Ubisoft, Jason has been making games for over sixteen years, specializing in pain-in-the-ass AAA projects. Having found a home with Ubisoft, he's been having a grand old time. His non-gaming off-hours are spent pursuing a lifelong interest in the human mind, and his efforts to try and translate the Big 5/OCEAN model into game development terms drew a touch more interest than he was expecting. It's all good, though.

Let's not forget the Ladies

Kate Edwards

International Game Developers Association
Executive Director
Kate Edwards is the Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), appointed in December 2012. She is also the founder and principal consultant of Englobe, a Seattle-based consultancy for content culturalization, and a unique hybrid of an applied geographer, writer, and corporate strategist, built upon a passion for global cultures and media technologies. Formerly as Microsoft’s first Geopolitical Strategist in the Geopolitical Strategy team she created and managed, Kate was responsible for protecting against political and cultural content risks across all MS products and locales. In the Microsoft Game Studios, she implemented a “geopolitical quality” review process and was personally responsible for identifying potential issues in all 1st party games between 1995 and 2005. Since leaving Microsoft, she has provided guidance to many companies on a wide range of geopolitical and cultural issues, and she continues to work on games such as Dragon Age 1 and 2, Modern Warfare 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dance Central 1 and 2, and Mass Effect 3. Kate is also the founder and former chair of the IGDA's Game Localization Special Interest Group, the co-organizer of the Game Localization Summit at GDC, and is a regular columnist for MultiLingual Computing magazine.

 

MOST INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER

 

Gerard Merritt

CelleC Games, Inc.
CEO
Gerard C. Merritt is the Innovative Business Professional and Multi-faceted Entrepreneur, behind CelleC Games Incorporated. His Passion and Vision to lead Enthusiasts, and Industrial Corporations into the next generation of gaming technology helped establish CelleC Games Inc. as the leading pioneer in the field of “Serious Game” Development. Gerard’s extensive knowledge and amazing breadth of technological skill has gained him Mastery level accreditations in the Information Technology and Development Industry. His Collaboration with corporations such as Electronic Arts, COMSYS, and Connextions Inc., has successfully created monumental software projects, as well as gaming. Gerard has spearheaded some of the most lucrative and efficient campaigns in the business of technological integration and management. His self, along with his company continues to stay current, in demand and reach the goal set forth to continually educate all developers, students, enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs to an empowered new way of approaching the digital realm. Gerard is the Chief-Executive-Officer of CelleC Games, He has over fifteen years of experience in technology and project management; combining his technical operations knowledge with business savvy to successfully develop and continuously integrate new technologies in software and manufacturing. Gerard possesses the strong ability to provide expert allocation of resource management, project management, requirements analysis, document authoring and testing and has demonstrated a proven track record of maximizing resources, streamlining production and budgets while increasing profit and output margins. Gerard has gained software and manufacturing skill sets while at Lockheed Martin starting as a Software Quality Engineer (and Lead) and matriculating through roles such as Test Engineering, Subcontract Administrator, and Lead Process Engineer from their Operations Leadership Development Program (OLDP) as well as acquired a Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma. He has tactically managed personnel sizes of over thirty onsite, on and offshore sixty plus, throughout the US and globally. He has controlled production line budgets of $40 Million USD and an entrepreneurial enterprise of $1.5 Million USD. In the realm of Lean Six Sigma, Gerard has implemented cost reduction and corporate savings to a total of $1.2Million USD; five months ahead of schedule. A certified expert, with extensive hands on experience in the field, Gerard has poured his talents back into education. His work as a Master’s level Professor in Game Project Management and Production Methodologies empowered his developing an effective curriculum for the course and becoming a notable Author. The textbook “People, Planning, and Production for Video Game Development”, Gerard wrote is a complete zenith and resource for video game production. It has tools, techniques, and philosophies to aid any student, new developer, or gaming professional. The many thoughts and ideas in the book give the reader a number of different vantage points on video game production, in order to address each reader's unique needs. It allows for flexibility in the reader's game development life cycle while still laying out proper guidelines for management. Well educated himself, receiving his Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from The University of Central Florida, and an MBA in Marketing Management with Operations Concentration from Crummer School of Business at Rollins College. Gerard has a great wealth of authentic knowledge and command of skills to share. As the CEO of CelleC Games, Inc. founded in 2011; Gerard puts all his knowledge to constructive use for the company’s collaborators and customers. His dynamic skill set and reputation for being professional self-motivated, and creative, continually propels him “Ahead of the Game”. Gerard C. Merritt is a lynchpin unique to the trade; He provides invaluable worth to the technology and gaming industry.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?

I reviewed the description of my next class with a sigh of relief and some trepedation. After working on being as creative as I could be using what I felt the most comfortable with...applications in my last class, I found myself back in the pencil drawers looking for the point. But when I realized that here was an opportunity to use a new medium other than pencils, I was excited.

Here is how the description read:

This course involves observation and translation of three-dimensional (3-D) form into two-dimensional (2-D) drawings. Starting with simple shapes and progressing to more complex organic forms, students will build skill levels in composition and line quality through the use of tone, light, and shadow.

The course was called "Observational Drawing for GAD" ....yum. What this meant was things were about to get dirty. As in Charcoal as your favorite tool. In this class I learned techniques of shading that I can only say were truly appreciated and made my buding skills of drawing look so much better. I found myself calling on new found skills acquired in my "Perspectives" class. I  reviewed that class lessons and work like the secret to a map of gold was hidden in my notes. I approached this one with gutso I was surprised I had. I started....what for it! having fun. I pushed my self in drawing. I practiced and redid work over and over until it felt believeable. I drove my family crazy with questions like "What about this one or This one?".

At times, I caught simple mistakes before submission and corrected them immediately. And when my teacher critiqued my work I went back to the drawing board...Cough! and practiced again. This class  helped me see the artist in me from a creative view and then showed me I could have techniques.

I picked up cotton balls and knead eraser with confidence. I reached for numbered pencils knowing the differences in each. And at the end of each assignment I felt a sense of satisfaction and a desire to do more. Was it all rainbows...No! I felt the old urge to procrastinate and run from assignments. I started to justify before I even started why the work would be late. But at the end of the day I pushed threw and submitted work on time. The key here is I conquered my fears of drawing like the best of them. I studied my class mates work, asked questions that had meaning to improvement and did not feel intimidated by those that could draw in their sleep. Here was a class full of very talented artist critiquing my work and I felt they saw my talents and respected me.

To sum up this learning experience, I had put clothing on my stick figures and let them bask in the spotlights. (I drew form that showed muscle and movement; added shadows in the right places of my sketches with strong believeable shadings.)

Ok! here is where I want to say...Thank You! for still reading and following me through my experiences. My next few post will be on the industry and what I have learned so far. I'm heading to the East Coast Gaming Conference.

Talk to you later...

Eclipse Entertainment wants to hire you

Here was a class "Digital Imaging for Multimedia and Web" that shook and pulled creativity out of me until I was on the floor of my bedroom weeping for joy at what I finally made. I found edges and corners of Photoshop I did not even know existed. I begged and pleaded with online tutor support to help me make sense of the version of PS my assignments were written in and the version the school had released to me. Adobe seem to take what was not broke and not fix it, even more, it then decided to hide what was familiar. I went on a hunt to find favorites like the collage feature so deliciously available in PS 10. Which is now still elusive in CS5 and CS6. If its there...even after this class I still have no clue where it its. And I think now the tutors are all avoiding me. It must have been all the emoticons of crying I used after spending hours each night after work just trying to get past week 1. This class was one for strong will and not faint at heart.

And to make it more educational, we had to follow a lesson as if a company was hiring us to present product on a deadline. Now this part I like...felt real world. But its not until after you have read such promising, normal yet motivating autobiographies that you later find a classmate that thinks a dirty condom is a great feature to a new character model for a possible toy that you wonder. "How do I critique this guy after I mention I live in North Carolina within my bio."

Needless to say there were enough appreciative, creative, less visually disturbing models to critique and stay on track with the assignment. This student later in open class post became literally abusive to the teacher. I suspect the teacher told him how disturbing his ideas were and his head started to spin. Now, dont get me wrong, I can applaud his efforts to shock and stand out from the pack. But to be specific and fair in my assessment, he did not follow any guidelines of what the client wanted and just did his own thing. Leaving the rest of the class scratching our heads.

Now enough about this student, as for me, I enjoyed this class and would take it again. The sheer level of new found interest and respect I gained from what Photoshop can do had me panting to do more after the class ended. So, this is what they call...Teaching.

I swear no Tutors got hurt in the making of my final project "Garden Glitter Grace". But if they were in person tutoring me, I would not be able to explain the glitter in some choice places.

FUNDAMENTALS OF DESIGN...HOW CREATIVE ARE YOU?

Welcome Back! Reader,

I think I am doing well juggling my studies and work. I must admit I have developed a bias with respect to those that decide to go to school online and work while still maintaining or having families. Never let someone tell you its easier to go to school online and that your expected degree means less than attending class in person. This is what I was once told by someone that truly did not understand the need to take an online course and let me count the ways this approach is better.

1. You immediately learn discipline in meeting deadlines and the ability to focus on studies while your life plays out around you in family nights possibly missed or overtime required at work. The ability to still structure your time to participate in other aspects of your busy life while still being able to shut the world out as you accomplish assignment readings is truly a new skill to master.

2. You develop a strong work ethic in being able to submit assignments on time. This is truly the Time management skills need in the working world. Your requirement to be available for discussions, questions from peers/teacher and the expected level of participation in assigments requires you to be focused on the work at hand. Your less inclined to cut corners and glance over work when it's facing you in a black and white written submission your unable to take back after posting.

3. Taking this type of course online your able to immediately seek out and search for additional resources and visuals to help you understand the industry better. There are more hyper links connected to an assignment I'm confident you would not seek out in a class room setting. Actually you may be limited in such an environment until you had more time to explore on your own away from class. These assignments require links to help the learning process. This alone make you more efficient in the various technologies having to apply so many visual representations to your understanding. It "INTERACTIVE".

4. For this type of industry you will face times when your only means of communication is via online. Taking these courses helps you develop your communication skills to a level thats strengthen by the changes in technology. Here you get to Skype, Text, Email, Download, Video Chat etc. When called to work in a team structure these communication skills will be like second nature because you already work online.

5. Last but not least. I think in a classroom/on site university setting its easier to loose your motivation towards your chosen degree. Online you develop the ability to be self motivating, which in times if your working remotely you will need to have developed. I find having worked from home with my current job that the ability to be self motivating is a developing skill for future occupations.

These are just a few reason I have realized since I started my online degree that this method has its benefits. If you ever take this road do not accept the concept that working online allows you the flexiblity to earn a degree while working. This saying has hidden challenges you could not possibly imagine. The flexibilty comes in ways you may never consider. I am sure there are many more benefits or challenges to come, but for now I'm just supper happy I got a A- in this class. I know the hard work I put into it and can truly appreciate what I have learned. How I learned in this class will be a testiment to who I become as a student in the years to follow. This class was fun, creative, challenging and overall I felt a sense of satisfaction in a job well done when I submitted my final project. Here is a quote my Instructor sent me on my final composition.

"Your image is dazzling and very powerful. I love this design! I could see this being a popular image for homes. If only people sold posters like this, or perhaps they do. Give it a try on Etsy. I would not be surprised if you sell some prints or posters. Seriously, look into it."