266: Making Fun Ain't Always Fun

[Wendy Despain]

Making Fun Ain't Always Fun

Many believe that creative endeavors are an easy job, with tons of perks. Wendy Despain tells the truth about designing games. Hint: It's not fun.

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[Dexiro]

This has probably been my favourite article, in what's now my favourite issue. This is the first time i've read every article one after the other with no pause!

I don't consider myself a game developer yet, other than my bi-annual programming phases i don't get enough done. But I still found that a lot of this article described me and a lot of my experience.

I have a bad habit of dissecting games and trying to find out how they work, and although i'm too lazy for it most of the time i'm plagued every day my the thought of making a game and end up jotting ideas on paper that get scrapped the next day.

Another thing i see A LOT is people talking to me about game development and game testing in particular as the most glamorous job imaginable, playing games all day with free beer. They do have their merits but fun is not one of them!

 

[mad825]

indeed, very much so.

many people do lack IT experience in the computer industry and therefore do not understand how complex and dull it can become at times regardless of your likings.

having to create a simple program out of C# and test it for my studies, I had many downtimes where I would give-up because the debugger was detecting a Syntax error which made me to review the code and look for any mistakes which took hours because it required another person point out that I spelt something incorrectly, needless to say I did get a cheap thrill at the end but the software side of things aren't really my thing, that just leaves me having to create/mod a game for my course in Sep which I'm excited and dreaded at the same time

in any case, people should try an achieve a career that they get thrills out of and have some extensive knowledge about...in the sense of professional careers.

 

[tharglet]

This article explains the very thought processes that I went through, to end up in enterprise software development rather than games dev.
I remember people on my CS course who wanted to do games programming, and me explaining why I didn't want to go down that path. Main reasons for me not to go down the game dev road were potential work hours, wages, frustration (beyond the work itself) and job availability.

When I left uni, I got a job within a few weeks of looking for one, and after being made redundant not so long ago, I found another job pretty quickly, and there didn't seem to be a particular shortage in the type of job I was aiming at.
Yep, enterprise dev is working out for me so far

 

[Frybird]

It's a well written article and all, but the first half of it...WITHOUT any inside knowledge of game design (kind of good knowledge regarding programming in general, but i don't think that counts)...felt sort of obvious to me.

Yes, working on a deadline isn't fun as is coming up with good ideas under pressure and working with others on one single aspect tends to often suck too. And yes, being able to critisize something does not make you good at that (although that's kinda sad, because if it were so, i could probably draw and compose music at least decently, wich would be cool).

But that's ALWAYS the case when a job requires at least a minimum of creativity.


But that said, i liked to read about what developer people had to say about the things that make up for it. I know how satisfying it is to solve a difficult problem or get something to work the way you want to (once again, thanks to programming experiences), and it must be amazing if these things are enjoyed by so many people.
(Even though it's probably even more shattering if the end product that you poured your heart into gets panned by some foul mouthed teenagers...but i guess that is the "risk")

 

[MikailCaboose]

Dear god even writing a story is a pain at times, I could only imagine what doing a whole video game would be like!

 

[Dora]

Before I started my current job, I was always very curious about making games. Not in any serious sense, more like, "Wow, I bet it took like twelve people just to make that guy's head explode when I pressed that button."

And then when I started talking with and getting feedback from developers, I realised, yeah, it IS a lot of work as I'd always suspected... actually, it's a lot MORE work than I suspected. If you're talking about even just a simple flash game, think of everything you have to take into consideration; various browsers, operating systems, and so forth, and working on making your game compatible with all of that. I can also tell you that the few times I have been talked into helping beta or bug-test something were NOT fun; it was my job to BREAK that game, and that basically involved doing everything over and over in every way I could think of, trying things on various computers and browsers to make sure everything was copacetic... no thank you, SIR. I'll stick to writing about it.

I think articles like this are great, though, because so many gamers either don't know or care just what is involved in making their favourite games. (Thinking back to the FF7 remake butthurt here.) You may be making a game, but it's still a job, and if you want to make something halfway decent it's a freaking HARD job. I'd really recommend anyone who thinks making games is fun and easy just crack open any toolset (RPGMaker, NWN, Dragon Age, etc) and try to make a compelling hour's worth of an experience. It really puts things in perspective.

 

[Jumplion]

I tend to dislike these articles, they end up saying that this particular industy is absolute hell and that only the crazy-ly determined people go through with them. Not just talking about the games industry here, in every industry there are misconceptions with how it works, but those types of articles almost always degenerate to "It's complete hell, only a select few enjoy it just because they can cope, so don't do it if you can't cope (which you most likely can't)."

Now I'm not saying that this article isn't true. The video games industry is just like any industry, and their jobs are just like any other. You have to work, you have to be dedicated, and you have to be passionate about what you do. I understand completely that depending on where you work in the games industry (Q+A, Animation Dept, Voice Acting, etc...) it has varying degrees of cruelty. It's a job like any other job out there, and sometimes it's a bit greuling at times.

Personally I do want to get into the entertainment industry, specifically films but maybe video games. I understand that those respective industries are cutthroat and brutal, sometimes it's not going to be fair, and there will always be some lucky bastard who got ahead of you. But articles like these tend to spell out "DOOM TO YOU!!" for whatever industry it's talking about and basically dig a deep trench between "Lolipop Goodness!" and "13th Circle of Hell" with no middle ground.

Then again, I could be some doe-eyed optimistic idealist, so hell if I know what lies beyond the facade of awesomeness that appears before me.

Overall, I'm not saying that I disliked this specific article, in fact it was a very good read, just saying that these types of articles are always heavied on the extreme side of things, at least to me. Feel free to disagree (in fact I hope you do), just what I think on the matter.

 

[Jon Etheridge]

Even though I'm not a game developer, a lot of the stuff talked about in this article relates to what i do as well. A lot of people think my job is fun because I make cartoons but they don't see the endless hours I spend in front of the computer going frame by frame to make sure Neeb's lip sync looks good. I can completely see how game design must be that same sort of grind.

 

[Crisps]

Well I've worked in the industry for 10 years, for 4 different companies.

Before that I worked for about 4 years outside the games industry.

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've loved working in the games industry and can't imagine doing anything else.

Relative to the games industry the 4 years outside were hell.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

Other than sitting at a computer, what you wrote describes what it's like to book a wrestling angle. Really it does sort of play out the same way; you start with the ending you want to get to (X wins belt from Z), then you plan backwards from there so you can get the fans interested in if X wins and hopefully they'll spend the dollars to come out to the shows. But then inevetably things go wrong, X will no show the event or Z will refuse to put someone over but instead of having months to get a certain idea to fit in the game, you have an hour to figure out who to put in X's place and have it still make sense in term of the angle.

Not only does it have to make sense, you also have to try and do things that won't be too obvious to the audience- for instance, if you have Z attack X during his match, the fans expect X to attack during Z's match, but since X is a face (good guy) it's not in his nature to do that- so you either go against his character and have X do what the audience expects or you can go a different route and advertise Z as wrestling a masked man, Y and during the course of the match you let the fans see that Y is X under the mask by having another Y show up outside the ring (or let X be the guy outside the ring) but either way it isn't something that the people expect and also puts another character into the story, whichs adds another part to the booking process that just adds to the amount of time it takes to set things up just right.

Honestly on most of the shows I've worked, I've never seen a booking meeting end without at least one person saying they quit (only once did they ever really quit, though).

Basically what I'm saying is that most people only think about the end product, be it a game or a wrestling show, but hardly give any thought into the workings that make the end result possible. Great article.

(And for those who follow wrestling, yes, Vince Russo's booking would equate him to the shovelware manufacturers such that put out the " ****** Party" games for the Wii)

 

[Dr_Steve_Brule]

"Being creative on a deadline can be hell."
That's why Valve is so awesome. I have yet to see a Valve game being released within it's designated deadline, and none of their games has ever disappointed me.

 

[Biag]

All of those points make the industry sound like a living hell.

All of those points make me want to work there more.

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

That was a fascinating article. I especially liked how you pointed out that after the long hours of frustration, there's that euphoric 'high' when things go right, and how you connected the development process to painting. Very interesting how creativity is mostly chasing those few moments where it all falls into place, regardless of whether it's making music, writing, directing, painting, or developing games (I myself have had those torture moments trying to put down even a few words to write, and wanting to bang my head against my desk, only to have it suddenly seem so 'obvious' and go on a manic typing spree. Possible lunatic giggling would ensue afterwards.).

Articles like this are why I love the Escapist so much.

 

[Domoslaf]

So what you're actually saying is that making games is *work*? As in waking up early each day and spending most of it doing things you don't really enjoy that much? They really don't pay you money to have fun all day? Enlightening.

I also really enjoyed this latest Escapist issue and loved every other article, but this one sir is just over-10k-characters stating the obvious to the people who apparently never had a job in their lives.

 

[Ed.]

I'm a level designed for a mod team i can relate to this so much

motivations a bit different with total conversion moddng your building the game you've always wanted as oposed to what the market wants but the same thing aplies most of the time its not fun especial testing that really really sucks.

 

[CitySquirrel]

There have been a lot of article lately by people in the industry telling other people not to go into the industry. Call my suspicious is you want, but I have a lawyer friend who tries to discourage others from becoming lawyers. This feels similar.

Also, someone from almost any occupation could write an article about why it is hell.

 

[ParkourMcGhee]

Hehe, very emotional article that puts some things in perspective .

I especially liked the end note of "1337 words" .

And don't worry, we don't just hate devs... we also hate the publishers, the stores, other gamers... etc.

I actually quite admire some of you guys for being able to stick at it - since I tried my hand at modding with a team before . It ain't a pretty sight I can tell you that .

 

[oktalist]

This has probably been my favourite article, in what's now my favourite issue.

I agree. What a brilliant article and what an amazing issue.