Hello everyone. I'm currently a senior in high school and am very interested in going into a career dealing in video game design. As such, I've decided to base my required Graduation Project on them. One of the requirements of the project are that we have to do a few interviews with experts in the field we're looking into. I couldn't think of a better place than here. I'd appreciate it if you'd at least look this over. If you choose to reply, please answer all of the questions (some may seem redundant, and my apologies if they do) and include your name and position/brief job description, if any. If you don't have one, and you really want to be included, make one up. If you don't want your name put out on the forums, please use my e-mail adress. Thank you for your time - it's very much appreciated. Perhaps we all can learn a little from this! - Aaron Fraser ---------------------------------------- 1. How long have you been playing video games? 2. What got you into video games? 3. What was the first game you played? 4. How many games (roughly) do you own? 5. What's your favorite game and game system? Why? 6. What would you like to see in new games? 7. What's your favorite aspect of gaming? (Fighting, storyline, eye candy, etc.) 8. What do you think is the most integral part of a game? 9. How important do you feel the graphic aspect is to a game? 10. Could you still have a good game if it were lacking in storyline? 11. What does your job with video games entail? 12. What influenced your decision to get into the video game field? 13. Where do you see the video game industry going in the next few years? 14. Do you have any advice for those seeking a career in video games? 15. Did you go to school for programming, multimedia or game design in general? If so, where? 16. How was your learning experience (regardless of traditional schooling)? 17. What is the most difficult part of the design process? 18. Do you feel that games provide kids or adults with a learning experience they may not be able to accomplish any other way? 19. Do you find violence in video games an integral, or even acceptable, concept? 20. Do you feel that a wholly virtual reality console type system is something feasible for the future of gaming? AIM SN - The Wondur Llama [edited by - AFraser42 on January 9, 2004 11:46:16 PM]

Original post by AFraser42

1. How long have you been playing video games?

Let''s see.. if I''m 24, then about 20 years. Probably longer, if I could''ve managed.

2. What got you into video games?

Way too far in the past to remember what got me hooked in the past. I guess they were just around our house, and I picked up on them naturally.

3. What was the first game you played?

Probably Pac-Man for the Atari 2600-7800. My gaming experience got better, thankfully-- War, Superman, that GI-Joe game, and a couple others. Those were the first, but in no particular order.

4. How many games (roughly) do you own?

This is tough to gauge... I''ve owned Atari, NES, GameBoy, GBAdvance, and a PS2-- and average 10 games for each. Double that number to account for my PC games, and add about 350 Commodore64 games.

5. What''s your favorite game/game system? Why?

You''re kidding, right? Let''s list them by system, anyway...
Atari: I played "War" the most. God, that was fun.
NES: Definitely "Double Dragon II". Still the best beat-em-up game.
SNES: Though I didn''t own it, I''ve wasted half my teenagehood playing "Super Mario Kart".
GB: Most likely R-Type. I liked R-Type3 for SNES better, but this is still the best GB game.
GBA: "Doom". Like above, liked it better on PC(and also wasted the other half of my teenagehood on it).
PS2: Right now, I''m into the Tony Hawk series, although in my heart I know I''ll always come back to "Rez".
PC: "Half-Life" and its mods, for the time being. But when its lost its longevity, I''ll go back to Doom.
C64: Not a fair question. But I''ll always like International Karate+.

6. What would you like to see in new games?

More open-ended gameplay. Linear Gameplay, hopefully, is becoming a thing of the past. Also, I''d like to see the market thin out a bit. If a game company has a huge team behind a game(especially if it''s a series), they shouldn''t be crapping out a game every four months. Where''s the ambition in that?

7. What''s your favorite aspect of gaming? (Fighting, storyline, eye candy, etc.)

Customization, I think, is a huge side of gameplay that extends it far past the game''s storyline. The more I''m allowed to personalize my gaming experience, the better. Just like the Tony Hawk series-- I''d get into half-day-long Create-A-Park sessions just to have a creation. Not like anyone will ever see them, but hey...

8. What do you think is the most integral part of a game?

Suspension of disbelief. That is, if you''re talking about gluing players to the screen. This aspect usually gets killed by any number of things-- a glitch/bug, outrageously impossible story with loopholes, bad balance between cutscenes and playtime, et cetera. The list is immense.

9. How important do you feel the graphic aspect is to a game?

Not too important, as long as everything''s consistent. For example: DOOM in the past few years has undergone a few facelifts. For example, OpenGL compatibility, anti-aliasing, particle effects, high-res, and whatnot. So you have all these awesome effects being wasted because the player still knows he''s looking at a group of scaled sprites with three-step walking animations. It''s a waste.

10. Could you still have a good game if it were lacking in storyline?

Well, what''s the purpose of the game? Games are diverse in what they''re actually providing the player. If the point of the game is, say, to build a town from scratch and expand through careful use of resources, how much story do you need?

11. What does your job with video games entail?

Job? Well, hobby mostly, until it starts paying off. At any rate, our two-man-team is in the design phase, which entails me creating lots of documents and concept art. When the programming phase kicks in, I''ll be utilizing home-made tools to make the artwork for the game, and well... writing more text that will appear in it. If your question is "what will be pasted on my door when we happen to buy an office", I''ll have to give that more thought. Probably something aggrandizing.

12. What influenced your decision to get into the video game field?

The fact that I''ve come up with amazing ideas that have ended up being used in games praised for their technological prowess. When I looked at Quake 1, I said to myself, "Why don''t these guys make a ''poseable doll'' feature for the models that allows you just to tell the computer to ''make a walking animation'' and have the CPU decide how many frames it is?" Two years later, Half-Life came out with "skeletal animation", which is now all the rage. A while after that, I said to myself, "It''d be really cool if you could kill a person and he''d go limp-- so the only forces applied to the model would be gravity and the force of the final impact. So if he''s hit by a bullet, he slumps to the ground; or if he''s hit by a rocket, he''ll fly across the map and tumble down the cliff." Now there''s talk about new games with "ragdoll physics". So now you understand.

13. Where do you see the video game industry going in the next few years?

Umm... it''s tough to say. There are two ends to this. The popular view is that interaction will take steps unheard of, until it''ll be just like watching(or being inside) a movie. The extreme political view is that games will push boundaries of good taste under the flag of "freedom of expression", and the controversy will cause them to be highly regulated in some way.

14. Where do you see the game industry going in the next few years?

See above.

15. Did you go to school for programming, multimedia or game design in general? If so, where?

School? People go to school for this? Well, I always did pick up art and writing classes whenever my schedule permitted-- but is that really "formal training"?

16. How was your learning experience (regardless of traditional schooling)?

If anything, it taught me consistency and discipline. Nowadays, it seems I need a refresher course.

17. What is the most difficult part of the design process?

In a small team, the biggest problem has to be organization of skills. A small group gives each member more power, and unfortunately it results in everyone being the boss. Unless someone''s job specifically dictates it, lumping together everyone''s expectations into a single vision can be infuriating.

18. Do you feel that games provide kids or adults with a learning experience they may not be able to accomplish any other way?

Some obviously don''t. The media can definitely be used that way, but usually it''s just used to depict violence. However, that in itself can be constructive as an outlet to everyday stresses. I''m sure you''ve heard that view before, and it can be rebutted by citing certain school shootings, but there were other factors at work in those situations.

19. Do you find violence in video games an integral, or even acceptable, concept?

Oops. I just answered that.

20. Do you feel that a wholly virtual reality console type system is something feasible for the future of gaming?

Not in the way Science Fiction would hope, unfortunately. The "virtual reality" I envision would have some sort of system that reacts to the world around us. Say you had a pair of glasses that allowed you to see normally, but superimposed graphical images into your field of vision. The level of "superimposition" is left up to the programmer''s imagination. But depth would be controlled by "testing" the left-eye image to the right-eye image and would obscure graphical objects accordingly. If there were a spaceship coming over the horizon, you''d see it through your glasses slowly appearing from behind the mountains, and would move out of view, landing behind your house. What kind of objects you''re using to interact with the game would depend on the game(for instance, holding a spacegun-type object to fire at aliens). Sound fun?

Brendan Bradley
Design/Artist

Thank you very much for your input! This is exactly what I need.

As for the questions, I see I''ve made an error or two.

When I asked favorite game, I meant what was your favorite game AND console - confusing and fault on my part.

And 14 is redundant.


Please - keep them coming! I need at least two more. (though if more wish to post, I''d appreciate it - I''ve learned a bit just from reading Brendan''s response).

Thanks -

Aaron

Come on people - all we need is one more reply.

I have to go to band practice right now, but I''ll do your survey when I get back. I''m not sure if I qualify as an "expert" though...

1. How long have you been playing video games?

I was born in 1981, and I was introduced to computers in about 1985. Call it 18 years I suppose.

2. What got you into video games?

The fact that there were whole worlds inside; whole worlds that restrict what I could do because I was a kid, etc. I think a lot of people who are allowed/encouraged to get into games at an early age feel that surge of power when they first realize that THEY are in control.

3. What was the first game you played?

I still remember my first game of Colassal Cave (a very early text adventure, predating many) on my 2nd cousin's early (1985) homebrew Unix hardware. I couldn't read (or type for that matter), so he had to read me the messages and type in what I wanted to do (and help a bit). I couldn't have been much older than four.

4. How many games (roughly) do you own?

Hoo boy. Embarrassing question. Probably at least 100 for a multitude of consoles and the PC (probably a few early Macintosh titles as well). That doesn't count the 50-60 tabletop RPGs and wargames I own. I don't personally make a distinction between the two mediums.

5. What's your favorite game and game system? Why?

If we are talking only digital interactive media (sic), my favorite game would probably be Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (for the PC). Spiritual sequel to the seminal Civilization (produced while that title was involved in a legal copyright battle), it somehow pulls me into it time and time again (for hours on end). Probably single-handedly caused my high school GPA to go down (another) .5 (out of 4.0). Try it at your own risk.

My favorite platform is the PC. Anyone can develop for it, if need be you can make your own custom peripheral even. I also feel like the best games produced for it are better for the fact they don't have to be crippled by the requirements imposed by developing for a given console.

If we aren't talking about digital media here, my favorite game would be The (official) Star Wars RPG, published by West End in 1986. It flawlessly encapsulates what makes that universe so appealing (at least to my particular demographic). That said, my favorite system is the tabletop... the player must often imagine their surroundings. It is possible to do games on the tabletop that aren't feasable (for a variety of technical reasons, at least for the moment) in the digital medium.

6. What would you like to see in new games?

Non-linearity is a buzzword. I think that has to be combined with creating a "universe" for the game itself to be set within. A universe where the "player" doesn't have to experience one or many of any branching/non-branching paths the game designer has set up to enjoy being within the universe (this is something (with a good gamemaster) tabletop RPGs are very, very good at). One of the early greats, Elite, managed this; the games since have been few and far between (Morrowind and the GTA series being the most recent and noteable.

7. What's your favorite aspect of gaming? (Fighting, storyline, eye candy, etc.)

Being immersed in a universe outside my own.

8. What do you think is the most integral part of a game?

The play experience; not necessarily the gameplay, but the holistic experience. For isntance, when I'm done with a session, how do I feel? Did the game have an effect on the mood I am in (psyched, relaxed, happy)?

9. How important do you feel the graphic aspect is to a game?

Graphics support the overall experience. It seems that many games ignore other ways to set the "mood" of a game (sound, input, difficulty, traits emmergent from the game design). So, in many games that are around nowadays, the graphics are the most important way to set the mood, but it need not be so.

10. Could you still have a good game if it were lacking in storyline?

In my opinion, the best games are those WITHOUT a set story. Games where the player and the game world (and by extension the designer who created that world) create the story as the game is played. While I enjoy games that are very story-focussed (such as the Final Fantasy series), I think of the experience like a theme park ride. Perhaps a very well "imagineered" Disney ride; the experience is still stuck on a linear game track. Games that have multiple outcomes/paths (such as System Shock 1/2, Deus Ex, and others where the whole game isn't played out in the whole game universe and is rather centered within levels) are a variation of these, with perhaps more depth.

Many of the longest lasting game franchises (Tetris, Civilization, Elite) and many classic games (Pong, Asteroids, Defender, Pac Man) do not have a set story (or even a strong backstory).

11. What does your job with video games entail?

Former CEO/Lead everything from a small game company that got liquidated 6 months back due to changes in state law regarding sales taxes (no, you won't have heard of it, but yes I made money and paid myself a salary).

12. What influenced your decision to get into the video game field?

Playing games. Also, I was introduced to reading and writing at a young age, and this enabled me to get into computers (assembling, programming) at a very young age. Naturally, at a young age games are the first thing you try to program. It came rather naturally.

Then, almost two years ago now, I had a chance to attend the GDC (Game Developers Conference) in San Jose. This cemented my resolve to do this for a living.

13. Where do you see the video game industry going in the next few years?

Its very hard to say. I would of course like to see a movement towards a real market for internet-distributed games developed by small, independent studios. Middleware (3D engines, physics engines, tools, sound libraries) is going to be an even larger business. Schedules are getting longer, budgets are being pushed higher, and market expectations only get higher every year. So they make sense. The big games, however, are only going to get made by the big studios (unless your name in John Carmack, Peter Molyneux, etc.), and big studios are mostly owned by big publishers. Big publishers expect big profits; they are also very conservative. In the near to middle term, many of the "big" titles to be sequels to successful games, or movie/comic book licenses. I do hope that this will drive people looking for something new to independently developed PC titles.

14. Do you have any advice for those seeking a career in video games?

Try to understand what makes games tick. Develop your skills in the field you wish to be involved in (game design, programming, artistry, 3D modelling, sound). You're never to young to start!

15. Did you go to school for programming, multimedia or game design in general? If so, where?

No.

16. How was your learning experience (regardless of traditional schooling)?

I attended really excellent college preperatory program(available in many areas internationally) called the International Baccalaureate. Mostly this challenged me at a college level and grouped me with other like-minded individuals. Also, I have managed to go to a conventional four year university part time, working towards a B.S. in Math and Physics. Study in those disiplins has helped me the most as a programmer.

17. What is the most difficult part of the design process?

Taking what you envision in you imagination and bringing it to life on the screen. This means more than art direction, programming skills, music selection, and getting everything in your design document implimented. To really bring something to life, to make yourself and others really feel the experience you imagined is the most difficult thing. I've brought two interactive products to completion; one a semi-mindless close clone of Collapse (where I was responsible for little more than bring together already-made art assets with Macromedia Flash), and a set of math games (designed by a "special" education teacher for her students). Until now, I have been making someone else's dreams; bringing visions not my own into reality.

18. Do you feel that games provide kids or adults with a learning experience they may not be able to accomplish any other way?

I believe the greatest untapped potential of interactive software lies in education. It can teach you things (through repetition) in ways that do not at first seem repetuous; for instance, playing many realistic driving simulators probably saved my life the time I had to slow from 75 mph to a stop while making a 90 degree turn onto an off ramp to miss a truck that was in the process of jacknifing. Practicing the control of a vehicle under extreme situations saved one 16 year old driver that day! This is one of the few obvious and explored fields of interactive software; driving (and many other types of vehicle simulators) have been around for longer than 50 years. The real exploration that needs to be done is how to teach people (particularly children) skills they need to survive. Things like mathematics, how to deal with life (paying bills on time, getting and keeping a job), time management, maybe even how to deal with emotions or an abusive situation in the home. By practicing these skills many times in a safe environment, you can be more sure that the person can succeed at what they are training to do.

19. Do you find violence in video games an integral, or even acceptable, concept?

Violence is not necessary. Acceptable? That depends on a person's moral compass. Because acceptability depends on each person, I believe the state must allow each person the chance to make that choice.

There are also different levels of violence; in a game like Civilization, different players/AI players might attack each other with armies representing tens of thousands of people. Whole cities might be wiped out in a single turn (each number size of the city is generally accepted to represent one hundred thousand individuals). By the end of the game, the player might be responsible for millions of individual deaths. Most people (and parental associations) don't classify this game as "violent". In Grand Theft Auto, one might kill hundreds, and possibly a couple thousand, in a game session if one makes it their goal to kill people walking down the sidewalk. This is far fewer than in a game of Civilization; however it is somehow more reprehensible. The difference lies in the intensity and the abstraction levels. In Civilization, it doesn't show you dead people all over the field of battle, and it doesn't say that X people died; it is low intensity and highly abstract. In Grand Theft Auto, you see immeadiate results of your actions, and you see people lying on the ground (and you get points); it is an intense experience, and not abstract in the least. The point of saying all this is that there are different kinds of violence, and saying that you're against videogame violence is not being specific enough to be a political platform or the basis of law.

And a game shouldn't be considered violent if it simply offers the possibility of enacting violence on another game entity/player.

I would also like to say that conflict is often necessary. Each player or entity in the game world having opposed interests. Sometimes, these conflicting interests might lead to some kind of violence; sometimes, these conflicts are resolved by a race or other competition; sometimes these games are solved by diplomacy. Solitaire is Man vs. Cards; Poker is Man vs. Man vs. Cards; Monopoly is Man vs. Man vs. Dice; etc. Without conflict of some sort, an activity is no longer a game.

Violence is a design crutch. Game designers should get a little more creative and strive to reach beyond it sometimes.

20. Do you feel that a wholly virtual reality console type system is something feasible for the future of gaming?

Given advanced enough technology, at some point in the future I'm sure it will be a reality. In my lifetime? Maybe we'll come close. Is it necessary to the evolution of gaming? No, its just a new way to present information, like 3D graphics vs. 2D graphics.

[edited by - SteevR on January 16, 2004 9:20:36 AM]

1) Thank you very much - that was a very informative response.

2) I''m currently in Computer Studies 2 IB - don''t know if you''d find that interesting. I dropped my other IB classes, though, as I couldn''t concentrate in them. Regrettably, I''ve found I have ADD - caught earlier and maybe I''d be getting that IB diploma. Or not.

Well there is something less informative.


1. How long have you been playing video games?

too long to remmember.
It was certainly back in 91-2 when I was addicted on game mashines. Then I bought computer becose it was cheaper.

2. What got you into video games?
Who knows?

3. What was the first game you played?
It's not important.
First love could, but not first game.

4. How many games (roughly) do you own?
If you ment bought then 2+ not sure. I just remmember that U7 has nice CD pack without copy protection and all games inside 6 months after I bought U7 at SAME PRICE. This cured me from game buying.

5. What's your favorite game and game system? Why?
Currently Crawl. Was Daggerfall, ADOM, Shogun..., FF 4-6. Chrono trigger.
PC with emulator. It gives that old games new energy. BTW I have smaller TV than monitor. and I can't use console controller properly. At least if keys aren't configurable.

6. What would you like to see in new games?
Implementation of things that were developed at least 5 years ago, or something from my research.

7. What's your favorite aspect of gaming? (Fighting, storyline, eye candy, etc.)
All what makes it art.
Story line that doesn't lead you is important.
Don't forget lots of red color.

8. What do you think is the most integral part of a game?
Gameplay?
Interaction.

9. How important do you feel the graphic aspect is to a game?
If someone would drop other aspect of game thanks to graphic, they would be very sorry. Look for example at UFO aftermatch, or other half beginners projects. (like Imperium Galactica II. Reunion was better.)

10. Could you still have a good game if it were lacking in storyline?

Mortal kombat III. Did it has a storeline?
Majority of new games are severaly lacking. Well Chess needn't storeline, but majority of games are much better with such. Look for example on Advance wars 2. (Remake of BI 2, but nice.)

11. What does your job with video games entail?
CEO. Trying to get job done. Also programmer and game designer.
Independent of course. (And also a person that tries to find part time job to be able realease the game free of charge)

12. What influenced your decision to get into the video game field?

Experience with RPG and writing. What did you think?

13. Where do you see the video game industry going in the next few years?

It's as volatile as movie industry so there would be another silly ideas and myths that would shake game industry as before.
Game industry changes course sharp left then sharp right and so on, it's just hard to tell if it goes to front or to back.
Seems that after few years, we would have nice shift back to the PC. You know that console users are really lazy they are even unable to upgrade HD in theirs console and PC users are responsible to our demmands, they are even cappable to do repair of theris game when we would suply them with instructions. I listened on the PC you could do game much more advanced becose they have more memory and 128 bit FPU vector instructions. And you could have also more artistic freedom on them, just look what has been done on them with just few companies that stayed with them.

14. Do you have any advice for those seeking a career in video games?

They should answer why they'd like to do so.
Then notice there are 80 hours weeks, sallary 3 times lower than in comparable jobs, you need to learn every day new things, that you wouldn't be certified for. You could be kicked every day, (for example if some water service company buys your company, and blast your company out). You'd have also problems with seeking new job. Not many people views game development as an art or something computionally heavy comparable to nuclear weapon research, thus you might end in pretty shity job afterwards.
Vague Idea you'd like to do a games is nice, but game industry is too much volatile, they could choose from wide range of possible programmers/orther folks. You should be in contact with potential employers with at least 3 years and do more work that would be required by your university. You should, if you have fiscal, and health capacity, obtain a diploma for fallback reasons.

15. Did you go to school for programming, multimedia or game design in general? If so, where?

I'm self educated. When you are writer you SHOULD be self educated. I thing if you are smart you should be self educated even in programming. It's true that this will take few years.
Note when I say programming I mean data structure design, module design, design of algorithms, optimalisation, bug hunting, refactorisation, code repair, participation on artistic expresion, and so on. This ment you shouldn't be just a programmer you should participate on the art creation.

16. How was your learning experience (regardless of traditional schooling)?

Nice thank you, no Uni bastards. Nobody asked me to create noneffective algorithms just for my education. And nobody has problem that my programs were too advanced and undescribed in common literature. I also learned what I need. And I did it effective way.

17. What is the most difficult part of the design process?

For Independent. Repair computer with just minimal equipment. For bigger teams to don't let drift original design to something ugly. There are so many people that thinks they could make it better, but not additing every feature together would make it better.

18. Do you feel that games provide kids or adults with a learning experience they may not be able to accomplish any other way?

Games are important for learning, for sure, but they are and art as well. Art will give what you are able to take. Or what are you willing to take.

I might say that even Crono Trigger is more important than LOTR.

Playing Blood bowl with friends is certainly better than sitting outside and looking into nothingless, becose you have nothing else to do.

There is educational software as well. It should be noted that pure educational software that isn't free is useless.

19. Do you find violence in video games an integral, or even acceptable, concept?

What violence there are different kind of such. Would you like violence in TV?

Hitting cat is something stupid becose cat would allways return your favor. Dog would take it as an punishment.

I actually don't see certain kind of violence as a problem. I think violence is sometimes used as a buzzword. Something that every one "must" agree it's bad, but such talks often hide real problems.

Zelgadis: Where is that statue?
Lina inverse: Spits tongue.
Zelgadis: To werewolf Rape her.
wrewolf: I'm not pervert.
Lina inverse: Hysterical burst of anger.

Would you think this is violence? Would you think it would be better without raping scene?
I consider censorship as worse. What would happen to game that would be about terrorist? It would be probably problems in the US. Luckily Square-Enix did it before current US silliness.

20. Do you feel that a wholly virtual reality console type system is something feasible for the future of gaming?

Oh console boy. Price of components isn't so low. So current 3D maniacs would get crasy becose price of such things. And others would moan over old nice 3D.





Well don't forget to post up statistical data from this survey. I think it's unnencessary to remind you that you should remove all trackable data from what you received. Just an anonymous statistic. ~_^

[edited by - Raghar on January 17, 2004 3:58:52 PM]

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1. How long have you been playing video games?

23 years.

2. What got you into video games?

I really liked anything having to do with computers.

3. What was the first game you played?

ADVENTURE - Text adventure game ported to the Vic 20.

4. How many games (roughly) do you own?

20+

5. What''s your favorite game and game system? Why?

PC or Macintosh - I prefer a keyboard interface to playing games because I like strategy games and turned based military games as well as sim games like Rail Road Tycoon.

6. What would you like to see in new games?

Better economic models, inovation in game play and aesthetics.

7. What''s your favorite aspect of gaming? (Fighting, storyline, eye candy, etc.)

Micro/Macro management.

8. What do you think is the most integral part of a game?

Balance and replayability.

9. How important do you feel the graphic aspect is to a game?

About one third of the value of a game to me is graphics.

10. Could you still have a good game if it were lacking in storyline?

Yes, of course. Some games I like because of story line some because of graphics, some because of pacing.

11. What does your job with video games entail?

I''m a developer working in a game company making console games.

12. What influenced your decision to get into the video game field?

I liked to marriage of pure software development and artistic practices.

13. Where do you see the video game industry going in the next few years?

Hopefully I see it becoming more mature, but sadly I see it becoming less ambitions and innovative, more conservative.

14. Do you have any advice for those seeking a career in video games?

If you want to be a programmer, get a CompSci degree. If you are self taught, work harder at learning as much as you can. Stear clear of all those ''get rich quick'' game universities; they never teach you enough and are not viewed too highly in the industry. If you want to be an artist or designer, do much the same - get a Bachelor''s degree in something relevant, or at least take a long term acredited program in animation.

15. Did you go to school for programming, multimedia or game design in general? If so, where?

No, I''m self taught but I did receive a Bachelors in Fine Arts which taught me a lot about problem solving and usibility practices.

16. How was your learning experience (regardless of traditional schooling)?

After graduating from art school I managed to get a job in the embedded systems industry where I turned my self-taught programming skills into something real. After that I got an opportunity to get into the games industry and couldn''t pass up the chance.

17. What is the most difficult part of the design process?

Team buy in and Publisher buy in. Knowing when to stop adding features and balance what you already have.

18. Do you feel that games provide kids or adults with a learning experience they may not be able to accomplish any other way?

No, not really.

19. Do you find violence in video games an integral, or even acceptable, concept?

No, I think its much like anything else - videogames are a medium much like literature, art and film, that reflect the current state and/or values of the society in which they are created and consumed.

20. Do you feel that a wholly virtual reality console type system is something feasible for the future of gaming?

Yes, but I don''t really think it''s as important as people make it out to be. Hopscotch and Jump Rope are still fun, as is Scrabble, Chess and Hangman. Game design themes manifest within the mediums they are delivered in, and endure the technology that carries them. I think virtual reality consoles are just another sub-medium that carries established gaming themes into a new medium.

You need to go to college first. Ideally, something practical, like EE or Math, but if you ONLY want design, then something like creative writing and history might work, too.