How to Become a Video Game Designer 1-2-3
Become a Video Game Designer
Video Game Design is a rapidly-growing field that offers lots of opportunities. Video game customers
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- How the video game industry works and the best way to find out about video game jobs and freelancing
opportunities
- How to develop your video skills and create video games that will sell
- Unique networking opportunities, creative ways to make more money
- Future trends in the video game industry & how to stay ahead of competition
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Designer
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The Future of Video Games
I've recently been thinking
about where video games could be going in the future. I'm hoping to work in the game industry one day
after I've finished university study and I've been wondering about it a lot. What do I want to see happen
in the future? Well I may not have too many answers right now, but I have come up with a few ideas that I
think may come into "play" in the not too distant future.
Firstly forget Virtual Reality, as we know it. They've tried VR goggles and they made a lot of people sick
in doing so. It's probably never going to work very well in its current form. They're still around and you can
still buy them but they really don't seem to be taking off. It will probably take a lot to get people totally
immersed and involved in a new form of game play.
It's threatening to lose touch with the outside world and the people around you aren't going to appreciate
it much either. The Sci-fi neural implants are also both a long way off and not likely to be accepted by a
majority of the general populace without some severe marketing and luck. I for one am not planning on going
through brain surgery just to have a computer attached to my head. In fact I never want anyone to able to plug
into my brain.
A technology that was brought to my attention by a zealous presenter at the local "Science and Technology
Centre" (a sort of science museum aimed at making science fun for children and juvenile adults such as yours
truly) is that of "Augmented Reality".
Augmented Reality is essentially the overlaying of virtual elements onto the real world, such as a pair of
transparent glasses that can display certain elements over the top of what is actually there. I agree with the
presenter in that this could indeed have some awesome potential. Forget all the socially beneficial
applications such as workmen being able to view underground pipes before digging, think about it from a games
point of view.
This technology could provide gamers with the ability to run around looking like complete idiots shooting at
things that aren't actually there and that no one else can see, kind of like in the film "They Live!" The
upside to this is that it would be a lot of fun.
A group of people from the University of South Australia created the "ARQuake" project, http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www/,
merging the classic shooter Quake with this Augmented Reality technology. Again, this technology may not
ever become overly popular, but it would be entertaining to play with.
Technology has driven the games industry for a long time with new games always trying to keep one step ahead
of the competition. It started way back at the dawn of technology and it continues to this day. 2D graphics
gave way to 3D and 3D is becoming ever better. Graphics are starting to lose the ability to impress like they
once did.
The step between Quake 2 and 3 was amazing, but DOOM 3 while being visually very impressive isn't leaps and
bounds ahead of its competitors in the same way new games used to be. 2D graphics encountered a similar
problem; there comes a point where you just can't do much more with graphics technology.
It is this that turns graphics from striving for technological achievement to becoming art. It is my hope
that we will start turning away from tech demos and return to game play and making great entertainment. Games
such as Zelda: The Wind Waker or The Sims that strive to show greater depth of character through simplifying
the game enough to portray emotions will hopefully become more common (and more fun but that"s just one
person's view).
Technology plays a certain part in the conveying of emotions and story but it's quite hard to focus on
everything at once. When technology is easier and less essential to game sales we'll hopefully see an increase
in games that cast a lasting impression.
Somewhat unfortunately the rise of the "Casual Gamer" will probably lead to more simplistic games being
released. While personally I would love to see depth of story and characters, there are a significant number of
players out there who want to pick up a game for twenty minutes or so, have a bit of fun, and then put it down
until another time.
These gamers are generally less interested in the latest greatest technology and more interested in a "fast
food" kind of entertainment that satisfies the moment, despite the lack of quality or the lasting effects.
Hopefully the two game types can co-exist peacefully although recently it has been seen that some developers
are cutting down on some of the planned depth of a title in order to accommodate the more casual gamer.
As technology pushes forwards boundaries are slowly being broken down between systems. We saw the Bleemcast
a few years back enabling the running of Playstation games on the Dreamcast, and the PC is able to run almost
anything given the right emulation software.
Consoles are able to emulate other consoles and new consoles are being announced that promise the ability to
play PC games. The Xbox 2 is reported to have a model in planning that comes in a PC case and with the ability
to run both PC software and Xbox software. Macs can emulate Windows software and vice-versa.
We'll probably start seeing less of a distinction between consoles and PCs as the price of technology
continues to drop and consoles continue to become more and more powerful and able to compete with the more
expensive computers.
Ideally we'll see a single platform come into prominence so that everything can be run without purchasing a
copious number of different machines, although that does have a downside in that it can establish a monopoly
for one particular company.
The technology price drop and increase in power has also lead to more powerful hand-held machines than
before. Real games, not just simple toys are now available for the portable market. The advent of PDAs and
mobile phones with the ability to play games raises awareness of portable gaming and new competitors are
starting to get in on the field that was once primarily dominated by Nintendo's GameBoy.
There is a new product, the gp32, that can run many different emulators and hence, many different system's
games (including some PC games).
I can't say for sure what's going to happen but these are just a few ideas that I've had recently. Hopefully
the games industry will continue to strive towards new heights with new and interesting game play, stories,
characters and ideas. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few years.
About The Author Daniel Punch, M6.Net | http://www.m6.net - danielp@m6.net
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