[game_edu] Brenda Braithwaite's game_edu rant at GDC

[Anthony Hart-Jones]

On 05/03/11 05:41, Ian Schreiber wrote:

> I think it's unfair to say that this is a holdover from AAA, given 

> that Brenda has immersed herself in social game development for the 

> past several years, and her games in that space have certainly not 

> followed traditional retail business models.

   Well, given the way social games work, I would not be surprised if 
this is the very reason for her statement.  The smaller the studio, the 
more useful it is to have skills in the other disciplines.  My 
experience of Indie is that anyone who cannot prototype the game solo is 
going to find it harder than those who can.  This does not mean 
proficiency in C++ necessarily, as even a FPS can be mocked up with a 
basic knowledge of UDK or Unity.


> The huge takeaway I have from this thread: at present, four designers 

> currently working in industry (including Brenda) have said that 

> designers lacking a foundation of code will find it difficult to 

> impossible to find a job in the current market. Five if you include 

> me. As educators, we ignore this at our students' peril.

   I disagree.

   The sentiment appears to be that when two recent graduates of equal 
skill apply for a job, one knowing C++ and one not, apply for a job, the 
knowledge of programming will be a deciding factor.  This does not mean 
"designers lacking a foundation of code will find it difficult to 
impossible to find a job in the current market", but rather that all 
things being equal, it is better to know how to program than not.

   Isn't that obvious?

   What I would caution against is teaching programming to a designer to 
the detriment of their design skills.  Faced with a pair of graduates 
holding first-class honours degrees, I would prioritise the one with a 
well-designed board game over the one who has written a 3D game with no 
real depth or originality.  You hire a designer to design games with a 
degree of flair and originality, after all.

   Actually, in all honesty...  If I saw one student who implemented his 
own ideas and one who worked with a programmer, I would hire the one who 
worked with a programmer; by doing so, they have displayed the ability 
to communicate their ideas (an essential design skill), an awareness of 
their own limitations (an essential games development skill) and the 
ability to work in a team (an essential life skill).  The self-coding 
designer would need to demonstrate these skills in some other way and no 
amount of self-sufficiency can replace practical experience of team working.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_edu/attachments/20110305/8cb4210c/attachment.htm>