There’s been some delays on posting blog stuff since I wanted to clear writing activities with the new employer. Now that I have, here’s some backlog. :-)

I first visited New Orleans when I was a kid. I don’t much remember the details of that trip, but I came away with a mild-to-moderate distaste for the place. But I figured it had been well over a decade since then, so I decided to give it another chance on my recent trip across the country.

Man am I glad I did. Stayed in a little spot in the French Quarter, wandered the lonely streets, and had the best food and drink of my entire trip.

My lord, the food. So good it deserves its own paragraph. And those folks know how to make a Bloody Mary.

But I digress.

So my last post on how design interviews work really only covers the situation where you’re an established designer. (“Established” in this case can be as insubstantial as “have worked as a designer once.”) Getting that first break is the really hard part. I will always be grateful to the folks that gave me my first design gig, since they effectively gave me the label that I can now run with.

But as for getting that first break, I was recently pointed to an article by Steve Gaynor on getting in to the industry with no experience. Every designer I’ve met has a different story on how they got their first break, but many are a variation on his. He has some really good advice about the right attitudes and work ethics to get you started.

After this, I go back to talking about games themselves. F’reals.

(I had most of this written a while back, but have been sitting on it until my next job was settled. Didn’t want to jinx things.)

I have a lot of fun going to parties where I get to meet new people. Part of this is because I genuinely enjoy hearing about people’s lives, though I often express this interest with an unfortunately glib “so what’s your story?” Moreover, its really fun when the the topic comes around to what people do for a living because I get to smile and say “I design video games.” This elicits one of several responses.

• Guy who doesn’t give a shit about video games:

Oh. I teach poetry.

• Girl who doesn’t give a shit about video games:

My boyfriend plays Call of Duty a lot. Did you make that?

• Girl who doesn’t give a shit about video games, but is kind of wanting to keep talking to me:

Oh yeah? I really like the Wii! And that guitar game!

• Guy who likes video games:

Dude, that’s sweet! How’d you get that gig?

• Girl who likes video games:

[See above.]

• Game Programmer:

Man, I want to be a designer. How did you get to be one?

• Other Game Programmer:

You design folks are fruitcakes.

• Game Designer:

Oh, nice. Where do you work?

The point is that outside the industry, “Game Developer” is seen as a sexy job, and inside the industry, “Game Designer” is seen as a sexy role. This is not universally true; most artists/programmers/producers are very happy doing what they do. But there is a strong segment that wants to do design and feels like it’s the secret cabal. It’s also a frustrating secret cabal because oftentimes designers seem to have no tangible skills that differentiate them from other developers (or often seem defined by a lack of tangible skills, i.e.: “can’t code; can’t draw; must be a designer”).

Since I’ve been doing a lot of interviews lately, the question I get a lot (especially from industry friends) is “what the heck do they ask you at a design interview?” Since “design” covers all manner of tasks, it’s hard to imagine how a company can suss out your abilities in an interview. So I wanted to do a writeup on my experiences with design interviews at several different studios over the past few months. I’m not an authority in this situation, so you don’t have to take my word for it. This is just a kind of “what happens at design interviews, how I got them, how I prepped for them.” This is also based on my experiences interviewing people for positions at EA, so there’s some of both sides here. (I’ve avoided mentioning specifics of actual companies or people, but all the stories are true.)

There’s a potentially intriguing story in a recent article written by Darion White for Edge Online. I’ll link to it, let you read it, and then come back.

Why are Black Game Characters Failing the Audience?

While I agree with his premise (that black characters are under-represented in games, and heavily stereotyped where they do appear), I think the piece doesn’t really build up much of an argument, and mostly serves as a “look, see?” kind of writing. He also extols the virtues of Will Smith as a popular black media star while ignoring the usual criticisms that Smith has honed his image to be as non-black (and thus non-threatening to white audiences) as possible. I know not all game writing has to be of critical literary value, but Edge usually does better than this.

While the article got me thinking, my point is a different one. And there’s a small tangent coming here, so please indulge me.

While I was working at EA, I was one of the folks spearheading our local GameJam effort. The actual Jam took place in April of 2008 and turned out some pretty cool stuff.

When I left EA in earlier this year, they were cool enough to let me take our engine, called “Angel” with me, and gave me their blessing to open the source. With all the jamming going on right now, it seemed like a good time to get it up on the internets.

Angel’s project page on Google Code