Was going to bump my old thread from OT, can't find it.

Console games programmer.

Here is our BAFTA:

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc26/kierengracie/new/allnighter.jpg

I went home early that night and didn't do an all nighter ;)

Here is some Germans enjoying that game, I hope they don't swear, in German, when they are playing it:

20z-_xYgk-s

Sony just canned our recent project but we have another one, PS3 platform game.

What company do you work for?

The one that did the game in the Youtube link. Not very big, been going for 17 years though.

EDIT: It's Magenta Software anyway. Our website is rubbish.

Nice work, the engine seems good (graphics flowing ok). What else was your work to do in that particular game?

Also, does your company make non-platformer games as well?

I did gameplay and tools coding in that game. That wasn't a platformer, it was a collection of minigames using the Buzz controller.

:D Should have stuck with the video...

Another question: which old software company influenced you to get into gaming? (although you said that partly it was chance that got you from a math MA to computer software-related things)

I love some of the old companies like Delphine, Psygnosis, Ocean etc.

Psygnosis is now Sony, so bumflaps to them.

I'm a Nintendo fanboi

Question: why has the entire industry developed such a hatred for proper save functions? Games like Minecraft and Diablo II have fused save-exit functions (no exit without saving? NERDRAGE!!!), while first-person shooters now rely on checkpoints and retarded Wolverine healing instead of the far superior save-whenever-you-want, get-some-first-aid-if-you-want-to-feel-better system. What up with that?

What language do you program in and how long have you been learning to program?

Question: why has the entire industry developed such a hatred for proper save functions? Games like Minecraft and Diablo II have fused save-exit functions (no exit without saving? NERDRAGE!!!), while first-person shooters now rely on checkpoints and retarded Wolverine healing instead of the far superior save-whenever-you-want, get-some-first-aid-if-you-want-to-feel-better system. What up with that?

As someone who actually programmed games too, my answer is that first, it is relatively difficult to implement a safe-whenever-you-want system compared to checkpoints and second, it may be a design choice to enhance the challenge.

Now I'm probably nowhere near the level or experience of ParadigmShifter, but I'm sure he would concur with me here.

Question: why has the entire industry developed such a hatred for proper save functions? Games like Minecraft and Diablo II have fused save-exit functions (no exit without saving? NERDRAGE!!!), while first-person shooters now rely on checkpoints and retarded Wolverine healing instead of the far superior save-whenever-you-want, get-some-first-aid-if-you-want-to-feel-better system. What up with that?

Minecraft and Diablo are sort of an update to roguelike games, where you have permadeath. I don't like the "hide behind a wall" healing in FPS's these days.

What language do you program in and how long have you been learning to program?

C and C++. Started programming in 1981, in BASIC on a ZX81. Been a pro programmer for 17 years, after I went on a training course to learn C ;) I already knew Pascal though from CS A level and Maths degree. First programming job was doing PS1 games, when the PS1 devkit was bigger than a PC is these days. Also worked on PS2, Wii, PS Vita, PS3. We did some XBox360 stuff but nothing that was released. Our engine does work on the 360 though. I also do Tools coding on the PC, that's C++ and some C# occasionally for GUI stuff. The stuff I do tools wise is mainly getting the data from 3DS Max into the correct format for the engine guys.

As someone who actually programmed games too, my answer is that first, it is relatively difficult to implement a safe-whenever-you-want system compared to checkpoints and second, it may be a design choice to enhance the challenge.

Now I'm probably nowhere near the level or experience of ParadigmShifter, but I'm sure he would concur with me here.

Yeah, it's more difficult to implement save whenever you want, you need to save the state of all entities, checkpoints is much easier.

What is your favourite part of the whole process?

Do you mod in your spare time? (not counting Civ, though if you do, do tell)

If one of us had a good idea for a game, could you bring it to your company and see if it could be made?

Actually, what is the process that determines what game gets made?

What is the latest development in the industry that has excited you?

How many hours a day do you spend programming?

How long would one have to learn programming before being considered for a "professional" job?

How long does it take your team to complete a game?

I like maths and gameplay programming the best. AI stuff isn't bad either. Worst part is shuffling data about.

I don't program in my spare time at all. I only got a home PC in 2006 ;)

A game idea isn't good enough, you need some design docs and such. What we normally do is either pitch an idea to a publisher (usually accompanied with a tech demo - about a months worth of work say), or they offer work to us, we got an offer to do a HD remake of a PS2 game but we had to turn it down because we got another contract which needs more resources and lasts longer.

I don't get very excited about tech developments, sorry. My mobile phone still has buttons! AR stuff (overlaying graphics on a real world scene) is quite interesting, I suppose.

How many hours a day do you spend programming?

How long would one have to learn programming before being considered for a "professional" job?

How long does it take your team to complete a game?

We work 10AM-6PM, with about 45mins for lunch, so about 7 hours a day including ciggy breaks ;) When it is crunch time we do a bit of overtime, sometimes 11 hours a day? But not for very long. Sometimes we do an all-nighter but only when we need to hit a deadline.

These days you need to have a relevant degree (maths, physics, CS) but as long as you can program fairly well you can pick it up - maybe a couple of years experience? A finished demo is good too. Once you get a job you learn quickly.

It normally takes between 12 months and 2 years to do a game. A bit longer if it is for a new platform, since the engine and libraries have to be ported over.

Look how hi-tech we are. This is my TV attached to a broken fan with gaffer tape. And on Friday, the owner of the monitor came in and took it away, cos the boss hasn't bought enough TV's.

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc26/kierengracie/new/monitor.jpg

EDIT: Also my mouse mat is an envelope, I did write "Kieren's Super Duper Mouse Mat" on it, in big letters, though.

Is it an enjoyable job or one that you think back on and think "yep, probably should have thought this through"?

I like maths, so I like it.

Question: why has the entire industry developed such a hatred for proper save functions? Games like Minecraft and Diablo II have fused save-exit functions (no exit without saving? NERDRAGE!!!), while first-person shooters now rely on checkpoints and retarded Wolverine healing instead of the far superior save-whenever-you-want, get-some-first-aid-if-you-want-to-feel-better system. What up with that?

There's a gap in the playerbase between those that like to save scumm and those that do not.

What is the challenge of porting a console game to PC and vice versa?

PC has loads of memory and a big cache. Consoles always have the same hardware though so you can push it to the limit.

Minecraft and Diablo are sort of an update to roguelike games, where you have permadeath.

But neither Minecraft nor Diablo II have permadeath (unless you're playing hardcore), and Diablo I had a proper save function :undecide:

Also, "just because Rogue did it" is a crappy answer to any design decision.

If allowing games to save whenever can be difficult, how do they get around that with games like Oblivion/Morrowind/Skyrim where just about everything can be moved around and placed somewhere else?

Those games are full of bugs though.

Which parts of math a youngling should focus on most to get a better grasp of the programming stuff?

do you like bananas?

love bananas

Which parts of math a youngling should focus on most to get a better grasp of the programming stuff?

All of it.

Especially useful for games is linear algebra (vectors, matrices), trig, probability, mechanics.

Linear algebra, like.

Do you work with fun people? Are the all-nighters fun, dreaded, or both?

Do you play your own games?

Linear algebra, like.

Working with vectors, matrices, bases, and of course vector spaces. And inner products. And least squares especially.

My question: Did you pluralize games in the thread title for the same reason you Brits pluralize math?

Do you work with fun people? Are the all-nighters fun, dreaded, or both?

Fun people. I'm the only Evertonian in the office though :( All-nighters are dreaded. We do get free food and breakfast though.

Do you play your own games?

We have to, to find bugs.

Working with vectors, matrices, bases, and of course vector spaces. And inner products. And least squares especially.

My question: Did you pluralize games in the thread title for the same reason you Brits pluralize math?

What is the American abbreviation of statistics?

What is the American abbreviation of statistics?

Why, stats, of cour - I see where you're going...

Those games are full of bugs though.

So is Diablo II, and it lacks a true save function. Conversely, first-person shooters from Wolfenstein 3D to Quake 4 have historically had the ability to save at any time, and didn't suffer from any bugs that I've noticed.

Can you program in/understand assembly languages? Would you say that it's required in order to be considered a "good" programmer?

I can read assembly a bit, but I wouldn't want to write more than a few lines of it.

Fun people. I'm the only Evertonian in the office though :( All-nighters are dreaded. We do get free food and breakfast though.
I do not understand your complaint.

And… breakfast isn't food?
We have to, to find bugs.
I meant, do you play them for fun?
So is Diablo II, and it lacks a true save function. Conversely, first-person shooters from Wolfenstein 3D to Quake 4 have historically had the ability to save at any time, and didn't suffer from any bugs that I've noticed.
You've never played Blood, Heretic, or a great many other games then.

How can I play them for fun? I refuse to buy any Sony products ;)

I did play Jungle Party at Christmas a few years back with the family though, on my brother's PS2. It was fun and everyone was impressed ;)

Whats your fav game genres?
You like PS3?

Well I like Civ, and Nintendo games.

I refuse to buy any Sony products, so no, I don't have a PS3. I did have a PS1, but it got stolen by smack heads. I didn't replace it.

EDIT: They also stole my N64, of course I replaced that ;)

How can I play them for fun? I refuse to buy any Sony products ;)

I did play Jungle Party at Christmas a few years back with the family though, on my brother's PS2. It was fun and everyone was impressed ;)
Who said you have to buy stuff? You live in liverpool, don'tcha? :p
Well I like Civ, and Nintendo games.

I refuse to buy any Sony products, so no, I don't have a PS3. I did have a PS1, but it got stolen by smack heads. I didn't replace it.

EDIT: They also stole my N64, of course I replaced that ;)
They should have been hunted down and dealt with appropriately.

I like maths and gameplay programming the best. AI stuff isn't bad either. Worst part is shuffling data about.

What do you mean by 'shuffling data about'? Exactly which aspects of games involve that?

With the AI stuff, is it decisions trees, weighted probabilities, or something else entirely?

Have you ever had to try to get an AI routine to learn?

is your company on going?
Have you ever made a game commercially successful?
Do you have a homepage?
Who sponsors your company?
Are you leading your company?

Does it matter what kind of game you have to make?

Given unlimited funds and time, what kind of game would you like to make?

You've never played Blood

False. I love the first few maps of that game, and thought that seeing an entire map on a moving train was brilliant. It kind of got boring after a while, though. I also loved the AvP Easter egg in Blood II

How would you, in broad terms, design a 2D whole game engine?

is your company on going?
Have you ever made a game commercially successful?
Do you have a homepage?
Who sponsors your company?
Are you leading your company?

It's been going about 17 years I think.

Does it matter what kind of game you have to make?

Given unlimited funds and time, what kind of game would you like to make?

I'd make a decent strategy game I suppose.

How would you, in broad terms, design a 2D whole game engine?

Bit of a complicated question that... depends on what sort of game it is as well, sprite based, tile based backgrounds, isometric? Work on the tile engine and the sprite overlays first anyway.

How long would it take you to learn a new language?

Well you never stop learning C++, it's a complicated beast.

Learning the libraries is more complicated than learning the language, I don't really know C# but I can wing it by looking at the MSDN help.

Learning a different language paradigm is more difficult, I tried to teach myself LISP but went rusty die to lack of practice.

How long did it take to be able to do useful things with C++?

What was your first language?

Could you look at the Minecraft source code and translate it from Java to C or C++ so its system requirements are more in line with its level of sophistication?

How long did it take to be able to do useful things with C++?

What was your first language?

BASIC on the ZX81 ;) Then the Spectrum, BBC micro (at school). Then I learnt Pascal (badly taught at school). After my degree I went on a C programming course, then got a job doing a conversion of a golf game for the PS1. I had a few years doing device drivers and Windows programming (not games) where I taught myself C++ (and enough Visual Basic to test COM/ActiveX controls). Took about 6 weeks to do useful stuff I suppose, but I'm still learning new things 11 years on.

I taught myself a bit of LISP and C#, use C# occasionally at work. I taught myself Z80 programming to do a conversion of Manic Miner on a Spectrum (emulator), didn't quite finish it though (it was loads faster than the original though!).

Could you look at the Minecraft source code and translate it from Java to C or C++ so its system requirements are more in line with its level of sophistication?

Yeah, Java is similar to C++. Can I be bothered? No ;)

What do you mean by 'shuffling data about'? Exactly which aspects of games involve that?

With the AI stuff, is it decisions trees, weighted probabilities, or something else entirely?

Have you ever had to try to get an AI routine to learn?

This also interests me.

Which operating system do you use at work?

This also interests me.

Never tried to get the AI to learn - too much work, not enough time, and easily exploitable (play badly deliberately, train the AI into a bad strategy, then hit it with a good strategy, etc.).

Which operating system do you use at work?

I have Windows 7 but we still have people running XP and Vista (yuk).

The PS3 has a sort of OS but nothing worth knowing about.

I have Windows 7

...and my sincerest sympathies.

Windows 7 is much better than XP and Vista.

I have windows 7 on a partition on my Mac and I really like it. We have XP at work and it's workable, but I much prefer 7.

/OSwarz

Yeah, it's fast and it doesn't nag like Vista.

Better than Vista, even 98 is. Windows 7 being better than XP, not sure.

Windows 7 is much better than XP and Vista.

Correct on the latter, not so much on the former. The biggest problems with XP were the screwy start menu and folder options, and those could easily be reset to how they were in win95/98/2k. Win7 didn't give that option, AND it exacerbated the compatibility issues that made Vista such a headache, AND it still has the same old "our vastly improved memory-management system somehow requires more RAM" nonsense that Vista had...

I've suffered through DOS, Mac OS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Linux, Windows XP, Vista, Mac OSX, Win7, you name it, and XP has provided the best balance of stability, compatibility, customizability, speed, and everything else that's important in an OS. It works when other OSes don't, and that's what matters.

I actually played the game of the OP the other day and enjoyed it! :D

Which one? Jungle Party?

if i demanded you start contributing to fallout 4 (by writing some dialogue) would you do it?

No. The only dialogue I would like to contribute I am not allowed to post on this forum.

They really need to implement decent pathfinding, If Bethesda's other games are anything to go by ;)

what do you mean by pathfinding?

and i know, that's why you need to write the freaking dialogue of a fallout game.



whcih leads me to another question: do they hire special teams for story writing for games or is that usually the programmer's job?

Have you not seen the enemies/NPCs stuck behind a small rock trying to reach the player? Or falling off a cliff by mistake?

i have and now get what you mean by pathfinding.

Designers do the story. Programmers certainly don't ;)

Bethesda has Ken Rolston (used to do pencil and paper RPG game scenarios) so he knows what a good story is.

We just get game designers who can't spell, or do grammar ;) I correct them all the time... At least the bloke who enters the text in the translation spreadsheet (other job requirements: cutting the sound samples up, making sure there is enough milk/pens/tea and coffee) knows about spelling and grammar.

Which one? Jungle Party?
Yes, I was kind of drunk though.

Did you see the Z's from the big gorilla? All my own work ;)

EDIT: I think they banned that game in the US though - you're not allowed to show monkeys farting in a jacuzzi, apparently.

I honestly don't remember, but I am sure you outdid yourself.

Was it the PS3 version? I wrote the AI monkey framework for that, PS2 version didn't have AI.

It was just based on the Normal distribution though (I want to press the button at this time, randomise it a bit).

Just PS2

Well I wish I was drunk when we had to play it before making a DVD for each milestone.

Hippo Splash was the time we just went for a ciggy break, boring, took ages. My favourite was probably whack a squirrel.

I did most of the single player games on the PS2 (removed from PS3 I think). They made me make it easier! It was quite a challenge originally to do the turtle game, then they made it ridiculously easy to get max points.

EDIT: The most maths I did in the PS2 version was the exponential damping I did on the sliding down the tree game when you were just about to hit your nuts on a tree stump ;)

Well, it is a game for small children, isn't it? Or well for drunk adults. You aren't supposed to enjoy it I guess ;) Btw, it is actually impossible to anticipate those tree stumps, right?
But I must say that it is cool to suddenly discover the British programmer of a game I happened to play to hang around here. :) Small world and all

Have you not seen the enemies/NPCs stuck behind a small rock trying to reach the player? Or falling off a cliff by mistake?
Designers do the story. Programmers certainly don't ;)

Bethesda has Ken Rolston (used to do pencil and paper RPG game scenarios) so he knows what a good story is.

We just get game designers who can't spell, or do grammar ;) I correct them all the time... At least the bloke who enters the text in the translation spreadsheet (other job requirements: cutting the sound samples up, making sure there is enough milk/pens/tea and coffee) knows about spelling and grammar.
So, based on those 2 posts, it's clear Bethesda lack programmers.

Depending on what a 'translation spreadsheet' is, I could do that. The rest's already in.
Btw, it is actually impossible to anticipate those tree stumps, right? I could swear they keep moving!

Tree stump locations are completely random ;) It's just a game of chicken... how long do you stay in the front... it's over multiple rounds though so that makes more strategy than it seems at first.

EDIT: Hint - get a big lead if you go first in round 1. Catching up is harder than staying ahead.

A translation spreadsheet is a spreadsheet that has english translations in one column, and other language translations in other columns. We then use that to extract the right text for different language versions.

Then I can do that!

But can you make sure we have milk, tea, coffee, pens AND cut up sound effects and normalise them?

Milk, tea, coffee, pens… you don't put lemon or sugar in your tea?

As for cutting up sound effects, nope.

It's easy in cooledit, apparently. We have interviewed a proper sound engineer recently though.

So I can do all the stuff the engineer can't, such as making sure you have milk, tea, coffee, and pens!

What's the average budget per videogame? And what's, according to your estimations, the budget of really big games such as EUIII?

What's the average budget per videogame? And what's, according to your estimations, the budget of really big games such as EUIII?

EUIII isn't a big game. Its budget would be a fraction of any actual mainstream game.