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                    <div align="left"> 
                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Anatomy 
                        of a Video Game</font></i></font></b><br>
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 
                        <a href="mailto:jsimpson@ravensoft.com">Jake Simpson</a></font></div>
                    </div>
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                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 8 <br>
                      January 10, 2000&nbsp; </font></b></h5>
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              <loonystart>
              <p align="left">&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The differences 
                between Console and Arcade development are a bit subtler. The 
                first thing is that Arcade machines tend to be built around the 
                demands of the game. If you need to put 100,000 polys on the screen 
                each frame, then a machine can be built that will let you do that. 
                However, it will be expensive, which affects the final sales price 
                of the game, which directly affects the numbers you will sell. 
                I&#146;m sure you can all see the implications for cabinets, monitors 
                and so on. Another point is that arcade machines are what are 
                called &#147;pick up games&#148;. This means that there is no 
                save function, little in the way of cinematic eye candy, and you 
                have to be able to be able to play an entire game in 2 minutes. 
                The idea of an Arcade machine is to provide a 1 to 2 minute experience 
                that the player wants to repeat, paying for the privilege. You 
                don&#146;t have time for long exploration games, or anything that 
                requires too much reading and so on, although we are starting 
                to get into the topic of design rather than implementation here.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font size="+1"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">How 
                to get into games development</font></b></font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> The simplest 
                way to is to write a hit game :) </font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Seriously, 
                we&#146;ll start with the skills you will certainly need if you 
                want to be a coder. C is a must, preferably C++. Assembler is 
                never a bad thing, since it gives you an idea of what&#146;s going 
                on at the CPU level. A grounding in trigonometry is helpful, so 
                you know what&#146;s going on in 3D translations and transformations, 
                as well as perspective correction and so on. </font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Understanding 
                memory management is useful, and having at least a passing knowledge 
                of physics works too. Something that&#146;s indefinable but always 
                helps is having a passion for games. Knowing what games are hot 
                and why is a must if you want to create one yourself. There are 
                some obvious things that most jobs require, time management and 
                so on, but it&#146;s more important that you have a passion to 
                do this, so you bring something to the table.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">These 
                days you can afford to specialize a bit, so if you want to do 
                network programming, deciding that you want to know more about 
                how the Internet works, and how others have solved the latency 
                and lost packet problems would be a good start. Whatever you decide 
                to specialize in, know your subject cold. This I can&#146;t reiterate 
                that enough. You may come in my office telling me you know all 
                about renderers, but if you don&#146;t know how a BSP tree works, 
                then your going to get tossed out on your ear.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">To get 
                your foot in the door, have a comprehensive one-page resume. Have 
                some examples of your work. We can all talk a good game, but if 
                you can provide a little demo that exemplifies some point you 
                are trying to make, it looks very good on you, both that you can 
                do it, and that you have.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Don&#146;t 
                be afraid to email some of the more notable examples of industry 
                gurus. I did this myself when I was a kid, and I leant a ton! 
                Most will respond to your emails since they remember when they 
                were learning too. Plus, this builds up your list of contacts 
                in the trade, and in this trade, just like any other, a lot of 
                it is not what you know, but who you know.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The last 
                thing that you should know is that you aren&#146;t going to be 
                a millionaire over night. Everyone makes a lot out the amount 
                of cash John Carmack has made by owning Id software. Well, he&#146;s 
                the odd one out. Most of us aren&#146;t millionaires, or even 
                in the neighborhood. We just scrape by like the rest of the world. 
                However we do have at least the opportunity to make a ton of cash 
                should lightning strike. Which brings us on to....</font></p>
              <p align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <font size="+1"><b>Pros 
                and Cons of the trade.</b></font></font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, 
                being in the right place with the right product can make you heaps 
                of cash. And lets face it, if that isn&#146;t a Pro, I don&#146;t 
                know what is :) There are other less life changing pro&#146;s 
                too, like casual dress. Most game developer houses I know don&#146;t 
                expect you to come to work in a tie, you can get away with shorts 
                and T-shirt almost all of the time, even at trade shows.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Another 
                thing that most game houses offer is flextime. This is a huge 
                bonus, and is very helpful when developing games. Often, it&#146;s 
                passion that keeps you going, so you&#146;ll end up working till 
                4 in the morning trying to get something finished. Flextime gives 
                you the freedom to do this, and not worry about being in to work 
                by 9 the next morning. Traditionally, games houses have always 
                been very flexible about stuff like this. They need to, for reasons 
                that will become obvious in a moment.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Financially, 
                besides the whole royalty deal, you can get paid pretty well in 
                this industry. To start with, you won&#146;t, but that&#146;s 
                the same with all industries. Once you have a title or two under 
                your belt, your bank ability goes up, and you can start racking 
                in the cash. It&#146;s no unusual for you to be earning plus 50k 
                after a few (5+) years of experience. To a certain extent, it&#146;s 
                the same as other industries, where you don&#146;t get what you 
                are worth, but what you negotiate.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Another 
                nice thing is the games playing. You get to play a ton of games, 
                and get paid for it. We call it research. My wife calls it goofing 
                off. The atmosphere at most developers is like a bunch of kids 
                with really cool toys. And when I say toys, I mean it. Most people 
                are rabid star wars of Sci-fi fans, and deck out their offices 
                with action figures and so on. And the toys do get more exotic 
                &#150; many of my friends own Harley Davidson motorcycles.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Occasionally, 
                if you have a movie tie in, you can get to meet famous people 
                too. When working at Midway, we had Aerosmith come in for a game 
                tie in, which was fun.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Con wise, 
                the work is hard. It&#146;s fun, but it&#146;s hard. In crunch 
                mode, - the weeks before the release of a title &#150; we put 
                in16 hour days for weeks on end, weekends too. I would say we 
                think nothing of it, but I certainly do. Friends think you&#146;ve 
                dropped off the face of the earth, and home life can be severely 
                disrupted. You don&#146;t see the sun for days on end, and you 
                end up pasty white.</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You must 
                be on top of your game. This industry changes month to month, 
                and for you to still be useful, you must keep track of technology 
                and new techniques. </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There 
                are other things, but I don&#146;t want to put anyone off this 
                industry, since it can totally rock if you are the right person 
                for it.</font></p>
              <p align="left">&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><i>- 
                Jake Simpson is a code monkey for Raven Software. He's badass.</i></font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.3dpalette.com/dimension">Durrenberger David 
  (dines)</a>. This article is &copy; 2000 Jake Simpson. All other content is 
  &copy; 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. So 
  don't do it, or we'll dissect you.</font></i></p>
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