Perhaps motivated isn''t the right word. Well in anycase, here is my thought: Why, oh why, do people want to develop games so much when they have little or no experience? I know some people get paid to develop (sometimes) , but realistically speaking, if you aren''t an artist or coder, your screwed. One thing that has been irritating me a lot is a friend I have. He always has good ideas for games, and helps me develop some, but when it comes to help, he provides nothing. He doesn''t want to read tutorials, and when I ask him why he doesn''t learn something like C/C++, he just says "No one to teach it to me." Then I think to myself: There are a lot of people that I know who think like this. "No one to teach it to me" is the same as saying "I''m too lazy to learn myself, and if no one is going to show me how, then I say forget it." I''m sorry, I am just very disappointed at my friend right now. Do any of you know anyone like this? Thanks for letting me vent. ~Dwarf Complete amatures whose only relevant skill is programming undertake to design games with no further preparation than their own experience as game players. Those who overrate their own understanding undercut their own potential for learning.

I realize the rest of the world is like that. I guess I just wanted to vent about my poor friend. I didn''t mean to offend or start a war with any designers out there (I''m one myself.)

~Dwarf


Complete amatures whose only relevant skill is programming undertake to design games with no further preparation than their own experience as game players. Those who overrate their own understanding undercut their own potential for learning.

I second that!

__________________________
wootkoos

Rhott Studios
Art Director

email: wootkoos@rhott.com
icq: 78544868
web: www.rhott.com
__________________________

My problem is that I have the motivation to do one big design project, and only one, at a time. But there are so many fun projects to do, and many of them are so much _shorter_ than a game design project, that it''s always tempting to say "The game can wait until next week - this week I wanna paint." Or sew, or draw, or make a manga, or write a story, or...

Obviously I try not to give in to this, but you have to work with your inspiration.

rharpe, I don''t think Dwarf meant that the way you took it. He didn''t say you had to code to be of help, he said you have to help. Doing the artwork is fine. Doing nothing is useless.

This has come up a couple of times in the few months I''ve been here. Most of the time people who say "designers" must program really mean they gotta get off their duffs and do SOMETHING to give the game a "physical" form. Even though programming well is hard, it is still a learned skill. Good art/sound skills take base talent for the training and practice to build on, so it makes sense for a newb to start out coding. I think this is what was meant.

I agree, though, that it is a shame some people refuse to try to learn for themselves. I know from experience if you show me something once, you''ll never have to show me again, but if I learn it myself I understand the WHY''S of the task and can better cope with variations of the problem.


ShadeStorm, the Day_Glo Fish

I agree and disagree. Here''s why:

When you look at a game like Rainbow Six (we all know what this is, right?), what do you see? I see a well-programmed first person shooter with a decent design, good textures, etc. But there''s something missing.

An involved and well-developed story.

Does it really take a rocket scientest to be able to come up with the idea of stopping terrorists? I don''t think so. It''s in this case that you can see the designer doing more than just designing.

But then, take a look at Final Fantasy 7. The artists did a great job with the graphics; you could tell they were talented, skilled, and more than likely, quite expierienced. The music was very well done and definately gave the game some "umpf." The programmers did a great job with it. But what stands out the most in Final Fantasy 7?

The involved and well-developed story ().

Obviosly, the designer devoted alot of his time perfecting just about everything.

Now, I''m not saying that the designer(s) of FF7 weren''t artists or programmers, but if they did nothing else but write the script, design the levels (the designer-ish stuff), would you have thought lesser of them? I wouldn''t. They did a great job, possibly the best job they could.

On the other hand, most people who claim to be designers think that being a designer means you have an idea. There''s alot more to it than that. You need to be devoted (and motivated). These people who "have ideas" tend to fail, mainly because they are usually impatient. They figured they could write their idea on paper, get a programmer and an artist and the game would be done in a week. Then they could go show all of their friends how good of a job they did.

What I''m saying is, I don''t mind if the designer can''t do anything else other than design, but, "by Moradin''s Hammer" (that one''s for you Dwarf ), they could at least do a damn good job of designing!


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Simple DirectMedia Layer:

Main Site - (www.libsdl.org)
Cone3D Tutorials- (cone3D.gamedev.net)
GameDev.net''s Tutorials - (Here)

OpenGL:

Main Site - (www.opengl.org)
NeHe Tutorials - (nehe.gamedev.net)
Online Books - (Red Book) (Blue Book)