Sweet I just got invited to a Focus group with Richard Garriot

#1 I haven't been to a focus group period. I'd be interested to hear what Richard thinks of these degrees. I think they can help one get into the industry, but overall, I don't think I like them.

#2 Congrats. Here's a little advice and encouragement:

* Evaluate your strengths and consider how they might apply to the topic.

* Are you a skilled gamer or developer? If so, find a way to use that.

* Have you taken any art, design, film or photography classes? If so, maybe those classroom experiences can provide inspiration, teaching ideas, and creator-friendly techniques for a Game Dev class setting.

* Have you struggled to learn any aspect of game dev? (silly question, right ;) ) If you have encountered problems while getting started in the business, take stock of the specific problems you faced. What game dev aspect did those challenges belong to (art, coding, etc.)? Also, what did it take to finally overcome each particular obstacle?

* Consider what kind of Game Degree program you would like to be a part of if you had a chance to enroll. What classes would you want? What kind of atmosphere would appeal to you most? What kind of delivery method would you like to see? What kinds of projects would help you prepare for making your own games?

The bottom line is this: talk about what you know and leave the rest to someone else. If you don't know something, don't act like you do. Finally, trust yourself to know who you are and the things that interest you. If you do that, you will be fine.

Aaron E.

P.S. If you get a chance to shake his hand, make sure your own hands aren't sweaty. ;)

#3

Quote:
* Have you taken any art, design, film or photography classes? If so, maybe those classroom experiences can provide inspiration, teaching ideas, and creator-friendly techniques for a Game Dev class setting.

This is slightly off topic, but I highly, highly recomend that everyone doing graphics (well everyone in any line of work, actually) should take some B&W photo classes. It will teach you far, far more than most people appreciate. The lessons I learned with regard to light, composition, how the human eye interacts with images and so on were invaluable and I still maintain, to this day, I learned more in one photo class than I did in all my CS classes. If it says anything, most of my photo classes were at 8am for 4 hours, and I attended every single class. There is no other class that can be said of.

#4 @ Aaron That is indeed some great advice. I think I am going to play it pretty quiet get through the intro part. Watch and see how others deliver their comments and then roll with mine. I don't think I will be to nervous to meet good ol' Lord British but I just wish that I could get some alone time with him to network. I would love to say hey you want to fund this crazy idea I have?

#5 Donald,

He probably hears tons of project pitches all the time. If I were you, I would try really hard to resist the urge.

However here are some things you can try if you have a little time to prepare. I'm not an expert, but all of these ideas are things I'm trying for my my new company. Some of them are untested so far -- we'll see how it turns out. :) Anyway, if it sounds like I'm going overboard with any of these ideas, feel free to ignore them. Ok, here they are . . .

Depending on the venue and the atmosphere, you could possibly wear your ideas (not too flashy though). If you don't have it already, consider getting your company logo and web address embroidered onto a nice shirt (make sure you've got a good contrast on thread colors). Every person you shake hands with (gaming legend or not) will probably notice the logo design and web address -- and some of them might even ask you about it. Assuming you already have a company logo, the cost to get it professionally embroidered onto a shirt shouldn't be more than $15 or so. If the event is very laid back, you might get away with wearing a high-quality T-shirt with your company logo on the front and maybe a concept sketch of your main project idea applied to the back.

Also, a good set of business cards will help people remember who you are and what you're about long after the event is over. Yes those little cards might eventually just get tossed away, but even then, they will probably be seen at least one more time before going in the trash. Even that last glance before business-card anihilation is another marketing moment for you. I'm new to the game dev world, but every networking and education conference I've attended, I was asked multiple times for my card. If you don't already have business cards of your own, expect to pay $50 or more for a small set. Be sure to get them done professionally instead of printing your own. :)

If you don't have your own 'short URL' Dot Com address yet, consider getting one soon. I checked out your profile and it didn't look like you had a site of your own yet. www.godaddy.com has some decent plans starting at around $150 (give or take). You'll get at least one domain-specific e-mail address with any of the plans, and that has its own benefits. If you check my profile, you'll notice that I don't have anything listed either. I'm still operating in semi-'stealth' mode, but I've got everything in place and should make a public announcement very soon.

One more thing. I should have mentioned this first, but if you don't have a professional looking logo and a meaningful company name yet, you might want to look into that. Expect that you will get invited to more of these events in the future with even higher profile names -- and then plan accordingly.

Be sure to savor the experience so you can build on it in the future. And don't forget to let us know how it goes.

Aaron E.

#6 Those are very good ideas indeed. Only I am not that clost at all to having my own company most of my other threads on the board have been about, What tools to use, and how to get a team together. I have two great ideas that I would like to see fleshed out but knowing that I am not the best coder requires me to either get the idea off to a company to make it or gather some local guys and produce the idea myself. To be honest I am only looking to use this opp to shake hands and network. Even though I have his email address(from the CC feild in the email) I would consider this meeting a personal success if he were to give it to me himself. My other goal is to get invited out to his studio and sit down and chat for a bit. All this while I am slaving away at Dell trying to see if I can find some other like minded nerds to help me out with this idea.

#7 Yep, it looks like I got a little carried away. Sorry about that. But maybe some of that stuff will come in handy one day. I know what you mean though. There is something very cool and strangely empowering about being in the presence of visionary creators. For whatever reason, it seems to make our own futures seem a little brighter.

And on the road to that future, let me encourage you to pursue your ideas and dreams as if no one was ever going to help you. If you start developing the skills you need, it will help you in the long run. Get the SDK and dig into the code, build some simple models, etc. Bring all of that together and prototype your idea. Later, once you have something basic to show, others may see ways that they can help you.

#8 Relax, it's just Richard Garriot you are meeting with, not Lord British or anything ;)

#9 Takes a big sigh of relief... yup I just have to pull it together. You know what... I will get so ticked if he is not there ahahah! Oh well thanks for all the advice I will report back on Thursday afternoon!

#10 I got a chance to meet Richard Garriot a couple of times at E3 2004, he seems to be a pretty down to Earth guy that is happy to talk about games and gaming in general, as such I don't think that you should be too worried. Its a focus group, meaning that its meeting of various people to gather input and opinions towards getting and idea of how to best target a specific market, so just be yourself and walk in there and give inciteful opinions when necessary.

#11 Yeah I think I am just so dang desperate to get my idea out of my head and into a gamers hand it is driving me bonkers. Oh well.

#12 Ok so first off someone should have told me that there was a person named Robert Garriot. But in the end it did not matter becuase he did not show. So lets start with the people who did come:

Matt Scibili and Billy Cain of Critical Mass InterActive ( more about these two later)

Quoc Tran from NC Soft and AustinGameDevelopers.com

Bret Butler from Public Games.com

Richard Vogel who is from Bioware. He announced something very cool there but I am not sure it is public knowledge just keep your eyes open in Austin ;)

There was some local Austinites there as well but none to really mention at this point. I sat next to Bill and Matt and was pretty nervous knowing that I did have to much to contribute but alot to gain. Here are the key points I picked up from the discussion. California is to expensive to get people to come out and live there and work. So other citys are growing fast with game studios. There is a shortage in the market for programmers and game designers. The most interesting thing I notice right off the bat is how dedicated Billy and Matt where about giving back to the industry. The whole point of those guys showing up was to make sure DeVry was teaching something that students can use and make themselves marketable. Bret supporting them making DeVry aware of how many positions are open on Tran's website. Overall it was a great exchange and I will say this anyone who is interested in going into development and is thinking about DeVry should really look into that school. Not that they were off the mark before the meeting but I think they just made a good thing better.

For Example
The panel asked for students to leave with something in hand a Demo. Also give space to students so that they can post progress on the web and send that out to companies. They even wanted to teach the students interviewing skills.

They also ask them to take Java from the course and replace it with more in depth C++ studies as well as DataBase administration.

Man I really do wish I had an IPod so I could have recorded it for you guys.

I was truly amazed at how much everyone was so interested in giving back. It seems as if Billy was asking questions to figure out if he could teach or not. DeVry rule is that professors must have real world experience. I was also able to run some ideas by all of them and got some great points about my personal projects and the industry in general. It was really funny to see how Brett was against CD or DVD's his comment was to me if you can make something and deliver it over the web you are golden. It was one of the coolest events that I have ever been a part especially when they said I could call and ask them question and use them as a resource.

#13 Congrats Donald. It sounds like you had fun and got some good information. And, most importantly, you made some connections with people in the business. That's pretty cool.

#14 Yes indeed I did. I thought it was so awesome.