Learning is Often a Painful Experience

A long time ago, a great programmer that I knew by the name of Steve Ranck told me that learning is painful. At the time, I think it was around when I was learning to use 3d Studio Max when I was a track designer for the arcade game Hydro Thunder, and I was having a rough time with it. Hell, I was having a rough time with all the tools we were using, despite the fact that they were fantastic.

The bottom line is, alot of game design is painful to some extent. Putting ideas on down on paper is one thing, but executing them is another. That's why you hear about all of these developer horror stories where an executive or producer that isn't close to the actual production of his game makes outrageous demands of his designers, artists and programmers, leading up to an implosion of sorts for the game. They just don't understand that some tasks are difficult to the point of being "painful".

For just over a week now, I've been learning some new design stuff for The Agency, and boy oh boy have I been pinging the pain threshold! The work I'm currently doing is super cool, and fun to do, but man oh man, It is rough when you make n00b mistakes. I'm the kind of guy that likes to get really good at one thing, then move on to the next, and I'm in that "next" transition right now.

The point of this is, you aren't going to learn anything unless you get out of that comfort zone. Those of you that are picking up unreal ed for the first time for example, you are going to find it almost insurmountable in how complex it is. What I want to say to you guys is, don't give up! You have to break through the wall before you can really get comfortable with the tools of the trade.

I'm by no means an expert in the realm to be truthful. I am a great tool user when it comes to game design, but I require a certain amount of ramp up time before I really get comfortable with it. I'm blessed in the aspect that I have a job that I can go to that practically forces me to learn these things... Things that I'm already interested in on a hobby level, where I have to get results in X amount of time, therefore I'm forced to persevere through that tough learning stage. Those of you out there that are just getting started, sitting in your bedroom dreaming of becoming a game designer, you have to buckle down and blast through the roadblocks, it's the only way it's going to happen.

Collins College School For Design and Technology

First off, let this video speak for itsself:



Now that you've endured that...

What an insult! I laughed along with everyone else when I saw the last campy commercial these guys put out. I even thought they might have done it on purpose to gain some sort of cult following on the Internet, via viral marketing. Now, I'm not so sure.

What are they trying to say about the game industry? That we are a bunch of gloating kids sitting in cushy armchairs, slamming back Mountain Dew and high fiving each other in disbelief that we were smart enough to take courses at Collins to become Game Designers?

What do they think we do all day? Just sit around and talk the game into existence? Two guys in a dark room with a game controller in their hand, mystically making games happen with a twitch of the thumbstick.

We are professionals at what we do. We have to spend thousands of hours painstakingly making and sometimes remaking all of the elements that go into creating what people see when they unwrap the game packaging. We learn new tools with every game, we learn new programming and scripting calls, we create something from nothing more than an idea...

Making games is not all about leather chairs, high def tvs and low lit brick rooms. It's about using a pc that might be 4 years old, on tools that may or may not work all the time, and ideas that may or may not work out. It's about spending all of your time whether you are at work or not thinking about your game. It's about working your ass off on a product that may or may not sell. It's about being passionate about what you do, and putting everything into it.

What an insult to the people that make those classes even possible. To try to portray our careers as nothing more than a couple of guys kickin' it really ticks me off. If this is how they lure people into signing up for their classes, I really wonder what is included in the curriculum? How to high five and still get a high score? How to best decorate your lavish brick walled office?