Archive for February, 2009

Video Game Design Careers Are Hot Due To Exploding Game Sales

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Video game sales are booming around the world. According to The NPD Group, a market research organization that tracks computer and video game sales, sales of video games and equipment for the games rose 31percent in July 2007, when compared to sales in July 2006. In June of 2007 sales for video games were $1.1 billion in the US alone, representing a dramatic 35 percent increase from the previous month. NPD revealed that video game sales in Canada were $498 million in July 2007, a 61 percent rise over the same time the previous year. These statistics show that a career in video game design is hot right now. The market is exploding, and so are career options in the field.

A degree in video game design can literally help you shape whole worlds, worlds in which avid gamers will enjoy spending many hours in. Gamers love their games, and being able to create video game realms that appeal to this market is very rewarding. Top games have hordes of fans who discuss the games, create artwork in appreciation of their favorite games and even write about their favorite characters. By pursuing a career in this exciting field, you may literally not only be creating an entertainment product, but you may be changing someone’s life.

A video game design degree is also very exciting to pursue. As part of your degree, you will learn to create characters, build story lines, make entire virtual worlds, and much more. You will learn how to design games that gamers will adore and you will learn how to animate entire worlds of characters so that they look as realistic as possible. With today’s technology, there has never been a more exciting time to enter this field. The graphics are so advanced that only your own imagination is the limit for what you can create.

As you pursue your video game design degree, you will also learn about artistic design, project management, 3D modeling, and game content development. You will learn how to create digital content for your games. If you attend a quality school while pursuing your degree you will also get plenty of hands-on experience and help in developing your portfolio. That way, by the time you graduate you will not only have the skills and industry knowledge you need to land a great job, but you will have a portfolio to show prospective employers.

If you have always been creative and have loved creating art, now is a very exciting time to pursue a career in your field. Thanks to hot video game design jobs, you don’t have to be a starving artist. You can pursue your passion for art while landing excellent jobs. With systems such as PlayStation 2, Wii and Xbox generating plenty of media attention as well as many loyal customers, companies are on the lookout for hot new games for their systems. This means that there is a real need for talented and creative designers right now.

If you love games or love art and want to create entire virtual worlds, a career in video game design may be for you. There is a current demand for talented designers, so entering the field is easy if you have a good degree and a good portfolio. Enroll in a degree program that teaches you to build characters, stories, and worlds and learn the skills necessary for animation and you will have the knowledge you need for a great career. Pursue a degree with hands-on experience and portfolio building, and you will leave school prepared to attract employers to your skill.

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My favorite video games and an explanation of why they are my favorites

Friday, February 13th, 2009

Having been a gamer all my life, it’s hard to condense myself down to several games. I could write endlessly about every one of these games and how they affected my life. There are countless more that I could also place up. For the sake of brevity, I’ll take my top three.

#3 – Final Fantasy 3 (Or 6 in Japan)

Have you ever played one of those games that you can just remember every detail of? This is that game. I played this game for well into 80 hours, and had such a unique experience. This was the first game I played all on my own and was the best at; My older brother couldn’t even stand up to me. It was such a unique experience for me, and I don’t think I’ll forget it.

The graphics and game design were also incredible. It’s an older game, but it still was well designed. Most gamers say game design over graphics and I’ll agree, but they should have good graphics as well. This game had both.

The entire Final Fantasy series has been with me since day one, but number three will always remain a top ten favorite.

#2 – Warcraft

No, I’m not talking about World of Warcraft or Warcraft 3; I’m talking about the first Warcraft. The reason I choose this game is again based on memory. I remember sneaking on to my brothers computer to play this game. I’d take control of the orcs and ravage through human compounds.

I know I played numerous games before this one, but I honestly can say that none of them left as much of an impact on me as Warcraft.

#1 – Counter Strike

The world’s number one game, Counter Strike. This game has been out since 1999 (not including betas), and I have enjoyed every moment of it.

Its graphics aren’t top of the line anymore, but they are still very good. Most hardcore gamers don’t care too much about graphics, but even so, this game is not a letdown. Overall, for a game whose last major update was around 2005, it still holds up graphically.

In terms of gameplay, Counter Strike “takes the cake”. It easily is one of the best three first person shooters, and ranks up there in the best game ever created. It only costs $10, so if you’re looking for a great game at low cost, this one is it.

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Video game reviews: MySims (PC)

Monday, February 9th, 2009

My Sims is a cute little game made by EA that was initially introduced on the Wii and the Nintendo DS. This game is based on the game designed for the Wii You basically are the only one who can rebuild a town that has lost all of its essence and beauty. By you coming to the town you have to learn how to encourage more Sims to move in to the now almost deserted town. There are only a few people here and you have to make these few Sims happy.

The first person you meet is the Mayor. The Mayor tells you the history of the town and how it used to be busy and had lots of people there because there was a person who could manipulate the essences to make the townspeople happy. After that person left, most of the townspeople followed and only leaving a few behind. Now that you have arrived, you can help build the town again because you have the gift to manipulate essences. You quickly learn how to water, chop down, and grow trees. You learn that by collecting the items they drop you can use their essences to paint the objects that the townspeople want you to make. Then the Mayor asks you to make her a podium and use the flowers collected from the tree you just collected. You continue doing tasks for her till she’s happy and sends you off to help another Sim in town. You learn how to get patterns and how to design new items for each person in town. By doing tasks, you make new friends and grow the town the way you want it to be. That’s the great thing about this game is that you can decide what type of people you want to live there. Do you want all goth people? Then you have to learn how to make the town geared towards their essences. Do you want all nerdy people? Then you have to learn how to gear the town towards their essences. That goes for any type of Sims you want to attract. You also get to build the homes of the Sims that you move in. You have to design it to their liking though, so if it’s a cute Sim, you probably shouldn’t build a house for a nerdy Sim.

Game play:

Game play is very easy since you have a tutorial to follow. As you progress in the game you can create more items and even customize them to your liking, straying away from the pattern. When you build homes you have more shapes and items to add on to their house as more Sims move in. You can find more trees that have more items for certain Sims. Once you figure out how it works, it pretty much is repetitive, but you are able to be more creative. If you are a creative person,

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Downloadable game review: Crumb by PiddlePup Games

Friday, February 6th, 2009

Crumb is a game where you explore an enchanted forest as one of six potential characters. The game is called Crumb because your character will navigate through stages to collect crumbs. Once all the crumbs of a particular level are collected, you will unlock the key to a door through which you may exit to reach the next level. To collect crumbs you will be required to avoid monsters, move rocks, build water bridges, and put out fires. Navigating the first few stages are incredibly easy, and often just require pushing a rock into the water to get to the other side; however, as you progress through your journey, the levels get a bit more complicated. Nonetheless, while there are over 50 beautifully designed levels, each level is pretty similar in its basic concepts.

Props have to go to the game designers because each character looks pretty cool in their own “small body, big head” kind of way. Unfortunately, it does not matter who you choose because aside from looks, the characters are exactly the same. This means that the adventure is the same no matter who you choose. So much for fun and unique adventures, right?

The game is colorful with its bright graphics and definitely one that even a young child can play with success. Avoiding creatures and basic navigation is extremely easy, which is why I would not recommend Crumb to older gamers.

This game really lost it with me because no serious battling takes place – no fighting monsters, no casting abilities…nothing. You simply move around to collect keys, crumbs, and event-triggering potions to navigate your way through the forest. So needless to say, I was very bored with this game. Moving around and pushing rocks can only be so fun. The game does tabulate the amount of moves you take before completing a level, but throughout the game I had a difficult time assessing the importance of these moves. There is no advantage to completing a level in fewer moves.

The music sounds calm and peaceful, which makes it appear that Crumb is geared towards a very young audience. If glamor had a sound, it would be the music. The music seems to fit the fairytale storyline about King and Queen who ruled on the edge of a forest. I definitely like the fact that different levels have different music as I noticed only as I got further into the game. Some of the more advanced levels have cool mysterious music which is definitely a nice change of pace from the light peaceful music.

Overall, Crumb merits a rating of 2/5. To get a higher rating from me, this game needs much more action. While I do believe the music and graphics are quite good, the game play is really lacking.

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