Where do you fit into game development and where do you want to be?

Jurgen

Hi

It would be awesome to simulate a real game development project in one post, I reckon.

The idea is to state what one may bring to the table,"so to speak".
For example, I, Jurgen, offer my people skills and the bit I know about writing to aid anyone in getting where they want to be. I also offer the creative mind of a former children's book illustrator, having experience in delivering a product based on a brief.

Then, sorting out where who may contribute what to whom will be easy, based on Q&A :)

To kick off, my first question would be, apart from the post header, how can I help you?

If this post/thread could become a brainstorming session that inspires more than anything else, that would be great :)

I hope you enjoy this post.

Jurgen

ps...
Where I'd like to be is at the level of a Senior Narrative Designer, that's what I'm working towards :)

dammit

@Jurgen : I think you'd do better to respond to others who have games in prototype stage with useful feedback, writing etc. Rather than telling people what you can do, show them ;) If you have a portfolio, you can share this and this will help you get paid work but if you don't have the experience, often it's a good idea to offer your services (briefly) for free so that people get a good idea of what you can do. Also, remember that many devs are working with no budgets in their free time so there's not always budget to bring another person on board.

On a side note, while I have a whole bunch of skills (including boardgame design, writing and marketing), to answer your question, I really want to work as a psychologist at Valve so I'm organising getting my masters next year to help get me there.

Jurgen

Hi dammit

I'll definitely take your advice, thankyou :)

I had a look at their website, quoting the following:

Psychologist (Research/Experimental)


In order to create exceptional products that people will use and appreciate, we need to know about human behavior and about the motivations and influences underlying how and why people do what they do. We believe that all game designers are, in a sense, experimental psychologists. That is why we’re looking for an experimental psychologist with superior research skills to apply knowledge and methodologies from psychology to game design and all aspects of Valve’s operations. We want to exploit your experience with experimental design, research methods, statistics, and human behavior to help craft even more compelling gameplay experiences for future Valve titles. We’d also expect you to research and weigh in on any and all topics that are relevant to improving the experiences of our customers, partners, and employees.

Duties:
Provide relevant insight into human behavior in order to shape gameplay and customer experience.
Perform statistical analyses on all aspects of Valve’s operations: gameplay, financial, and company data.
Research compelling new hardware technologies.
Design experiments to evaluate various gameplay hypotheses and design choices.
Improve existing playtesting methodologies while incorporating novel techniques to improve best practices.
Develop innovative ways of acquiring relevant data to answer open questions about all aspects of Valve’s products and business practices.

Requirements:
Graduate degree in Psychology (or equivalent) field
Advanced knowledge of statistics
Familiarity with one or more of the following pieces of data analysis software: SPSS, Systat, Matlab, R, (or equivalent)
Four years experience with: ◦Experimental design/research methods
◦Relevant research in cognitive, social, human factors, and related disciplines in psychology


Recommended:
Proficiency in one or more of the following programming languages: C++, SQL, PHP, (or equivalent)

This sounds pretty awesome.

Getting into the head of the gamer, understanding certain fundamental processes and creating from that basis! Very cool.

dammit

I think that's a silly question to ask :P

Jurgen

@dammit, I took the liberty of removing the question :)