The Construct
Discourse, Society, Language, New Media, and I
Speaking on Game Development on Feb 19. and Feb. 20
In: Education
19 Feb 2007
Strike Feb. 21 and Feb. 22. I was informed that it’s today and tomorrow. Crappy schedulers.
***
What can I say, I’ve got a big mouth (hypothetically, ’cause my mouth’s kind of small).
I’ll be speaking about game development to high school students yet again. Ok, last time was about Net and Web resources and this week, it’s going to be game development care of my former work. Heck, what’s an English major got to say about game dev, right?
I won’t claim to be the authority to game development. All I can talk about gaming are my own personal experiences playing them? But making them? Well I do have a few.
Before I was bumped to marketing, I was a writer/editor/game concept developer for TechFactors (what can I say, companies love people who can multitask). Plus after I got bumped back to product development, I was aiding our game developers in conceptualizing game interfaces and exploring technologies that we can use aside from Flash. So that’s a couple of things.
One critique I’ll be bringing to the table on my discussion is that the current groups Filipino game developers really don’t have the financial muscle to go toe-to-toe with US-based publishers. Say, how much would be 10 computer units with dual core and SLI technologies with the full array of tools for graphics work? A good two million? More? And those aren’t enough.
Sure, we got a good crop of freelancers, mini-game developers. But to try to go do a Halo or an FF is out of the question until we finally have some solid financial backing. Wasn’t Anito a failure of tremendous proportions (though I believe its a triumph of the Pinoy spirit and will).
Another is that, we really don’t have an environment to be a game development hub and I have yet to know/hear/see a Pinoy development outfit that strictly follows industry-standard practices. From game conceptualization to development to documentation to testing to rollout to support.
I just hope I work my wonders yet again. Any comments or ideas that you could share to the kids? Please share them here, I’ll credit you and even plug your website or whatever you want to get plugged!
Financial sponsors are also welcome. I’ll put your company name/logo in my presentation footer. Hehehe…
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Hi! I'm Alex, a 20-something blogger writing about the discourses of social media. Once in a while I still let slip posts about the mundane, the asinine, and the trivial. Feel free to contact me.
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3 Responses to Speaking on Game Development on Feb 19. and Feb. 20
Gabby Dizon
February 20th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Hi Alex,
It’s good to see rising interest in game development. And I do think that e-learning as a big part of this too, as games can be used for many things aside from entertainment.
As for the local industry.. it’s just starting to take off. Of course you won’t see any FF-quality games NOW, but even Japan and Korea had to start from somewhere. I would suggest that everyone who is interested in the local game development industry should help it succeed by helping in its growth. It can be thru education, development, policy etc. – just help in whatever way you can.
By the way, we’ve just set up a website for the GDAP at http://www.gdap.org.ph. One of our members (Anino Mobile)’s games, Anima Wars was a winner at an international game competition in Barcelona. How’s that for world class?
Alex
February 20th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Thanks, Gabby!
I’ve read this comment quite a bit late and I could have shared the updates in my talk this afternoon. My talks only lasted for 30 minutes so I only had time to give a basic overview of what game development is, the current trends in gaming and what’s in store for our local game developers here.
I shared some key points in the talk, and some of them are:
1. Filipino game development holds much promise, especially that many are now serious in learning the tools of the trade (colleges and universities offering degrees…)
2. There’s no question that the talent and skill are there, we just have to have a better environment for development.
3. We hope that get the financial backing to support our local endeavors.
I also encountered a question inquiring whether (in my opinion) we would see an all-Filipino MMORPG anytime soon. To that I answered that I hope there will be, but realistically we won’t anytime soon. We all know the investment (in terms of manpower, cost and infrastructure) that such a project needs.
Congratulations to you all for Anino Mobile’s recent accolade. I’m really glad that you guys are really pushing the industry to the top. You can always count on me to help promote our budding gaming industry.
Gabby Dizon
February 21st, 2007 at 11:46 am
The points you raised are certainly correct. There are still a lot of things to be done before the Philippines is seen as a world-class game development destination, and the environment, tools and financing are key parts of those. I do think that with our inherent love for games, Pinoys will make it as one of the top destinations of game development in Asia.
As for the all-Pinoy MMOG – I agree with you on this one as well. Korea had been making games for almost 20 years before they came up with Ragnarok. I don’t think it’ll take us 20 years before we take the world by storm, but we have to first get the fundamentals right (and make a few mistakes along the way) before we can produce games that can compete with the most popular ones on the planet.
Again, thanks for the support and I hope you can continue keeping an eye on the developments of the Pinoy gamedev scene.