A few days ago I returned home from Singapore. I was there to speak at SG Gamefest:
http://www.asiaevents.com.sg/SGF-developer/idm.html
It was a gathering of local developers - Singapore has a lot of game companies, including some branches of big ones like LucasArts and Ubisoft. I also participated in a student day the following morning, trying to warn the large and enthusiastic audience about the hard work involved in making a good game. All of the speakers - my colleague Allan Simonsen I think perhaps most eloquently - touched on this issue. Because making games is a labor of love for many people, if you are in it just for the money or because it seems like the right thing to do even though you don't really like games, you'll always be competing with people more dedicated than you. On the other hand, if you do love games and stick with it, you might get to do some pretty amazing stuff.
http://www.asiaevents.com.sg/SGF-developer/idm.html
It was a gathering of local developers - Singapore has a lot of game companies, including some branches of big ones like LucasArts and Ubisoft. I also participated in a student day the following morning, trying to warn the large and enthusiastic audience about the hard work involved in making a good game. All of the speakers - my colleague Allan Simonsen I think perhaps most eloquently - touched on this issue. Because making games is a labor of love for many people, if you are in it just for the money or because it seems like the right thing to do even though you don't really like games, you'll always be competing with people more dedicated than you. On the other hand, if you do love games and stick with it, you might get to do some pretty amazing stuff.
I pontificate on the evolution of The 400 Project
I also gave a talk to some students at Nanyang Tech, in this absolutely gorgeous building, at the school of Art, Design, and Media. Their professor, Ken Feinstein, was a fellow Hampshire College alumn. We found out that we'd overlapped by 3 years and knew many of the same people when I last visited Singapore in 2006. It was odd to be comparing notes with someone I'd just met there and to realize we had that much shared history from over 9000 miles away.
Ken's class is only partly about games and touches also on interactive art, but I was still impressed with the diversity of his students, reflecting the Chinese/Indian/Malay makeup of Singapore. A lot of game classes tend to be pretty racially homogeneous, and often nearly all male, so it's good to see exceptions. Games in the last few years have really diversified too, so it makes sense that the people who want to create them are increasingly reflecting that reality.
Ken's class is only partly about games and touches also on interactive art, but I was still impressed with the diversity of his students, reflecting the Chinese/Indian/Malay makeup of Singapore. A lot of game classes tend to be pretty racially homogeneous, and often nearly all male, so it's good to see exceptions. Games in the last few years have really diversified too, so it makes sense that the people who want to create them are increasingly reflecting that reality.
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