Working in the games industry

Paul Callaghan

“Paul Callaghan is a freelance writer, game developer, educator, and co-director of the Freeplay Independent Games Festival. An active member of the development and education community, Paul has spoken about writing for games, play, what education can learn from game development, and the fundamentals of game design at the National Screenwriters’ Conference, GCAP, VITTA, the Emerging Writers’ Festival, the State Library of Victoria, Screen Australia, ACMI, CAE, RMIT, and is working with on a games and games literacy project with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. He currently sits on the board of the Game Developers Association of Australia, the advisory committee for the Australian Teachers of Media 2011 Conference Screen Futures, and the advisory panel for if:Book Australia. Away from games, he has written award-winning short-stories, short films, comics, too many non-fiction articles to count, and is currently working on a novel.” – (Jon Yeo 2011)

How does the topic relate to the Games Industry?

With Paul’s relevant experience in programming, designing and writing it’s no surprise that he has a lot to say about what’s going on in the immediate future of the computer games industry.  Interestingly, he speaks about the unknown in the distant long term future and compares the current technologies to yesterdays “pong”, which pales in comparison to the possibilities of the future.

Paul uses the Iphone as an example, as a medium that independent developers 5 years earlier had little or no hope of proving themselves in the global market place. The possibility was not available.

How does the topic relate to my own ambitions in the Games Industry?

I felt Paul was gently leaning towards a point that could be damaging to many students within the lecture that day. The real true passionate gamers were the only ones who were going to survive this economic downturn, as publishers such as THQ closing down, adding another 200 potential candidates to the pool of unemployed game developers in Melbourne, Victoria. He went on to say that if you enjoy something you should continue doing so, personally I interpreted this as advice to position your games career as an alternative until things look up, unfortunately by then there might be a fresh batch of skilled individuals, so what do I do with the time in between?

“And it’s about making the choice to follow those values – even if it’s hard, and it frequently is. I’ve given up a lot to do Freeplay. Time, money, some relationships, have all suffered, but I’ve chosen to make those sacrifices. And in the end, that makes following them easier for me.” - (Paul Callaghan 2011)

Well lucky for me my main objective is to create the best websites I can possibly do, and I believe that my foresight to see that business and web development will be around for a while to come and my games degree will boost appeal to agencies or prospective projects, by implementing user interaction where core business marketing exists on the market place. I feel very comfortable with my current position, however I do sympathise with the other students who have spent long hours and set their heart on the prospects of working in the games industry.

“Most of us want to make games, right? Maybe we have a game in our head, maybe we want to work at Blizzard or Valve, or maybe we want to create something incredibly innovative that wins the IGF. These are goals. Working in games is a goal. It’s something with an end-point, something clear.

But what if you don’t end up getting a job at blizzard or Valve. What if your game doesn’t end up winning the IGF or even being a finalist? What if that idea you have turns out to be not that great after all?

Disappointment, right? The existential angst that accompanies failure – are you wasting your life? Were your parents right? Is it time to get a real job? Are you good enough?

What if you reframe those experiences in terms of the values that matter to you. That way, even if there are things you can’t control, or if things don’t go as planned, you can always be acting in accordance with those values – and you can reframe your sense of satisfaction.

“ - (Paul Callaghan 2011)

Bridh Athanatos

References:

Jon Yeo 2011, Theme: Innovation and Gaming, TED, viewed 9^th Aug 2011, <http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/2663>.

Paul Callaghan 2011, IGDA Brisbane Game On, ‘Writing; Games; Culture. All opinions are my own.’, viewed 9^th Aug 2011, <http://www.paulcallaghan.net/blog/2011/06/08/igda-brisbane-game-on/>.