NOTE: these articless are primarily aimed at aspiring game designers, but many of the concepts described herein also apply to those who aspire to other types of jobs in the game industry. These articles are subject to changes and improvements; reader comments are welcome.
Depending on your education, how well-read you are, and/or the amount you've listened to your elders (old fogies like me who are products of the sixties), you may or may not have heard of (much less actually read) the Joseph Heller novel Catch-22. The novel takes place during World War II, in Italy, on an Army Air Force base. The main character, Captain Yossarian, a bombardier, wants to get out of the war. He keeps asking the psychiatrist, Doc Daneeka, for a Section 8 discharge (discharge based on mental instability). But there's a catch. Catch-22. You can't be let out of the army unless you ask. But if you ask to be let out of the army, you're not insane, so the psychiatrist can't recommend discharge for Section 8.
I read that book several times during my college days, during the Vietnam war. (Okay, so I'm old. Get over it.) If you'd told me back then that I would eventually become a designer of video games, I would have told you you were crazy (there was no such thing as a "video game" back then, for one thing). But anyway, here I am. Catch-22 still has a lot of meaning to me. And I think there are applicable principles in the business of making games. The name Catch-22 is already taken, so I'm calling this "Catch-23."
Catch-23.a. You can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without a job.
Actually, it's not true. But it seems that way to a lot of newbies. Read the other lessons for suggestions about how to get a job. Of course there are entry level openings that don't require previous industry experience. Otherwise the industry would simply wither away into nothing as people drop out of the industry.
Some guys decide to try the indy route, which requires you to manage somehow to get a bunch of other guys to cooperate effectively to make a game without pay. If you ask me, that's the hard way to get in - and even then you might not get that job.
You'll find it a lot easier to get a job if you apply at smaller publishers or developers, and don't focus all your energy on the Top Ten companies. See Stupid Wannabe Trick #14 and the "Realistic Targeting" barrier-busting tip.
Um, I meant to write some more stuff here that would actually show the fallacy of this "catch-23," but it's getting late and I want to put this article up on the site...
...Catch-23 also applies to companies, not just individuals...
Catch-23.b. You can't become a licensed Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft developer unless you have a client (a publisher who has hired you to develop a game for them), and you can't get a client unless you're a licensed developer.
The usual way of breaking through the "chicken and egg" conundrum is by having considerable industry experience developing on the system. By dint of having developed (as an employee of a game development company) multiple PC, PS2, and/or GBA games (for example) for several years, a professional has already established contacts, credits, and renown in the industry - which helps that professional get a development contract with a publisher when he goes independent, which paves the way to getting the development license with Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft.
Catch-23.c. Also known as
Sloper's Rule #1: "There Are Always Exceptions To Every Rule -- Even This One."
Everything I tell you on this website can always be subject to some exception. Somebody will follow everything I say, and it won't work for him - because he's fallen into an exception somewhere along the way. And somebody else will do the opposite of everything I say, and he'll become the world's greatest game designer in spite of me!
A challenge: post on the bulletin board if you find a rule that doesn't have any exceptions. (Note: if you find a rule that doesn't have an exception, then you've just proven Sloper's Rule #1.)
Catch-23.d. Also known as Sloper's Rule #2: "All The Rules Were Meant To Be Broken - Even This One."
A lot of wannabes are under the impression that there are "rules" about how to become a game designer. I'm here to tell you the good news -- you get to make your own rules about how to do it! See Catch-23.e.
Catch-23.e. It's As Simple As Doing What You Love. "Following Your Bliss" Will Take You Where You Want To Go.
A local PBS station here in L.A. recently re-ran the Bill Moyers interviews with Joseph Campbell. Campbell was a writer and philosopher whose "Power of Myth" philosophy includes the advice for everyone to follow their bliss:
"If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be." - Joseph Campbell
To interpret this as "do your own thing, and to hell with everybody else" is way off track. Campbell was saying that in order to maximize your life experience, to get the most from living, you had to find something you love -- and lose yourself in it on a regular basis - which could be achieved while still living within society, and while still living harmoniously with those around you. If you do what you love, then does it not make sense that you will love what you do?
Why do I mention this in the context of Catch-23? Well, if your "bliss" is to be lazy and never have to do any work, then Campbell's advice won't get you far. I believe fervently in Campbell's advice, because I also believe fervently in something said by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter (previously known as "Ginger" and "It"), among many other wondrous inventions...
Catch-23.f. Work Is Play.
In an interview on ABC's "UpClose" recently, Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway personal transporter) said:
"We always hear 'Life is short, play hard.' But what about 'Life is short, work hard'?"
For us in the game biz, our work is play. How's that for an oxymoron?
Catch-23.g. Give Me Something New... No, Give Me Something Tried And True.
When you pitch a game concept to a game executive, you will hear two opposing objections to your idea:
- "That sounds just like Grand Truck Auto, but with Segways. We need something unique, something that breaks entirely new ground."
- "That sounds very different. I haven't seen anything like it. We can't market it - we need something that's just like Grand Truck Auto, but with Segways."
Catch-23.h. Dr. Phil is right. John Lennon was right. AND
Dwight D. Eisenhower was right. But Lee Marvin is the one who put it all together.
Dr. Phil (you know, Dr. Philip C. McGraw, who first gained fame on the Oprah Winfrey show?) said:
"If you don't make a plan, you're just messin' around."
John Lennon (you remember him, he was that guy who was married to Yoko Ono, and used to write songs with that guy who later was the lead singer of Wings, and then got shot by a crazy jerk?) sang:
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
Dwight D. Eisenhower (you remember him, he was a general in WWII and later became President of the United States?) said:
"The plan is nothing - planning is everything."
In the movie The Dirty Dozen, Lee Marvin said:
"Adapt, improvise, overcome!"
I know, that didn't make sense. Not yet, anyway! Now let me do the usual Sloper thing, and translate these far-flung quotes into something we can all understand.
- Dr. Phil's point was, "Ya gotta plan - are ya stoopid or sumthin'?"
- Lennon's point was, "Go ahead and make plans, but sure as shootin', life will come along (usually about eye level) and shoot your plans down quicker'n you can spit." (Or maybe that was Tommy Smothers?)
- Eisenhower's point was, "Sure, there will always be those unexpected things that happen. But because you're good at planning, you'll organize your troops and find a way to adapt and improvise, thereby overcoming."
- Lee Marvin's point was, "Hey, that's what I was saying! Darn you, Eisenhower! [Punch!] [Kick!] [Ouch!] [Why, you...!]"
... Ahem. Sorry about that.
No two [cases are] alike.
You can learn all the basic rules,
but when it comes right down to it,
you gotta improvise.
- Cops
Catch-23.i. Game Designers are dreamers. But you have to be a realist.
You do have to strike a balance between these two opposites. But hey, it's doable.
Catch-23.j. Game Designers must be individuals, separate from the pack. But to make a video game requires selfless collaboration with, um, the pack.
Who said game designers have to be separate from the pack? Huh? WHO? Or is that just a misconception that you dredged up out of your own weird mind? Back in the old days, one guy could think up and program his own video game. And it's not hard to make a board game as a solo project. But these days video game designers have to be part of a team. Video games are very much a collaborative effort.
Catch-23.k. Game Designers are creative. But to make a game you have to be detail-oriented and organized.
Yup, it's true. Deal with it.
Hi, Acosix.
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