My Dream Company

Sometime ago, a friend of mine who actually seems wanting to see me working for a game company asked which company I would die to work for.

I couldn't answer.

It's not because I didn't have any favorite game company, and certainly not because I didn't want to jump into game industry. But it was rather because I was tired of corporate, dull work life.

Many would think that's why people join game industry, to live the exhilarating development life, but most development studios that people know are already a part of big companies, and are tied down by their own processes and procedures.

Of course, to produce quality work, there has to be some kind of process to manage the development. But when a parent company forces a studio to do something it's not willing to do, I see no point of working there (see Activision and Infinity Ward fiasco).

There were some names that floated in my head at the moment of asking: Valve Software, EA, Ubisoft Montreal... But each of those didn't seem good enough for me to say it outright.

Yeah, as if I can work for any of those, if I just wanted, right? Maybe it's best for me to accept that there will never be the dream job that I think about all the time.

*sigh*

I.Must.Get.PS.3.Now!!

Or when this little game titled Final Fantasy XIII is available here in North America. Just look at this trailer at the bottom and try to say "I don't want this game." I bet you'll fail miserably.

I know that this game is coming to Xbox360 outside of Japan, but as the devs kept telling us, it is simply out of question to include Japanese voice track on DVDs for this game. It does not have enough space to hold all that, unless dozens of discs are to be used.

This, and Korean subtitle is all I'm asking for. Or maybe, with PS3 being region free, I'll get an Asian copy that comes with Korean subtitle. Woo, just thinking about that makes me all giddy.

Following is the new FFXIII trailer shown at Tokyo Game Show 2009. It's long, beautiful, and dramatic. Enjoy~!

Video Games | Final Fantasy XIII | TGS 09: Japanese Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

PS. Watching this trailer makes me wonder, what if FFXIII was instead a movie, or DVD movie release like Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children? It'll take considerably less time to enjoy everything it has to offer, probably have better storytelling... Just a thought.

It's All About Skills

Here is a list of required/desired skills a game development company is looking for at this time. This list is for a Software Tool Developer position at one of the better known studios.

I post it up here as a reminder to myself how much work I really have. Working at a stable job, it's easy to forget what is out there, and how far behind I actually am. As this listing shows, I truly worth nothing.

I've got a loooong way to go, and I better get my act straight and start pushing myself forward towards my dream job...

Requirements/Skills

• EXCELLENT MATH SKILLS
• 3-5 years of professional games experience
• C++, C#, and C++/CLI expertise
• Experience in creating the following PC applications: level editor (actor
  placement, navigation meshes, particles, boundary regions, etc), art prototype
  catalogue/database, animation/cinematic editor, material/shader editor, plugins,
  build tools, data messaging tools, lighting tools
• Experience using the following technologies: Maya Plug-in API, SQL, OpenGL,
  CG/HLSL
  Ability to design, author, and maintain complex tools used in
  different parts of the production pipeline

Bonus Skills

• Experience using DCC applications (3DStudio/Maya/Photoshop/XSI/...)
• Knowledge of scripting languages (Python/MelScript/Lua/VBScript.)
• GUI art/design skills

Eternity's End

I just stumbled upon this cinematic clip from not-so-well-fared Blizzard's Warcraft 3. And its title, it turns out, is Eternity's End.

Although it's not the same as this blog's title, it let me like this title even more. I like it. I like it...

This Thing Called Idea

There is nothing more motivating and refreshing than seeing someone receiving your idea with great excitement and approval. This is especially true if you know, or at least think, that the idea is truely yours and original that you are the only who's thinking about anything like that.

At the same time, however, there is nothing more frustrating than knowing that, even with such an original idea, there is nothing much you can do to make that idea become a reality. It's like finding out the secret recipe of Coca-Cola, but realizing there is no way to obtain necessary ingredient to produce it.

For me, what is missing is skills, including people skill, to get into a company of the related field to at least get a chance of bringing that idea into reality. It's such a shame and depressing that the chance of me getting into those companies is extremely slim.

What's even more depressing is knowing what I should be doing, but having no patience to actually do what needs to be done. That's the worst thing of all.