So, You Want To Be A Developer...

So, You Want To Be A Developer...
I've gotten a lot of requests to join the core development team for PT/LL. It's great to get so much enthusiasm, but I'm quite happy with the team we currently have. The work is also probably not as glamorous as you'd think. When we're working on projects, the work load is huge and the deadlines are often "tomorrow". Plus, development isn't nearly as fun as design. It involves a lot of number-crunching, spending hours trying to make descriptions in abilities just a tiny bit clearer or more exciting, and hours upon hours of in-depth discussion about game design theory and application. For anyone that loves game design and development, and wants to make a career out of it, that's awesome. For most people, it's ridiculous. It's a lot more fun to just submit cool ideas on the forums and provide great feedback for us to take into account.

However, I still want to give great people a chance to join up. If what I just said sounds fun to you, I've put together a four-stage test for a chance to prove both your commitment and your skills. It'll be a simulation of the kind of time and deadlines that the dev team deals with routinely. Heck, if you really love the craft of game design and development - you'll hopefully find it a lot of fun. We certainly do.

Most of the stages will be delivered through Private Message, in order to track deadlines. However, the first one is open for everyone to see and I'd like to share these links regardless.


The First Stage
The first stage should probably be fun for people interested in game design and development. It's simply watching the following videos on game design (most of which are talks from the Game Developer's Conference which people pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to attend). For this stage, read/watch all the following linked articles/videos and write down a 1-2 paragraph response (you can go longer if you like) on each one. Share what you thought was valuable about each and/or what you disagreed with. Also, if you've already seen some of these feel free to let me know and I'll provide replacements.

The point of this stage is two-fold. First, it should be a great test to see if you actually enjoy studying design and development in depth. If you don't like listening to some of the greatest minds in the industry talk about game design for several hours - listening to guys like us will probably be unbearable. Second, all these pieces have some great information to share. They should give you some great things to think about as you move into the practical stages later on.

Okay, enough preamble, here are the links.

Ten Things Every Game Needs

Timmy, Johnny and Spike Revisited

A Journey Across The Main Stream

Learning From The Masters

The Game Design of Starcraft 2

Iterating on Diablo 3's Game Systems

Antichamber, Three Years

Design in Detail

Myst: Classic Postmortem


How Do I Submit
Do not post your 1-2 paragraph responses here. They shall be deleted so no one else can copy your answers. PM them to me for review and I'll get back to you with information about Stage 2.

Paper Shadow has cleared Stage 3 of the non-combat Dev Test. Welcome to the Dev Team Paper Shadow.

For those wondering - The fourth stage is only required for leading projects of your own. If you clear stage 3, you still join the team.

Mjh6 has cleared Stage 3 of the combat and content development tests. Welcome to the dev team Mjh6!

Mjh6 is currently working on content creation for the GM encounter building systems, though oneof the stage 3 tests did include an intriguing exploration of alternative combat mechanics that I'll be looking to test in the future. With this addition of a developer that can drive content creation for combat to the official team, we should be able to move forward once again.

Excited to have you here Mjh6. Let's do some cool things.