Home General Discussion

Work in games, but don't play many games?

1
Is it really bad that if I want to work in the game industry, but rarely find enough time after work/doing tutorials/watching documentaries to play the bunches of awesome-looking games that are out there? Is that important research I'm sadly missing?

Replies

  • Stromberg90
    Offline / Send Message
    Stromberg90 polycounter lvl 11
    Well if you really want a job, you should spend your time working on your portfolio anyway.
    It's pretty much up to you, if you feel that playing/researching games will make you a better artist then go for it.
  • chrisradsby
    Offline / Send Message
    chrisradsby polycounter lvl 14
    It's always good to keep up with the latest games, but if you just want to keep up visually then art-books and Art Drops here at PC will do fine. ^^
  • RyRyB
    Offline / Send Message
    RyRyB polycounter lvl 18
    I'd say it's pretty normal, to be honest.

    I played a lot of games growing up but as soon as I made the decision to enter the industry, I quit playing regularly. Work-life balance is crucial to staying afloat in any career, especially a creative one.

    I think it's important to keep up with games and to play here and there but the last thing I want to do when I get home at night is sit and stare at a screen. I've got too many other priorities and responsibilities when I'm not at work to give gaming much time anymore.
  • Justin Meisse
    Offline / Send Message
    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    I spent more time modding games then playing them when I was learning. I have been playing more games since but I've decided to try an experiment where I'll take a year off from games and replace my game playing urges with creative things.
  • rollin
    Offline / Send Message
    rollin polycounter
    I spent more time modding games then playing them when I was learning. .

    haha. so trueee *G*
  • MartinH
    Offline / Send Message
    MartinH polycounter lvl 8
    load up a youtubed playthrough of a game and have that running on your second monitor while you work, that's how i "play" games these days mostly.
  • praetus
    Offline / Send Message
    praetus interpolator
    You're only going to have so much time in a day. I used to play games all the time. Now I have to juggle my free time between work, spending time with my wife, spending time with our newborn daughter, working on portfolio/ increasing work skills and some sleep....somewhere in there. I get some time to play games but it is not nearly what it once was. I can choose to play games or improve my skills at making them.
  • RyRyB
    Offline / Send Message
    RyRyB polycounter lvl 18
    MartinH wrote: »
    load up a youtubed playthrough of a game and have that running on your second monitor while you work, that's how i "play" games these days mostly.

    This!

    Sure, I "beat" Dark Souls...

    And Skyrim.
    And XCom.
  • Goeddy
    Offline / Send Message
    Goeddy greentooth
    MartinH wrote: »
    load up a youtubed playthrough of a game and have that running on your second monitor while you work, that's how i "play" games these days mostly.

    ye second that.

    although if you are working on a smaller team and have the ability to influence other parts of developement other then art, it might be a good idea to stay kinda up to date if you want to use this chance to influence the game for the better, and not just try to mold it to your own personal preferences.

    other then that i wouldn´t say its necessary or that benefitial.
  • Joopson
    Offline / Send Message
    Joopson quad damage
    I don't much like playing games. And the only game I've ever truly beaten is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, probably.

    But I buy games, and play them for a few hours to see the art and the mechanics. That more than does the trick for me.
  • Nysuatro
    Sadly enough making games does not give you more time. Making games replaced a big part of my time for playing the games. I got too much other things to do now.

    I think that is quite normal when you start to have a job.
  • arshlevon
    Offline / Send Message
    arshlevon polycounter lvl 18
    I tend to watch play through vids on youtube while I am working, I dont have time to play all the newest games cause I am a single parent. When I do play games its old scool nes and super nes games with my son. I want him to start with the classics.
  • easterislandnick
    Offline / Send Message
    easterislandnick polycounter lvl 17
    I'm not sure I would employ someone with no interest in games. I have a newborn, a house to do up and a lead position and I still manage to get 3 or 4 hours in a week. It means that I only play shorter games but I think you need to love what you make.
  • maximumsproductions
    Offline / Send Message
    maximumsproductions polycounter lvl 8
    I'm not sure I would employ someone with no interest in games. I have a newborn, a house to do up and a lead position and I still manage to get 3 or 4 hours in a week. It means that I only play shorter games but I think you need to love what you make.

    Personally I think that as long as you were a gamer at one point in time or another you are no different and still have the love to create art for games.

    I'm just saying this because when I and some others I feel get into modeling I find games incredibly boring (except to go around peoples games observing their awesome art!) and vice versa. It's like two slippery slopes
  • Lamont
    Offline / Send Message
    Lamont polycounter lvl 15
    When I buy a game, besides entertainment, I do screen-grabs as I play for ref.

    I enjoy playing any moment I get.
  • David_Sola
    I dont have much time to play games, but when it is rainy outside or I have no work to do I fire up some game.
  • Optinium
    Offline / Send Message
    Optinium polycounter
    It depends on your gaming habits I guess.
    I practice a lot in my spare time and do a lot of reading, but every once and a while a new game will come along which I want to play. The week of spare time spent finishing the game is nothing in the grand scheme of things, as long as it's not every week.

    When in University I saw many students in my class bath themselves in every new game/piece of content that was released and low and behold they ended up doing poorly in assignments. The people who did well still played games just not every new release, only specific titles on their radar.

    This year was my final academic year and I finished DMC, Tomb Raider, SC2:HOTS, Bioshock:Infinite and spent some time on Ni No Kuni in the space of 3 months, I managed to balance my work/play ratio by blitzing them in a couple of focused sessions.

    Games which I'm super curious about I'll either watch/have on in the background on Twitch.TV or Youtube.
  • Equanim
    Offline / Send Message
    Equanim polycounter lvl 11
    +1 for watching playthroughs.

    There are a few titles a year that I make it a point to buy/play, but gaming is usually the very last activity in my day. If I can devote a weekend to a game, that's ideal, but not always feasible.

    You should probably play at least something over the course of the week, just to have a better sense of what's out there. Many artists will wander around games looking at how assets are constructed. The indie market is also a great place to find fresh ideas that don't demand hours of your time.
  • Justin Meisse
    Offline / Send Message
    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    also Polycount! If a game shows some new technique, people figure it out. I've never played the Uncharted games but I know how to replicate their material blending thanks to Polycount.
  • biofrost
    Offline / Send Message
    biofrost polycounter lvl 12
    Gaming is no different than any other hobby. If you enjoy it enough you make time for it. Me and my fiancee love gaming so we make time for it. Do I game as much as I did before I started doing art no, but I try and get at least an hour a day of playing something.
  • WarrenM
    If a game GRABS me, I'll play it but I won't fire up any random thing because I'll quickly get distracted with thoughts of making new meshes or something...
  • chrisradsby
    Offline / Send Message
    chrisradsby polycounter lvl 14
    Games like "The Last of Us" is pretty much why I play games though, so playing games like that ones in a while reinvigorates my love for games.
  • Dan!
    Offline / Send Message
    Dan! polycounter lvl 6
    Bottom line for anyone wanting to work in the industry is if you spend a lot of time playing games then how can you possibly keep up with the people that spend most of their time making art? You can't.

    Don't get me wrong, I do play the occasional game, but I don't take risks on games. I only buy the ones I'm certain I'll enjoy, and I don't play them terribly often. I also only play games with a very finite cap on the hours you'll need to invest into it. So I stay away from multi-player and open world games, as I see them as major time sucks. Single player, on a rail, 30hrs max to finish. That's usually what I go for. I might squeeze in a couple hours of gaming a week, tops. And when I do, I usually feel guilty for not spending that time working on art.

    just quoting this, as it's my exact thoughts as well.
  • Bibendum
    I don't play games as often anymore but when I do I have a tendency to binge because it's the only way I'll finish a game. I'll go months without playing anything then one week I'll sink 20 hours into a game.
  • TheWildHunt
    I really havent sat down and played in a long time, im dividing my time between searching for a new job, and drawing just about everyone who sits still for more than fifteen seconds. I definetly get a good ten minutes every couple days in on "Tokyo Xtreme Racer: Drift 2", but thats predominantly so my roommate has a challenging ghost to try and beat when he gets home from work.
  • biofrost
    Offline / Send Message
    biofrost polycounter lvl 12
    Bottom line for anyone wanting to work in the industry is if you spend a lot of time playing games then how can you possibly keep up with the people that spend most of their time making art? You can't.

    Don't get me wrong, I do play the occasional game, but I don't take risks on games. I only buy the ones I'm certain I'll enjoy, and I don't play them terribly often. I also only play games with a very finite cap on the hours you'll need to invest into it. So I stay away from multi-player and open world games, as I see them as major time sucks. Single player, on a rail, 30hrs max to finish. That's usually what I go for. I might squeeze in a couple hours of gaming a week, tops. And when I do, I usually feel guilty for not spending that time working on art.

    My only issue with this is that it makes it seem like you can't have any hobbies when in the game industry. If you can produce great art and have time for a hobby you like be it games or football or whatever then good for them.

    I totally get where you are coming from but it also makes it sounds like you cant have very much fun outside of what you do for a career. Just comes down to balancing your hobbies,relationships and art. Some people will have more time for it than others but they wont make them less of an artist if they produce good work or show constant improvement in their craft.

    I balance my day between spending time with my fiancee, doing art/tutorials/ any other learning and playing games. Sometimes games crosses over with my fiancee. On a good day ill get in 5-6 hr of art, 1-3 hr of games and the rest go's to her and sleep.

    Edit: Just wanted to add, if you dont play games, then what do you do as a hobby outside of doing art?(Not aimed at anyone in particular just general question to everyone)
  • biofrost
    Offline / Send Message
    biofrost polycounter lvl 12
    Great point Dustin. I choose to cut my social life. Outside of my fiancee I don't really go out. I'm far from where I need to be as a artist and have no issue cutting back on game playing(or other things like being social) to achieve that. Like I said before i maybe spend 1-3 hr on a good day playing games, the rest of that time is mostly for art.

    I'm just more or less trying to argue for the point of a experienced artist who has the job already and doesn't need to do art 80% of the day to prove himself to get a job. And also that it's ok to take a break for an hour and do something for fun. Don't want to get burned out. An hour won't ruin your chances of getting a job forever.
  • tadpole3159
    Offline / Send Message
    tadpole3159 polycounter lvl 12
    Whats the point of all that overtime and stress if you don't enjoy the final product? maybe you could make art for something you would enjoy, movies perhaps.
  • Justin Meisse
    Offline / Send Message
    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    TeeJay wrote: »
    So, so sad.

    As a musician, this would be like me writing compositions but no longer listening to music... or just reading scores online.

    not really an apt comparison - you don't become a better artist by playing games... you get better at playing games, after a while it feels like I'm wasting my time. I'm 33, I don't know if that has something to do with it :P

    We'll see how my experiment goes, the time I would spend playing games is getting replaced by making art. So that means more illustration, environment art, character art, refreshing my rigging & animation skills, etc...

    also, this isn't about enjoying games. I enjoy the hell out of them, I enjoy them too much. When I stopped playing games I've found that I go to bed at a decent time, spend more time with my girlfriend and I'm just overly more content.
  • Racer445
    Offline / Send Message
    Racer445 polycounter lvl 12
    too busy getting money to play games
  • Count Vertsalot
    I only play games I think will be worthwhile. There's usually only one released per year if that. Everything else is corporate nonsense that sucked the life and ingenuity out making games a long time ago. Most indie games are just rehashes of the same old concepts as well.

    Don't get me wrong, there's a ton of great looking games released all the time and I appreciate the artwork, but I can just see the artwork online. It's just that most of the actual game play is been there done that for me.
  • Target_Renegade
    Offline / Send Message
    Target_Renegade polycounter lvl 11
    You won't need to play games for ages - MMORPGs, however taking a nice stroll in a game world will definitely give you a richer understanding of how something is made. It might actually simplify things - a great texture will take a simple object and turn it to gold. Look at how angles are hidden with meshes. Observation not playing.
  • chrisradsby
    Offline / Send Message
    chrisradsby polycounter lvl 14
    biofrost wrote: »
    Great point Dustin. I choose to cut my social life. Outside of my fiancee I don't really go out. I'm far from where I need to be as a artist and have no issue cutting back on game playing(or other things like being social) to achieve that. Like I said before i maybe spend 1-3 hr on a good day playing games, the rest of that time is mostly for art.

    I'm just more or less trying to argue for the point of a experienced artist who has the job already and doesn't need to do art 80% of the day to prove himself to get a job. And also that it's ok to take a break for an hour and do something for fun. Don't want to get burned out. An hour won't ruin your chances of getting a job forever.

    The thing is, there is soo much you learn inside the industry that during the first 1-2 years you don't even have to make personal art because you're learning industry standard techniques and get that behind the scenes knowledge. So that's the reward xD

    But I've also told you stuff like it before, when you feel that you're at a point where you're not progressing as much as you want to you might want to sit back and ask yourself why. Look at your art and ask yourself : What can I make better? Why is somebody elses art better than mine, is it technique or is it basic composition?

    Important questions that might help and you know, it always help to stay in touch with other artists and ask them straight on.
  • dtschultz
    Offline / Send Message
    dtschultz polycounter lvl 12
    I have a kid, I do personal work and I play games. I mean, it takes me awhile to beat a game (when I do), but I still play games. It might depend on what you do in the industry and what type of company you work at, but I think it's really valuable to actually play games and see/experience in-game what people are doing. I think that adds to that library of experience you can pull from as a video game artist.

    There are always exceptions though. I don't think there is ever a hard and fast rule. But, I can't imagine being in this industry (especially as a level artist) and not playing games.
  • Justin Meisse
    Offline / Send Message
    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    TeeJay wrote: »
    It's a perfect comparison! You don't become a better musician or songwriter by listening to music.

    Or maybe you do, through inspiration, in which case the exact same applies to games.

    It's not the same because listening to music doesn't involve you killing guys or solving puzzles to get to the next song. Listening to a song is the same as watching a video or looking at an art book - a big part of games are artificial hurdles between you and the content.
  • arshlevon
    Offline / Send Message
    arshlevon polycounter lvl 18
    Games are such a multidementional media that you have to take into consideration of its parts. Music is one dementional, it has an audio componet and thats about it, games have a visual componet, an audio componet, a gameplay componet, and a technological componet in the form of engines and programming. The only discipline I feel that needs to play games is design. Its the only one I feel that would benefit from playing. I rhink you can be an awesome engine programmer without playing games, you can be a great musican, artist, sound effects, special effects guy without playing games. That is my opinion, but I know some of the best in our field who never play games, this would be impossible if playing games gave any advantage over not.
  • Desperad0
    I love games. I have to play some kind of games a little every few days just for fun. Or I feel fidgety. And bored.

    But I no longer can do hours of dedicated gaming now that I'm trying to get skillful at art. I was just worried that I'm not up to date with the products it'll cost me.

    But even now when I see a beautiful game I really would like to go in it, and just look around at the texture, lighting, character animation, environment interaction, and such. Sometimes Youtube play through don't look at the scenery, or the vids are too blurry. And I also don't want to invest hundreds into a console when I don't even play 2 games on it per year.

    @biofrost: Apart from gaming, things I enjoy as hobbies are reading niche manga, and watching nature and science documentaries both good (Planet Earth) and bad (Ancient Aliens)(don't judge me!). It's like why I played Skyrim, makes me feel better seeing wonderful sights and worlds I may never have the time/fund to experience in person.

    Ultimately, my goal is to be a better artist - 2D and 3D.
  • Wendy de Boer
    Offline / Send Message
    Wendy de Boer interpolator
    When I "play" a game, I'm mainly play-testing something I made for it. :P
  • AimBiZ
    Offline / Send Message
    AimBiZ polycounter lvl 14
    When I "play" a game, I'm mainly play-testing something I made for it. :P

    Ha, I can so relate to that!

    I approach games pretty much as I approach novels, looking for an escapism-like experience.
    Not going to add anything to the discussion since the good points have already been made, just do your stuff.
  • Rurouni Strife
    Offline / Send Message
    Rurouni Strife polycounter lvl 10
    I play when I can, but considering how much I work (40 hrs a week at Turbine plus misc. freelance projects) it's hard to get it in. I guess I could chose to not date or not hang out with people and replace it with games or even more art, but that causes problems on it's own. I do eventually get around to spurts where I can play games a lot-it's very cyclical for me. I believe it is important to play games while in the industry, but not everything. Play what interests you.

    Which after this past E3 is almost every major AAA next gen console game...
  • Desperad0
    Which after this past E3 is almost every major AAA next gen console game...

    Hahaha, yeah it was watching those live vids that spurred me to ask this question, because I know I'll never be able to play them all, but they all look sooooo awesome!
  • SurlyBird
    Offline / Send Message
    SurlyBird polycounter lvl 13
    Personally, I usually only want to know enough about a given game, franchise or whatever to remove my ignorance and understand what it's about, how it is different, how it is good (or bad), etc. If it employs new, soon-to-be-standard industry tech, then that's another reason to give it a look. Other than that - and I am going to be honest here - there are usually other things I'd rather do with my time than play games. Most games are iterations on what's been done before, so if a particular game isn't bringing something new to the party, I usually ask myself "Is sitting here getting my Ranger to Level 25 or destroying another wave of Uber-Nazi zombies really the best use of my ever-shortening life?" If the answer is 'yes,' then I keep playing. Usually, the answer is 'no.'

    I'd really rather work on my art skills, which are never as good as I think they are. I hope that doesn't come across as a pretentious cop-out. If I thought my art skills were good enough, then maybe I'd want to play more games. I don't know. All I know is that there is a mountain of things on which I need to improve, artistically, and I can't work on those things if I'm playing games. Hopefully, not being glued to a six-axis controller or not having x-many achievements associated with your name is not seen as not taking your job seriously or just being unprofessional in this industry - but I guess you can't really control what other people think.

    All of this comes down to priorites, in my opinion. I love a great, beautiful interactive experience as much as the next guy, but I'm not getting any younger and I can neither afford to purchase or play even a tenth of the games out there. YouTube play-throughs, as mentioned, are great for distilling games down to their true essence and compressing the wash-rinse-repeat stuff (which is the majority of most games). Demos are good too. They give you a reasonable taste of any given experience and then you can move on.

    I'm focused primarily on art and how to best use emerging technologies. I'd need four life-times to learn and create all I'd like to in those arenas. And I'm easily distracted. It's very easy for me to get off-track and spiral away hours of time that could be used more constructively. That's a personal weakness of mine, of course, and other people probably handle this differently/better.

    If i was a game designer and gameplay design was my passion, I'd feel differently about this and time spent playing games, naturally. I think it just comes down to 'What are your areas of focus?'
  • Joopson
    Offline / Send Message
    Joopson quad damage
    TeeJay wrote: »
    You guys presumably got into this through an initial love of games, seems a shame to let that go, right?

    Nope. For me it was a love of game art. I never much cared for games themselves, really. Sure, some games I really enjoy. But typically they seem too shallow, or something. I loved Journey, The Elder Scrolls, Dear Esther, and Amnesia, for example.

    But all those had great art, as well as great stories and gameplay. And they suit my nature.
  • Snacuum
    Offline / Send Message
    Snacuum polycounter lvl 9
    For me it is now so much harder to enjoy some of my games, I've even become way more filled with vitriol and rage. I've yelled at and throw more controllers recently than ever as a kid. Really though, it's because I can't enjoy them from the guilt. I'm guilty of not making art when I play them, and I'm shackled to work when I make art, dreaming of playing more games. Endless cycle.
  • Blaizer
    Offline / Send Message
    Blaizer interpolator
    Passion for games is a +++ for this job, and a passionate worker plays a lot of games.

    Sadly, there are two kind of workers in this industry, those who work for the sake of the money, doing "game art", and those who are gamers and know what gamers want.

    I consider myself of "gamer race" :D. I wish i could see more titles on these days.
  • Torch
    Offline / Send Message
    Torch interpolator
    Blaizer wrote: »
    Passion for games is a +++ for this job, and a passionate worker plays a lot of games.

    Sadly, there are two kind of workers in this industry, those who work for the sake of the money, doing "game art", and those who are gamers and know what gamers want.

    Yeah...I'm sure guys who spend most of their time freelancing game art paycheck to paycheck just to make enough money for rent have loads of time to kick back and get stuck into a 50+ hour RPG. :poly141:
  • Justin Meisse
    Offline / Send Message
    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    whenever I see studios talking about art direction or see the inspirational art used at the beginning of a project - it's typically made up of real photographs and fine art. When we were starting a new zone at Mythic the inspiration was 17th century Dutch landscapes, the whole art team took a day trip down to the Smithsonian Museum of Art.

    If you draw too much inspiration from other games or current pop culture the fans get angry and accuse you of ripping off another game or movie.

    Really, everyone in this thread knows who Mario is, if you didn't play games at all you wouldn't be here. Continuing to play is not a requirement, suggesting that someone isn't passionate about their work or isn't living up to their potential as an artist is just plain silly.
  • WarrenM
    I think it's critical for designers to play games voraciously. Artists, not so much...
  • Nbah
    Games are a form of entertainment, no different from watching a movie or reading a book. All this talk about 'taking risks while playing games', 'wasting your time while the other artists get better' is ridiculous. The same can be applied for reading books, watching films, listening to music or whatever else you find enjoyable. The real fault in all of this is no one other than yourself, as it is up to you to manage your time efficiently, balancing between practicing art, indulging in entertainment and whatever else you juggle in your daily life.

    Of course, if one started sacrificing too much time in exchange for entertainment, then one might start to babble on about how games are wasting his time, or complain about the 'artificial hurdles' between the player and the content, because his taste in games is apparently lacking. The truth is, time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time, aslong as you can maintain a fine proportionate balance between your career, social life, and whatever it is else you juggle in your daily life,
    otherwise your guilt-ridden conscience might start complaining about how games are a waste of time,
    Justin. -_-
  • leslievdb
    Offline / Send Message
    leslievdb polycounter lvl 15
    I stick with singleplayer campaigns these days, with games that i know will have an interesting storyline or at least fun gameplay.
    I don`t play a lot of multiplayer games since you need to invest too much time in them to be able to play them.

    I guess it all depends on where you want to be as an artist, if you want to be the average artist with the average portfolio then you`ll probably be able to free up time to play a lot of games.
    If you want to become an extraordinary artist then there won`t be a lot of time to spend on gaming and thats just the reality of it.
    If you are an extraordinary artist however with a stable job it probably frees up more time for gaming again but i would probably be so excited to do my own personal art when i come home from work that i still wouldn't spend most of my free time playing games.

    I`ve always been more interested with the creation of games than actually playing them tbh , new tech in a game can excite me while i don`t really like the game itself. It isn`t losing your passion for games imo , its just having a different kind of appreciation for them.
1
Sign In or Register to comment.