Part 1:
The first speaker from Spacetime Studios was Gary Gattis, the CEO. As a CEO, he naturally talked about the business side of gaming, which is something I have not really thought about before. I thought his approach to feedback was kind of profound. It is a popular thing for people to say to respond to negative feedback with an attitude of, “who cares what you think, this is what I want to do and this is the way I want to do it!” This is usually proclaimed as confidence. Some respond to feedback the polar opposite, with taking it personally and losing motivation to do their work. Gattis suggested a third, more effective approach. He explained how the first response does not really make sense in the gaming industry, where the goal is to get the maximum amount of people to enjoy the game. He suggested taking feedback objectively, not to brush it off entirely like in the first approach, but to also not take it too personally when taking the message in. He acknowledged that taking in negative feedback is tough, but he said to look through the possible anger to find the real problem. Only then could negative feedback actually be constructive. There is a certain reason why that person is angry and if taken objectively, one can find that reason and be able to apply practical improvements to the game. Additionally, I liked his energy and humor.
Gattis was followed by Bryand Wood, the Senior Game Designer. Something that stuck with me was the concept that there are two types of game design, the first being System Design, the second being Content Design. System Design is the many technical details of the game. He gave an example of how many seconds a character holds a fireball before shooting it. Would three seconds be too long in a faster paced game? These intricacies were mostly organized in EXCELL, a program I learned in high school. Content design would be what color is the fireball? Does the character gain more power in the fireball the longer he holds it before firing? I thought he was a natural at explaining. I was also amused at his saying that randomness is a game designer’s best friend.
The last presenter was Eva Tran, the Art/ UI Lead. She explained the more artsy side of gaming, whereas the first two more talked about the technical side. She mostly deals with Concept Art in gaming. I perked up a bit, because I am an art major, but she did not really have as much content as the first two presenters. The practical takeaways from her presentation were to draw every single day and that when employers look at your portfolios, they want to see the realistic stuff you can do included, no matter how cartoony the game is going to be. They just want to see that you can draw realistically, and to be able to draw realistically well.
Part 2:
How does one go about booking a gallery show? How do you gain more recognition as an artist? What does online presence mean to modern artists? Like do you have your own website, do you use social media? If you need your own website, how do you go about making it look professional when you do not have a knowledge of web design? Do you get the help of a web designer? Are there user-friendly programs to do it yourself? How do you get commissioned to do murals on the sides of buildings?