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Games that make you want to be a developer

GoldenEye 007
Perfect Dark
Halo: Combat Evovled
Half-Life 2

These games solidified my love for first person shooters, and inspired me to become a game designer when I was a bit younger. I've since moved on to film, but I constantly come up with ideas that would be perfect for games.
 
I want to set up my own studio that becomes a AAA studio that takes risks on new things like Indies do and to have an Indie branch set up so that graduates just getting into the field can have a place to learn how to do things while not having too much pressure on them as they are starting out. I shall call it: "Psy-On Studioes". (the O in "On" is shaped like the on/off symbol on a computer on/off switch)


also more (hopeful) ideas to it:
-never any Day 1 or cut content DLC
-DLC to be made/thought up after
-packing as much as we can into the games so people get more for their money
-pre-order bonuses that aren't just a DLC codes, but actual merch/toys.

Isn't that the dream? Lol.
 
Super Mario Galaxy/64
Two extremely creative games I'd would have loved to have been in the ideas came into fruition.
 
Super Metroid. Still the most well designed game ever I think. Also, games with a simple concept that are executed perfectly, like Ikaruga.

This. The game is essentially about finding keys to unlock new areas, except every key is beautifully disguised as a really fun power-up for the protagonist. Add a handcrafted and extremely detailed world designed to encourage exploration, and you have a formula that looks like a lot of fun to try and take a crack at.
 
Half life. Playing that game and a lot of the mods built off of it, really had me considering it a career option.
 
BioShock. When I first played it, my perception on what a video game could be was changed forever. I knew that this is exactly where I wanted video games to go. So I knew these were the games I want to make.

Well, aside from a few things, though, most notably some of the gamey elements.
 
I would say...

Naughty Dog games (Overall package)
Ratchet and Clank (Weapons that upgrade/evolve mid-gameplay, Multiple Hub worlds)
Sucker Punch Prod. Games (Sly 2 being the biggest influence)
Shadow of the Colossus (No language barrier, sense of duty)
Super Metroid (Open progression system)
Kingdom Hearts series (The style/aesthetics)
MediEvil (As of late, I may be the only one with this title, but...)

p.s. Bolded names mean Overall Biggest Influence.
 
Crysis 1
Metroid and Castlevania Series
Team Buddies
Metal Gear Series (Biggest Influence)
Sonic The Hedgehog
OddWorld series (another big influence)
Rare and Naughty Dog games.
Halo Series
Portal 1 & 2
There are more...


Games have convinced me how powerful the medium is. These ones I've mentioned have made me question myself about considering the Computer Entertainment Industry but I just don't know where to start.
 
Isn't that the dream? Lol.

Lol yeah. Well, half of my dream anyway. The other involves a certain girl I know, but that's off topic.

I want to change the industry for the better somehow, and these are some of the ways to do it. Some other ways I can think of are basically telling people who think games are murder simulators or if a game has a controversial part to it, and are offended by it, to fuck off basically.

Like that whole fiasco with "Six Days In Fallujiah". One mother of a soldier who died there got offended and started a shit storm and now the game's pretty much vapourware now.

Also, getting the big publisher to keep his grubby hands out of the development process so there's no micro transaction shit in games that didn't make sense like Dead Space 3 and every future title EA is doing, no DRM shit like Ubisoft is doing, and full freedom of our dev teams. But that may just be a pipe dream, seeing as how most, if not all the problems in the industry all stem from the publishers and their greed.
 
I must be old, but post FF7 Final Fantasy games did it for me.

I was never interested in development until they hit 3D. Specifically PS2 games. The scope of things just started to blow me away compared to the... Pitfall, and Adventure games I played on my Atari.
 
None, unless there is a position where you guide the project without touching the code or making any kind of asset. Surely this position exists.
 
There are plenty of positions like that. A prime example is Miyamoto.

Director is the most likely route to go, but you have to have programmed for a few years to get to that level.

Producer has even less to do with programming, but they usually set up schedules, get the rights to things they don't own so they can be used (ie: another company's IP), and otehr stuff.

Or he could be a publisher and fund a game without knowing how to code. It works for EA and they just love making a game that constantly tries to milk your money.

Miyamoto is usually a lead programmer or director so he's still coding things, but not as much as the dev team.
 
Practically every game I like.

but the one that really got me into game development was pokemon. but in a weird backward way. I fucking HATED the requirement to trade to evolve some pokemon and to fill the pokedex. So I started hacking roms, namely pokemon gold to make all pokemon avalaible without trading (including kanto pokemon) it was a hackjob. seeing nintendo essentially stagnate on pokemon made me want to use it to it's full potential. so i started making a pokemon fangame (super pokemon eevee edition) - which i still have to finish.
I've started on my first "real" orginal game. which i hope gains traction.

I probably wouldn't enter big game development. seems like a horrifying experience. and generally, you're gonna be making games you want to make. you're just gonna work on a small part of a large picture. unless you become director.
 
Quake 1 and its many mods definitely wetted my appetite for being a game developer. Since then? I suppose a lot of the indy games (Rogue Legacy for example) definitely entice me to go spend some time on some more whimsical games.
 
All the games I played on the N64 when I was a kid.

I want to make worlds and universes that people can loose themselves in with wonder.

It's my dream.
 
Double Dragon(NES)

Final Fantasy III(VI)

Street Fighter II/III

Secret of Evermore

Secret of Mana

Ogre Battle

Super Mario 1/World/Land

That's.. why I am a game developer.
 
I can name a few:

Okami
Super Mario Galaxy
Portal 1&2
Brave Fencer Musashi
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

I want to eventually create a game as great as those one day...
 
-never any Day 1 or cut content DLC
-DLC to be made/thought up after
-packing as much as we can into the games so people get more for their money
-pre-order bonuses that aren't just a DLC codes, but actual merch/toys.

And then your publisher, the one actually paying for the dev team comes and demands all these things, unless you put them in your game the studio will fail.

Most devs are against Day 1 dlc and cut content, however if you need to have 3 dlc ready by the end of the month and you're note done with the core game yet... it's sometimes the only way.
 
System Shock 2, which I first played shortly after my first Bioshock playthrough, is the game that made me seriously start thinking maybe I wanted to make video games.
 
I want to set up my own studio that becomes a AAA studio that takes risks on new things like Indies do and to have an Indie branch set up so that graduates just getting into the field can have a place to learn how to do things while not having too much pressure on them as they are starting out. I shall call it: "Psy-On Studioes". (the O in "On" is shaped like the on/off symbol on a computer on/off switch)


also more (hopeful) ideas to it:
-never any Day 1 or cut content DLC
-DLC to be made/thought up after
-packing as much as we can into the games so people get more for their money
-pre-order bonuses that aren't just a DLC codes, but actual merch/toys.

Where do you go to school?
 
Starcraft 2, I love the game so much, but at the same time I can see things that the game can improve on that could make it infinitely better.
 
I don't want to be a developer, but I'd like to write for a game since pretty much all game stories are shit. I think I could do much better.

Same for me, except I don't have an urge to save the video game world from shitty stories, and I don't care about video game stories being taken seriously .I just want to write because I think it would be fun, The stories would be deliberately stupid.

I guess I could say that Sam and Max or Monkey Island type games have made me want to write for videogames( not that it is my current career goal or anything, but if I had the opportunity to write for one I'd do it)
 
Where do you go to school?

I go to the Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (North Campus) and I'm in their Game Design course.

And then your publisher, the one actually paying for the dev team comes and demands all these things, unless you put them in your game the studio will fail.

Most devs are against Day 1 dlc and cut content, however if you need to have 3 dlc ready by the end of the month and you're note done with the core game yet... it's sometimes the only way.

Soooooo... No making games for Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and Capcom. Was already planning on that. And Sony and Nintendo seem to be the safest bets.

I want to make a developer's union to prevent the publishers from forcing the devs from doing these practices and to not stifle creativity so we can take chances on new ideas instead of copying the newest genre/title that sold exceptionally well (like COD did and then we get 500 CoD clones) and just do different things.
 
Starcraft 2, I love the game so much, but at the same time I can see things that the game can improve on that could make it infinitely better.
Diablo III as an extension of this. Dat Blizzard hubris.
I've taken several programming courses. Never got past C++ though. And don't worry, I'm not going to do it if I'm going to fuck up our finances. I know better than that. lol.

And no, you aren't shitting on my dream. You're being a realist.
Good on you man
 
I could easily fix Starcraft 2. Both MP and SP.

:)
 
More like a lack of a certain game.

That game being a turn based cRPG that used the D&D 4E ruleset. That edition may not have been the best for tabletop sessions, but it would have made a perfect video game. You could pretty much do the rules 1:1 and worry more about your content rather than balancing the rules for a game. It drives me crazy it was never made.
 
The only games that have ever made me want to become a developer are River City Ransom and Final Fantasy Tactics. I have always admired both and imagined a way to make a cool hybrid of the two. Alas, unless I someday become rich enough to fund my own studio (or someone creates the Garageband equivalent of a game creation suite), that dream will always remain a dream.

Also, inb4 avatar quote :P
 
Rogue Legacy would be the most recent example, as I have programming experience with C#/XNA myself and I can't quite believe the jump up from Don't Shit Your Pants.

These are the exact two examples I was going to name. Games like those, being made by one or two people, who aren't necessarily technical savants or trained art/sound designers, that are not only so goddamned good, but actually commercially viable using modern distribution channels, are infinitely more inspiring to me than some hulking AAA monstrosity that takes 400 people 3-4+ years to put together.

While Gunpoint is a good game, Tom Francis is also startlingly well-connected and his game received a lot of exposure at a very early stage because games journalists saw that one of their own was branching out and living the dream.
 
Grand Theft Auto 5 is something that really makes me want to leave my current job and work toward getting into the industry. Seeing that game is like a dream of mine. The scope of the world with the details. It's amazing in every way to me. I've never been so hyped for a game in my entire life. I've always wanted to make a game like this.
Hearing horror stories about game development @ Rockstar studios, I'm pretty sure you'd want to leave the industry immediately and return to your old one (if you don't hate it). They sound like a horrible place to work at.
 
When I was a kid the two games that made me want to be a developer were Ultima 4 and Alternate Reality: The City. Those games really got me thinking about games in a whole different way. My dream since then was to make my own game and even submitted my first game to EA back in 1987. But the Atari 8-bit was done for by then and there really wasn't a place for my game. After that, I never really got into it seriously until I became a 3rd Party developer for the Jaguar. Atari folded not long after that. Broke my spirit for the most part.

Getting back into it now using Unity and I feel a lot better about my chances. Still, I owe it to Richard Garriott and Philip Price. I probably never would have gotten into gaming without them.
 
Ninja Gaiden 2.

It's a weird pick but I wish I could do a Black version for a next gen system and iron out the issues that the game has, I love this game so much and I think that it's a shame that the best action game ever IMO is so unpolished with so many questionable design decisions.
 
3d sonic games I enjoy, there is nothing else like that on the market.

I want to make something like it, or make them.

Other ones would includeTop down LOZ's, Halo, Pokemans, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, and many others.

Most recently Guacamelee has given me this feeling.

Well lets see where these college courses take me
 
None because I really hate coding, took a course of it in Uni and I never want to see a code again.

I've got a lot of ideas for games though, just skipping to the creative department.
 
Guild Wars2... Guild Wars one was a freakin masterpiece... epic level of strategy, epic pvp. Then those nobs (yes nobs) at NCSOFT or ARENANET decided to change everything and turn it into another quasi World of Warcraft...

I promised myself, when I get rich... I'll put off buying a speedboat and buy 51% of the voting right for that piece of crap company and force them to release a sequel worthy of the title Guild Wars 2...
 
Hotline Miami, due to the fact that it was just two guys. While I love the big games like Zelda, Halo, GTA, etc. they don't inspire as much because they're a completely different animal.

Most recently, I read the story of Tom Francis and how he made Gunpoint on Eurogamer, and it was pretty inspirational.

I wonder if there's a Roger Corman-esque type figure in the games industry that's given lots of top talent their big breaks?
 
Final Fantasy XI made me look at videogames in a completely different way.
When I think of what game has made me the most excited about games it's that one.

It truely made me marvel, considering all the ways in which that game had pushed PS2.
I sat and pondered 'How did they manage that with only 4MB of VRAM?'
'I wonder what the hard drive will bring to the game?'
'How do they store the data online?'
'How they sync data with that many users?' etc.

I studied videogame tech at university. (I should've studied computer science in hindsight.)
I worked at Sony, Sega, some independent studios, I worked on (the frankly, awesome) Sonic & All-Stars Transformed with Sumo Digital and now I'm working on the Lego games over at TT Fusion.

My desire to squeeze performance from machines has been recently ignited and I'm still going back to Final Fantasy XI to marvel at it. I dream someday of writing a great PS2 game that pushes the hardware, I still don't think we've seen all that that machine had to offer.
 
That's a hard question. But I do remember drawing plans and sketches for a Super Mario Bros. 4 right after playing Super Mario Bros. 3. Then after Mega Man X2 I sent designs to Capcom for new Robot Masters. I don't know if either of those count.

I do, however, remember playing about with both of these when I was younger:

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And I had both when I had a SNES, so something from that era must've really triggered it off.
 
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