IbizaPocholo
NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
Dozens of industry professionals and aspiring game makers attended this year's BAFTA Games Lecture to hear Media Molecule's Siobhan Reddy discuss "the human cost of making games" and how it can be managed.
Hosted at the Academy's London HQ last night, the studio director touched on the concept of "glitter and doom" - something she has explored in previous speeches - as well as why her team is dedicated to making titles that enable players to create their own games.
"I am pretty sure I was born playing make believe," she began. "Whether it was playing with dolls, Lego, paints or in the pool, I always remember creating my own worlds and adventures. The most wonderful part of being a child is only needing your imagination for play. Whether it was watering the garden and imagining the natural disaster happening below to the imps and faeries, or the world clean-up operation that was vacuuming... I was always a bit lost in my imagination and it's fair to say not an efficient chore do-er."
This has become a key driver in her desire to make games, as has working with countless other creatives in doing so. She cited the "sense of community, joy of playing together and the thrill of seeing people enjoy what we have made" as the most rewarding and fascinating parts of the job.
"There is also no one in the world that will do things exactly like someone else," Reddy said. "Each person is an important piece of that final project. Having the right people on the right project can make a huge difference in so many diverse, intangible ways. If a person is missing, the project changes. If you have the right person in a role, they can go far beyond your expectations."
The studio director added this can be further seen by the thriving community of developers based in Media Molecule's hometown of Guildford, such as Fireproof, Criterion Games, Hello Games, Supermassive and UK offices for publishers like EA and Ubisoft.
"In the 20 years that I have been working in games there has been such a growth in people - make-believers - both amateur and professional because of the accessibility of tools like Unity and Unreal, the ability to learn from generosity of communities with Wikipedia and YouTube, the opportunities for independent developers and wealth of publishing platforms that now exist. The size, and focus of the industry has evolved into something vast and amorphous."
But with this growth comes new challenges.
"Making a good game often isn't enough," Reddy said. "There are so many factors to success. But the core of that, for me is people. "
She spoke of the lessons learned during her time at Criterion, where she worked on Airblade as well as some of the Burnout titles. Over the course of seven years, she began to truly understand the effect games development can have on its team - both in a positive and negative way - and came away with a revelation.
"We are making entertainment," she emphasised. "We aren't curing cancer. We need to understand the human cost of making games and make the doom manageable."
She added that making games is "an artisanal production, rather than a factory line", and that the "fingerprints" of every developer can be seen in the final products.
Check the link for more.
Hosted at the Academy's London HQ last night, the studio director touched on the concept of "glitter and doom" - something she has explored in previous speeches - as well as why her team is dedicated to making titles that enable players to create their own games.
"I am pretty sure I was born playing make believe," she began. "Whether it was playing with dolls, Lego, paints or in the pool, I always remember creating my own worlds and adventures. The most wonderful part of being a child is only needing your imagination for play. Whether it was watering the garden and imagining the natural disaster happening below to the imps and faeries, or the world clean-up operation that was vacuuming... I was always a bit lost in my imagination and it's fair to say not an efficient chore do-er."
This has become a key driver in her desire to make games, as has working with countless other creatives in doing so. She cited the "sense of community, joy of playing together and the thrill of seeing people enjoy what we have made" as the most rewarding and fascinating parts of the job.
"There is also no one in the world that will do things exactly like someone else," Reddy said. "Each person is an important piece of that final project. Having the right people on the right project can make a huge difference in so many diverse, intangible ways. If a person is missing, the project changes. If you have the right person in a role, they can go far beyond your expectations."
The studio director added this can be further seen by the thriving community of developers based in Media Molecule's hometown of Guildford, such as Fireproof, Criterion Games, Hello Games, Supermassive and UK offices for publishers like EA and Ubisoft.
"In the 20 years that I have been working in games there has been such a growth in people - make-believers - both amateur and professional because of the accessibility of tools like Unity and Unreal, the ability to learn from generosity of communities with Wikipedia and YouTube, the opportunities for independent developers and wealth of publishing platforms that now exist. The size, and focus of the industry has evolved into something vast and amorphous."
But with this growth comes new challenges.
"Making a good game often isn't enough," Reddy said. "There are so many factors to success. But the core of that, for me is people. "
She spoke of the lessons learned during her time at Criterion, where she worked on Airblade as well as some of the Burnout titles. Over the course of seven years, she began to truly understand the effect games development can have on its team - both in a positive and negative way - and came away with a revelation.
"We are making entertainment," she emphasised. "We aren't curing cancer. We need to understand the human cost of making games and make the doom manageable."
She added that making games is "an artisanal production, rather than a factory line", and that the "fingerprints" of every developer can be seen in the final products.
Check the link for more.