Hey folks,

So i got an email from a student studying the game industry.  He asked some fun questions, it got me thinking, and so i decided to post them to my blog.  Jarrod Pyper is a Digital Animation and Game Design program student at Ferris State University.  He got an assignment to "try and contact some people already in the industry to find a little more information about how things work and how others got their start."

 

Well, if this can help you get an A, i'm happy to help. 

-Name?

 

Tim Innes.  Often use the alias/gamertag/GamespyID: Jackel0pe

-What is your current role at Capcom? 

 

At Capcom, here in San Mateo, I work as an Associate Producer.  That’s my title, but my role is essentially a producer’s role.  It’s complicated to go into exactly what we do, and I don’t have time to write a book (or thesis) because my day is very fast paced and requires constant vigilance.  But let me indicate few core responsibilities:

1. Producers help coordinate issues and processes between all parties on a particular project.  They help facilitate and disseminate information, goals, and dates. 
2. You work as a leader in setting goals and expectations, negotiate priorities, and check up on progress between various teams. 
3. There are legal contracts, game design processes, marketing coordination’s, and business roles that require oversight or assistance.  Always need to know the situation.
4. Constantly manage the responsibilities between the business, technology, and art aspects of game development. 
5. Risk management and assessment.  Everything must have a plan A, B, and sometimes even C, D, E,… etc..
6. You take responsibility for most everything seen and unforeseen.  It is your responsibility to understand what can go wrong, and the right way to handle things (technically, and human relations wise).

 

That’s a quick list.  By no means definitive.

 

-How did you get your start in the Industry and how long have you been here?

 

I've been at Capcom for a year now. 

I started in games very early as a kid trying to play and program games on an Atari 800 computer (circa 1981-2?).  I even went to Atari Camp one summer.

I was also a huge fanatic D&D gamer (table top 1^st edition Dungeons and Dragons).  I branched out to other RPG games, and kept playing with computers my entire life.  I build cheesy 286 PC’s out of junk retired and sold for cheap.  And I continued to run D&D, Call of Cthulhu, and Cyberpunk games for friends, and game convention attendees, at local hobby conventions since 1985.  It’s pretty safe to say (conservative estimate) I have run (as Dungeon Master or Referee/Keeper) many hundred games sessions in my life, logging no less than 10,000 hours on RPG games and playing probably 3 times that.   

Around 1991-92 I started working as a writer/contributor to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth Role Playing game systems, and eventually co-authored some books with several very smart partners.  That was an important break.  I made very little money, but got published internationally in a well loved RPG license.

I finally got my start working on video games at Pixar Animation Studios in 1996 when Toy Story games were being made in house.  Initially all I did was lecture on interactivity design to the Pixar Interactive Group (PIGs) regarding other competitive products, and QA Test the Pixar games on PC and Macintosh. 

After that it was all QA Tester jobs until I got a few breaks doing design and coordination work on various projects, at many different companies.  But that was a difficult jump and required lots of extra effort.  I also had to work for free at one point, and had my .com start-up experience which also hardened my skill set.

I worked my way through the industry from the ground up as a paper and pencil creative writer and aspiring designer, to then QA for video games, to designer/coordinator roles, to finally higher level positions involving project management, controlling teams and budgets.  Depending on how you count my time, you could say I started in the industry back around 1982.  But I didn’t get a pay check until 1994-5 for the MERP books.  But, again, I didn’t get a paycheck for working on video games until 1996.  Regardless, it has been a real challenge staying in the industry the entire time.  

So no short answer; I probably have between 12 and 27 years experience, depending on how you do the math.

-What kind of education did you have when you began working with games?

 

I didn’t get my BA in Film (SFSU) until 1995.  I got a film degree because they didn’t have degrees in Dungeon Mastering (hehe).  I had always planned on getting an MBA after my undergrad degree, so I immediately went on to get my Masters in Business Administration (SSU 2003). 

            Incidentally, probably the most traumatic, challenging, and proud moment of my career was when (during the summer of 2003) I managed to organize my own wedding, get married, graduate with my MBA, and ship Savage: The Battle for Newerth, all within 5 months of each other.  To say I was sleep deprived and stressed out is an understatement.  But everything turned out great, including the game.   http://www.igf.com/2004finalistswinners.html

 

-What steps did you have in coming to the job you hold now?  (Previous gigs)

 

Pure luck.  I had given up on head hunters, and it appeared the local industry was drying up, so I was working a temporary QA job at 2K Marin/Visual Concepts (after some personal family problems I encountered took me out of the market). Someone looked me up on www.LinkedIn.com, called me, and the rest is history.

-What sort of skills do I need to show to be considered qualified for a job in game design?

 

• Demonstrate skills in level design and/or systems design
• Programming or 3d modeling skills
• Strong writing skills
• Understanding limitations of various platforms, technologies
• Understand how to build a fun experience in constraints (time, budget, team/manpower limitations).
• Super creative, but not living in a fantasy mindset.  Whatever you create on paper you must be able to translate to reality.

-Is there anything in particular that I should produce to demonstrate I am qualified?  (like design docs?)

 

Game design docs are good practice, but not the end all.  Best would be to design levels other people can play (Age of Booty Map Editor?  mod’s anyone?) or help contribute to existing systems (AI, User Interface) to improve them.  If you can create anything from scratch, and show someone the end result, you are miles ahead of wanna-be designers who write in the abstract only. 

To wrap this up, i'd like to give you and everyone else out there similar advice i got from some smart people (including David Webb Peoples one foggy evening when we were chatting in the parking lot at SFSU outside the cinema dept.)   David told me "your still young, and have a lot you can still do. Just do it, and remember to enjoy your life."  

Ok, so i admit, i can't remember it word for word.  But i have heard many times from people you have to make $millions$, or you have to do X or Y, or you will fail.  I have managed to enjoy life, and that is important.  There will be times for sacrifice (missing TV shows), but if you follow your passions you should do well.

The other advice i always give (which was given to me many times) is "Do what you love, and love what you do." 

I have officially hit my fortune cookie quota.  Good luck; I'm out for now.