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The Video Game Industry Wants You!

Panelists: Bonnie Ross (343 Industries), Helen Chiang (Minecraft), Kiki Wolfkill (Halo Transmedia, 343 Industries), Shannon Loftis (Microsoft Studios)

Why Are We Here?

  • 43% of gamers are women
  • 17% of CS graduates are women
    • 15-25 years ago, 34% of CS graduates were women
  • 30% of graduates from gaming programs are women
    • USC announced that a majority of the school's interactive media and game division program for graduate students are women

Games: Merging Technology and Art

  • Technology empowers creativity
  • Technology empowers art

Opportunities in tech that inspire you?

  • Helen
    • Playing games with my mom and my kid
    • Accessibility to people of all ages
  • Kiki
    • Families and kids getting into games, and learning about technology through these games
    • Leads to rapid innovation and diversity in game experiences through democratization
  • Shannon
    • 13 year old started taking programming classes: "Minecraft is programming!"
    • Acceleration of technology of VR and IR: whole new generation of creatives, new experiences of storytelling
  • Bonnie
    • VR and IR gives us an immersive quality, suspension of belief that we haven't seen before

Empowering Storytelling

New innovations in AI and dialogue systems.

<video of Ori and the Blind Forest>
These stories pull you in as a player in different ways – there are so many different narrative techniques driven by the game mechanics.

Halo

  • Master Chief is helmeted
  • Don't want them to talk a lot because it's first-person
  • A lot of narrative through the people around Master Chief
  • Environment design is a huge visual storytelling methodology

Portal vs Uncharted 4 vs Inside

What were some story experiences that resonated with you?

  • Bonnie
    • The first game that emotionally grabbed me was Ico
    • You can tell stories that can't be told in other mediums
  • Shannon
    • I spent four hours last weekend to play Firewatch
    • I enjoy playing through games more than TV
  • Helen
    • We see all sorts of different stories and adventures in Minecraft
  • Kiki
    • Game communities are really important!
    • Halo is multi-generational – being able to give back to the stories is really powerful

Play is Human…Play is Social

Gamers connect, self-express, and build community around many interests. As gaming grows to $100B globally, there are more ways for gamers to socialize both online and off.

Games are a canvas for self-expression, both in-game and out.

What are your experiences socially with games, and what sort of cross-over you've had with real life?

  • Kiki
    • Halo fosters competition around co-op games
    • Games enabling shared experiences through self-expression, co-op experiences, and the shared experiences you can have over time asynchronously
      • e.g. recording a fast lap on a track leads to ghost cars
    • So many different ways of connecting through play or stories
  • Bonnie
    • Pokemon Go – is it a game? a social experiment? exercise? It brought people together in real life and broke down barriers
  • Helen
    • My family uses games to connect and stay in touch
    • Words with Friends, Fitbit challenges, etc.
  • Shannon
    • Inside (the game) isn't multiplayer, but everyone who plays it wants to talk about it afterwards

Games Inspire Creativity and Diversity in Gaming

Minecraft: 1) inspiring a new generation of people across age, gender, and geography to imagine worlds and create and 2) inspiring us to learn in new ways.

Minecraft: Education Edition
Used for math, physics, urban planning, storytelling, etc.

How have games been used for learning?

  • Shannon
    • The edition of Redstone to Minecraft turned it into a OOP course
    • Gaming-based curriculum: teaches teamwork, valuing diverse skills and inputs, collaboration
  • Kiki
    • Two schools of thoughts:
      • Here's the experience
      • Here's a sandbox to play in
    • For us, seeing the emergent behaviors that come out of the latter is really interesting
    • Halo Forge standalone was just released – that in itself is exciting, some people use it to create new game modes or just art itself

General Advice

  • Shannon
    • If you love games, play them!
    • Start exploring some of the tools that are available (e.g. Twine for text-based adventure games)
    • Once you get used to telling stories and how people experience them, you're there!
  • Kiki
    • Get your CS degrees!
    • Roles are a combination of tech and design
    • Go out there and start making stuff – hackathons, game jams, etc.
      • Lets you know what areas you're strong in
      • Teaches you to work across disciplines
  • Helen
    • Don't let the lack of a degree hold you back
    • Skills and experience are something you can learn
    • Nobody can teach you passion
  • Bonnie
    • One of the things that give you an edge up is things that you've made, showing up with a lot of passion

Q&A

What's the process in game making? I'm interested in storywriting – how does that process begin? How do you start?

  • Bonnie
    • It depends on the game
    • We have a whole narrative team
    • We focus on an overarching story first, and then the artists and designers get in on it
    • But a game like Candy Crush doesn't start from the story, but a game like Halo does
  • Kiki
    • It often starts with the game mechanic

Comments on the poor treatment of engineers in the video game industry compared to other industries?

  • Kiki
    • Since Microsoft is a software company, engineers are well-treated
    • I personally haven't experienced that, since I came from the creative side
  • Shannon
    • The game industry has a reputation for being crunch-driven
    • As a senior manager, I have the responsibility to take care of the team

What skillset did you have when you came into your entry-level position?

  • Bonnie
    • The game industry today is very different from when we all started – at the time, it wasn't really a career
    • Game design right out of college is super, super hard – but you can get into the platform side
  • Shannon
    • Outside of core applicable skills, the non-core skills are problem-solving, breaking down problems, dealing with contingencies and ambiguity, maturity toward getting work done, teamwork

What are your thoughts on trying to create narrative experiences which aren't necessarily conducive to the underlying game mechanics?

  • Kiki
    • With Halo, we've played around with mutiplayer and co-op game play

I stood up to ask a question and didn't take notes after this – didn't get to ask my question, either Q_____Q