Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. This is Rummy Games team, and today we will dive into life stories in the new Dev Diary #27.
This time, part of the team and me decided to look into the experience of previous work, which was useful for development. Today Igor Konyaev, Ilya Ninomiya and Dmitry Kondrakov are participating in the interview. Fasten your seat belts, check your helmet for leaks - we're getting started.
Guys, tell us about your experience.
Igor (Game Designer, Lead Developer):
If we talk about the experience that led me to game dev, then it’s worth starting from afar. The university provided me with a basic technical education, I studied as an automation engineer. Specialists in this field are engaged in programming and adjustment of automated systems. This includes any systems that have at least some kind of automation: machine assembly plants, hydroelectric power plants, spaceports, oil pipelines, and so on. By the way, I had a chance to work at the cosmodrome, but only as an electrician. At that time (2016), the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome was underway.
What is the difference between programming in the specialty and programming in the gaming field?
By specialty, you lay down the logic of the operation of real machines (lighting, thermal units, conveyors, etc.), and in game development everything is the same, but only in a virtual environment. The same automatic doors, elevators, robots. The essence of programming is always and everywhere the same: to make the mechanism work the way a person wants, only the tools change. But at the same time, it is possible to collect simulations of automated systems. So you can check at what stage of work the unit may break down, what the consequences will be and what protective automation will work.
Graphic programming was actively used at the university. When I got acquainted with UE4 blueprints, I did not immediately understand that it was from the field of industrial automation that the basic principles of graphic programming were inherited.
I didn’t think much about game development during my time at University. I had a choice, to work at a factory according to my major or in my last year to urgently study as a backend developer (Java / SQL). Chose the second.
Did you do any internship at University?
I did, but to a greater extent it was the set of practices that discouraged the desire to go to work according to my major after my study.
I started to get involved in gamedev spontaneously, the big city helps. The game developers conference DevGamm 2019 in Moscow had a particular impact. Everything else is classic. I take Netology game design courses and programming courses, absorb articles and books, make my own game prototypes, get rejected by HR due to lack of experience, continue to work for a bloody enterprise, never giving up trying to find my place in the gaming industry.
Ilya (UI/UX designer):
For the first time, I came into closer contact with the gaming industry when I organized Counter-Strike: Source championships. My experience from the past that helped the work is learning Pluralsight. It was an introductory course.
What is Pluralsight?
The major training ground in partnership with Microsoft. Pluralsight courses are expensive, but during the pandemic, in order to support people, they opened courses that I was interested in and downloaded them. It often happens to me that after downloading 28 courses, thanks God, only one is finished. This course was recommended to me by a programmer friend who works for VELUX company.
I also studied at Netology platform. Of course, there was more emphasis on mobile phones. This is only partially suited to what we do. But in general, understanding what and how works in the industry was not superfluous.
What I am doing now has benefited from the experience of drawing icons and the interface, and also helped by working in advertising. This is work with printing and layout. I had to make layouts, prepare various products for printing: booklets, leaflets and books. Over time, the skill of color separation, color correction, palette selection, a sense of symmetry, combining different elements with each other are developed.
There was a moment when I worked on designing logos, but it was not for long time. Then I moved on to working with clients. There was one case when working with Yandex. The next day was a conference, we work on printing the products for it. They delayed the deadline for three weeks, then they gave a deadline of two days for printing. And two days was the minimum for how much this can be done. I came to the printing industry - and there, of the two colors in the Yandex logo, only black was printed. That is, "...ndex". And so was for the 50 thousand notebooks!
In general, we can say that design in the printing industry and UI are related areas. If you had experience in graphic editors, then you will come to the UI sphere most painlessly. From a UX point of view, among other things, you need the skill of a game designer - an “artist” networking. Experience in dealing with clients gives advantages in getting the right results from people. For example, a client asks “I want 1000 T-shirts with mother-of-pearl buttons”. You tell them: "Therenare no with mother-of-pearl, there are such ones." He says: “I don’t want with mother-of-pearl.” And it starts. You ask him questions “Why mother-of-pearl? Why 1000 pieces? Maybe five is enough for now? Well, after that coming to a common denominator.
Most importantly, one learns to listen to people. Understand what they want from you. Well, and, of course, gaming experience also gives an advantage. If I didn't play games so much, I probably wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing now.
Dmitry (Lead Writer and Game Designer):
I had some marketing experience. It was a small Ryazan company, so our experience with Ilya varies. It was the “Ryazan style” experience.
And how is it, Ryazan style business?
Ryazan style business is when an employer has read a bunch of smart books on doing business, but behaves like a complete inadequate. Because kicks, most often, grows out of the 90s. The way of doing business with the client grows from there. Well, he could also threaten to "break the legs".
Also, I opened an advertising company with my wife, but then we closed it. When I came to the project, I was offered to work as a marketer. But I said: “It’s better to just be shooted, but I won’t work as a marketer”.
I am a programmer by education. During the study, there was the first experience of polygon role-playing games. This topic fascinated me a lot, I then began to develop worlds and scenarios for the first time. We were organizing large-scale events, coordinated them with the police, firefighters, chose places and built routes to them. At first, the events were for 100, then for 400, 500 people. In 2018, there was a project for 2,700 people. Then I was engaged in game design, I worked out the mechanics for role-playing games.
It was RPGs that got me back into game development. Once upon a time, as a schoolboy, I dreamed of making games. But when you live in the province and you don't have any friends who are involved in game development, then you think that this story is not about you. Therefore, until the end of 2018, I was sure that it was impossible to get into the gaming industry.
Once I visited a friend in Moscow. And a friend suggested that I go to a lecture by Vyacheslav Utochkin. I agreed, and that's how I got on the project. I can say that until now the experience of polygon games helps in the development of game design.
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Every efforts not only will be appreciated but captured.
Add the game to your wishlist so you don't miss a new diary. Until then, we say goodbye. See you soon, space rescuers!