I’ve played many hundreds – probably over a thousand – games on Kongregate alone, now.
On top of all the thousands I’ve played on console, PC, flash, handheld, mobile, etc.
I feel pretty confident in analysing game mechanics, and success/fail reasons for given game-designs, based off my extensive experience.
I frequently use my knowledge to influence design decisions and programming decisions in the games I work on.
But how many people in the games industry can say the same?
Hmm.
(PS: many people claim to “have no time to play games – too busy working”; my view has always been: if you really care about the art and the craft of this industry, you’ll make the time. No question about it)
5 replies on “Lvl 50 on Kongregate; how many games industry people say the same?”
Test… can I post comments at all?
Sorry about that, my previous post (and probably a few others over time) appears to have been eaten up while in transit because I had to confirm that your SSL certificate was acceptable.
Anyway, what I said the first time is that I might well be up there with you on Kongregate, but creating an account has always seemed too burdensome or annoying or potentially spammy for me to bother. And then, probably six months ago or so, the site itself got to be so annoying that I stopped visiting it altogether.
Aside from that, I kind of agree. The point at which I was too busy to even play the games I was working on, never mind other games, was probably the tipping point for me and why I don’t work on games now. You also have to be able to enjoy games on their own to be able to play them on your own time, and sometimes being the sausage in the sausage factory can get in the way of that.
The time when I didn’t play games was when my daughter was young and there was simply no time for them. Seriously. I’d challenge any workaholic to maintain an infant, a career, and an active gaming life simultaneously. Babies are completely uncompromising.
Now that she’s getting bigger I’m playing games more often, although I still rarely finish a game now. I did spend over 110 hours on my playthrough of Mass Effect 2 though, which isn’t too shabby.
The games I play have a direct effect on the ones I work on. I don’t have the time to reinvent every wheel, so if there’s a game with a particularly nice wheel I don’t feel too bad about looking at it really closely before making mine.
Last line came out more provocative than intended, but … I think Matt hits the nail on the head with:
“was probably the tipping point for me and why I don’t work on games now”
…if your studio/employer neither gives yout he time to play at work, nor leaves you enough leisure time to play at home … you move job.
@Rob – babies are special! I was pointing a finger only at the people who use *solely* their work as an excuse!
I’m with Matthew – I don’t trust them with my personal data.
I play games on various flash sites on a routine basis – my students point out of a lot of interesting ones to me – but I don’t bother with accounts.