2. Who Am I?
David Mullich
dmullich@lafilm.edu
@David_Mullich
davidmullich.wordpress.com
Instructor at LAFS
Producer from Activision, Disney, 3DO
Co-creator of BSA Game Design Merit Badge
3. Who Are You?
1. What is your name?
2. Where are you from?
3. What is your favorite movie?
4. What is your favorite game?
5. What is your career goal?
4. How to Succeed in This Class
Studying game development at college is still
college study.
Take Notes
Study
Do Your Work
7. On Time
Means 5 minutes early.
Unless the stakes are really high, in which case it
means 24 hours early. Or a week early.
Pssst....Sometimes developers make false internal deadlines
to avoid calamity such as missed milestone payments.
Maybe you could do the same if graduation is at stake?
8. Tests
Study for your tests! Refer to the slides.
If you see on a slide, it will probably be
on the test.
If you don’t know the answer to a test
question, guess!
There are no points deducted for wrong answers on
multiple-choice questions
I will award some points for clever or knowledgeable
answers on short-answer questions, even if they weren’t
the answer I was looking for.
9. Do You Have Skillz?
Gamers are good at digital interfaces
Gaming professionals are good at both
digital and human interfaces
10. This means communication.
With grammar‐Nazis.
“...the different ways they done it like in the game
play and the scenes ad the props”
...is not communicating and will incur their wrath.
Game development is a team sport
for Geeks.
11. All Business is Communication
Business to Consumer
Business to Business
Boss to Team
Team to Boss
Team Member to Team Member
13. Written Communication
Informal Communication
“Its cool to werk in gamez.u get too do
anything u want & stuff”
Formal Communication
“It’s cool to work in games. You get to do
anything you want and stuff.”
14. Written Communication
Capitalize the beginning of sentences,
names, game titles, and the word “I”
Use proper spelling and punctuation
Put a space between punctuation mark
ending a sentence and the start of the
next sentence
Don’t use “u” for “you”, or “&” for “and”
Don’t confuse “its” and “it’s”
16. Emails
Use a meaningful subject line (e.g.,
“Homework 2”)
Send attachments as PDF files only
Put your name on all attachments
17. Assignments
If you can’t be bothered to:
be creative
strive for originality even within established
norms or constraints
look beyond your initial idea
actually enjoy and actively want to do the
above
Then get used to the phrase
“Would you like fries with that?”
18. Tokenism
The practice or policy of making no more than a
token effort or gesture.
Token verbal presentations.
Token game documentation.
Token effort.
Does NOT belong in game development practice
ANY kind.
Do not aim to do the minimal required. Aim to
exceed expectations.
19. “I just want to pass this”
Classes are not kidney
stones.
If you think about them
in these terms, maybe
you’re on the wrong
career path?
20. Send an email to dmullich@lafilm.edu from
your school email account.
Use “Email MiniQuest” as the Subject line.
Think: Thinking allows beings to make sense of or model the world in different ways, and to represent or interpret it in ways that are significant to them, or which accord with their needs, attachments, objectives, plans, commitments, ends and desires.Understand: Understanding implies abilities and dispositions with respect to an object of knowledge sufficient to support intelligent behavior.Reflect and Connect: Arguably, the most important aspects of education is to provide students with knowledge that they can transfer in meaningful ways to other aspects of their present or future lives. For example, we do not teach history simply so students can pass a quiz, but so that they can reason better about the world around them.