AGDC 2008 – Day 2

Well day two at ACDC was another full one.

Today I was able to attend another session on storytelling. This lecture was presented by the creative art director of Tomb Raider Underworld. He discussed issues with the character Laura.
That her original storyline was designed for a single game, but there have been many games since then. To compensate the game designers decided to give Laura a back story that motivated her actions. Another issue that Tomb Raider designers face is that many players see Laura as a Hero, and just as many see her as Anti-Hero, to make both fans happy, they develop seniors where Laura acts like a hero or anti-hero given the situation. This causes some character confusion.

In the end the lecture, Tomb Raider Underworld still teases weather Laura is good or bad, because the designers can’t agree. The purpose of this lecture was really some of the pitfalls that designers make when developing characters, such as they did with Laura.

After that session I spent most of the rest of the day at the exhibit hall floor… that’s where all the freebies are.

There were many companies that had booth out at the convention. A lot of them where Quality Assurance Companies that just do beta testing. I talked to a few of these companies and they said that QA is a great place for future Game Designers to start in at. They also said that more than anything good communication and writing skills where a must in the industry. A lot of other game companies also agreed. If you are a good speaker and have good writing skills you’ll have a better chance of getting the job.

Activision had a nice booth with free t-shirts 😉

Another company I talked to was CCP which produces EVE online. They are based in Georgia and were really interested in working with our school to get jobs for students. Auto Desk was also at there and so was Wacom. I spoke to a lot of people and went to a lot of both.

For a full list of vendors check here : https://www.cmpevents.com/GDAU08/a.asp?option=H