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Jake

GDC 2010! The Idle Thumbs Conf Grenade 2010: Phaedrus 2010

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:clap:

The tag line is what cracked me up big time.

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:clap:

The tag line is what cracked me up big time.

Yeah, what Mr Poo said.

MORE POO.

Also, I was not familiar with the Deadly Premonitions tune. It's amazing. But what of the game? The reviews seem mixed. IGN.com don't seem to think it'll blow me away igndotcom.

Edited by JamesM

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"If you ever want to see your daughter again bring the money to THE bus station" Oh man I haven't laughed so hard in awhile

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"HaVe YoU sEeN yOuR dAuGhTeR lAtElY? yOu'D bE aMaZeD wHaT a GiRl HeR aGe WiLl Do To RiDe ThE nInTeNdO hOrSeBaG! HuAaAah Ha HaH hA hA!!"

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"HaVe YoU sEeN yOuR dAuGhTeR lAtElY? yOu'D bE aMaZeD wHaT a GiRl HeR aGe WiLl Do To RiDe ThE nInTeNdO hOrSeBaG! HuAaAah Ha HaH hA hA!!"

Oh god, it's like that dream I had.

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This weeks' Hermie Photoshop isssss:

4m1pl.jpg

This is the best image

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That is a serious work of photoshop magic. It is fabulous.

I sat down for hours this weekend trying to finally finish the first BioShock, and managed to just make it past all of the references that were thrown around on the podcast when I listened to it this afternoon. Hooray! I narrowly avoided spoilers on a three-year-old game.

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When I hear the name Phaedrus it makes me think of some Final Fantasy fanboy coming out of his basement for a con or something lol. But now I will think of Will Wright.

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This weeks' Hermie Photoshop isssss:

Hi idlethumbs.net forum. I just had to register to say nice work, Hermie! It's always great when the internet can bring a joke to life.

I'm hanging up now.

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Glad to know I'm not the only one completely freaked out by the Far Cry 2 cell tower voice. The radio garble gives it just enough of an inhuman edge to make it one of the creepiest things I've ever heard.

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Really enjoyed the podcast.

I am far removed from college now but your comments about your music professors really resonates with me. Apparently its common for professors in college to teach you things as gospel but seldom remember to tell you or reinforce that they are really giving you a base of knowledge that will allow you to forge new ground.

I guess its not entirely their fault, the student needs to realize (as you did) that at best, learning 18th Century Choral music gives you some knowledge about what worked back then and what elements might be present in current choral music today.

The student also needs to realize that essentially, they are being taught by peers with more experience. Their teachers (if they are good) are also "students" in their field.

So, to your knowledge, are game designers today being "schooled" how to crank out "clones" or are they really being pushed to acknowledge the existing body of games and go further?

(I don't know if you have seen this quote by Branford Marsalis on "What he has learned from his students" but it is interesting...

)

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Yeah, what Mr Poo said.

MORE POO.

Also, I was not familiar with the Deadly Premonitions tune. It's amazing. But what of the game? The reviews seem mixed. IGN.com don't seem to think it'll blow me away igndotcom.

I have played it and it is a twisted, weird head fuck. I posted about it on the gaming forums. I have had to put it to one side for a bit but I will probably update the thread when I play more. At 24.99 cdn it was worht every penny.

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Really enjoyed the podcast.

I am far removed from college now but your comments about your music professors really resonates with me. Apparently its common for professors in college to teach you things as gospel but seldom remember to tell you or reinforce that they are really giving you a base of knowledge that will allow you to forge new ground.

I guess its not entirely their fault, the student needs to realize (as you did) that at best, learning 18th Century Choral music gives you some knowledge about what worked back then and what elements might be present in current choral music today.

The student also needs to realize that essentially, they are being taught by peers with more experience. Their teachers (if they are good) are also "students" in their field.

So, to your knowledge, are game designers today being "schooled" how to crank out "clones" or are they really being pushed to acknowledge the existing body of games and go further?

(I don't know if you have seen this quote by Branford Marsalis on "What he has learned from his students" but it is interesting...

)

It's a good question. I don't really know. I would guess the state of game design education today is still fairly diverse, and not very standardized. There are probably various attitudes at play depending on the school and curriculum. It would be interesting to see an overview that attempts to get a sense of what it means today to get a game design degree.

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The Giant Bomb guys hinted they might be doing an endurance run of Deadly Premonition, that might be the easiest way to experience it.

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It would be interesting to see an overview that attempts to get a sense of what it means today to get a game design degree.

Man, would it EVER!

I once dreamed of going to Digipen when I first read about it in an issue of Nintendo Power as a kid... But, as I moved closer to the heart of the industry I started to hear very mixed things regarding game development education. I recall attending an "icebreaker" event once where a small panel of devs from Insomniac, Factor 5, Raven, and a couple of other studios were on hand answering various questions on the topic of breaking into the industry... Education was the ONE thing they could not seem to come to any consensus about! Some said they wouldn't even look at a resume that didn't have at least a CompSci. bachelors on it, others disagreed and said that some of their best hires were modders they could sculpt fresh out of High School. At the time, the sudden debate was very confusing for me. Looking back, I see now how young our industry is, (comparatively) and what a high % of our luminaries just sort of stumbled into the profession. It makes advice on the subject interesting to digest, that's for sure...

I get the impression that I'd be MUCH higher on the ladder if I had made the choice to go to a school for making games, but on the other hand, in the current job market/economy the credentials really are no guarantee of a decent position. I meet too many talented people still looking and underpaid/overqualified devs to think that there are any guaranteed prosperous paths through game development at this stage.

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Really enjoyed the podcast.

I am far removed from college now but your comments about your music professors really resonates with me. Apparently its common for professors in college to teach you things as gospel but seldom remember to tell you or reinforce that they are really giving you a base of knowledge that will allow you to forge new ground.

I guess its not entirely their fault, the student needs to realize (as you did) that at best, learning 18th Century Choral music gives you some knowledge about what worked back then and what elements might be present in current choral music today.

The student also needs to realize that essentially, they are being taught by peers with more experience. Their teachers (if they are good) are also "students" in their field.

So, to your knowledge, are game designers today being "schooled" how to crank out "clones" or are they really being pushed to acknowledge the existing body of games and go further?

(I don't know if you have seen this quote by Branford Marsalis on "What he has learned from his students" but it is interesting...

)

Well, I have taught and confered in 3 schools in France and 1 in Québec, what I can say is what's been said about music rings true here, but a lot of students take those to heart. They learn what works and then get hired and apply what they were taught. Thing is, you can't really blame them for doing what they're told, but when you try to talk with them, they barely know of Braid or for that matter of any indie game at all. They're IGN in school, which depresses me.

So, a game curriculum will get you hired that's a fact, now will it make you more aware of what's interesting in games, what can be made and so on…*Not that much actually (from what I've seen at least). To come back to what you said about games and meaning Chris, it won't come from there.

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Conf grenade get! Kinda late, but there you have it. I usually, weirdly, nowadays listen to podcasts while I'm deconstructing my Lego?

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Concerning game schools -- Steve and I were talking about this yesterday a little bit and we both agreed that programs that teach you tools in lieu of design philosophy are sort of worthless. Being able to think about things in an interesting way, understand what motivates not just a player but a person, and being able to deconstruct things into its parts make you a good designer. There are some programs where design philosophy IS the focus, and I definitely commend those (USC's Interactive Media comes to mind). Learning a level builder or some sort of off the shelf engine (unless you go and use that to make something incredible, but if you're capable of making an amazing game in your free time, why are you spending money on school??) really aren't valuable. I had few technical skills before coming to Telltale but now I've learned how to wire up logic and build things in the tool. We can teach you the tools but we can't teach you how to think.

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