Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The gaming industry is remarkably fast-moving and to keep yourself
marketable you need to keep abreast of the developments in gaming.Visiting
a number of general gaming news sites and playing as many games as possible
is a must if you are to keep on top of the constant progress.
Some sites have a low signal to noise ratio and post a lot of rumour and
speculation in the guise of news. Sometimes this is encouraged by the
hardware manufacturers, software developers and publishers as a way of
keeping their products and ongoing projects in the public eye.What it means,
however, is that you may have to take much of what you read with a pinch
of salt. Some of the news sites that are geared towards the business side of the
industry are a little less prone to buy into the speculative hype, I feel.
Reading reviews of games can be very valuable, particularly if the site
gives the visitor the chance to comment on the review or rate the game
themselves. This gives you a feeling for what the game players are thinking
of the games. In particular, look for reviews of games in which the story is
an important part of the experience. How did the reviewer rate the story and
dialogue and is there anything to be learned from what he or she said?
Being in touch with the views of game players is important in an industry
where success relies on the enjoyable experience of the player relies on how
they interact with the game. Subscribing to a few gaming forums can be very
valuable, even if you never contribute, but much of what is posted should be
treated with caution because the number of members posting is likely to be
a small percentage of the total number and will possibly not always be
representative of the much larger gaming audience.
