Get to know your Trendy dev

Sounds like a great fun place to work. Care to hire a Canadian? :p

Sent from my Nexus 7 2013

Also... Has anyone ever submitted something like this before?
http://i.imgur.com/XUuTSxh.png

Sent from my Nexus 7 2013

Did we just become best friends!?

I mean if you really wanted...I was just going to go with acquaintances or maybe just friends but whatever floats your boat Planadroit

Did we just become best friends!?

I see you also quote will farrell movies to. I'm quite fond of pop culture references as well.

Also... Has anyone ever submitted something like this before?
http://i.imgur.com/XUuTSxh.png

Sent from my Nexus 7 2013

This made me laugh so hard I just spat out my ramen noodles :P

Also... Has anyone ever submitted something like this before?
http://i.imgur.com/XUuTSxh.png

Sent from my Nexus 7 2013

Not exactly one like that. Our wasp belonged to a higher armor class and had 70 hit points. We called him Sir Waspy Buzzington the Third.

Not exactly one like that. Our wasp belonged to a higher armor class and had 70 hit points. We called him Sir Waspy Buzzington the Third.

He should be included somewhere in the game :) like sir waspy buzzington should be a pet! how awesome would that be??

I see you also quote will farrell movies to. I'm quite fond of pop culture references as well.

I think this thread should live and we should get more Trendy people here, so i'm going to summon EvilMrFrank the lead level designer. What kind of a job does a lead level designer do?

I'm going to summon EvilMrFrank the lead level designer. What kind of a job does a lead level designer do?

*Plays fairy jingle*

Hullo! I'm definitely up to answering any questions you guys may have regarding anything more specific but to put it simply my job is for the most part to oversee the creation of our worlds from the very first initial layout to final sign off after art/vfx/audio/optimizations have all had their passes on the level. There is a very strict level of quality we are shooting for in DD2 so a lot of my job comes down to quality control, this is made a lot easier since everyone here is shooting for such a high quality from the start but for my job specifically it can range from large game breaking layout issues to the smallest hang up on the collisions of tiny rocks to small holes that allow players to see out of the world, or even being able to place towers in crazy places (QA is pretty good at this one). Of course QA finds and bugs most of these things, I usually just delegate them out to some degree. All of these things may seem small but its a continuous process of getting bugs in from QA and people fixing them that end up giving the community a better experience :)

All of our maps have deadlines and its also part of my job to work directly with all departments to make sure that all of the moving pieces come together in time to meet this deadline or to let the producers know when I mess up because they love hearing that :D

Although this would hold true for most departments in the gaming industry, level design is a rather central hub for bringing many of the moving pieces together. We work directly with programming/art/animation/qa/vfx/audio/concepting on an almost daily basis to make sure that all of the pieces come together.

Im gonna try my hand at some summoning as well...hmmmm who does the music and soundtracks for team trendy? I summon said person!!!

I've been wanting to tell you this for a while now: You, sir, are awesome! I love the level design of every map in DD2 so far.
Also tell the art team how awesome they are because I can't get enough of their work (seriously, I could stare at pictures of DD2 maps for hours)

I've been wanting to tell you this for a while now: You, sir, are awesome! I love the level design of every map in DD2 so far.
Also tell the art team how awesome they are because I can't get enough of their work (seriously, I could stare at pictures of DD2 maps for hours)

I second this statement :) the artwork is gorgeous

I've been wanting to tell you this for a while now: You, sir, are awesome! I love the level design of every map in DD2 so far.
Also tell the art team how awesome they are because I can't get enough of their work (seriously, I could stare at pictures of DD2 maps for hours)

Thanks!!! And I'll definitely let them know, they will be glad to know people love their work for sure :) Some of the best looking maps have yet to be shown ;)

I second this statement :) the artwork is gorgeous

I can vouch for this. I think we spent 30 minutes on talking about how great the art was this weekend. Love it.

I'm actually looking into becoming a game developer so if you guys want to give a piece on that I'd appreciate it very much.

I'm actually looking into becoming a game developer so if you guys want to give a piece on that I'd appreciate it very much.

Short answer is to make games! Figure out what exactly you like doing and do it. Producing, programming, gameplay, art, sound, UX, back-end etc. There's a lot of specialties and tons of work to be done. I highly recommend focusing on a role to explore first. Here are some great game dev sites that should help you out:

http://www.steamdevdays.com/
http://gamasutra.com/
http://www.gamedev.net/page/index.html
http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/

There is tons of content out there. Don't be afraid to purchase a book or read blogs. In fact, those are two things you should probably be doing frequently if game design is something you're interested in. Another thing you can do in your free time is play with some game engines:

https://unity3d.com/
https://www.unrealengine.com/news/february-2014-unreal-development-kit-udk-available-for-download

These are super fun to play with and extremely powerful. Both have free counterparts that you can tinker with. Building a good knowledge base before investing personal money is highly recommended.

Overall, game development is all about personality and attitude. You will work long hours. You will be stressed out sometimes. You will forget to eat. However, you will have fun. The result of a dev cycle is so rewarding it's hard to explain. Seeing the fans scatter about and cheer in excitement is enough to motivate anyone. You all make it worth it.

^this is why trendy is awesome :) right here

Overall, game development is all about personality and attitude. You will work long hours. You will be stressed out sometimes. You will forget to eat. However, you will have fun. The result of a dev cycle is so rewarding it's hard to explain. Seeing the fans scatter about and cheer in excitement is enough to motivate anyone. You all make it worth it.

And when they go "I love it! But it crashed!" you'll go "Gnnnaahh...not again!"

Im gonna try my hand at some summoning as well...hmmmm who does the music and soundtracks for team trendy? I summon said person!!!

It seems you have only rolled a 5 on your Summon Trendy spell, and have instead summoned Artorias, Audio Implementation Extraordinaire!

*Fanfare Ascends*

To answer your question, Afshin Toufighian composes our music and designs our sound effects. You can listen to more of his work here: http://www.afshint.com/music/ My role is to take the sounds/music he gives us, implement them into the game, make sure they're behaving correctly, and adjust them until they all sound good together. Most of my time is spent in levels perfecting the ambient mix. Unlike the Level Design department, Audio is at the end of the pipeline. We wait until Art, Animation, Level Design, and VFX have submitted their content before we create and implement sounds to bring their work to life. In fact, I think I have some super secret DD2 stuff ready for me right now...

Farewell Defendeeeeeeeeeeeers.....
*Disappears back into the void*

I'm actually looking into becoming a game developer so if you guys want to give a piece on that I'd appreciate it very much.

Planadroit addressed the "make games" side of your question, but I'll address another side that I think is important: choose a role. Do you want to make the art that makes games beautiful? Learn to make digital art, 2D and 3D. Do you want to write the code that makes all the magic happen (yes, I'm biased)? Learn to code. Do you want to bring art and code together into amazing set pieces? Learn level design.

If you want to make larger games, you'll need to work in a team - and that means specializing. There are myriad roles and sub-roles in a studio, and they're all valuable.

I'm actually looking into becoming a game developer so if you guys want to give a piece on that I'd appreciate it very much.

Game Development is People:

People make games
People consume the games

The better you are at communicating, dealing with people, understanding variant viewpoints and approaches, and the more respectful you are of the professional qualifications of others, the farther, faster, and easier you will go. This is true of all disciplines.

This thread is looking good, for my next summoning i shall call forth the Ice Trendys IT guy. What do Ice really do, i've never really known what his true job at Trendy is so please Ice come forth and answer my question.

It seems you have only rolled a 5 on your Summon Trendy spell, and have instead summoned Artorias, Audio Implementation Extraordinaire!

*Fanfare Ascends*

Farewell Defendeeeeeeeeeeeers.....
*Disappears back into the void*

Thank you very much for this :) the title theme for DD2 sounds amazing! (who is the singer?) and what would you recommend to break into the community team of the game industry? Josh and Laura...looking at you :)

Thank you very much for this :) the title theme for DD2 sounds amazing! (who is the singer?) and what would you recommend to break into the community team of the game industry? Josh and Laura...looking at you :)

I have been summoned!

Most gaming community managers break into the industry by operating/helping with a fansite and participating in gaming communities. It's the perfect way to get the relevant experience that you need. I spent some time helping out with Halo.Bungie.Org and by organizing events with the Halo community. Getting that management/event experience is a great thing to have on your resume.

In terms of degrees, I'd recommend either a journalism or a communications degree. I grabbed my bachelor's of science in journalism with an outside concentration in leadership. The skills I learned have been tremendously helpful in community management. Strong writing skills are a must. Journalism teaches you brevity and clarity. English majors tend to drone and use colorful language. Journalism majors get to the point and demonstrate the point well, and that's something your community will respect. There's nothing worse than fluff when all you want to know is information.

So, in a nutshell, here's what I recommend:

1) Make sure your English skills are up to snuff. Do research if you don't have the money to take classes. There are plenty of online guides to teach you proper grammar and punctuation.
2) Find a community you enjoy and participate. Show that you have the skills to create discussion in a positive way. Show that you can contribute to the community in a way that other people will appreciate.
3) In that community, find a way to bring people together. Create events that people will enjoy and remember. Be sure to document the event.
4) Search for volunteer positions in that community -- forum moderating, wiki editing, guide/article creation.
5) Use this relevant experience to help you find a position.