Tuesday, September 16, 2008

it's All About the Games

I've revised the list of companies I'd like to work for. Here are my tops picks (in no particular order):

Insomniac Games, the developers of the Ratchet & Clank series. The reason I like Insomniac is that their games generally have strong storylines with well fleshed out characters. I've always been a fan of platformers and sometimes it's fun to forget about realistic graphics and just play. The benefits are good; 100% employer paid medical/dental/vision insurance, paid vacation, post production vacations, health insurance plans, and some really nice facilities. The catch is that the only office that's hiring much right now is in North Carolina, not my state of choice.

Rockstar games, the developers of Grand Theft Auto, among many other great games. It would be nice to get a chance to work on the next few GTA games. They have positions in many areas I'd be interested, but I'm having trouble deciding on one. The office I'd like to work at (San Diego) is a 3 hour drive from where Jason wants to go (Los Angeles), and there's also an office in NYC, in case Jason decides to go there instead.

Valve Software, creators of Half-Life and it's many branches. Unfortunately, also the creators of the Steam content delivery system. Valve has really been pushing graphics and physics forward for years with their Goldsource and Source engines. Their games are also heavily based in real science, which makes them unusually interesting. Unfortunatly, their head office is in Bellevue, WA.

Square Enix, who has produced innumerable RPGs, including Final Fantasy VII (along with the lesser Final Fantasy games). I really like RPGs and it might be fun to work on them, especially in the sci-fi genre. The US office is in El Segundo, part of Los Angeles. There really isn't much information available on Square's career page, but since the main office is in Tokyo, I'm going to assume bilingualism is a preferred skill, and I' not taking up Japanese any time soon.

I'm still left to decide which specific aspect of game design I want to go into. Right now I'm leaving it at the two main branches that interest me: programming and design.

4 comments :

  1. I like hearing your views on the different companies and I'm excited to find out that you have found a least one area in each that you could see yourself in and that you have taken the time to actually do some research instead of whatever company sounds cooler or gives away the best crap at recruitment stations

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  2. Well, I like all of your choices, I must say. ^_^

    I think Square Enix sounds the best (if you can just be in Los Angeles), and I'd go with Insomniac second (I said Valve at first, but Valve is WAY hardcore...... and I don't know how good you are in physics. XD)

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  3. Squeenix has an office in LA. FFVIII came out from there.

    You know, with broadband internet, you can work from pretty much anywhere.

    Ooh! Don't forget Blizzard. They're always looking for new talent, and their office is in the OC.

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