i need you guys' (girls') help on this. i'm trying to find gaming companies located in the US and what areas are best to live in for game development. i guess i could stray to the great white north of Canada, but that's as far as i'm willing to go. no UbiSoft in France or Japanese companies, not that i could speak the language anyway.
i'm really trying to find companies in Texas for personel reasons, but all i've found is id Software in Dallas. if you know of or found something, just post a list of them. i've gotten a few of the major ones already:
Capcom = L.A, CA and Ontario
Retro Studios = Austin, TX
EA = Redwood City, CA; L.A, CA; and Orlando, FL
EDIT:
Valve Corporation = Bellevue, WA
Gas Powered Games = Redmond, WA
Stormfront Studios = San Rafael, CA
Blizzard = Irvine, CA
help would be appreciated and big help will be rewarded. thank you
Games Technologies
Macrovision - San Francisco Office
795 Folsom Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94107
Map to San Francisco office
Phone: (415) 247-5000
Fax: (415) 723-7244
Email: gamesales@macrovision.com
from:
http://www.macrovision.com/company/locat...ndex.shtml
That's all I found.
was that what you were looking for?
not really. i mean, i am looking for locations, but that company is dealing with some sort of VHS and DVD security. i'm looking for game development studios. places games are made, like Capcom, Konami, NamcoBandai and EA Games. i'm going through college as a game developer and need some help finding where i can get a job after graduation. thanks for trying though, now put that Flipper heart into it and get those answers
also found that RedOctane is in Sunnyvale, CA and (oddly) Chennai, India
Here's a few:
Epic Games - Raleigh, NC
Naughty Dog - Santa Monica, CA
Insomniac Games - Burbank, CA
Ubisoft Montreal - Montreal, QC
Silicon Knights - Saint Catharines, ON
BioWare - Edmonton, AB
Rockstar Games - San Diego, CA; Toronto, ON; Vancouver, BC
EA Games - Los Angeles, CA; Burnaby, BC; Vancouver, BC; Montreal, QC, Chicago, IL
I think there a lot of developers in Southern California, Southern Ontario, Quebec, and Vancouver. (sorry about all the Canadian content but there are a lot up here)
what the...? somehow Flipper's missing the point here. locations of companies that make
video games
GlueGun's got it, cept it's not what i was hoping to find. i know there are companies in TX. like i said, id Software, and Retro Studios is in Austin. i thought there were several more though.
i know there are LOTS in Cali, but that's a little too Big Time for a country boy like myself even if i've been a city boy at heart.
thx for trying guys, er...guy and girl
I think school is making me not get things! xP
isn't school supposed to make you smarter?
I'm afraid the best places for video game development are California and Tokyo.
I plan to move to california later in my life, learning japanese seems like too much hard work
What kind of experience do you have?
What kind of courses have you done?
as for myself I can manage C++ with DX9 and Lua for game scripting (I've yet to have the time to roll my own scripting language) And I've written a quite mediocre 3D engine before, Am I on the right track? (I'm almost 17)
p.s. For the love of god don't work for EA
The EA in Orlando isn't hiring people for games. I was down there over the summer, and they told me it was pretty much just a corporate office there.
Other than that, I only know of the major ones in Cali.
EA is not my 1st choice by far. only EA project i'd be willing to work for would be TimeSplitters
i don't really have alot of experience. i start college next week to get into everything. i have some experience with C++, but the professor who taught it was totally lame and didn't really teach us anything except that the letter Z is pronounced "zed" in the UK. i giggled whenever she'd say it
i worked quite a bit with an engineering program for a year in college, but it was more for engineering than designing, which kinda blows since i really got used to it. i have a copy of Maya which is another 3D graphics program and supposedly what alot of movie CG and gaming companies use nowadays. i think it's what they teach in the school i'll be attending as well. programing is seriously my downfall while designing is my specialty. i wish i could find a way to get my old engineering program and show you guys the GBA i designed for my final.
i'd say you're well on your way though D4rk. 17 and there's probably a year of work you'd need to learn to know just about everything for game design (if that's your intended goal). of course, depending on the school you attend you'll likely have to take stupid courses that mean nothing to you, like the religion class i had. i'm sorry if i offend anyone, but i really don't care what the Islamic, Budhist and Hindu religions are based on. hell, i was raised Christian all my life and couldn't tell ya much about it
Nomad, what aspect of making video games are you looking at?
I know modelers who worked on Tomb Raider: Legend. So I may be able to give you some better direction.
i'd say you're well on your way though D4rk. 17 and there's probably a year of work you'd need to learn to know just about everything for game design (if that's your intended goal). of course, depending on the school you attend you'll likely have to take stupid courses that mean nothing to you, like the religion class i had. i'm sorry if i offend anyone, but i really don't care what the Islamic, Budhist and Hindu religions are based on. hell, i was raised Christian all my life and couldn't tell ya much about it
heh I was forced to do Religious Studies in High School and now General Studies (glorified Religious Studies) in Sixth Form (College to you americans). and starting september 2008 I'll get to spend 3/4 years in Uni doing Computer Science or something
oh and I'm looking to become a programmer over designer, better pay as far as I know
mostly modeling, designing, maybe scenic designs
honestly, in all the paperwork the college has sent me, they never really tell me the difference in the fields. obviously animation has to do with the motions of the objects, but i can't figure out the difference between designing and modeling. i'm thinking designing is just a basic term dealing with all aspects of 3D images while modeling is specifically creating the 3D image
if that's the case, i'm most interested in modeling
A Video Game Designer is someone who comes up with the ideas and decides how everything should look, behave
A Modeller/3D Artist is someone who creates the 3D models
An Animator Animates the Models
A 2D Artist Deals with Skins for the models and textures
A Level Designer/3D Artist deals with the levels and scenery
Often the fields will cross slightly, E.g you may model something and want to make the skin for it too.
I'd suggest (after getting your skills to a decent level) you get involved in a Mod (game modification) It would give you an Idea on how you will be working and what is expected, whilst it is still quite a casual affair so people don't depend on you so much
Take a look at the media page on BM:S to see what each phase of a model looks like in a game
http://www.blackmesasource.com
Ideally, if you want to be an asset to a gaming company you should be able to do all of the above.
However there are some people who can model like crazy without having the ability to draw well. However, I would say, if you are talented with a pencil or pen, refine your drawing skills as much as possible. It will only aid you in making your guides to model.
Learn as much as you can on your own about modeling, boning, skinning, and animating. The 2 programs you really want to focus on using are 3D Studio Max and Maya, eventually they're gonna be one program, but for now learn them both. You will be better off in the long run. 3DS Max is the hardest because of all the crazy stuff you can do, however their NURBS suck, but their Mental Ray renderer works automatically, Maya requires you to actually code, which is nuts.
Here's a link to 2 of the best reference resources you can buy.
I have them both and they are THE BEST by far. I highly recommend you buy them. Amazon has em the cheapest
HERE
that's kind of what i thought. i'll be doing design then with a strong department in modeling and possibly animation. i may continue the courses to get 2 BAs for design and modeling since alot of the courses are the same and i've already gotten credit for a few of the courses from previous schooling.
as i said, i already have Maya and am trying to get used to it. maybe in the next week i'm off work i'll get some time in on it. i'm holding off buying anything else though because the school requires us to have a laptop which comes with different programs and such, so i'm sure there will be some sort of program we need on there when i get it
i know you are D4rk, but if more people are interested in college courses for game design and such, i'll try to give you an insider's look as to what exactly the staff is teaching for the students to go into the different fields. if you haven't been looking at schools already, the one i'm attending is pretty well built just for gaming and movie graphics. i'm pretty sure there's atleast one professor who worked with Pixar and a few more who came from well known gaming companies. the school's website even boasts that graduates have gone to work for Pixar, Fox Animation Studios, Electronics Arts (which is a big name company even if you don't like em D4rk
), Industrial Lights and Magic (made famous by the effects for the original Star Wars trilogy) and Stanford University. if anyone's interested i'll get you the website and phone number to atleast get some more info on the college
im thinking of taking some online courses since Im a full time worker
Yeah, I need to get myself a copy of 3dsm Milkshape and blender ain't that great
Its Quite funny
Programming - Visual Studio 2003 Pro Academic
Texturing - Photoshop CS2
Music Production - Cubase SX3 and Ableton Live 6
3D Modelling - ... milkshape...
It looks a little weird tbh
p.s. all legal, I hate illegal software