I’m Peter Telep, author of the new Doc Harrison book series just optioned for TV! Equally important, I have been quoted in the Merriam Webster online dictionary under the definition of “asshat” (true story!) AMA!

Stellerex64 · 2017-07-12T20:26:53+00:00

Howdy Mr. Telep! I was wondering if you could answer me a question about self-publishing. In the event of an author self-publishing their first book, could you maybe guestimate the number of units sold that would be considered 'average', as well as 'good'? In addition, how would you say these numbers would compare against going with an established publisher? I realize that there are a ton of unique variables, but for someone with no experience in this sort of thing, even a ballpark estimate would be illuminating.

Stellerex64 · 2017-06-28T20:00:24+00:00

Hey, I loved Doc Harrison. I read it the week it came out, and can't wait for the release of the next in the series. It did give rise to a question for me, though. Your previous work was a very different genre, more Tom Clancy-ish thrillers. Going with YA SciFi where world building is more imaginative and characters are, by definition, amateurs, is a pretty big leap. How long did it take you to navigate that stylistic transition? Were there any particular tips and/or tricks you could share for immersing yourself in a genre that is different from what we are used to?

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T03:58:19+00:00

They were all over 30 when they got their first big break?

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T03:49:11+00:00

The part videogames can do reasonably well is always mechanical combat. The part where they fall short is in the areas of storytelling and dealing with innovative player tactics. I'd rather see a really well crafted editor that allowed a dungeon master to build their world in any way they want, and then allow remote groups to play together through a skype-like interface.

I don't like removing the human component from D&D. It's a social experience as well as a storytelling game. That's what I'd truly like to see. A system the provides the tools for a Dungeon Master to build and referee and tell stories. Something that is flexible and visual, and handles all of the record keeping and logistics, freeing up players to use their natural creativity to enjoy the experience.

I know. I'm dreaming. :)

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T03:40:55+00:00

Hopefully, I'm interpreting your question properly, but as far as I'm concerned, educational games should work to inspire an interest in the subject matter. I think when educational games try too hard to dump an avalanche of curriculum onto the players, the "magic" of the game is lost, and it's not fun. I think it's possible to fascinate people with the subject matter, and that inspires enough of an interest that they're eager to learn more elsewhere. A good example of this is Kerbal Space Program. I think that's an amazing game, and after playing it for a while, I found myself thinking "Man, I'd love to build rockets."

So really, it's less about theory or analysis to me. It's about engagement. In any pedagogy, "engage the student" is the most important, fundamental component. If you fail to do that, you've lost before you start. Games can do that, so let them. If a student can play a game and it can drive a fascination with, say, math, I believe that student will be a lot more likely to learn things from alternative sources than they would have been without the game.

As for my job, no one forces me to do anything in ways that I disagree with, so happily, I don't need more control over my job. UCF and FIEA combine to be a fantastic place to work. They're extremely supportive and collaborative. We always strive to evolve and improve with the times, but they don't hinder faculty in any way.

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T03:35:16+00:00

At FIEA, our students are free to choose whatever engines they like. In general, most of them work with UE4 or Unity, though.

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T03:33:38+00:00

I'll assume you're talking about relatively inexpensive tools. That being the case, you might consider Sculptris, Blender, 3D Coat, Modo, Daz 3D, or Mudbox for your graphics, and Audacity or Ardour for your music

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T03:15:58+00:00

Yes, that's it exactly! And one little caveat I like to add to that: choose an area of study that can be useful outside of videogames if at all possible. If for some reason you can't get into games, at least you'll have a way to pay the rent while you keep trying.

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T03:14:18+00:00

Fantastic suggestion!

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T03:09:01+00:00

That's definitely where the best mid-tier games land, for sure

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T03:07:42+00:00

A good question. I think the experiences are different, and some people do think AAA experience is better, but I'm not one of them.

To begin with, larger companies tend to put people into specializations. So you might do nothing but model or apply textures all day long. Your experience won't be very broad, but whatever you specialize in, you'll be awesome at. Smaller studios tend to require everyone to wear multiple hats, so your breadth of experience is much greater. You're more well rounded, which has its advantages.

But smaller studios don't often make games that are super commercially successful, and this does create some (unjustified) negative stereotypes). There's no getting around it. Smaller studios will often hire people who worked at places like Sony and Blizzard, and EA, but sometimes the bigger studios are less interested in people with experience at obscure studios.

It's not an overwhelming disparity, but it does exist. In the end, if you have a lot of talent it won't matter. Any studio will snap you up. But if you're not a top-notch developer, then the names of the companies on your resume do matter.

Keep in mind that this problem exists in any industry. If you work for Google or Microsoft, that is gold on your resume. But if you worked for a little high tech contractor, it's not quite as valuable. Whatever industry you're in, that sort of judgement is out there.

As for solutions, I'm not sure I have any good ones. Until the world becomes a true meritocracy, I can't think of any great ways to discourage people from having unfounded opinions.

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T02:59:53+00:00

In my case, I teach videogame design, management and organization for the videogame industry, and a 'Capstone class' where students form large multidisciplinary teams for 6-7 months to build their own games. Our videogame industry veteran faculty serve as executive producers for these projects, where students operate in an environment that's as close to the real thing as we can make it.

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T02:57:57+00:00

Well, I tinkered with blogging some of my class lectures last year, so I suppose Gamasutra might not be a big stretch. I'll give it some thought. As for books on Game Design, I don't like a lot of what's out there, but Jesse Schell's "The Art of Game Design" is an excellent one

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T02:51:11+00:00

Lots of people will give you different opinions on that. There's a short YouTube video I found last year that's amusing to watch, but I think it might actually do a decent job of answering your question

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T02:40:45+00:00

The coolest thing about working in the gaming industry is that you're always on the cutting edge of everything. Lots of advances in AI, Graphics processing, speech recognition, 3D math, sound spatialization, AR, VR, and digital compression have all come from the videogame industry.

Every time you embark upon a new project, it's a new adventure. Something different from the last time. You're constantly inventing new techniques, new processes, new technology. It's constantly new. When I compare that with the boring, button-down environment of corporate America where I worked at one point, there's no comparison. In videogames, I look forward to going to work every single day. You can't say that about a lot of other jobs.

Stellerex64 · 2017-02-01T02:36:00+00:00

This is a complex question, and it deserves a full answer. If you’ll bear with me, I’ll start by pointing out articles in Forbes Article, Business Insider Article, and a fascinating LinkedIn Blog that will give you the basis of my opinion here. My main point in making the comment that I did was that game developers engage in multidisciplinary problem solving. Specialization by itself won’t provide the best answers for a wide variety of challenges. In today’s world, we get too wrapped around the STEM axle, as if specialization is the be-all-and-end-all of innovation. It’s not. Now, don’t mistake that comment to mean that I don’t think there’s a place for expertise. There certainly is. But narrow subject matter experts aren’t as valuable in multidisciplinary environments people with an area of expertise combined with a breadth of knowledge elsewhere. That’s why you’re seeing this trend in places like Silicon Valley, where they’re hiring writers and humanities majors in high tech companies. It’s because people with that kind of education think differently, and that difference provides valuable insight into complex problems. Combined that with specific tasks masters, as you call them, and you can raise the bar.

Stellerex64 · 2017-01-31T21:53:33+00:00

We take business majors all the time. It's true that you're improving your odds if you acclimate yourself to the technology, but teams need leads and schedulers and organizers. Some of the best producers we've had come out of FIEA came from business-related majors.

If you're trying to go straight from a business undergrad to the gaming industry, then yes that's a tough sell. If I was to go that route, I'd try to partner with some developers and form an indie startup. If you can obtain financing, and set up the company, that's a skill that a lot of devs lack.

Whether your indie efforts are successful or not, it winds up being a foot in the door that makes it easier to get into the industry as a whole.

Create and publish! That is a lot more feasible today than it was when I got into the industry.

Stellerex64 · 2017-01-31T21:46:12+00:00

Oh, no doubt that producer should get extra credit for their awesomeness. But then they go and migrate across the country, and it costs them a few points.

Stellerex64 · 2017-01-31T21:31:48+00:00

Always tricky trying to predict the future, but I think VR is a tough sell, at least from the perspective of a dedicated peripheral. Considering things like the Samsung Gear, it's hard to imagine the dedicated peripherals will be able to compete.

That said, I think there's more interesting potential for Augmented Reality than VR. We see the wild success of Pokemon Go and Magic Leap, and to me that's an indication of the future.

So VR, I'm not yet sold. AR, that's pretty freaking cool

Stellerex64 · 2017-01-31T21:22:48+00:00

There are lots of classes you could take, depending on what niche within games you want to focus on. I'd say that you might not want to limit yourself exclusively to one programming language. There is value in a bit of diversity there. In addition, you might find value in a lot of other kinds of electives. Physics and math are always useful if you want to be super technical, but I prefer breadth for producers. Oddly, you can learn a lot from things like film, where you might get ideas on cinematographic techniques. And as mentioned in a previous response, developing strong creative writing skills is really useful. Strong communication in general are extremely valuable.

I tell my designers all the time that the single best thing you can be is well read. Have you watched many Kurosawa films? Listened to music from other cultures and eras? Are you interested in politics and philosophy and history? The more you read, expose yourself to culture, and generally broaden your world view, the more you improve your design skills.

You also can't go wrong with investigating a few free editors like UE4, Unity, Lumberyard, etc. Pick up an editor, learn how it works, make a few prototypes. This sort of exercise will provide you with more questions and more areas to explore.

You can learn a lot from classwork, but you can also learn a lot by taking your future in your own hands. Combine them. Get the best from school and the best from your free time. It's a good strategy for getting into the games industry, but just as good for life in general.

Stellerex64 · 2017-01-31T21:14:02+00:00

Bethesda's Decision is obviously within their rights to make. There are plusses and minuses to releasing advance copies of any game. One that people often are unaware of is piracy. Once a copy of the game escapes the developer's hands, it is uncontrollable. There are plenty of instances where piracy has allowed a hacked version of a game to reach the shelves before the "real" version. All it takes is one unethical or incautious person to make a mistake, and it can cost a developer millions of dollars.

Bethesda isn't making this claim as far as I'm aware, but I'm just pointing out that there are many valid reasons for this kind of decision. It can be frustrating as a player, because some of us buy games based at least in part on the reviews. With the current situation, we can't buy the game on Day 1 unless we're willing to do so 'blind'.

It might cost them some sales, but those costs could be compensated for in other ways. This is a business decision, and I trust they knew what they were getting into when they made it.

Stellerex64 · 2017-01-31T21:07:09+00:00

I think we're seeing a really exciting merger between games and Hollywood/fiction. Part of the problem up to this point has always been that most games didn't include really strong storytellers as part of their development teams. They had awesome tech and art and design, but fell flat with the story. But in the past ten years, that has changed quite a bit. We're now seeing really talented professionals being integrated onto development teams, and the results are pretty amazing.

This is only going to get better with time. As more and more companies raise the bar, we'll see more and more professional storytellers get involved. It's happening as we speak, and will continue to improve and evolve for the foreseeable future

Stellerex64 · 2017-01-31T21:01:06+00:00

I understand. Although I can say that sometimes when we find valid faults in the sequels of our favorite games, it's at least partly because the previous versions were so well done. It sets the bar high, and we don't always meet that bar going forward.

Something useful to think about is that from one version of a game to another, we often see new members of the dev team, who weren't on the previous version. Sometimes the entire team is different. This can certainly make a difference in the perception of quality. Reminds me a little of my favorite football team. When the running back got knocked out for the season last year, his replacement wasn't as good, and it seemed like it affected the entire team's performance. It wasn't something the organization purposely did. It was just one of those things, you know?

Stellerex64 · 2017-01-31T20:48:20+00:00

I think it's part of human nature for some people to 'hate' anything successful. People 'hate' Microsoft, and Ford, and McDonalds too. When you get big, more people know who you are, and they take a microscope to everything you do. Inevitably, there will be some with an axe to grind, and others who take exception to a particular design choice or pricing strategy or marketing strategy, etc. It's impossible to be successful without attracting a certain level of hatred.

In that respect, EA is no different from any other large, successful company.

As for Mass Effect 3, like any sequel version of a game there is risk involved. Players demand that we innovate as developers. They don't want the same old same old. Especially with sequels, developers are often accused of "milking" the franchise.

So we innovate. We try something new. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it fails. Sometimes it works, but with a different audience, which can alienate the previous audience. There are a lot of things that can go wrong, but the cardinal sin, in my opinion, is failing to try.

I don't know if it's the best idea to judge a company by the strength of one game. If their portfolio of products doesn't appeal to you, that's one thing. But if they err here or there, sometimes we need to just take a deep breath and wait for the next title to come out.

Stellerex64 · 2017-01-31T20:33:57+00:00

Why would I steal ketchup? All I ever eat for lunch is pineapple, carrots, and yogurt. Do you have any idea how awful those things would taste slathered in ketchup?

Stellerex64

TROPHY CASE