Overview of games, the game industry (esp. in Israel), challenges unique to game programming, and tips on where to start. Lecture for women at She Codes event in Google Campus TLV.
2. Who am I?
Programmer with some army experience
Freelance Game Developer
Making my own games in free time
(very) Part-time psychology student
3. Why Games?
Passion for games
Tech and Creativity
Games have power
More women in games!
Better representation
Break the myth
4. What is a Game?
Interactive Experience
Usually - goals, rules
Active Participation
Reasons to Play
Potential for art and change
Many kinds…
10. Games – A Varied Industry
AAA / Big budget games
Small budget games with Publishers
Indie games – self publishing / Kickstarter
Free to Play model - Startups
Freelancers / Dev Houses
Israel – Mobile, Web, some indie PC
11. Recipe for a Game
Game Designer
Programmer
Artist + Animator
Musician + Sound
QA
Business + Marketing
Most important role?
Players!
Fireside Tales Playtest
12. Game Dev - Programming
Engines
Languages
For every genre and every platform
23. What to Learn?
Know a language? Make a game!
Unity Engine (C#)
Unreal Engine (C++)
Android / iOS Native
C++
Web – HTML5 Canvas
(Board Games!)
25. What to Learn?
Game Design and Industry Language
Win condition, polygons, frame rate, assets, real-
time, turn-based, free-to-play, spritesheet, lip-sync,
etc…
Read game news / reviews / articles
Extra Credits
Play Games!
Make a game by yourself!
26. Where to Start?/Homework
Choose an dev environment
Unity C#
HTML5
Another language
Modding Existing games
GameMaker / Stencyl / Construct 2
Choose a SMALL idea
Join the community
27. Resources
Extra Credits
Books
The Art of Game Design – A Book of Lenses
Game Programming Patterns
Tech
Unity Tutorials
HTML5
Pygame
Processing
Advanced – Handmade Hero (C game from scratch)
Game news&articles – Polygon, Gamasutra
Facebook Groups + Meetups
GameIS
Unity3D Israel
Google :)