Wanna Work for Dave Taylor & American McGee? 236
The well known former Id developers are starting a company to develop a
shooter for the X-Box. They are looking for programmers, artists,
level designers, and producers, but only if you're in, or willing to
move to LA. If you think you're right for this one, you should
email Dave.
Um, stuff that matters? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Um, stuff that matters? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Um, stuff that matters? (Score:1)
Just try something like:
Man wants to sell car with penguin bumper sticker. Claims he uses Mozilla and likes it. Even has a geocities page saying he likes Mozilla, and dares anyone to slashdot it.
Should be enough...
Re:Um, stuff that matters? (Score:2, Funny)
If your car moves faster than sound, or your car belonged to Pete Townshend at one time, then sure...
Re:Um, stuff that matters? (Score:2, Informative)
Buy John Romero's Ferrari On EBay [slashdot.org]
My list of skills (Score:2, Funny)
2) ???
3) Hire me!
Re:My list of skills (Score:1)
My Econ teacher said this one allways works.
1. Obtain lots of something. (i.e. Gaming Skills.)
2. Dazzle them with Unobtainium Technology (the ??? part)
3. Profit.
Relevant Skills List (Score:2)
want ads? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:want ads? (Score:1)
It would be fun, anyway.
-If
Too bad (Score:5, Funny)
What a killer game it could have been !
be careful what you wish for (Score:3, Funny)
Yah, when I lived there, I said that about a certain State Governor. See what happened? =)
OT, but I don't care (Score:3, Funny)
In the April 1999 issue of PCXL, they had a large April Fools section in which there was a story about John Romero (PCXL's favorite punching bag) leaving Ion Storm, cutting his hair short, and focusing on old school games. Well guess what, that is exactly what happened!
www.johnromero.com/images/News/Haircut-After.jp
He quit Ion Storm, cut his hair and started MonkeyStone Games, which makes simple games for PDA's and the like.
And there exists other, more circumstantial evidence regarding PCXL's talent for divination. In an editorial in the December 1999 issue of PCXL (shipped early November), editor Mike Morrisey states that he's sick of buying a new video card every six months, and that he's skipping the current generation (voodoo3/TNT2) because he's sure the Voodoo 6000 will be released in a few months. Lo andd behold, on November 16, 1999 the VSA-100 chip and the Voodoo5 6000 are revealed by 3dfx!
I'm sure by now your jaws have dropped, as you have probably come to the same conclusion as I: namely, that PCXL was the best, most hardcore gaming rag ever, and that its existence was a threat to crappy game publishers and developers everywhere *cough* Eidos, Ion Storm *cough*. It had to be destroyed so that the game oligopoly could continue to pump out crappy games with short development cycles in order to maximize profits without the public being aware of their evil machinations. PCXL was the bastion of truth in the gaming world, and with it gone gamers would again buy crappy games which consistently scored high in the cookie cutter mags. It's a conspiracy I tells ya!
Re:OT, but I don't care (Score:2)
Re: Salmon (Score:2)
Re:My lips are sealed (Score:2)
Re:moderation madness (Score:2)
I guess once you have really high karma it just mods you up auomatically. Even if it's just chit chat.
True story (Score:2)
"Chinese Dinosaurs?"
"Chinese Dinosaur Ninjas"
"Undead Chinese Dinosaur Ninjas"
"John Romero's Undead Chinese Dinosaur Ninjas"
(we both burst out laughing)
when did slashdot turn in a classified? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:when did slashdot turn in a classified? (Score:1)
Re:when did slashdot turn in a classified? (Score:1)
Requirements (Score:1)
L.A. huh.... (Score:2, Funny)
Could you throw in some firearms training? [And yes, I have been to L.A!]
Alice (Score:4, Insightful)
I like the Guy.. I like Twisted.. I hate repetitive crap games.. the lack of creativity. Remember the 80's? When every game looked and felt different?
I find American McGee's games reminicent of those times. Creative. Different. Strange. *FUN*
Re:Alice (Score:5, Funny)
You must have forgotten the Atari 2600.
Re:Alice (Score:1)
I haven't finished the Alice game (got bogged down with the excellent GTA3 :-) ), but the general
consensus on the Net is that the ending "sucks"
(not much happens when you complete it).
Re:Alice (Score:2, Insightful)
Alice was just your typical repetitive 3D shoot em up, it was even worse for the fact that it had this great story, yet all it used it for was a backdrop and to weakly link in a purpose. Sure, the level with the floating leaf looked great, but apart from that it was one of the most disinteresting, boring and repetitious games I ever played - and I played it through from start to finish.
I don't know what other games American McGee has made, but Alice was not *FUN* It was repetitive crap, with a modicum of creativity that didn't make it properly into the game.
Major Bad Mojo... (Score:1, Redundant)
Since when did
Just what were you thinking?
---
wwjd? jwrtfm!
Dave? (Score:1, Funny)
Surely there will be a Linux port (Score:2)
One way or another, ddt will see that a Linux port is produced. (Inside joke)
Re:Surely there will be a Linux port (Score:2)
Re:Surely there will be a Linux port (Score:2)
Haha, that's "one way", but there's still "or another".
But I won't say anything unless Dave says it. :D
ah (Score:2, Insightful)
You could have at least put another link up for people to harass.
Worse then Hotjobs (Score:1)
Posting for a video game development position on slashdot? Geez... the sky is the limit.
Perhaps this is a scam for a recruitment firm to gather resumes.
hi (Score:1, Troll)
Re:hi (Score:1)
Now THAT's a Solid Machine! (Score:3, Funny)
Is it armored, so an ordinary gun can't destroy it properly?
Re:Now THAT's a Solid Machine! (Score:1)
New Slashdot market (Score:1)
New model: slashdotting inboxes into oblivion
Yawn (Score:1)
Slashdotted email. (Score:3, Insightful)
Poor Dave.
Re:Slashdotted email. (Score:1, Funny)
They want teams not individuals (Score:4, Informative)
However, there is actually in interesting story here - the whole idea of there being a third party connecting the money (publishers) with the developers, but controlling the design and management on the project seems to be quite different to how things currently work in the games industry.
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:1)
I'd imagine that what carbon6 are hoping to do is to tempt entire teams away from whatever studio / publisher they are currently working for and setting up on their own.
Also there may be teams around who have great coders / artists but need a good solid design to work with - which is something I think carbon6 are offering. (I sure wouldn't like to work in that sort of environment though!)
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:2)
That's not what would happen, because now these people would be needed to manage the contact with Carbon6. And I really doubt Carbon6 would completely isolate the team from the publisher - that would be unnatural.
I'd imagine that what carbon6 are hoping to do is to tempt entire teams away from whatever studio / publisher they are currently working for and setting up on their own.
This is exactly what they are trying to do, but I don't see the incentive for a team to jump ship. It seems inevitable that they would lose royalty points, etc... What do they get out of it?
Also there may be teams around who have great coders / artists but need a good solid design to work with - which is something I think carbon6 are offering. (I sure wouldn't like to work in that sort of environment though!)
This seems puzzling, because there is no shortage of design in the industry. Granted, not all of it is AAA great, but there is a lot out there to be found, particularly in mod communities.
However I can see the need to be set up with a promising design from the start. So maybe there is some utility in this - helping a fledgling studio start. However, that clearly can't be the only aspect of Carbon6's buisness plan. They would be obselete in 3 years.
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:1)
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:1)
Many teams can create simple games that work on the developers' PCs, but few know how to ship good ones that everyone can play. The people leading Carbon6 have that experience. Getting help from such people can be a factor in making a game that stays on the shelves. Isn't that worth a decent royalty payment?
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:2)
Maybe. Then again, the Apogee/iD people all made the same jump a few years ago by making good games and coming up with a great marketing strategy (give it away at first, then for later games, let them have the first few levels free as a taster and sell the complete game to them once they're hooked). There's nothing to say a talented development team couldn't do much the same today -- the Internet is far more developed now than it ever was before, and the reputation of a great game (the sort of game Wolf3D was in its day) would spread very, very fast.
I'd say that to some people, it would be a sound investment to get these guys doing your legwork. But you'd have to watch the level of royalties; look at the RIAA and music companies compared to the actual artists, and what's happening to them now...
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:2)
Pitching to publishers? Oh no. If there's anything I'd rather have someone else do, it's pitch to publishers.
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:2)
What is good for a developer is not necessarily good for the middle-man, and vice versa.
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:2)
Your interests are not very likely to be #1 anyway.
What is good for a developer is not necessarily good for the middle-man, and vice versa.
But it's always good for the publisher. That's usually most of the problem. What's good for a developer is to involve publishers only when it is absolutely necessary.
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:2)
That's a resignation I don't think many developers are willing to accept. Nobody will put you first except yourself. And a smart developer can look out for themselves.
But it's always good for the publisher. That's usually most of the problem. What's good for a developer is to involve publishers only when it is absolutely necessary.
Not necessarily. Smart developers can work almost any situation in their favor if they know what's up and how to handle it. Remember, there is more than one publisher out there...
Actually, they want both if you read further... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Actually, they want both if you read further... (Score:1)
However, it was so well hidden behind the flash interface it took me about two minutes to find it even after you'd pointed it out.
Oh well. I'll get me coat.
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:2)
At my university, the only time I entered an ACM programming competition I sat down and realized that everyone else in the room was in 4-man teams.
I tied for first.
--Blair
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:2)
Re:They want teams not individuals (Score:2)
2. I've been out of the ivory tower for 12 years, and kick ass in the real world, too.
A Million lines? Peanuts.
Re: (Score:1)
XBox is proprietary (Score:2)
At lease id has always created cross-platform code, and even donated some of it, even if belatedly.
Re:XBox is proprietary (Score:1)
Auuuh diddums, my heart bleeds. Why the hell should a company, you know, one of those things set up to make money, subsidise anything? I can bet that if they did subsidise a port, they wouldnt make their money back, as the linux market jsut isnt there, and isnt likely to be there for many years to come.
Also, why is advocating the production of a game on one platform helping our ruin??? im sorry but i didnt see "Property of a fat penguin" stamped on Slashdot anywhere. Yes, some people might not like Microsoft, but that doesnt mean we should stop reporting on stuff happening.
And, if you didnt notice, id have only donated code in such a way to destroy older engines, so companies only license newer engines from them at probably a much greater price.
Also, is it jsut me noticing stuff that doesnt exist, or are more and more people advocating linux and OSS soley on the basis that its costless (ie, costs no money for licenses)? And these same people are moaning that more companies should "donate" their applications to the movement? Oh and exactly the same people moan that functionality in OSS isnt the same as closed stuff?
If anyone, ANYONE can show me a OSS compliant document format that even approaches the usefull ness of the
Re:XBox is proprietary (Score:1)
XML?
Re:XBox is proprietary (Score:1)
Re:XBox is proprietary (Score:1)
Try TeX [tug.org].
(Yeah, I know it has nothing to do with OSS [4front-tech.com], but .doc is a text document format.)
Re:XBox is proprietary (Score:1)
Re:XBox is proprietary (Score:1)
LyX (Score:1)
Re:XBox is proprietary (Score:2)
Because they are part of the human race, and being a company they can do more for it in some ways, like ones that require costly resources, than individuals. Granted they can do even more useful things than porting a state-of-the-art game to the GNU system, but this at least would be related to their own turf.
Because the owners of that platform are conspiring with other copyright and patent owners and with corrupt politicians and media to destroy our freedoms and prosperity. That is because they support DMCA, TCPA, software patents and all this absurd intellectual property monstruosity. It had a limited scope and good intentions when it was created, but now it is a monstruosity.
I do not particularly care about penguins, I am fond of gnus... but seriously, some of us still do care about liberty.
It is not about dislike, but judgement. And this was not reporting, but advancing.
I did not notice indeed. Can you expand on this, and perhaps even give some nice URLs? Thanks in advance.
Not my case, I assure you. But in these economical hard times, it is only natural that the free beer camp has more of a hearing. I would rather freedom.
Both LaTeX (LyX) and SGML (DocBook, TEI, XML and the like) do semantics, stylesheets and have user friendly tools available. There are others I am missing probably, not to mention things with a more limited scope as Info and the like. Now Microsoft Word for Windows is a disaster&hellip. It stopped being useful when around version 2 or 6 it quit suporting stylesheets and switched to templates.
But then there is the question, what makes a document format useful for you?
Wrong. It is either SGML, its XML sibling and some DTD, or LaTeX.
From the site.. (Score:3, Informative)
September 14th 2001
job openings posted
Front page
If you are part of either an established game development team or a new team with outstanding talent, and you are looking for funding and intersted in...
Not very current and I hope you've got a fair bit of experience in the video games industry before you send off a CV - the programming and artist positions they have open each demand at least 5 years.
Why is this different than working for others? (Score:2)
1. Game development experience.
2. Console programming experience.
And this surely isn't the right place to troll for those.
Re:Why is this different than working for others? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why is it that people feel the need to bitch about every story that's posted these days?
Re:Why is this different than working for others? (Score:3, Insightful)
Okay, well, you got me there. I'll take my lumps.
My point is that people know about Dave because he had a big web persona during the fanboy glory days that followed the release of Quake, back when
But at the same time, Dave's game development history is pretty weak. He worked on DOOM, yes, but he was just a grunt. Abuse was written by someone else (Jonathan Clark). Golgotha was never completed. I'm not saying that Dave is a bad guy or a knucklehead or anything like that. He's certainly not the loudmouth that Brian Hook turned out to be. So we all know Dave because of his little failed company, and we're all clamoring to work for him. But who knows the names of the people who worked on Grand Theft Auto 3, Final Fantasy X, Age of Empires, Metal Gear Solid 2, Siphon Filter, of Medal of Honor? These are all huge, huge games, each of which sold over a million copies (with the exception of Medal of Honor; I don't know how well it did).
The bottom line is that the fanboy worldview is severely--and intentionally--limited.
Re:Why is this different than working for others? (Score:2)
What, may I ask, does fame and fortune have to do with making good games or putting together a good development team? I'm not sure why you picked those particular titles, but I'd point out that Doom was/is a landmark in gaming, not just because of being the first, biggest hit 3dfps (yes, cite Wolfenstein etc etc tc. Doom was still the first to really hit the public eye), more than this, Doom made it big, because of the marketing and shareware distribution campaign, as well as the fun gameplay, and the realism of the gore. Was all this Dave's doing? Nope. However, he was involved in it. He was THERE. That's why we're talking about him now. OK.... So what?
Re:Why is this different than working for others? (Score:2)
Okay, five game developers currently hiring:
1. LucasArts
2. The Collective
3. Blue Shift
4. Microsoft Game Studios
5. The Fizz Factor
6. Raven Software
Oh, look, I named six of the top of my head. I'm willing to bet you've never heard of three of these, which shows you don't know a whole lot about the game business.
a shooter for the x-box? (Score:2)
[YES I'm ironic, don't bother mod me down if you didn't get it]
Better yet.. (Score:3, Insightful)
New Slashdot business model! (Score:1)
Re:New Slashdot business model! (Score:2)
A few months ago, back when the subscription flap was in full swing, Rob mentioned that they would start (essentially) posting company press releases for money.
Uh oh (Score:1)
Re:Uh oh (Score:1)
You must live in a very nice place.
Dave and his inbox... (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot: "I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that"
*ducks*
How about a more creative name (Score:1)
-Find a futuristic or artistic/creative single noun.
-Concatenate a single digit number between 1 and 9.
And hence, we have these rediculously uncreative company names which all sounds the same.
Cloud9, rhino9, carbon6, etc.
Also applies to computer games, IE: rainbow6.
One day, company names will relate back to the products being sold.
Blatant advertising. (Score:1)
American McGee????? (Score:1, Funny)
You Merikkkans really like to push your 'patriotism' to extremes, doncha?
And in other news... (Score:3, Funny)
Rasterman (Score:1, Interesting)
Before the real interview... (Score:3, Funny)
"What for?"
"Standard credit check. Need to find out whether you're an intelligent, helpful, informative individual or... well, this also helps us weed out the trolls."
"Actually, I just got an offer from another company I couldn't turn down. Sorry."
Dave working on a FPS? (Score:1)
Get Interns. (Score:2)
Uhhh... Uhhh... Uhhh... I can do their webpage!
Re:Get Interns. (Score:2)
American McGee is.... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sorry, but could someone give me an idea of what this guy has _actually_ done to deserve such fame? I hope 'Alice' isn't your answer...I saw him talk at GDC '01 this past March, and my impression was that he wasn't even a part of the development team -- he wasn't even on-site...he'd ship off his "artistic visions" to the on-site team who actually designed/coded/drew the game, he got all the credit, and the press loves him why? Because he's got a cool name.
Seriously...I'm happy to give him credit where credit is due...if the guy's a brilliant game designer, a top-notch dealmaker, a great programmer, or a lead artist, fine -- I'd love to know about it, but come ON...enough with the sensationalism.
Re:American McGee is.... (Score:2)
Does anyone else see it? (Score:2)
Wait a minute! Classified ads! That's it! (Score:2)
Re:Hiring open source programmers? (Score:1, Insightful)
I disagree. If someone is concerned about their project being cloned, I think junior open source programmers are the least of their worries.
Proprietary software products are often cloned by other proprietary vendors. After Doom was successful, many similar games, such as Rise of the Triad, came out from other software shops - and this was before Id open-sourced Doom. To take another example, the Windows 9x interface was largely a more Macintosh-like replacement for the interface from Windows 3.x; GNOME and KDE also use a similar interface (and I believe this chain goes all the way back to Xerox, who did a lot of research into modern GUIs). Seeing how a product works, from a user's perspective, often gives a good developer enough information as to how to create a clean-room implementation.
Furthermore, cloning a project on which you have worked is a legally risky venture, since you're (ex-)employer can point out that you have insider information as to how the product works. When people were cloning IBM's design of the PC back in the 80s, they made sure that the engineers re-implementing it had no prior exposure to the design.
As for a more modern example, consider the Mono project [go-mono.com]. These guys are re-implementing Microsoft's .NET development infrastucuture, and they're not the guys who worked on .NET for MS. Furthermore, I believe they avoided looking at MS's Shared Source implementation for BSD, specifically because Mono is to be a complete clean-room implementation.
I do not believe open source programmers are the risk you make them out to be.
Re:Hiring open source programmers? (Score:1)
then they don't have much of a product (Score:2)
If junior open source programmers can "run out and clone the project", then obviously "the project" can't be very big or complicated. If it weren't the "junior open source programmers" that clone it, it would be a competitor, or some other open source project. Perhaps the business management of the project should take then hint and look for a more profitable project.
just a minority are fanaticals but you put yourself in risk hiring people with a open source background.
Yes, you do put yourself at risk: at risk that if you persist in doing something stupid, your programmers are going to run out on you. I'd consider that a benefit. But to each their own.
(smoothwall for example, there are countless of other examples).
Was there actually a company stupid enough trying to make a business out of that?
Re:Hiring open source programmers? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Once in a life time (Score:2)
Re:Looks good (Score:2, Informative)