I Want To Be an Astronaut When I Grow Up

When we were all kids, we all had an idea of a "dream job." President, professional athlete, or astronaut, we all aspire to these extremely highly exciting and rewarding, but in equal measure difficult to attain professions. It requires massive amounts of education, skill and raw luck to even have a chance of getting the job that pretty much everyone else out there has also wanted since they were able to comprehend what the word "job" means. However, no matter how unobtainable these dream jobs really are, at the end of the day someones got to be that one-in-a-million person to get called up to Cape Kennedy, and ultimately it can't hurt to try.

My pie-in-the-sky job when I was a kid was making video games, as much as I loved playing them, I wanted even more to make them. In this industry, much like everyone in films wishes to direct, everyone in games wants to be the Lead Game Designer. I've taken my first step towards this goal by enrolling in Worcester Polytechnical Institutes Interactive Media and Game Design program with an Art Focus, but even with a degree I need something special to have a hope of landing that dream job.

That's what this blog is, the something special, or at least the container for it, that will help me get my dream job. Do I think this blog is a magic ticket to a career in game design? No, but it's a good place to start. Along the way I'm also going to hedge my bets a little with a background in Computer Art, (I have a strong background in the Graphic Arts) and experience with the technical aspect of game design, like coding languages and expertise in Flash and other more robust game creation tools.

I'm just starting out with my education in this field, but I already love what I'm doing. Not just in the "kid in the toy factory" kind of way, that I get to play around with all these cool toys, but the mental exercise of design, the act of creating something that's fun for somebody else, that's what I want to do for the rest of my life. So why not get a head start right now?

I have two objectives in writing this blog:

1.) To get into the habit of writing design documents, practice through repetition, by having a vague commitment looming over my head a la this blog, I'll have the motivation to practice my craft. In the same vein I'll also be putting out the games I design as well as games with my art in them, for others to critique as well as open up a discussion with other designers about how to improve my designs.

2.) To have something to show perspective employers. By the time I finish my education at WPI I hope to have a large portfolio of works, with a page of highlights that I may direct them to for quick reference on my skills as an artist, designer or developer.

In order to achieve these objectives I make the following promises to the readers of this blog:

• In order to hone my skills I promise to make at least one update to this blog at week for the rest of this year, for right now that day will be Fridays, if I change the day I will give advanced warning. This starts today, shortly after this post is made, my first design article will follow, so you'll have something to read right now. Then after I have become accustomed to regular updates, I will attempt to increase the number of updates to a tri-weekly schedule starting the beginning of next year.
• So as not to become stuck in one line of thinking, I will respond to the suggestions and comments of those who read my blog. Anyone wishing to make a suggestion or comment in private may e-mail me at practicallyevil@gmail.com.
• As this blog is in some sense a means to promote myself in a professional manner, I will conduct myself professionally on this blog at all times. This means proper punctuation and spelling, and also that I will hold myself professionally accountable to all statements I make on this blog.

For right now this blog might be a bit rough around the edges, it could certainly use some graphical sprucing up and most definitely a header, but in the coming weeks it will morph into a slick and professional blog full of interesting content. At the very least I hope to have a fun time writing down the design ideas I have and get some practical experience. It's entirely possible nothing will come of this blog, but so long as I had fun writing it and I learned something from the experience it will not have been in vain.

Thank you for reading.
-Edward Golden, (Interactive Media and Game Design student at WPI)
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*A note about my url and e-mail address: While I do wish to present a professional feel to the site, it's important to cultivate a creative persona, or at least a guiding principle for my works. While my e-mail address started out as a personal joke, over the years it has become sort of a mantra for designing games. Taking on the role of game designer means taking on the role of adversary to the player, whom will perceive the designer as 'evil' or at least as 'the bad guy'.

I've got to become comfortable in this skin, but I don't let it drive me to make the adversaries in my games do things without reason, then it's just evil for evils sake. Every villain, environmental obstacle or plot complication should have a traceable cause and motivation that the player can, if not sympathize with, at least understand as logical, (the obvious exception being in survival horror games, but those are a special case I'll address in the future). The key to being a good game designer is to be 'evil', but also be practical, in other words to be practically evil.