Robin Hunicke

Name: Robin Hunicke

Twitter: @hunicke

Gender: Female

Nationality: USA

Birth date: 15/03/1973

Title: CEO

Company: Funomena

Some games that you have worked on: 

The Sims2

MySims

Boom Blox 1&2

Journey

Luna

Wattam

Website: www.funomena.com

1-What did motivate you to become a game developer? 

I wanted to build programs that told stories. I started off as an artist and aspiring poet, became an AI researcher, and eventually began working in Games because I loved the people, projects and potential of the medium.

2-What does inspire you creatively? 

Film, food, friends, fashion... lots of things. :D

I love living. When I need to think big, it's a trip, a hike, a long bike ride or time in the garden. When I need to laugh and brainstorm, it's cooking dinner and drinking with friends, or camping and singing around a fire. When I need to believe that we can do anything, it's out to dance, see music or catch a film. When I need to feel introspective - curling up with a great book or taking a trip to the museum. And when I need to remember why I do it all - I spend quality time with a great game. :D

3-If you had unlimited resources to make any game you wanted, what kind of game would that be? 

I am making the games I want to make right now - for which I am very grateful.

4-What was the biggest challenge of your career? In which game? How did you overcome it? 

My largest challenge, always, is accepting my limitations and taking the time I need to see the big picture. It's very easy to get lost in the details of work, problems at hand. I will forever struggle with developing the strength to step away from my "to do" list.

5-What do you usually do for raising the possibility of success in your projects? 

I talk openly about our dreams, challenges and ask for help and support. Being honest about how small and fragile Funomena is can be humbling - but it's essential, I think, to connect with our future fans.

6-What is the most helpful piece of constructive criticism you ever received? 

Listen more, talk less.

7-What are the advantages/downsides to working in games?

Games are an interdisciplinary endeavor that require constant problem solving and thinking on your feet. That's the core attraction and challenge for me. :D

8-What is your best advice to a beginning game developer?

Be honest. Don't make promises you can't keep. If you say you will do something - do it. If you can't get something done, admit it and re-negotiate your commitment. Meeting the commitments you make is key in building trust with everyone around you.

9-Which skills are the most important for a game developer in your field/position?

Listening and letting people come to solutions on their own. Most of the time, there are good ideas inside people's heads... you just need to encourage them to come out. This is true for producers, designers and business leaders.

10-If I want to become a great dev in your field, what games should I play, what books should I read, and whose work should I follow?

See my answer about inspiration. Just live a full life and follow your heart. Have friends and relationships. Be loved and love others. The rest follows.

11-What changes do you want to see in the game industry?

I want more people from different/diverse cultures and backgrounds and perspectives to be successful making commercial game and interactive experiences. Diversity is the key to reaching more people, and is a virtuous cycle of expansion.

Bonus: Tell us a funny story from your adventures in game development.

A long time ago I was still in graduate school, studying robots, when I met Will Wright. After a talk he gave, I waited to talk to him and peppered him with questions. After patiently enduring me for about 10 minutes, he said... "You sure sound like a game designer."

:D

Sometimes, your curiosity and passion will make you look dorky, act silly or over-excited... but it's not always a bad thing to be enthusiastic. I left graduate school to work on The Sims2 and it changed my life. Be excited and ok with who you are. It will take you to amazing places.

<3

Jesse Schell

Name: Jesse Schell

Twitter: @jesseschell

Gender: Male

Nationality: USA

Birth date: 13/06/1970

Title: CEO

Company: Schell Games

Some games that you have worked on:

Toontown Online

Lexica

DisneyQuest

Pixie Hollow

I Expect You To Die

Water Bears

Orion Trail

Website: http://jesseschell.com

1-What did motivate you to become a game developer? 

I've always loved magic, and anything that seems magical. Games are a powerful kind of magic, and so is technology. Putting the two of them together creates all kinds of fascinating new magicks. All this led me to start creating my own games at an early age. You can read about one of the games that influenced me most here: http://press.etc.cmu.edu/content/mines-minos-jesse-schell

2-What does inspire you creatively? 

Everything. The world is full of magical things. You can read about some of my inspirations here: http://thingsifinished.com

3-If you had unlimited resources to make any game you wanted, what kind of game would that be? 

It would be a VR MMORPG. I love MMO games because of the depth and the social interaction. Combining those things with the deep immersivity of VR is the kind of experience I've been waiting my whole life to make.

4-What was the biggest challenge of your career? In which game? How did you overcome it? 

The biggest challenge of my career was my decision to leave Disney and go independent. It required quite a bit of bravery from both myself and my family, but we did it, and it has worked out well.

5-What do you usually do for raising the possibility of success in your projects? 

Work with excellent teams, and use best-practice project management techniques. You can hear many of my thoughts about that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y92-vkyHKbY

6-What is the most helpful piece of constructive criticism you ever received? 

I revel in learning new things, and when I was younger, someone very close to me pointed out my tendency to act like a know-it-all. I had no idea that I was being perceived that way -- it was quite a shock. I have worked to curb that tendency, but most of all, I took away the lesson that when people behave badly, they often have no idea that they are doing so.

7-What are the advantages/downsides to working in games?

The main advantage to making games is that it is exciting and really fun to make games! You work directly with positive human psychology all the time, and that can be very rewarding. The downside is that it is a very challenging business, and it is easy to get your ego crushed.

8-What is your best advice to a beginning game developer?

Make as many games as you can -- and work with as many people as you can.

9-Which skills are the most important for a game developer in your field/position?

Critical thinking about games is very important, and this comes through practice. Teamwork and diplomacy are also important, but *listening* is the most important skill for any game designer... Listening to your team, to your players, to your game, and to your self.

10-If I want to become a great dev in your field, what games should I play, what books should I read, and whose work should I follow?

Play the games that interest you most. Read everything. Don't worry about following the work of others. Focus instead on writing every day, and creating as many games as you can.

11-What changes do you want to see in the game industry?

I am hoping that better ways appear for players to pay for games. Right now the business models are very chaotic, and to create great things is a terrible risk. I am hoping business models can stabilize somewhat.

Bonus: Tell us a funny story from your adventures in game development.

Once, we made a pitch to a publisher for a certain game, and they liked it, but they wanted us to do it in too short a time, so we said "no thanks." The publisher said, "Well, in that case, are you interested in this other project?" and it seemed more doable, so we took it. Turns out it was much harder than we thought, and the project was in some peril. At GDC, I met the head of another studio who looked glum. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me that she took on the title we passed on, and that it was way over budget. I told her I sympathized, as my project had similar problems -- she asked what game it was, and when I told her, her eyes got all big -- she had passed on the game, because she was certain it would go over budget! Neither of us could stop laughing... and of course, as is so typical in the game industry, we both found ways to get our projects done. It proves the old saying -- everything looks like a disaster in the middle.

Heidi McDonald

Name: Heidi McDonald

Twitter: @Death_Bow

Gender: Female

Nationality: USA

Birth date: 15/05/1970

Title: Game Designer

Company: Schell Games

Some games that you have worked on: 

PlayForward: Elm City Stories

Lionel Battle Train

Tunnel Tail

GumTrix

The World of Lexica

Website: www.deathbow.com

1-What did motivate you to become a game developer? 

I came to games accidentally, in an unusual way. It wasn't until I was shown that this is a viable career option that I realized I would be a good fit for it, because I've been a lifelong gamer and have always found ways to make things more fun (I toilet-trained two boys by throwing Cheerios into the potty and giving them points for how many they could hit). I love bringing joy to others, particularly my own children. It seemed like a natural progression. Communications to events to games. Pow.

2-What does inspire you creatively? 

My kids, and things that happen in daily life. I'll experience or see or hear something and think, that would make such a great game...just like as a writer, I observe things and say, that would make such a great character or a great story. Inspiration is everywhere, you just have to be observant. Next time something makes you laugh or feel good, think about specifically why, and how you can bring that with you into your game.

3-If you had unlimited resources to make any game you wanted, what kind of game would that be? 

I'd make that game George Lucas was talking about in 2013 when he said "“The big game of the next five years will be a game where you empathize very strongly with the characters and it’s aimed at women and girls. They like empathetic games. That will be a huge hit and as a result that will be the ‘Titanic’ of the game industry, where suddenly you’ve done an actual love story or something and everybody will be like ‘where did that come from?’ Because you’ve got actual relationships instead of shooting people.” 

THAT GAME. I want to make that game.

4-What was the biggest challenge of your career? In which game? How did you overcome it? 

The biggest challenge has been having to go from knowing no tech, to learning Unity3d, Twine, scripting, some code. That is not my strength at all, but it's not enough anymore to "just be a writer" because the bar is steadily going up in terms of how technical one has to be in order to get hired. In my case, I just bit the bullet and started getting my hands dirty. You have to break things a lot in order to learn how they work. The key is persistence.

5-What do you usually do for raising the possibility of success in your projects? 

Good communication: asking a ton of questions to make sure you understand what's required, and everyone is on the same page. Playtesting: making sure you expose your work to many people and opinions before it goes into the world. Teamwork: finding out ways to work with people even when you don't like them, personally...everyone has strengths and things you can learn from, even if what you learn from them is "here is the kind of person I prefer to not ever be."

6-What is the most helpful piece of constructive criticism you ever received? 

Stop fearing the technology. If you put forth the effort to learn new things, you'll find respect and support from people who are glad to see you do it.

7-What are the advantages/downsides to working in games?

Advantages: Getting to have nerf gun fights and have blue hair. Having your kids think you're a rock star. Downsides: If you are someone other than a straight white male in your 20s, you will experience difficulty in this industry, both getting hired and after you're in. It's getting easier, slowly, but this industry does have a problem with ageism, sexism, homophobia etc. and you need to be prepared to face that with persistence and grace. Only you can decide whether there's a point when it's not worth it anymore.

8-What is your best advice to a beginning game developer?

What are you willing to give up to be in games? Think very hard about that. Because this is a brutal, unstable industry. You may find yourself fired tons of times for reasons that weren't your fault, moving a lot, working 14-hour days for days at a time. If you're okay with that, then go forward, but watch your money, and have a savings account in case the unexpected happens. That, and be nice to everyone, and help anyone you can. You have no idea when getting your next job may come down to who you know and who you've done favors for. 

9-Which skills are the most important for a game developer in your field/position?

Communicating effectively is #1, whether that's describing something an artist has to draw, or explaining to a programmer how a feature should work, or tutorializing the game for players, or bringing across story and dialog. Listening effectively is also incredibly important.

10-If I want to become a great dev in your field, what games should I play, what books should I read, and whose work should I follow?

I'm a writer/designer, so: read Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design. The Narrative Design Toolbox by Heussner, Lemay, Hepler and Finley, Evan Skolnicks' book, Lee Sheldon's book. Play anything BioWare makes, Telltale's games, and indies such as Gone Home and To The Moon. 

11-What changes do you want to see in the game industry?

I want more than lipservice to diversity, both in the developer ranks and in game portrayals. I want VR to stop making me throw up. I want YouTubers to elevate their content, making actual analyses and intelligent commentaries about games that make people want to participate and investigate, not just spectate. 

I want gamer trolls to be held accountable for their behavior, by game and social media companies, and where appropriate, law enforcement. Games are for everyone, and we need to create respectful places where everyone is welcome. 

Bonus: Tell us a funny story from your adventures in game development.

I was on a three hour client conference call about what we should call breasts. "Breasts" was too clinical a word, and not something that would typically be said by young teenagers. Other words on the table were felt to be too disrespectful or too sexualized. So, we have a game about HIV prevention and sexuality that has no mention of breasts in it, because we couldn't agree on what they should be called.

Nicklas Nygren

Name: Nicklas Nygren

Twitter: @Nifflas

Gender: Male

Nationality: Swedish

Birth date: 06/01/1983

Title: Game Designer

Company: Nifflas' Games

Some games that you have worked on:

Affordable Space Adventures

NightSky

Knytt

Website: http://nifflas.ni2.se

1-What did motivate you to become a game developer?

I've had a strong need to create things all my life. Building Lego thingies, drawing, writing short stories, making music, programming. I started to make games as a hobby because it allowed me to combine so things I like to create into a single product, and because games don't necessarily require a big team or a budget. In time it became my full time job, even though it wasn't part of my initial plan. I'm actually not 100% sure I'll keep making games forever, maybe I'll make music albums, maybe art installations? All I know is that I'll create stuff.

2-What does inspire you creatively?

It's hard to answer, because it can be anything there is. Any kind of change usually leads to new inspiration, so I always try to learn new things, seek out new adventures and meet new people.

3-If you had unlimited resources to make any game you wanted, what kind of game would that be?

I don't know. Before I started to make games, I would ask questions like that much more, but now I find myself subconsciously constraining my ideas to whatever I think can be accomplished one day. It's also hard to say if unlimited resources would even be of much help, as I don't want to work in big teams. Maybe I'd just spend the resources on more Affordable Space Adventures-sized (which was varying between 4-10 people over 2 years) projects.

4-What was the biggest challenge of your career? In which game? How did you overcome it?

My biggest challenge was to realize how to create my first game. It took me years before I realized I had to create something small, rather than some huge RPG or something, which is a mistake I share with a lot of my indie developer friends. I wish someone had told me earlier to keep things smaller, but I don't think I'd have listened to that advice back then.

5-What do you usually do for raising the possibility of success in your projects?

To me, game development is a bit like rolling a massive boulder around. As long as it has momentum, it's not too hard to keep it rolling. So, when I'm really into a project, I do a lot of work when I'm inspired, and when I'm not I work a little less but make sure to keep the momentum going. Misdirected inspirations and ideas can be dangerous, as losing myself in them can break the focus on my current project. Game development is my passion, but it's also my job, so I can't expect it to be fun all the time. Though inspiration comes and goes, I need discipline all the time.

6-What is the most helpful piece of constructive criticism you ever received?

I can't pinpoint a single piece of criticism. It's always during playtesting I learn the most important stuff. What players like/don't like, or what they get/don't get. Many things I've realized from watching people play has stayed with me with every project since (such as the rule that whatever I create is probably a lot harder than I think). Maybe the most constructive criticism aren't necessarily the things I'm explicitly told.

7-What are the advantages/downsides to working in games?

Game development is super challenging and fun, and I've got to know so many other cool people who make games. However, without a really big commercial hit, there isn't tons of money in it. Given the amount of time I put into it, it doesn't pay nearly as much as just a regular salary on a regular job. Not that I mind, I get to do something I love.

8-What is your best advice to a beginning game developer?

If you're a programmer, pick up a platform like Unity. Otherwise, start with something easy like Game Maker. Watch some online tutorials. Create a small game, the most simple you can possibly imagine. Spend one week on it the most, maybe even two, but not more. Then make another, then another. Show your creations to friends, watch them play. Post the games online. Also, and there are schools that teach you how to make games. A similar advice goes here: make sure you go to a school that makes you frequently create small things.

9-Which skills are the most important for a game developer in your field/position?

I consider my own most important skill that I'm a jack of all trades. Though I always get people to help me with lots of stuff, it's great to rarely get completely stuck due to something being completely out of my skill area. It's also a good skill as a game designer in a team, as it allows me to understand what everybody else is doing and speak their "language".

10-If I want to become a great dev in your field, what games should I play, what books should I read, and whose work should I follow?

The game that taught me the most was Ico, for its minimalism and focus on atmosphere. Journey gave me a whole new perspective on how to do online play (though I haven't actually made any game with online play). It also taught me that glitches can be insanely fun to explore. Proteus is a great example of how just a simple thing like a single-color frog that consists of a few pixels that plays a note when it jumps can be the most amazing thing ever. The game is full of wonders like that.

11-What changes do you want to see in the game industry?

I'd like to see more diversity among developers and players (gender/sexuality/culture), and that more games are made with this in mind. It's changing for the better, but it's happening too slowly, and it breaks my heart to see so many people oppose this change and think of it as a threat, instead of celebrating it.