Backgammon. How to play. (Part 1 of 9) from HistoryGamerDotCom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPkOXszubJo




backgammon, board game, game, how to play

How to Play Chinese Checkers from HowCast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0vSvWdNiUg




board game, checkers, chinese checkers, HowCast, how to play

The Game Prodigy: Get a Job in the Games Industry

http://thegameprodigy.com/welcome-to-the-game-prodigy/

You Can Get a Job in the Games Industry

If you are interested in a career in game design, programming, art, audio, production, product management, or quality assurance [QA]/testing, you’ve come to the right place here at The Game Prodigy.

Whether you are a high school student, college student, graduate, or parent of a son or daughter interested in games, this site has the resources and support needed to prepare, from high school through college, interviews and your first day on the job.

The path to a career in games is broken into five separate stages, each leading up to a promising career. Each stage has its own section on the site.


Click to Navigate: Intro > Stage I > Stage II > Stage III > Stage IV > Stage V

Stage I: Build Your Skills

Most people think that getting a job in games begins with sending out resumes, but they couldn’t be more mistaken. Professional game developers know the preparation begins long before a resume is sent to any studio. In order to get into games you need to build the right skill set, whether that’s learning how to program, creating artwork and user interfaces, game and level design, composing music and sound, managing schedules or mastering finances and statistics. Click here to see free articles and resources in Stage I.

Stage II: Earn Credentials

The best way to land a job is by getting the right degree that supports your career ambition. Here you’ll learn about what degrees different careers within game development need, and you’ll find resources to locate the perfect programs and schools for you depending on your location, your financial situation, and your academic ability. Click here to see free articles and resources in Stage II.

Stage III: Find Game Studios

Once you’ve developed your skills and are on your way to earning your credentials, it’s time to seek out places to work. In this stage we’ll discuss different kinds of studios that are out there, how to find them and make yourself available, and narrow the list down to the few you want to contact. We’ll also share techniques for getting in touch with insiders and networking your way to an opportunity. Click here to see free articles and resources in Stage III.

Stage IV: Land the Job

After finding the perfect studio you’d love to work for, it’s time to go through the job application process. Here you’ll learn how to put together a perfect resume, prepare for both phone and live interviews, and leave a good impression so that you can be sure you’ll land the job. Click here to see free articles and resources in Stage IV.

Stage V: Be a Rockstar Developer

Once you’ve finally reached your goal of landing in the games industry, the journey is just beginning. In this stage you’ll learn what life is like in the industry, whether as an intern or a full time graduate, and how you can blow away your fellow developers and kick off a promising career. Click here to see free articles and resources in Stage V.

With the Right Knowledge, You Can Make Games For a Living

My name is Brice Morrison, and I’m a Lead Game Designer and game career advisor. I’m also founder of University of Virginia’s Student Game Developers, an organization that gets students jobs every year. I work with parents, educators, and games industry insiders to help connect students with their future.

And if your dream is to work in games, then I believe I can help you too.

Almost all the information on this site is free. I’ve laid it out so that for the few out there who are willing to work hard to achieve their dreams can have a shot at it, the information that I wish I had when I was first starting out. The games industry is one of the most exciting places to be and continues to boom every year. If you can find your way in, now is a fantastic time to do so.

Best of luck!

Sincerely,

Brice

Editor, The Game Prodigy

Lead Game Designer and Game Career Advisor

About Brice

Lead Game Designer

FAMASUTRA: Using Game Job Boards To Your Advantage by Brice Morrison on 11/07/13

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BriceMorrison/20131107/204309/Using_Game_Job_Boards_To_Your_Advantage.php



[This post is cross posted from Game Career Guide and The Game Prodigy, the site for game careers and design.] 

If you're in school and looking towards getting a job in the games industry, then you've likely thought of looking at online job boards. Studios big and small use job boards to find new talent for their upcoming game projects, and so perusing the Gamasutra Job Boards and postings regularly is a great way to round out any job search.

But too many students make common mistakes when they're looking for jobs online. The worst thing is, they don't even know they're making them, because they haven't really applied to jobs at a game studio before. Making these mistakes narrows their opportunities and may prevent them from getting a job, or worse, landing them in a job that isn't for them.

As someone who has looked at resumes coming into a studio as well as applied for jobs myself, I've learned the ins and outs of using job boards for all their worth. There are simple strategies that you can use to turn online job boards into an asset for you, instead of a task that you need to trudge through. By using job boards right you can build your skills, improve your chances, and eventually get the perfect job for you.

So let's take a look at what you can do to be successful in getting your first game gig. There are three main stages: first, you want to use job boards to target your skills and grow as a future game developer. Second, you want to find the jobs that are right for you and get over the common "1-2 years experience" hump. Finally, you want to use what I like to call the "Studio Checklist Method" to stand out on your application and make sure you're a perfect match.

Step 1: Use Job Boards to Target Your Skill Development

 

That's right - you can actually use job boards to build your skills and gain more experience, even before setting your foot in a studio. I'll explain how.

I'm a big believer in the concept of "career capital" - in order to get great jobs and build a successful career, you need to learn valuable skills that others will pay for. The better you get at these skills, the easier it will be to trade in your "career capital" to get a great job. People who become Design or Art Directors have tons of career capital that they've built up over time. They have skills that studios need to make great games.

But how to you know what kinds of skills game studios want? Sure, they want someone who can "program", but what languages specifically? What frameworks, what engines, what types of tasks? Sure they need someone who can "draw", but what techniques and styles specifically?

Well there's two ways to find out. You can ask someone who works at a game studio (which may be difficult, especially if you don't know many people) or you can, you guessed it, use the job boards.

Job boards are a great resource for learning about what skills are currently valuable out there in the "real world". It's like being given the answers to an exam - even if you don't have the skills now, the skills you need are laid right out there for you. It's just up to you to study and put in the time to develop them. 

Let's look at an example job posting:

QUALIFICATIONS

Knowledge of 2D/3D programming

Knowledge of C / C++

Strong math and engineering background

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering preferred

2+ years of programming experience

Significant experience in hobby or professional game development

Good communication skills

Each of these items are something that this company wants, the career capital that's needed in order to get this job. And these are all very actionable. If you're looking at this example job posting and this is the type of job you'd like to have, then pick a few items on the list and start teaching yourself. Let's break it down:

• If you don't have any "Knowledge of C / C++" go out there and start working on some personal game projects that you decide to write in C++. Look online for resources and tutorials, find books at the bookstore, and start practicing
  
  
• If you don't have any 3D programming experience, sign up for a course at school, or do a project yourself. Get some books and start practicing and build a simple 3D game
  
  
• If you don't have strong math background, then pick up your old calculus, trigonometry and geometry textbooks and go through them. Work through some problems, and then see if you can apply them to your 3D game experience
  
  
• We'll talk about the 2+ years of programming experience in a moment
  

These skills are what you want to go after. While you can't change your skill set overnight or even over a week, in the course of a few months to a year you can learn a substantial amount of valuable skills. 

The key to understand is that if several companies are posting jobs that all require skill X, then several months or a year from now, there will be lots of other companies posting jobs that require skills X as well. This is your career capital that you want to build up. Then in a few months when the next job posting comes up, you will have invested in yourself and will be ready to apply for those jobs - and they'll likely be ready to talk to you!

This brings us to that last point, what do you do it all the posting require 2+ years of experience?

Step 2: Get Over the "1-2 Year" Requirement

One thing that I hear all the time with students at The Game Prodigy is "All the jobs I look at require 1-2 years experience! How am I supposed to break in?"

It is a bit of a chicken and egg problem. But I'll tell you how to tackle it. When companies say they are looking for 1-2 years experience, they are just saying that they want a person of a certain caliber. They don't want a programmer who barely knows any C++. They don't want an artist who doesn't know how to use Illustrator. And they don't want a designer who has never made a single game before. They are looking for people who know what they are doing.

So the best way to overcome these obstacles is to make sure that you are experienced through your own personal projects. 

Take this example: Let's say you are hiring someone to work for your game studio. You see two resumes come to your desk. The first is a guy who has worked for 2 years at some no name game company where he basically did nothing. It's really even clear he did anything at all. But the second is a girl who has made a Top 100 iPhone game, made a 3D game that was nominated for an indie game award, and led a project for a game jam that got over 100,000 plays - in fact you've heard of it.

Who would you hire? The answer is obvious - the second person.

But see what's happened here? The first person may have had experience sitting at a job, but the second person made their own experience. 

The best way to do this is by working on your own personal projects and going above and beyond in courses

So when you see jobs that require 1-2 or 2-3 years of experience, reframe it as, "This is a job for someone who has the same skill level as someone who has been in the industry 1-2 years". Then put in the work (as we discussed in step 1) to make it happen.

Now that you've been reading the job boards to find your marketable skills and found a few jobs to apply for, it's time to use the Studio Checklist Method to close the deal.

Step 3: Use the Studio Checklist Method to Stand Out

[Image by mistersnappy, used under Creative Commons License] 

Here's some advice I bet you've heard before: "When you're applying to jobs, use a custom resume and cover letter for each company."

But what does that mean exactly?

I'll tell you exactly what it means - it means that when you apply to each company, your resume should reflect what that company and job posting is looking for. To do this, you'll want to use what we at The Game Prodigy call "The Studio Checklist Method".

This means that when you are surfing on job boards, you need to use their job posting as a checklist to build your cover letter and resume. 

Let's use the example again from earlier:

QUALIFICATIONS

Knowledge of 2D/3D programming

Knowledge of C / C++

Strong math and engineering background

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering preferred

2+ years of programming experience

Significant experience in hobby or professional game development

Good communication skills

Upon reading this, you should literally make it a checklist. The most important items that the studio wants are typically going to be at the top or mentioned two or three times, while the least important items will be at the bottom. With that in mind, an example cover letter might look like this:

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Brice Morrison and I'm excited to apply for the position of Game Programmer. I believe my experience matches what you are looking for. I was the creator of "Mega Banana", a 3D game that was entered into the Independent Games Festival, and "Legend of Melba" a 2D open world exploration game that received over 50,000 plays online. 

Last year, I was in charge of a semester long C++ project with 3 other students where we made an inventory management program of over 10,000 lines of code. I believe my schoolwork has prepared me well for this position - I currently hold a 3.7 GPA in my math and engineering courses and am majoring in computer science. With my hobby

Now let's break this down using the Studio Checklist Method to make sure we have everything covered. Look back at the job posting and see if it's all there:

• Does the cover letter mention "Knowledge of 2D/3D programming"? Yes! "I was the creator of 'Mega Banana', a 3D game that was entered into the Independent Games Festival, and 'Legend of Melba' a 2D open world exploration game that received over 50,000 plays online." - CHECK!
  
  
• Does the cover letter mention "Knowledge of C / C++"? Yes! "Last year, I was in charge of a semester long C++ project with 3 other students where we made an inventory management program of over 10,000 lines of code." CHECK!
  
  
• Does the cover letter mention "Strong math and engineering background"? Yes! "I currently hold a 3.7 GPA in my math and engineering courses" - CHECK!
  

You get the idea.

This should be done for both the cover letter and for the resume, and as a result, each one you send out should be totally unique. After going through each item and searching in your own experience to find matches where possible, you give yourself a much higher chance of success. The studio will see your resume and say, "Wow! This is exactly the guy we are looking for!" 

This is also the reason you want to build up your skills and career capital as much as you can, so that you have a lot of experiences to pull from to match job board postings you see.

One important point is that you don't want to lie or exaggerate your skills. Never ever. But what you do want to do is use the job posting to decide which of your skills and experience you want to emphasize on your 

Don't Stop at the Job Board

Many students think that job postings are the end of their job search - far from it, they are actually just the beginning. There's one other key technique that I teach my students to find jobs and get offers in our Game Prodigy Newsletter. If you're interested in learning more, head over to The Game Prodigy at the bottom of this article.

Best of luck!

Brice Morrison is a Lead Game Designer and Editor of The Game Prodigy a site for building your game career. Visit for more strategies on how to become a pro game developer.

Gamasutra: Five Tips to Keep People Playing Your Game by Maria Baeta on 11/07/13

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MariaBaeta/20131107/204333/Five_Tips_to_Keep_People_Playing_Your_Game.php

We collect a lot of data at Softonic. The data show us which apps – from games to utilities – are downloaded most and, more importantly perhaps, which have the most loyal users.

For example, worldwide, Softonic users have downloaded more than 285,000,000 games so far in 2013. In the race for top game downloads in the U.S. Slender: The Eight Pages is narrowly beating Minecraft as the most downloaded game on the Web, with more than 700,000 downloads in 2013 so far. Subway Surfers is by far the most downloaded mobile game with almost 80,000 downloads.

These are great numbers but what do they tell us about the games themselves? What is it about Slender, for instance, that keeps people downloading and playing it?

I recently attended GameLab, an international exhibition of video games and interactive entertainment, where speakers gave some insight into the success of their games. I took away five reasons why those games are a hit and have loyal followings. Here they are, along with some examples of what I think are games that meet the standards.

1. They have a unique story line: One of the most important elements is a game’s story. There are two kinds of stories:  designer stories and player stories. Designer stories relate to the immovable plot of the game, scripted events and everything that the user cannot change. Player stories, on the other hand, are those that vary according to the user's game.

A good story comes from balancing the two types of narratives. For example, killing a character, taking one path or another or answering A or B are part of these stories, and will make each experience unique or, at the very least, one of hundreds of variations.

Examples: Slender, Surgeon Simulator 2013, Minecraft

2. They challenge gamers: Make sure it’s not too easy. Gamers want to be challenged and then rewarded for their efforts. It’s also fun for users to be able to see how they compare to others playing the game for some added competition.

Examples: GTA V, Temple Run, Despicable Me: Minion Rush, Surgeon Simulator 2013

3. They offer a surprising twist: When you’re not expecting something, you get more pleasure from it. That’s human nature. So don’t give everything away. Build up anticipation by not releasing too many details before users play/find the twists themselves.

When we compared the sales of games that were released following demos and trailers, to those that released only a trailer, the games without a demo sold more (generally speaking).

Examples: GTA: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto IV, GTA V

4. They are available anywhere on any device: One platform isn’t going to cut it. Let users go back and forth between playing on their PC at home to their mobile device on-the-go, without having to start over each time.

Keep in mind, though, despite the rise of mobile gaming, the days of the traditional format aren't numbered because the TV is still the center of the home. So, playing on a home console won’t disappear, it'll just have to share the space with ever more portable devices.

Examples: Minecraft, Slender, Temple Run, Subway Surfers

5. They are free or offer flat/fixed fees: Let the user pay a flat fee and have access to everything. In total they may be paying more than they would by making micropayments, but their perception is that they have more freedom and access to the entire world that the game offers. Don’t surprise gamers by charging more later on.

 Charge a flat/fixed fee for access to everything all at once to keep players from quitting midway through.

Examples: Grand Theft Auto IV, Farming Simulator 2013, Slender, Subway Surfers

While we continue to seek game nirvana - the "perfect" game with impressive graphics and plot, a comfortable interface, fair payment system, complex artificial intelligence and options for interacting with friends - keeping these five attributes top of mind will get game designers started on the right path.

GAMASUTRA: Want interesting women in video games? There are binders full of them

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/204101/Want_interesting_women_in_video_games_There_are_binders_full_of_them.php

---

November 6, 2013 | By Kris Ligman

---

Jill Murray, narrative designer at Ubisoft Quebec, says there is very little excuse for the dearth of smartly-written women characters in games.

The Assassin's Creed: Liberation and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag writer took to the podium at GDC Next yesterday afternoon not to argue why diverse representation in games was important, but to illustrate how easily this could be achieved.
 
In a talk titled "Binders Full of Women: Diversifying Feminine Archetypes in Games," Murray listed off examples of women from history, current events and her own life, ranging from women Soviet pilots in World War II to Chinese empresses; Ethiopian entrepreneurs to Syrian snipers.
 
"Often in history you'll see women leaders and generals erased from the record, [but not all of them]," said Murray. "There is a simple trick to finding examples of awesome women: you type anything into Google and then add 'women' after it."
 
While Murray criticized the extent to which 'woman' is still used as a discrete category for characterization, she did note its effectiveness for research purposes. All of the women she profiled in her half-hour talk were the result of less than 60 seconds searching online.
"Imagine how much more you could find, with more time than I used," she suggested.
 
The point, Murray said, was not to provide her GDC Next audience with a cursory look at women in the armed forces, positions of government, or business. The point was that this was easy -- and so defending the scarcity of women protagonists on the premise of realism or lack of ready-to-hand examples through research only betrayed a certain laziness.
 
"This talk is less of a call to action and more of a look to the future," said Murray, "of a time when we will move beyond common archetypes and find new inspiration for a greater variety of games."
 
Further, Murray added: "Not only can we fix this oversight, but when we do it, it will be fun."
 
Murray has received accolades for her writing on Assassin's Creed: Liberation, which features as its protagonist the French Creole woman Aveline de Grandpre. Her most recently launched title is Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. She is reachable on Twitter at @codejill.

Brown Bag Board Game Designers’ Document: Power Struggle

Brown Bag Board Game Designers’ Document

Members of the Group: Christian, Kris, Matthew, Sandra

Working Titles of the Game: Power Struggle: THE TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

Designer/Publisher: Blue Team_VCIM 1200 Game Design 1

Brown Bag Items Used: blank board, blank cards, medium small binder clips

Number of Players: 2 – 6

Estimated Play Time: 40+ minutes

Estimated time to learn how to play the game: 10 seconds to read short instructions, then learn as you play

Estimated Setup Time: 2 minutes, but you can be creative and add pieces and instruction cards

Premise or Theme of the Game: Players must reach center “hilltop” first despite advantages, disadvantages and challengers.

Objective(s) of the Game: Race to the end first, trump others when possible.

Goal(s) of the Game: To win first place.

Elements of the Game: Game board, dice, energy cubes, instruction cards, player markers / avatars.

Overview of the game Procedure/Rules:

●       each player draws one card per turn OR throws dice. You use the card’s instructions to move forward, back on the board, or attack another player advances

●       landings on the board, as well, gives or takes away energy or other options

●       some options, such as short-cuts, can be “bought” with enough energy

                  

RULES IN DETAIL:

1) Place your game piece on the nearest blank spot (on the outer ring)

2) Roll to decide who goes first

3) On your turn, you can choose to either

    a) roll the die to move

    b) draw a card

4) if you draw a card, you must wait until the beginning of your next turn to use it, and can only use it after you pay the energy fee

5) you cannot have more energy than your current cap allows (you start with 10, and all energy cubes start off in the “used” block on the board. when you land on a space that gives you energy, simply move your cubes into the “free” block)

6) First person to make it to the middle wins!

Types of spaces:

-Energy spaces :these simply give you more free energy to use

- Regeneration spaces: landing on one of these automatically raises your free energy by half (ie: if you have no free energy, and a cap of 10, you get 5 free energy for landing here)

-Bridges: you need to cross a bridge to advance to the next level, and each bridge costs energy to cross

- for cards, simply pay the energy cost, and follow the instructions. You don’t have to use them right away, so be strategic.

How energy and your cap work:

-you start the game with a cap of 10 (maximum cap is 25)

-these cubes will stay in your “used” block until you earn more energy

- when you earn energy, move blocks from your “used” space to your “free” space.

- Free + Used = your energy cap

-when you raise your cap, add the extra cubes to the “used” space

Are players in cooperation or conflict?: Conflict.

What is the overall aesthetic of the visual elements; board, box, tokens, etc…: The general aesthetic is energy. However, the marketing look for this can be altered to fit other settings; such as medieval / middle ages, comedic chicken to top of hill road, space station, etc.

Playability

Is the game easy to learn from the instructions?: Yes. Read instructions and play.

Are the rules easy to explain to others?: Yes.

Does the game rely on luck, strategy or other elements?: Mostly luck at each draw of card or throw of dice. Some strategy as you bide your time and collect energy

Is the Game reminiscent of something else in theme or game mechanics.: Candyland, Star Fluxx, King of Tokyo

Rate the fun factor of the game. (Mass appeal or Gamers Game).: Both. Casual gamers first but with the inherent ability of gamers adding their own instruction cards, this could grow into an RPG, or even an attack plus race game.

What elements could improve the game?:

What is the replay value of the game? Is it one and done or does the game lend itself to more replay, experimentation or rules or with complex strategy, etc…: Replay can be high, since its basic rules can make the game a new, fresh one, each time, and there may be a possibility to add more personalized or freaky goals, actions, etc.