Andy Gentile - Guest Speaker

So Andy Gentile came into our school to speak Thursday afternoon.
He is a level designer/note tracker who has worked on titles such as Tony Hawk's Underground and Guitar Hero along with many other similar titles (THUG2, THAW, GH:METALLICA...) I took a few notes on some of the random things he said...

- Got started in the industry by playing Tony Hawk a lot online and he was one of the top players in its community. He wrote messages/bug reports to the developers about how he got high scores on levels, areas that annoyed him, things that were useless. Then they invited him out to the studio after he finished high school and he started doing some game testing.

- He had the opportunity to prove that he wasn't a jerk (many people on the internet are), and that he could communicate well. Especially when it came to level critiques.

- Taught himself 3DSMax in about two months so he could design levels. He said he opened it up and pressed F1. But he knew the game well and knew what he wanted to do with the program.

- Neversoft doesn't use Maya AT ALL.

- Push your skills! Versatility can save your ass when it comes to lay offs. His superiors knew that he could also play drums and he was able to push some of his band's songs into a few of the video games...(The company doesn't have to deal with labels or managers, saved Neversoft money and adds originality to the game) This was also how he got his start as a note tracker for Guitar Hero games.

- A Note Tracker does whatever to transcribe audio for rhythm games. Uses Logic to map out songs for Guitar Hero games.

- Tracking guitars, is way, way harder than tracking drums. Andy and several other note trackers had to write note tracking guides for other employees with tips & shortcuts, troubleshooting...The guitar book is definitely the thickest.

- Performed drum visuals for mo-cap, was told to be extra flashy

- Said he absolutely believes that Neversoft and other companies would give testers a chance to prove themselves and move up.

- If you are ever sent somewhere to do environment research, take 360 degree pictures. He said you have no idea how many times you will look at a shot and say "What is right next to that?!"

- Some funny conversations and inside jokes can end up as finalized in game ideas

- "It's not where you work, it's who you're working with". Having fun, cool people around you means much more than just bragging about which company you are at

- Always take pictures and screen-shots of iterations or changes (W.I.P.) so you can show others "Here's how I came up with this solution"

- Giving the game to someone else is very important. Gamers usually don't care about some small detail you may be stressing over.

- KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! (K.I.S.S.)

- You're going to have to redo your work, but you will usually be at least twice as fast

- They always want to see paper maps (top down, pencil, roughs) of your ideas before you start working on them.

- You need to think about selling your ideas to someone else. Make them think it's new. Budgets and schedules are very strict when it comes to level sizes and one person's small idea could create a lot of work for other departments. The space budget exists mainly to save time.

- When it comes to Google, if you can't find what you want you're probably searching wrong.

This whole seminar was really inspiring. I was given a chance to see how somebody else is successfully merging their art and music into their career. He seemed like a really laid back guy who wasn't that confident in his technical abilities at first, so he made damn sure to be a reliable person that the company could count on. He is only two or three years older than me and he has somewhere around 15 titles under his belt. NETWORK!!