- IRISH 249
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- Senior Heroic Member
Old School Gamer and Proud Member of the Seventh Column
Dude has a doctorate in Psych. Impressive.
Very cool interview and thank you for sharing. I trust you'll get an A.
Posted by: ArbiterVX
Ok, all done the interview! Also, I had thought that I was supposed to ask 10 questions, but I was supposed to ask 5. So here you go, my interview with DrBunsenHoneydew:
1. What do you do at Bungie? What are your duties?
I'm the User Research Design Lead. I'm in charge of studying how real players play our games and helping the designers use that information to make better games. This can be anything from usability studies to giant betas.
2. Is that what you thought you were going to do when you were my age?
At 16 I thought I was going to be an AI engineer of some sort. From there, I went into psychology and from psychology into user research. I didn't know this job existed until I was 25 or so.
3. What is it like working at Bungie? What are the hours and pay like?
Bungie is a fun and challenging place to work. Our reputation means that we get to be very picky about who we hire, so everyone is very good at their job and passionate about making games.
One of the things that's unusual about working in the games industry is the secrecy. It's a little strange not to be able to tell your friends the name of the game you're working on. You get used to it after a while, but it's strange for people who are working in games for the first time.
Secondly, making games is a very cyclical business. My job looks very different when we're just starting to develop a game than when we're getting ready to release it. The whole pace of life changes, the daily tasks are different. There's a rhythm to it. Because most games are released in the fall, our summers are often particularly busy.
Hours and pay are good for the industry. We do occasionally have crunches, but these days they're short and highly planned.
4. What kind of training did you need for your job?
I have a doctorate in psychology. Most games user researchers study either psychology or Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in school.
5. Do you have any advice for people who want to go into the field of game design?
My best advice for people who want to go into the games industry is to make games. Board games, mods for existing games, program them yourself, doesn't matter. Just start making games. The games industry doesn't really distinguish between amateur and professional work. They're as happy to discuss design decisions in a one man indie game someone coded in their spare time as in a AAA title like Halo. I got my start coding text MUDs and writing amateur articles on psychology and game design. Just start doing the work and get it out where people can see it.
Huge thanks to Honeydew for his help and time, you're awesome dude.