Gaming niche is very popular worldwide and we decided to make some expert roundup with different members of this niche. We had conversations with some popular gamers, game developers and game bloggers to tell you what each of them like most about games.
- Armin Ibrisagic
- Debbie Timmins
- Tim Oliver
- Emma Barnes
- Chris Renshall
- Lisa Hignett
- Beard Gamer
- Razay Martin
Armin Ibrisagic coffeestainstudios.com
I work as a PR Manager so I get to travel a lot to events and expos. which means I get to meet other friendly developers that share my passion for video games. I think that’s by far the best thing about being in the games industry. Not sure what more to say, I just really like video games, playing video games, and talking about video games. The fact that I can survive and pay my rent while doing it is even better.
Debbie Timmins www.theaveragegamer.com
The variety of games that I get to see is simply incredible. I’ve played so many games that I wouldn’t normally risk buying and discovered some brilliant ones that I get to share with other gamers. I love analysing games to look at WHY they achieve what they do. Blogging lets me reach other people who enjoy doing the same.
Tim Oliver www.timoliver.com.au
The thing I like the most is the feedback. People like to reply back saying that after they read your blog, they were encouraged to try out what you were talking about, and were happy they did in the end. It lets you know your blog is actually out there, helping people, and it’s quite rewarding.
Emma Barnes gamingmemoirs.co.uk
I run gamingmemoirs.co.uk as a hobby rather than as a job which suits me just fine. I get to write about what I love without having to worry too much about “being professional”. I’m not a news blogger so don’t have to keeping my finger on the pulse of the industry. My readers like their little dose of the “retro” (are PS2 and GBA considered “retro” these days?!) in their lives and I’m happy to supply it. Being a games blogger allows me to look back at the great memories games have created for me (hence the title of my blog) and allows me to improve my writing style at the same time.
Chris Renshall tgikgamesblog.wordpress.com
This is a two section answer.
Game Development Side:
The best part of being a game developer is the creative outlet game development provides. I have spent many years of my life looking for a hobby that I could get into and stick with for more than a month or two. It took me a while, but I found game design and I love it. Developing games makes perfect sense to the way my brain works. Game development is an art form that my analytical brain can grab a hold of and make a style of art that is something I am really proud of and want show to as many people who are willing to play our games. Game development, beyond the art form, is project management where I/we get to set all the rules. Yes, I am constrained by the production time for art, the physical game copies and the availability of play testers but I have the freedom to run multiple projects at one time, and work with multiple people. To me, the project management side of game development is a game. The game is to be as efficient as possible and to me that is fun. Lastly, I get to spend a lot of time with my friends because of game development. I co-design with a friend from my school days and we get to hang out and build our company into whatever we want it to be. Our strengths compliment each other very well and being able to work with someone with the same basic business goals and a skill set complimentary to mine is very rewarding. Plus, we get to bring our larger group of friends together to run alpha tests on our games. Since these are the guys that have been making fun of one another since we were in middle school, they can say whatever they want about the early problems with our games and there are no hard feelings and we know the feedback is genuine because our friends don’t feel bad for giving bad feedback the same way strangers are reluctant to vocalize. We also know that the good feedback we receive is coming from a reliable source that is willing to give criticism and praise.
Game Blogging Side:
When I started our blog, what I liked best was the fact that the act of writing a regular blog kept me on task with our own games. The idea that I wanted to write regular updates on our games meant that I needed to have something to write about. Writing a blog also forced me to focus more when we were working on our games because the more useful “bloggable material” I was able to extract from the times we were actually developing games, the more I had to write about. So initially, the best part was the unexpected focus writing a regular blog provided and being able to share the progress of our games.
Then I started to write a series about How to Build a Game and what I liked the most changed. I discovered that people actually got something out of our H2BaG blog posts. Based on comments and other forms of feedback, I started to get really excited when I would hear from readers and what they liked about our blog. What this has done is change my focus from getting motivation from sharing my projects, to being motivated to help others with theirs. Because of this, I have worked regular time into my week to get blog posts done and generate future ideas so I have plenty of material to write about in the future.
In conclusion, something I did not mention previously, is the social interaction both the development and blogging side provide. Being a game developer means you need to build a team and meeting new and talented people in the game industry is great fun. Being a blogger, you get to meet people who are on the same journey we are on. We share stories of accomplishment and challenges of the design process. The rewards from meeting new people on either the blogger or development side are plentiful and inspiring.
Lisa Hignett www.zakodia.com
My favourite aspect of being a game developer has to be the process of filtering many individual ideas and concepts for a game until they come together into fruition. Working with a team in an independent game company is so rewarding as everybody always has a unique idea on how a game should be developed; yet not all of them are necessarily worth executing. Good communication and great team morale are essential to narrow down the best ideas to develop an original title. You can spend many hours working on a game but only the titles with the most unique, risky ideas are memorable!
Beard Gamer www.beardgamer.com
Essentially, BeardGamer intends to bring new fans to the hobby, and help them find new content and discover the work, reviews and videos of some incredible content creators across the globe. We wanted to build a place, a hub, where they could find a collection of great industry and player content with a comprehensive search function for hundreds of games linked to reviews, playthroughs and everything in between. I love games and this community, I just want to share that content and grow the boardgaming love and industry!
Razay Martin alienwolfstudios.com
I am the founder/owner of alienwolfstudios ,i am also a 3d artist. I love what i do because it allows me to explore my creative itch and im able to create anything i can put my mind to. Also because i can find others who love our games and see our artistic views. Its a pleasure to be in this business i wouldnt trade it for anything in the world.
Conclusion:
Of course most people involved in this niche love games and that is the main reason why do they blog about games, develop games and play games.
If you are working in this niche and would like to be included too then contact us and we will include you.