About Zack

My name is Zack Hiwiller and I am the author of this blog.

I’m a video game designer living in central Florida. I’ve shipped or worked on titles on the Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Nintendo DS, PSP, Gameboy Advance, Facebook, iPad and PC. I’m a big proponent of game design from an aesthetic approach in terms of MDA, but there are numerous equally “valid” philosophies that work.

I was born in Pittsburgh, PA in the early eighties as a New Year’s Baby. Being born in the afternoon on a day where one is celebrated and lavished with praise if they are born earlier probably is the seed of my incredibly strong pet peeve of being late to anything.

I started being fascinated by games when my dad bought us an Atari XE system when I was a sapling. Mostly, I watched him play it because I was horribly terrified of Donkey Kong.

A few years later, my parents bought me a Commodore 64. You had to do programming just to get games to run! (LOAD “*”,8,1) I amused myself with my God-like ability to create “Hello, World!” statements. It was pretty fun, but I was horribly terrified of the giant worm in Dark Lord:

Games are scary.

Games are scary. I’d like to say that I eventually grew out of being horrified by them, but no.

When I was twelve, I found a game called ZZT by Epic. It had a very simple programming language with which you could create your own games – not just moving tiles around to create levels, but actual stories. I was hooked and joined a number of communities online dedicated to making ZZT games with other kids. I was quite full of my designer prowess at the time. I was going to be a real game designer! You know, like the guys that made Mortal Kombat and F-Zero.

Then reality got a hold of me. The tech bubble happened while I was in high school. Anyone who was anyone was jumping on that bandwagon, so I was going to write web software! Big money! Fabulous prizes!

The bubble burst when I was in college and web programming was no longer lucrative or exciting. I dreaded working in Manhattan on financial software. (Ironically, eventually I’d end up working in Manhattan on mirthless software) It’s what all my classmates were getting into and nothing to me seemed more jejune. A wise person then gave me some good advice: remember your dreams. What would happen if I fail? Move back home and work on some boring software for some boring company? That is what I would be doing anyway! So I started focusing my studies towards game design and found that the general advice of “You cannot get a job in the game industry” isn’t true if you are smart, hard-working and have thick skin. I audited or weaseled my way into CMU’s entertainment technology classes and really started studying design. My thanks go out to the good professors at CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center who let an overeager and annoying undergrad into their classes.

Then – my big break – I found my way to an internship at Electronic Arts. The rest is history. And I am not nearly as scared of video game menaces as I once was.

Except for the Shalebridge Cradle.

Boo.

Since then, I’ve worked on a number of shipped games and a few canceled or aborted ideas. In the meantime, I study other design blogs and attempt to keep my mind open for ways to expand in my role. I’m working on a number of board/card game ideas.

I left EA in January of 2009. I spent a year tooling around, got half an MBA (either a ME or a 3A, I haven’t figured out yet) before landing a gig in New York City. I did some work there for a while, hated it, and ran back to Florida.

Working on a hobby prototype card game.

Q: Why do you have a blog?
A: I used to abhor and despise blogs because I equated them with ugly Myspace pages and self-serving ranting. I found it very egotistical to think that someone would want to read what I had to say. Then I realized that blogging really wasn’t an ego-stroke at all. One can write simply to write. I want to write because I enjoy writing and practice makes me better. Also, there are a number of game designers out there that have great blogs and it seems to work well for them. I like meeting like-minded people and so far, I’ve got to meet some interesting folks. I also found that writing a quick blog post in the morning primed my brain and got me going to get some good work done. It turned out to be mental calisthenics – to use a cliché.

Q: Are you just going to write about game design? I don’t care about that, nerd.
A: That’s what I plan on writing the most about now, because that is what is interesting me. I expect one reads a game designer’s blog (if anyone does) to read about what they think about game design. But since the primary objective of this blog is just to get me typing, I will post about whatever is interesting me at the moment. I’ll try not to be too loquacious or boring.

Q: What are you working on now?
A: My resume is available upon request. I don’t make it public because I want to control who sees that particular information. No bots! I’m currently a Course Director at Full Sail University but I do projects on the side.

Q: How do I contact you?
A: I am very interested in talking with other designers, potential employers and folks interested in game design. Leave comments on posts if applicable or email me. My email address is my first name at my last name. Figure it out IF YOU ARE A HUMAN.

Q: How do I get a job in the games industry?
A: There are many sites that can help you with this better than I can. Google is your friend. And since I’ve only done this a few times, I don’t consider myself a real expert, but I can give some tips as it related to me getting a job and things I’ve observed from our general hiring practices. The better question would be: “How do I succeed in the games industry?” Because if you just want to get a job, I’m sure there are plenty of junior testing positions open at bad places.

So, right, tips:

  • Be “well-rounded” (blech). Computer science is usually a winner as a starting point. My degree is in Information Systems. Math, engineering, business, art, illustration, architecture, English. Prove you are a well-rounded individual (to use the banality) rather than a one-trick pony. Businesses can teach you the latest tools and trends, but only if you have the base skill set to be taught. Game design programs can teach great skills too, but you want to prove you are not narrowly defined. Plus, in this economy, you want to keep your options open.
  • Be interesting. Game companies get a forest’s worth of resumes every year. They do tons of interviews. So why in the world should they pick you? There will probably be fifty candidates today with grades better than yours or fellowships or recommendations or God help you, experience.Have a project you can show. Have a blog with insights. Show that you not only can do the job, but can bring something immeasurable to the team. Have a personality.
  • Know why you want to work in games. Because you play them is the worst possible answer. I won’t give you the best possible answer, because you should be telling the truth. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t get to play fun games when you work on making games. 99% of the time you work on something that is broken either in terms of code or design. Once those two things are shored up to a satisfactory level for whoever is pulling the strings, the game is shipped and you start over. The only time you really get to play fun games is when you are at home.
  • Be prepared to sacrifice. I wouldn’t trade my job for a “real” job any day of the week. But realize that with the perks, there is also a lot of sacrifice. Working twelve-hour days is normal. Working three weeks or more without a weekend happens at most studios. You’ll be paid less than a similar job in a more dull field. You won’t have creative freedom. Think seriously about if this is what you want to do with your talents. To me, it is worth it. Too many get in and then realize they want a 40 hour a week gig. That’s cool too, just know what to expect.
  • Be crafty and be persistent. When I was first looking for an internship, I sent my resume to over one hundred studios. Ninety-seven percent of them never even responded to say they weren’t interested. Most places have a formal policy of how they entertain employee applications. Fuck it. Find the name of someone in HR and personally email them. They don’t particularly like it, but it is effective. If that fails, find the name of someone else in the company. Email them about something unrelated to you wanting a job. Ask questions. If you get a good relationship going over email, you may be able to sneak in that you are looking for an internship. If not, then you might still be able to learn from things from someone you wouldn’t really talk to normally. Win-win. It isn’t easy to get a job in this field, so you have to show that you are eager and qualified. Saying you are eager and qualified doesn’t amount to anything. Most places will tell you that they have no positions, which may or may not be true. But if you show them that they could really use you, then when a position does become available, maybe they will remember you. It’s worth a shot.

Q: What are your favorite games?

A: Here’s a short list: