Production on Terry Nguyen

Introduction to Git

terry@terrehbyte.com (Terry Nguyen) — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This was edited by Lizz Rizzo (@lizz0id) and written for the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, but was ultimately left unused.

Understanding how to use version control systems (VCS) to manage your work is a key skill of any developer, whether you’re a hobbyist or professional. It can serve as a way to track what changes in your project (especially if you’re working with other people).

Depending on what software you use as your version control system, it can give you backups of your work as well. Losing your project could mean losing months or years of work that can result in major setbacks.

AIE's Minor Production Process

terry@terrehbyte.com (Terry Nguyen) — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This was edited by Lizz Rizzo (@lizz0id) and published for the Academy of Interactive Entertainment on its website.

One of the most valuable parts of the course for our Game Development students is the opportunity to collaborate with their peers from other disciplines for their final project at the end of each school year.

Internally, those projects are referred to as “Minor Production” and “Major Production” respectively for our first year and second year game students. Every year, students fall prey to the same problems: communication issues, gaps in technical skill, unclear direction from faculty, or just interpersonal conflicts in general. This year’s changes continue the trend of improving the process, which in turn creates a stronger student experience.

Postmortem for Total Withdrawal

terry@terrehbyte.com (Terry Nguyen) — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

During my last months at the Academy of Interactive of Entertainment, I worked as the Technical Director for two projects for our final production project, Total Withdrawal and Fae-Tal. We tried far too many things on both projects, and while this fared a bit better than the other, it still did not meet expectations.

Art Power

Pipeline

There was prior work with artists, but a solid pipeline had not been established. The artists were developing content in Maya and then shipping over a new FBX file with new materials. Integration was undertaken by the programming lead, which opted to drop it in as a new asset, and hook up the materials and textures again upon each iteration.