Usually when people talk about game development the discussion lies in the technical, visual and mechanical aspects of the game. For an indie developer I would think those things are paramount. Heck, those things are a challenge in themselves! There is another ingredient that I think goes with game development that a lot of people do not discuss much. Directing. Developing the story and the characters in the story. Not just for the sake of the story I might add, I think while the story should be compelling, it should also compliment the game play. That is of course assuming your game has a story. Then there is that question, do you develop game play from a story line, or vice versa? I suppose you could go about it both ways.
In the game development community, which roles directly impact the overall story, character development and overall progression of the game? I think of somebody like Hideo Kojima who was the director for the MGS series. If I wanted to learn to be like him, a director of sorts, how could I do that?
A lot of people in that position started at a lower position and moved up, think of people like Cliff Blezinski.
Alternately, you can do an indie game project where you’re either making the game yourself or you’re leading a small team. In any case you need to have some useful skills beyond just leading the game development.
So for example if you’re working with a small team you can do directing work while also doing programming or 3D work. Being experienced with actually getting a game out there is also very useful–stuff like marketing, project management, and past experience getting a game on a platform and what that all involves (like getting onto Steam or Xbox/Playstation/Nintendo/etc.)
For better or worse, these forums are more geared towards technical engine topics.
Probably another forum actively covers this, ‘Polycount’ for game / film makers etc.
It touches on Style vs. Substance argument, which is more important to game dev…
I agree it would be invaluable to include Film Directing and Character and Story etc.
Game makers often assume they don’t really need to study anything about that etc.
Then go and create 15 minute exposition cut-scenes aka Trinity dying in Matrix3 yuk!
Personally I cant build anything, not even a level without story, it opens possibilities.
It helps too with writers-block dry-spells, as it also helps brainstorm gameplay ideas.