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Fun games get serious
Playing video games can be a seriously
competitive sport and dedicated ‘gamers’ are an
international force. One Gold Coaster has taken
his love of playing video games to the next level
– by designing them. Jodi Hammond reports.
ITH a Tomb Raider 2
dragon tattoo on his
shoulder, it is a safe bet
to say that Mark Theyer is a bit
of a video game junkie.
However, unlike other
gamers who live to conquer the
vast levels and challenges of the
endless video games on offer,
Mark lives to create them.
He has the enviable job of
being a video game designer and
programmer and spends his
days building games, testing
games and playing games.
As the director of his own
graphic effects company, Hope
Island-based TheyerGFX, he is
master of his domain and
spends his days immersed in the
colourful and creative world of
bringing games to reality.
It all started for Mark while
jet-skiing in the surf in 1997 –
not the typical way one might
break into video game design
but that fateful jet-ski ride
got him thinking how cool it
would be to create a PlayStation
game based on his recreational
surf sports.
His little gem of an idea
quickly became a timeconsuming obsession and in
2001 and 2003, Mark realised
his dream with JetRacer and
California Surfing Games which
sold more than 300,000 copies
in Europe.
Mark started out in architecture, which he says led to a lot of
3-D CAD modelling and
eventually a career as a 3-D
software engineer for Brisbanebased company, Mincom, before switching focus to work on
his surfing games idea.
But he says while you do
need practical hands-on experience, you don’t need to have
been working for a studio to get
‘in the game’.
‘‘You just have to be able to
demonstrate that you are capable of doing your trade to a
W
high quality using current
tools,’’ he says.
‘‘A convincing show reel is
all you need but, as simple as
that sounds, don’t be surprised
if it takes a year of hard work to
create an impressive demo.’’
Time, as well as a good idea
such as his own jet-ski
epiphany, is something that
ranks highly among the requirements Mark lists as being
necessary to break into the business.
‘‘It is not hard to get into,
there are lots of resources online to get you started but the
big investment is time – it takes
a lot of time to get strong with
the tools.
‘‘It’s a bit like fitness, everyone wants to be fit, but actually
making it happen takes a lot of
time and energy.
‘‘To get started on your own,
you need a small team, an
innovative idea, some PCs and a
bucket load of free time.’’
Just as important as creating
the game is test-driving it, with
between 30-50 per cent of
Mark’s time as a developer
spent testing new features as he
builds them.
Each completed game needs
to pass three different quality
assurance teams – in-house,
publisher and console manufacturer – who test the game
thoroughly from start to finish.
Designing video games
could possibly take the fun out
of actually playing them, but
this doesn’t seem to be the case
with a balanced life.
Mark says playing games, or
more correctly ‘testing’ them,
is all part of the job, that he
balances while continuing to
pursue the outdoor activities
that sparked his career in the
first place.
‘‘Video games are creative,
fun and a work of art so it is easy
to enjoy them and be passionate
Mark Theyer knows how to have fun . . he’s a video game designer, programmer and tester
about them, yet I don’t play
games in my spare time. I enjoy
the outdoors and sports such as
water skiing but I attribute this
to the reality that I spent most
days in front of a computer.’’
Mark’s current focus, alongside his hugely successful and
recognised surfing games, is
3-D Kit Builder – a range
of ready-to-assemble 3-D
model kits.
‘‘For example, you can
download and build Craig
Lowndes 888 V8 Supercar
from the Team Betta Electrical
web site.’’
With universities such as
QUT planning to start courses
to teach students how to develop games for PC-based Xbox
consoles, the path towards designing video games seems to be
becoming more structured.
In Mark’s opinion, focusing
on the Xbox game development
is the way to go, as the console
is a closer match to the new
generation of video game consoles which will all be using PCbased technology.
‘‘This is great news because
we can now use cheap PC hardware to develop any new game
concepts, avoiding the huge
cost of developer hardware
kits.’’ The piece of advice Mark
would dish out to anyone wanting to follow in his shoes and
design and play video games for
a living is to simply start working with the technology.
‘‘It is a lot of fun and the
technology is so strong now that
it allows for unlimited
creativity, so grab yourself a PC
and start getting your
hands dirty.’’
A new minimum working age
NDREA wants to know
at what age you can
start working and Brian has
asked about long service leave
entitlements.
Well, like so many other
topics, the answers vary from
state to state. First to Andrea.
It appears Queensland is in
the process of drafting new
legislation to introduce its first
minimum working age.
‘‘Still in the preliminary
stages, the legislation will stipulate a general minimum working
age of 13, lowered to 11 for certain kinds of supervised employment such as deliveries and
A
charitable collections,’’ says an
article on the Find Law website.
Premier Peter Beattie has
said that the legislation is being
designed to protect children
from exploitation and also to
Page 140 - Weekend Bulletin, June 18-19, 2005
ensure employers respect a
child’s study commitments.
‘‘In the Smart State we want
young people to be learning or
earning, but earning must not be
at the expense of learning,’’ said
Premier Beattie.
Find Law is a free website for
legal professionals but it has a
good general section. Go to
www.findlaw.com.au and click
on Public at the top of the home
page. The Commission for
Children and Young People and
Child Guardian is another great
source of information. Go to
www.childcomm.qld.gov.au
and use the links on the home
page or in the Contact Us section to access a summary of the
Child Labour Report 2005.
Now Brian. As I understand
it, under the federal award after
15 years of service an employee
is entitled to 13 weeks leave
with a pro rata payment due if
an employee leaves an organisation after 10 years.
In Queensland, employees
are entitled to 8.667 weeks leave
after 10 years of service and are
to be paid a pro rata amount if
they leave after seven years of
service. Your HR department
can confirm and answer other
questions.
have to
‘ Youbejust
able to
demonstrate that
you are capable of
doing your trade to
a high quality using
current tools
’
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