Master classes

As a lead programmer at Krome Studios, one of my Key Performance Indicators (which, sadly, was never enforced or even encouraged in practice) was to give a minimum of one master class per year, to pass on acquired knowledge from the old-timers to the newer employees.  I think it’s a real shame that nobody ever followed through on that, as it was a really good idea.  It was always something that I wanted to do, but under the realities of (often extreme) deadline pressure, it was difficult to find time to prepare and arrange during work hours.

It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, and have been thinking about more and more since leaving Krome.  As somebody who’s been a gameplay programmer for more than twelve years, I think I’ve accumulated some insights over that time, which might be of use to other game makers out there.  So far, when I’ve posted things like this, they have been in the form of essays posted to this blog, but they’ve always felt really dry to me.  A podcast might work better, but in this field many concepts need to be accompanied by animated visual aids.  So a vodcast might work, perhaps.  I don’t think that my internet connection is up to attempting a live ustream show (although if it was, that would probably be the ideal forum, so the thing could be a little more interactive).

If I do this, it wouldn’t be a “how to create a game” tutorial; instead, it would be targeted at people who can already make games (or are learning via some other avenue), and would be about the more nuanced craft involved, regardless of what platform, language, or toolkit you’re working in.  It would cover the principles of camera behaviour (in 2D and 3D), the design of control schemes, user interface issues, general fit and finish, and so forth.  And of course, it’d be available for free to anyone who was interested, whatever form it eventually took.

What do you guys reckon?  Is this something you think people would be interested to see?