“It’s like finding out how the sausage is made, it’s not like you’re squeezing it though the intestines and then popping it straight in your gullet. It’s a real mess after you’ve created everything.”
This is how 22-year-old game developer, Murphy Doyle, describes the creating a video game. A broad smile extends across his face as he continues with the simile, “It’s like gaming, you can’t sit down and enjoy your own game after you’ve scrutinised it. You’re honestly always sick of the game you create and you never want to play it,” he says.
Murphy describes himself as an analytical, aesthetic, and eager up-and-coming Game Designer from Werribee, who specialises in narrative design. During high school Murphy discovered his passion for analysing film and music, and through these mediums he developed his love of narrative. This paired with his lifelong hobby of video games, meant becoming a game developer was a clear career path.
“I’ve been a huge video game lover for all my life. I’ve been playing since before I can even remember,” he said. “As I was going through high school, I found my love for film and music and I found myself loving the narrative aspect of those even more. I was really good at analysing narrative and because of my love for video games I wanted to go in that direction.”
“Just writing and creating narratives that mean something is really what I want to be doing... games are like mashed potatoes, coz they’ve got every element of every other medium mixed into one. And games can go even further because the player themselves is the character,” he says.
Currently working as a solo developer, Murphy is creating smaller scale projects and releasing them on a website called ‘Itch.io’, with the hope of developing a portfolio that will impress game companies.
“Right now I work on little projects by myself. I create all the assets, come up with the ideas, write it all and try to throw it together to add to my portfolio. Anything that interests me I go down that path and I release it usually for free on a website that is catered to younger devs,” he says.
The project Murphy is most proud of is the video game he created for his capstone project at SAE, a media college in South Melbourne. The eight-month long project titled ‘Focus’ is a game centring on the main character reflecting on their childhood, family, and growing up. As the lead designer, Murphy conceived the idea, wrote the scenes and overall narrative, completed set dressing, and some programming, all whilst managing a team of five other students.
“As a designer you have to wear a lot of different hats and tinker with a lot of different things. At least 90% of what’s in the game I had some hand in designing because as the lead designer I had to overlook everything that was coming through,” he said.
Murphy’s goal is to get a job working for a game company, which he says is could happen in Melbourne as its game development scene is the best in the country and continues to offer exciting opportunities. Whilst recounting his initial dream of travelling to America to make a name as a game dev, Murphy looks around the busy Melbourne café with admiration whilst saying “I don’t wanna be anywhere else.”
“[Melbourne is] just coming into the full swing of being a developer city so in the next few years we’re expecting to see some huge things coming out of Melbourne. I’m happy I’m here to experience it,” he said.
Twitter: @_Murphy_Doyle_
https://twitter.com/_Murphy_Doyle_?s=07