Having and getting game industry jobs

[elmuerte]

In-house, contract work, outsourcing to other studios, freelancers, slavery... we do everything.

slavery eh?

I'm very good with a whip.

[miffy495]

I can be the dude hitting the drum so all the little coders type in time. Man, that must be one sweet company.

[SpiderMonkey]

My tuppence:

- Drop the "I just need to break in" attitude, in favour of "I'm going to make myself someone that games companies will genuinely want". I hate the "OMG the games industry is so hard to break into" meme. If you are talented and can show you are talented, games companies will want to employ you. Open a copy of Develop and there is an article every month about how developers can't find enough staff at the moment.

- Entry-level design is (by my experience at least, though it does vary) about production - making things. The paper-pushing, doc-writing becomes more important as you get more senior. Therefore you need to show ability to actually make things. There's no excuse for showing up at an interview without something. When amateur tools are so readily available, it just seems like you aren't really that interested if you aren't already doing something in your free time. A Counter-Strike map, a NWN module, a Civ mod - whatever suits the kinds of games you want to make and the kinds of companies you want to work at. Even if you think your work is kind of dodgy and crap, it's a glass-half-full thing - it will show what makes you better than other candidates, not what makes you worse than some mythical ideal.

- Games design doesn't happen in a vacuum, away from other media. Learn and understand the principles of general design, product design, software design, and you will find they are all built on similar principles. Also know film, graphic design and visual language.

[chunks]

I'm currently a senior getting my bachelor's of industrial/envronmental design. By pure coincidence I met someone this summer that is a producer for a major publisher/developer that hopefully, will result in getting my foot in the door.

I would say your portfolio is your most important asset, but honestly knowing people is one of the most helpful things of all.

This is a fairly good article on the subject, written by Cliff Bleszinski http://www.cliffyb.com/rants/how-to-get-hired.shtml

[Spaff]

I'm curious as to what kind of jobs you all have at your respective companies (except Doug and Jake - I know they cause all kinds of mischief work on the web site aspect of things at Telltale).

I'm late to the party, as usual

I work as a content writer for NCsoft Europe, which means i write news and content for their websites, press releases unless i can avoid them, box and manual copy, internal gubbins and basically anything that needs words on it.. some audio and video stuff too. Before that i worked as a community coordiantor, and before that i worked in QA for another company for 4 years or so.

my job rocks, bu I'd like to spend some more time at a developer one day

[Roderick]

Ooh, that sounds pretty nice, actually. Almost right up my alley. Out of curiosity; how many content writers are there ar NCSoft; or generally in a company?

[loonyboi]

If you want to get a job in the industry, I'd suggest visiting GameCareerGuide.com (located, oddly enough at http://gamecareerguide.com/).

My path to my current job was a long and strange one, and I wouldn't recommend it to most people. I've been in this industry for almost a decade, in one form or another, and I'm only now in a position with an actual upward career path.

But yes, it totally helps to know people. I'd been a journalist for seven years before getting hired by rockstar, so I had a lot of contacts to draw on.

Of course, it also helps if you live in an area near several companies. In NYC it was pretty much R* or bust (and by "bust" I mean Acclaim or Majesco). Companies rarely relocate people for an entry-level position.

[Mel]

I'm late to the party, as usual

You were too busy at that Christmas party.

Thanks all for satisfying my curiosity.

[Aussie Ben]

In-house, contract work, outsourcing to other studios, freelancers, slavery... we do everything.

So a typical day is something like this then?

I work for a game dev doing level design, at the moment, which I am loving to bits. Before that, I did QA for four years, which was not the best fun, but got me a lot of experience. Also, because the company was fairly small, I got to do other odd jobs, like some design, game dialogue writing (which I loved and would want to do more of), manual writing (again, would love more of this) and using Photoshop to screencap the SpongeBob island that you see at the start of the show and giving a high-res version of it to the artists for use in our DS game.

I really keep thinking about moving out of Australia and applying for work overseas, such as the UK, Canada, and US - although the US frightens me because while the friends I met there were awesome, the general populace seems to have a very closed view of the world. ie - America exists and nothing else. Yikes. Documentries and movies like Borat seem to keep reinforcing this stereotype.

Also, if I moved countries, I would have to change my nick, and USA Ben or People's Republic of China Ben doesn't seem to have the same ring to it.

[elmuerte]

Also, if I moved countries, I would have to change my nick, and USA Ben or People's Republic of China Ben doesn't seem to have the same ring to it.

If you move to the UK you could change Aussie to Big, that would give a nice ring to it.

[Aussie Ben]

You sir, are a genius. I also love the pun involving "ring" (hopefully it was intentional).

[twmac]

Ben, Canada, and more spcifically Quebec, is gagging for people with QA, programming and anything games-related experience.

If you get your foot in at any cmpany over here, it is ridiculously easy to get a work Visa for around 2-3 years (the trick is to make your CV sound like you are indispensable to the company and that you will help create more jobs, even if you are just going to be senior Tea-boy).

The thing is, the winters and sumers can be brutal. It was -28 degrees celsius last year (which was a mild one) and it was a tropically humid 34 degrees celsius in the summer.

The beer's good though.

[miffy495]

I do love our beer, and it won't be nearly the "man, this stuff is shit" sort of reaction you'd have if you had to switch to US beer. He isn't lying about the winters though. The prairies are even worse. It was -40 for about a week last month. During the summer, +40. That's a fucking 80 degree celcius swing over the course of 6 months. Still, you don't need to be outside for games (Boktai excluded) so it's not that bad.

In short: Canada needs YOU!

[Aussie Ben]

I'm actually planning to go to Canada next year with the folks for a holiday. I think it might be an idea to brush up on the devs over there and do some scouting while I'm at it. I'd also catch up with some friends, and if I'm in anyone's area here, I'd love to meet you too! Once I get some more concrete details, I'll let you all know.

[loonyboi]

I really keep thinking about moving out of Australia and applying for work overseas, such as the UK, Canada, and US

If you're thinking of moving to stay in the industry, I would suggest moving to either the US west coast or Vancouver. With all due respect to all the UK people here, the UK industry scene is not very healthy at the moment. I'd be scared if I lived there. (I also wouldn't recommend the east coast, as there are only a couple of companies here).

...the general populace seems to have a very closed view of the world. ie - America exists and nothing else. Yikes. Documentries and movies like Borat seem to keep reinforcing this stereotype.

Oh come on. I'm not going to say that I'm scared of the UK because I watched Trainspotting.

It all has to do with where you live. The majority of the poeple who live in any of the major gaming cities are nothing like that.

[Ben]

With all due respect to all the UK people here, the UK industry scene is not very healthy at the moment. I'd be scared if I lived there.

It's actually pretty healthy down South ¬¬ Up North they're opening and closing up shop like crazy though, but there's always been that aspect I suppose.

[miffy495]

Yeah, in Canada your best bets are Montreal and Vancouver. Elsewhere is mostly a barren wasteland for games, with occasional exceptions like Bioware in Edmonton. Toronto probably has a couple of studios as well, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

[Marek]

Regarding America, what loonyboi said.

Although, on the other hand, I wouldn't consider working and living there now because of the current political climate. You might think that's crazy too, and you'd be at least partially right since in your day-to-day life you would rarely notice the politics, but out of principle I couldn't be part of a country that's diametrically opposed to what I think is good for the world. (Read: I think the US is a war mongering and torturing police state. )

To be honest I can't think of any ideal places to go for a game industry job. The scandinavian countries are amazingly cool, but too cold. UK is nice, but too rainy. I like France, but it's too Frenchy. So I think I'll stay in Holland for the time being, despite its game industry still being under a lot of scaffolding.

[Aussie Ben]

Wow, so Holland's game industry is like Donkey Kong? I'm sold!

One thing that concerns me about the UK is not the (acid?) rain, but instead the fact that if I travel there, I automagically lose 2/3rds of my money. Awesome. Otherwise, I'd be there pretty quickly, I reckon. Canamadia sounds like the best bet so far.

[Marek]

Wow, so Holland's game industry is like Donkey Kong? I'm sold!

Donkey Kong but with weed and whores! Rly.

[elmuerte]

Like Donkey Kong?

[Jake]

out of principle I couldn't be part of a country that's diametrically opposed to what I think is good for the world. (Read: I think the US is a war mongering and torturing police state. )

One nice thing about living in America is that you can at least do tiny things to try and change the things you hate about it, instead of complaining about them on web forums.

But I know what you mean, of course.

... Also er, I work at Telltale Games, doing web design and designing and planning various community features like that Sam & Max web comic generator thing and contests and such, and I also do some UI and graphic design work on the games, and am sneaking into doing some in-engine cutscene work ... all of which is collectively getting closer and closer to exactly the sort of job description I hoped I'd have if I ever got a job working in games.

[MrChlorophyll]

I automagically lose 2/3rds of my money

Is that a non-citizen worker tax/tarif deal then?

[Oath]

The scandinavian countries are amazingly cool, but too cold. UK is nice, but too rainy.

Sweden has a nice supporting warm water flow courtesy of the Gulf Stream, so just live close to the ocean (like Stockholm) and it'll never be unbearably cold. Probably not anyway. We also have pretty good summers because of this (I think so at least). We're having the worst winter ever though, it's still over five degrees warm outside!

God, I love posting about the weather for some reason.

[Marek]

Heh to be honest my perception of Scandinavian weather is based strongly on what contacts from Finland and Norway told me, such as having to dig their way out of their house in the winter.

I have to say Malmo in late summer (my only visit to the region so far) was really nice. The people I'm talking about probably live near spitsbergen or something.