Hot to get into the gaming industry

Good day! I have an associates degree and it does not have any connection to gaming. Peoples lives in your hands is something that scares me especially when I was exposed to the field.

I just dont think I can do it. Hi Mana, you might be glad to know that many people in the game industry have degrees from unrelated fields of study. The game industry is mostly a meritocracy, so if you can do the work you can get hired. You might like this interview with a person I know who started later in his career. You can also follow the links in the article above, many of those people also broke into games later in life.

Post your work on discussion boards Did that, keeps getting buried and overshadowed by work from far more talented individuals. Start a gaming blog Had one on my website, posted every week on either my own projects or on recent game releases and the quality of their art mostly positive. No one visited or commented and I gave up after just over a year. Build your own indie games Joined three separate teams and all three projects were cancelled because the programmers could never actually get a playable game working for my art assets.

Get an entry-level job as a Game Tester This is mainly the focus of my problem as I have worked for two QA houses for less than a year. The AAA industry has widely adopted the policy of only employing temps. Temps are severely restricted in their position, their contracts are subject to cancellation without notice or cause, they are not eligible for benefits despite putting in full-time and overtime, they are not able to transfer to other departments completely removing the prospect of QA being your first step into the industry , they cannot take part in most major company events in order to meet and network with the developers or take advantage of any in house training courses to improve their skills, and most QA houses are now offsite, completely detached from the developers and their facilities.

Get an internship at a video game studio My college offered these, but the application process was no different than looking for an actual job. Also have never got any interviews so whether or not I have issues personality or attitude wise never even came up. Get a job at a gaming studio in a non-gamedev position Unless you double majored in marketing, accounting, or an other business field, this is not remotely possible.

Participate in game jams Actually took part in two of them and fad quite a lot of fun, but no one else working on these were interested in collaborating on a full indie project afterwards. What could I give it up for? I might need to do internship as part of my studies.

Just wondering, my skills involved in drawing, using Photoshop and Illustrations for digital arts. So chances are many might not response back.

Hi Celina, have you tried joining any online game artist communities such as artstation. Hello Celine, how are you in May 3, ? Thanks for bearing with me.

I tried computer science freshman year, but quickly gave up. I have grown since then and am willing to try harder and go back to that, but I wanted to know if you think I could do anything with the degree I am obtaining?

Concurrently, I have written a couple short stories due to my interest in unique plots and characters. I plan on starting a blog soon and may use that small platform to get feedback and actually produce something instead of only consuming. So, I guess to synthesize this; do you think there would be a place for an individual like me with your limited knowledge of myself in the gaming industry? If so, where do you think I should start? In addition, I have a lot of experience managing very large online communities, which I do as a hobby that I would love to turn into a life long career if I were lucky enough to o so..

However, given the unique nature of my background so far, I wonder how I should go about presenting myself in job applications to the various game studios in my area.

I sort of want to apply to all three types of positions and see what happens, but I imagine that coming off to hiring managers as quite unusual! Hi Michael, there are many people in the game industry who have a variety of interests and skills. They have jobs like Field Support Engineer and Developer Support Engineer that are basically programmers that support other programmers.

Could be a fit for you. But i really wanted to become a game developer or a game designer ever since i was a kid i love playing video games thats why i became curious on how does a game was created thats why i really it was my dream to become one. Right now im working at a manufacturing company here in Japan as a part timer and no chance on getting to be permanent in here.

Can you give me some advice on how can i achieve my dream job? Hi there, this article has many ideas for you on how you could get a start in the game industry, so I recommend reading through it and see if any of these ideas might suit you. Hello, and thank you for being so responsive in these comments.

I suppose I will ask you about my own circumstance. My last job was an associate systems engineer, in which i worked on our proprietary software for use in ground satellite systems all over the world. It involved some coding etc.

Any insight you might have into my situation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in any case! For example, if you get a job designing levels using a game engine, you might use a scripting language such as C or Python on the job. I wish you the best in your job search! Hello my name is ankith and im currently pursuing my bachelors in electronics and communication engineering. I am very interested in creating games. I would like to find out what degree should i pursue next i have no clue how to go about it.

Could you please explain me the possibilities and all. Thank you. Hi Ankith, most game programmers get a computer science degree or similar, but any degree program that teaches you how to code would be good.

You should also try to learn game programming specifically, by making small games in your spare time. I would really appreciate it if you share your view on this with me help me get a little perspective.

Once you decide which job to pursue, you can dig deeper to learn what skills to develop before applying for jobs.

Hi Abhijeet, your salary will depend on which game career you pursue, and your years of experience. You can find all that information in the article series about game developer salary.

You can do this! You have to work with your team very tightly, often for long periods of time and sharing work and tasks, so you need to be able to get along. Far and away ahead of confidence and genius, the ability to contribute to the team and the culture, to show up on time and produce solid work, to be reliable and nice to have around, are the most valuable things to a potential employer.

PT: You really need to have self-confidence in a particular way to be good at making games — both coding and designing. Game art is about communicating function to players. How do I use it? Where is it in the physical space? Will it hurt me? Most of game design is about communication - making sure the player knows all they need to know immediately, and can get straight into that unique thing that makes your game special. SP: Everyone needs to learn to code.

Not necessarily to a professional standard, but to be able to understand what is going on under the hood of the project. Artists, designers, level builders, audio and even QA guys really need to understand how coding works generally, and how specific aspects of the game are working — streaming data, collision detection, memory allocation, etc — in order to do their job properly.

The first is the most important. Think about what actions the player performs, what the interactions are within the game, and what feedback the player gets. LB: If you love making games, it is consuming. I grew up playing games, but I got into the industry because I discovered that the problem set of making games was almost addictive for me.

I probably would not have encountered those games on my own before. Anyway, just be advised that a transformation takes place there that you should expect.

I used to think that other game developers, once they became more experienced, knew everything there was to know about games. In reality, this medium is so new and so ever-changing, that everyone seems to be flailing around some less than others trying to figure out what to do next.

Just try it out and see what happens. This is an industry where risks and innovation are celebrated, so just start making things. You need to have practical evidence of your skill.

The reality is, a degree is effectively gravy compared to an actual portfolio. If you have time to game you have time to work on a portfolio.

At university, on forums, etc, there are a load of people in the same position with multiple disciplines: put together a little team and you can work on one project between you that sits on all of your CVs. The best way to show people you can make games is to make games.

RB: Make stuff, make stuff, make stuff. The most important thing to do is to try. Knock up demos and concepts, get things moving on screen. But there is great value in finishing things and getting used to how difficult that final 10 percent of the game development process is. The fact that you have tried it though, shown love and skill for it, and want to do it more will be far more useful than a good academic record — although that should also not be undervalued.

There are many areas of the industry that still love a solid redbrick university degree. SP: The hardest part of game development is finishing, so finishing a small project is way more valuable than plans and work-in-progress for a big, ambitious project, or tech demos or even portfolio work.

I think finished, polished projects, regardless of platform or format — even something like a little Tetris or Space Invaders clone — trump everything else. Allison S: Passion and experience still carry a lot of weight in the game industry.

Everyone should have a portfolio to show in interviews. But if you are leaning towards being a software engineer I do highly recommend getting a bachelors in computer science. Increasingly, AAA game development is going the way of other software industries where one of their base requirements for software engineering is a CS degree or equivalent experience. A great portfolio might overrule this requirement but it is a great fall back.

JS: For newcomers a degree is definitely helpful, especially if you are looking to go into mainstream games. A lot of companies are looking for candidates with a solid educational background and passion. People that already have years experience in the industry can probably get by without a degree, as long as they have worked on notable titles.

In the independent world there are a lot of people who are self-taught, learning by doing. This works great for people who are driven and good at self teaching. What unites all game developers is a passion for making games, and this is pretty much the number one requirement. Books, tutorials, lots of practice. When I hire developers, experience, attitude and portfolio are far more important than what - or if - you chose to study as a teenager. LB: I think that being able to show what you can do is the most important, and experience and passion are a way of getting there, and school is just one way of getting that experience.

There are a lot of things to consider when making that choice. Is the trade-off for tuition worth it? The answer will be different for everyone. Treat everyone equally and with respect. If you see that people are not giving you the same courtesy, look for other opportunities until you find a place that is right for you.

Most importantly though remember that we are making games for people and not gender stereotypes. SF: Never give up, and never doubt yourself because of your gender. Update your resume to include any related job duties, education or skills you've earned that make you a great fit for the role. You can also share your portfolio featuring your projects or games to stand out to hiring managers. Some gaming studios hire employees to work in non-development roles at first and allow them to later move up to development, animation or design positions.

There are a wide variety of gaming industry jobs available that you can pursue depending on your skills, interests and education. Below you will find a list of common jobs within the gaming industry, where you can also find up-to-date salary information from Indeed by clicking on the salary link by each job title:. Primary duties: An animator uses computers, software systems and other technical devices to design moving images that relay certain messages, information or stories.

Their main duties include creating storyboards, reviewing writers' scripts to accurately tell stories, altering animations according to clients' needs and presenting final designs to clients. Related: Learn About Being an Animator. Primary duties: A computer programmer designs, builds and maintains software systems and computer infrastructures. Other responsibilities are using coding languages to build and debug programs, testing and building computer structures, writing computer instructions, editing source-codes and applying updates to systems according to users' needs.

Primary duties: Game designers use coding languages to create the characters, stories, props, settings and rules for video games. Additional responsibilities include pitching new game stories and ideas to clients and other employees, managing artists, programmers, audio engineers and animators, creating prototypes for new games and conducting quality control on games before releasing them. Primary duties: An application developer, also known as a software developer, creates and modifies coding for software or mobile applications.

Their main duties include customizing software systems for certain computer or phone programs, designing prototype applications, testing source codes and troubleshooting current software or mobile applications to add updates.

Primary duties: Audio engineers use different types of sound equipment to enhance, record, create and edit sound on various media forms, such as radio, television, video games, music or film. Other responsibilities are assembling sound equipment for events or studio recordings, selecting the right mixing and sound equipment according to client needs and preferences, designing various audio systems and troubleshooting sound equipment regularly to ensure it operates properly.

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