How You Got Into The Industry

[zaphod]

Its my firm belief that if you love doing something, nothing will prevent you from getting a job, no matter how rubbish you might start off as. I especially remember not really believing that it would get me anywhere in the beginning, and I was definitely doing it more for my own enjoyment rather than thinking it would get me anywhere.

qft!!

I first started messing around with worldcraft for Quake after I was browsing a computer store and saw a special edition of the game bundled with the editor that allowed you to create your own levels. I thought messing around with was about the coolest thing ever and I quickly became obsessed with figuring out how it worked. Very soon afterwards Half-Life came out, which I enjoyed playing with my friends, and I found out that it used worldcraft as well, so I started messing around with half-life mapping. I made some incredibly lame hldm maps, and then started playing this new mod that was just starting to circulate, called "counter-strike". It was pretty fun so I started making maps for that. This was sometime in 1999.

After another year or two during highschool I had kept mapping and had gotten a few maps into CS and one into DoD. I thought it was pretty awesome, and went off to college to study something I could do "for real". After a few months in school for Architecture I was pretty miserable. Nothing really seemed relevant to my interests which was creating interactive stuff on the computer. About half way through the year, macman (Chris Ashton) who knew me from the counter-strike mapping community got in touch with me wondering if I was interested in a job mapping for Troika Games, which was just starting on Vampire: Bloodlines. Of course I was terribly excited and went and interviewed and looking back, surprisingly decided to give me a shot. I endured my last semester with failing grades and then rushed off to start work.

[Taylor]

I made a few maps for Half-Life and Warcraft 3, applied for a job and talked about them and design philosophy pretty thoroughly in the interview. Most of the hobbyist levels I produced were fairly mediocre graphically, and I certainly felt the interview was more important, although I was always pursuing design opposed to art.

I’ve heard countless people say these game design courses are not worth doing, though I know some people who have had success. If it lets you create something you can show and put in your portfolio that’s grand, but if they’re teaching you obsolete techniques and preaching to you about how games should work you’d have better results working on modifications and analysing/playing games instead.

[2d-chris]

As a bit of a comment contrary to 2D-Chris's point, being a bit of a jack of all trades was actually quite useful in my case. I wouldn't like to say it is for everybody, but in the case of small companies like Outerlight (~10-20 developers) it stands some of us in good stead to be able to handle a few different tasks. I was taken on to be a bit of a middle man between design and code as I had a good understanding of both, and although I've only done minor programming work for the company I do find my knowledge of programming is useful on a daily basis. You should certainly excel in one area if you plan to get a job in the industry, but I wouldn't trade in my programming experience to have spent more time on level design, personally.

Very good point, having a good understanding of other aspects is real useful, i'm quite into art, sound and scripting which all go hand in hand with level "design" and i'd certainly enjoy having some real programming skills. Like you said though it's important to have a primary strength.

Level design is quite unique in the case that it can cover many aspects of game development, developers expect different skill sets for the job and it's almost a given fact that a skilled level designer will understand a great deal about art, gameplay and how to get it done.

It's also worth consider not all games are AAA next gen, plenty of DS, PSP and soon to be 3d phone games are in development, in some cases very small teams where multi skilld individuals are pretty common.

[Rick_D]

I still wonder how viable the MOD way will be for getting into the industry in a few years, wouldn't be surprised if that's going out quickly with all these artsy fartsy educations.

I think employers find modders pretty much invaluable. Being involved in mod work pretty much means that you've gotten off your arse and actively learned how to use an engine (rather than someone in a school pointing you at all the right buttons), which in turn shows a level of personal motivation. Along those same lines, it shows you have a level of problem-solving abilities, because mod work generally means you end up spending a lot of time figuring things out the hard, and very hard, way.

It also shows that you can see a project through until the end, lots of half finished work is.. ok, I guess, but nothing beats dedicating yourself to a level or a prop or a piece of code and working like a dog until you get it working.

I think these courses will improve with time, no doubt about that, but I'd like to think that a modder would come out of 2 or 3 years with their heads screwed on the right way, and a little more insight into game engines and how they work; and on top of that, having built up a good portfolio along the way.

No idea what you guys think about it, I never went to school and I'm not responsible for hiring people so I can't really give a true assessment.

[Hourences]

If the school is good, then it is actually more powerful than modding, and you will learn a lot more in a short amount of time. Unfortunally a lot of schools are still not up to that...

Modding can actually backfire. I once had a big studio tell me they didn't want to hire me because I was too involved in modding, and that I was thus too involved with their concurrents...

Most studios should be more than happy too hire a modder though and I know that if I had to hire someone, I would personally prefer the modder over the graduate.

[Nysuatro]

What about a mix of both.

Having a gamingdesign education and moding. Is that overkill ?

[2d-chris]

Might be overkill, only because you get bogged down with assignments from the course, modding takes up enough time as it is , although saying that ... you can contribute towards a mod without doing stupid amounts of work.

Modding isnt fool proof, most projects don't get released but you usually use it as portfolio work. If you're lucky enough to work on a top released modification it's almost a given that you'll be contacted for game work opportunities.

If you're confident with your ability and sure the job is for you, eventually you will get into the industry, just be ready to take advise and learn from mistakes.

[kleinluka]

Modding can actually backfire. I once had a big studio tell me they didn't want to hire me because I was too involved in modding, and that I was thus too involved with their concurrents...

.

that's the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard...

[Steppenwolf]

haha yea thats super ridiculous. I would guess the person who said this knew jack shit about modding and had some weird imaginations about it in his head. like christian fundamentalists who think that atheists worship the devil. you get the picture

[Psy]

There are some very interesting stories here but I'm struggling to get this idea about joining the games industry across to my parents and they believe that I should get a "proper" job instead. I've been passionate about games all my life and love modding but they simply won't listen which is incredibly frustrating as they believe it is a pipe dream which will never come true.

[Pericolos0]

There are some very interesting stories here but I'm struggling to get this idea about joining the games industry across to my parents and they believe that I should get a "proper" job instead. I've been passionate about games all my life and love modding but they simply won't listen which is incredibly frustrating as they believe it is a pipe dream which will never come true.

i think thats the case with pretty much everyone that works in the games industry =). Only one way to prove your parents wrong!

[dux]

They sound like some sucky parents. They should encourage you to follow whatever job you desire.

[-HP-]

There are some very interesting stories here but I'm struggling to get this idea about joining the games industry across to my parents and they believe that I should get a "proper" job instead. I've been passionate about games all my life and love modding but they simply won't listen which is incredibly frustrating as they believe it is a pipe dream which will never come true.

i think thats the case with pretty much everyone that works in the games industry =). Only one way to prove your parents wrong!

Indeed.

I had to "fight" against my mother (and some of my family) since I was 15, when i decided that I wanted to work in the games industry. She always nagged about the long hours in front on the PC, and about me always playing those damn video games!

One thing I can tell you for sure, there is nothing more satisfying than shutting them up when you finally get somewhere, and get a job in the biz and having a better income than theirs!

It's not easy though, this is not a easy industry to get into, especially when you have parents always nagging about it, it makes it even more difficult! But hey, bring on the challenge!

Do not give up on your dreams, I never did and never will, and fuck everyone who ever try to stop me.

[Thrik]

Stop your dreams at once!

[Zeta]

Used level editors in games since around the age of 14/15 (gta2, nolf, hl), then moved on to learning the source engine when hl2 leaked.

Worked on trying to produce a singleplayer campaign for a couple of years and worked on the hostile planet mod on and off for a year or so. (17 /18 )

Attended uni for one year studying an interactive media course, left to build up a portfolio proper and try and get some contract work. (19)

While holding down a part time job, managed to score some contract work during which i learnt how to model but was unfortunatly not able to complete the product due to time and the size and scope of it. I was then contracted to work on some levels for a source engine game, from having prior connections with the team. (20 / 21)

Finished off my portfolio and created a website for it. Uploaded CV to gamesindustry.biz and monster.com. In retrospect I could have probably done this around 4/6 months sooner.

Contacted by multiple agents during the space of a couple of weeks.

Attend several interviews, offered the job on the first! Went to the second interview and got asked back for a mandatory second but I decided to accept the first offer.