How to break in the games industry - an insiders' guide

[AlexM]

You can remove me from the list. I've left my job and I'm planning to take a fair amount of time off

[-HP-]

36 minutes ago, AlexM said:

You can remove me from the list. I've left my job and I'm planning to take a fair amount of time off

I think you meant to post that here? Better to stop and recharge, than to burn out entirely. Clear the space for those better things to come. Best of lucks bro.

 

 

[AlexM]

On 8/24/2020 at 2:04 PM, [HP] said:

I think you meant to post that here? Better to stop and recharge, than to burn out entirely. Clear the space for those better things to come. Best of lucks bro.

 

 

Oops! crap my bad!

 

and thanks

[leplubodeslapin]

I feel like i can now share a bit about my experience on this topic.

 

I had a weird profile, making maps was a hobby since I was a teenager, but I wasn't aware that video game schools exist and I went on another direction for my studies and beginning of career. I never lost that hobby though, and realized at some point that my skills at making maps could allow me to work on that field. From that point, I started to take it more seriously and learned stuff online as much as I could (thank you GDC) but didn't go to a videogame school and i had no pro exp on making a videogame. Another issue was that I was aiming at a company that makes SP games and at that point I almost only made MP maps (CSGO), and I don't even know anything else than Source (No UE4/Unity knowledge, no visual scripting, no model-only / modular world building ...).

So ... the bet was risky but, as Grapen said, the only way to figure it out was to give it a try, at least I wouldn't be disappointed that I didn't try.
What I did first was trying to build a portfolio that could convey things in my work that could be interesting for what I was aiming. Even if you're making MP maps, there are plenty of stuff you're doing that are similar to SP : building a layout, solving bottlenecks/dead ends problems, tricks to guide the player, make your map readable, easy to learn, create a theme and make it a believable space, script systems...
Being able to show finished projects also helps to demonstrate that you can focus on something, iterate on it and bring it to its final state.
Most of my previous profesionnal experience was useless for a LD position, but I've been on projects, I managed an industrial project and I worked with people for a few years ; this is valuable for a company if you know how a real-world project is handled and can bring knowledges and methods from another industry.
I also worked on a SP map while my portfolio was being processed by HR, to be able to show one good piece of SP work.

 

It worked, my folio catched the company attention and i'm asked to do a test (the usual process).
I dedicated time for it, used some day off, and tried to stick to pillars and rules that I assumed the LD were following for the test. Being able to manage your time here is crucial, you don't want to make something too simple but you also want to finish it. It was tight, I decided to build it on Source (HL2:EP2) so I had the brushwork and entities systems known pretty well, but I had to create systems for AI (to allow stealth, which is inexistent on Half-Life 2) and mechanics (very few and simple). I was proud of my work but had no idea if it would be good enough. I just gave as much as I could into it.

 

It worked, I got an interview.
I was able to explain my intention, why i'm here and why is my profile weird. It went well. Interview is important to show your personality and communication skills.

 

And after some time (a very long time actually ^^') I joined the company. The same way it has been told before on that topic, for a profile like mine it was kind of a bet for them : no profesionnal experience in that field and no school → You start with a Junior position or something close to that (at Arkane there's no official junior/senior levels but still, this is considered for the salary obviously). But in the end, i managed to adapt successfuly and got reevaluated after a year. Learning a modern engine wasn't that hard, it was pretty quick. Having tech LDs and being able to ask your colleagues for help accelerates things, but the same way I always did when I was doing this as a hobby, looking for things by yourself and trying to ask to the right persons helps tons too.

I invested myself quite a lot into the project, so I am hoping it will be good so that I'll be proud of my first game!
It's been quite a journey but I'm not thinking about my previous work at all and still find ways to use that knowledge/exp (for instance : at work with env artists, because i was a mechanical engineer so I know quite a lot about this, or on personnal projects where I can still do some stuff as a hobby this time, thanks to 3D printing ). So for now it's going fine ! Best of luck to other who want to "break in" the games industry !

[+Rusty+]

That was a really good read @leplubodeslapin thank you for sharing.
This is also a great site for "breaking into the industry" and resource's (if it hasnt already been posted its worth checking out) https://www.beyondextent.com

They also host good podcast that i enjoy listening to whilst working away on things

 

[Radu]

I had a similar attitude going through highschool and university. After I graduated and got my BA in photography I decided to fuck it and put together a level design portfolio. The first year and a half was a disaster. Although I had some decent understanding of ld, I lacked discipline and was too ambitious with my projects. Finishing stuff has always been an issue for me and it's still an area I'm improving at. What really helped me was to have a concrete goal for the portfolio.

At the time, @grapen got his first job as ld and I basically used his portfolio as an end goal. He had 5 levels in total. Though, I decided to only do half of the content for the previous mentioned reasons. I didn't want to keep doing photography jobs, so I started working as QC at my local Ubisoft. During that time, I put together a portfolio featuring a wingman map for csgo and a fc5 map. About 9 months later I landed my first ld job. So there, it can be done! It took about 3 years since I made the initial decision. Bumpy road, but if you're clear with what you want to accomplish, scale things to your ability and have a bit of confidence, you'll get there.

It also helps to be active in the community and talk to people who have been there or are currently trying to get their foot in the door. Same period @Lizard was also working to get his first job in the industry, so we supported each other through the ups and down in order to reach our goal. Overall, having a stable job and income in these times has been great.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Radu

[dux]

2 hours ago, ThunderKeil said:

Although level design - in some form or another - has been my passion for the better part of a decade now, I always wrote off trying to make it my job because it just felt too unattainable somehow. 

You've just answered all your own questions. Its been your passion for a decade. If this is your passion and you really want it, then work towards it. Push yourself, demand more from yourself. Nothing materialises out of thin air, effort rewards effort. Don't worry about the ifs and what's. You said you can map for hours. So go and map for hours. Release stuff on here. Anywhere. Get better. Stop questioning yourself and future possibilities that have no effect on the present, other than talking yourself out of what you actually want to do.

[-HP-]

1 hour ago, ThunderKeil said:

Everything seems simple with a positive attitude

I don't question that this is what I want, nor that it is one of if not the only thing of which I can without doubt state that I'm capable and willing to put in the time for. That said, I do also firmly believe talent, as an inherent or at least young-taught quality, exists. And I'm not as- confident I have it. Like I said, or at least alluded to, I'd hate to be the kind of person who spends his whole life deludedly chasing a dream out of reach. Jon Richardson will never win the Olympic 100m, and chris chan will never draw a comic that looks like it was made by someone more than 12 years old. No shade on Jon, he just came to mind. But I'd hate to be the chris chan of level design, and god know's someone's got to be.

Well, at any rate. Thanks for the insights and the motivation, guys, guess I've got some plans to make

 

Read: https://www.amazon.com/dp/014312417X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_IRSSFbD2NX7JX

[dux]

4 hours ago, ThunderKeil said:

Everything seems simple with a positive attitude

Haha you must be new here. I'm the most un-positive person on here. You gotta come at it with big dick energy.

It sounds to me as though you're shooting yourself down before you've even left the runway.

[grapen]

@ThunderKeil you're in college? You're a young buck, you got all the time in the world to pursue LD, and YOU CAN DO IT. I was 29 when I decided I needed to make the switch. Did my 9 to 5 and worked on my portfolio in the evenings and at night. Took 2-3 years to land the job. Yeah it messed up my marriage, but I'm loving where I'm at in life right now. You just need to put the grind in, do your research on what it is that makes some portfolios stand out. Best of luck.

[ZZZ]

Do you know if companies are open to visitors? Can I just schedule a visit and then talk with ppl?

[Radu]

I think it varies from company to company. Best way to find out is to drop HR a message  

[blackdog]

6 hours ago, 0kelvin said:

Do you know if companies are open to visitors? Can I just schedule a visit and then talk with ppl?

It definitely varies. You see it happening all the time, but you better reach with as much advance as you can. For example I tried to pop in WB Montreal when I found out my Airbnb  was literally two streets away from the office, and they said they do tours but they couldn’t in that occasion because of the status of projects being worked on.

I think depending if you’re interested for fanboying try to talk to community managers, otherwise HR seems a good attempt.

Best way is if you know anyone inside, @Nysuatro took me around EA Vancouver (where possible).

[Beck]

58 minutes ago, blackdog said:

Best way is if you know anyone inside, @Nysuatro took me around EA Vancouver (where possible).

What a guy. I miss working with him!

[Castle]

On 4/25/2019 at 1:59 PM, Castle said:

I have been going through a phase where I have had a stronger desire to work in the indie space vs working for larger companies.

This is my life... But after seeing all of the layoffs in the game industry maybes its a good idea to long pajama pants company stock...
Sorry about the long post but I kind of needed this for catharsis I think..

Well, I managed to experience a third option on this front at this point. 
Triple AAA industry to Indie game dev to decentralized finance / web3 / metaverse content creation.

Been doing this for awhile now and its a completely different beast. I almost feel like its impossible to really even explain it at this point. I think a defining definition of this space is that its currently out of reach from most people in both concept and practice. Even then I am too frank when I discuss this topic which has a strong tendency to spook people. There are a large number of people in the game industry that have yet to even grasp an NFT at a basic level and the vast majority of the crypto and metaverse space are so extremely cutting edge that its impossible to really predict where things will go next. Overall I know what is going to happen though. We are all going to be in this space eventually and the people who complained, spoke out against it will be railed by online shills who have financial incentives for their crypto and NFTs to hold value. Its a losing battle, don't bother. 

I have been living a full blown black mirror episode for about 5 years now.

I am as deep in this as it is humanly possible and I fully see now how its going to change the internet and humanity. There is not really a bullet pointed list I can create like my older post. The post I created before this one was made right before I was fully drawn in. Mind you I was in crypto at around 2014 but had no solitary idea on how this would come together in a "metaverse" scenario. Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and various other corporations are absolutely gung-ho after this space. Most people still have absolutely no idea why, but these companies do and they are fucking serious about it. They are deadset about capturing a chunk of this space and nothing is likely to really stop them. Its remarkable as ultimately speaking web3 is actually a disadvantage for these types of corporations and they will likely end up restructuring as a result to better leverage the space.

Everything is going to change very soon.

Virtual reality by itself is a gimmick that will never gain traction by itself. This is also true for NFTs. Are NFTs a scam? They absolutely are at this time. But that wont matter. Crypto, virtual reality and NFTs are just ingredients, separate pieces of a larger puzzle with many moving parts. Alone they come off extremely pointless and almost like a bad joke. The real magic wont happen until you combine these ideas in a specific package. The brutal and honest truth about this is that unless you experience this for yourself and garner some time in the metaverse and gain some actual lasting relationships with others in the space it will be extremely confusing as to what all of this is even about.

So for this to be on topic regarding getting into the game industry.

The metaverse is going to create an explosion of development similar to what Id software did to multiplayer online gaming in the 1990s. You will experience two types of platforms in this space. The most common is likely to be the standard non-proprietary development environment. Unreal 5 or unity based platforms will likely function this way. These environment will eventually mold themselves into the proprietary development environment. This transition from standard older development environments to fully in engine environments will occur for a host of reasons. Metaverses have a tendency to act like a black hole where the the survival of the platform will be predicated on forcing content creation to utilize proprietary toolsets making it harder to bring content outside of that metaverse. A metaverse is going to include visual scripting / logic systems similar to unreal blueprints and the nodes will be 3d objects. There is going to be an explosion of new metaverse platforms as well. You are going to see a strong push for open source platforms because decentralized finance has extremely strong ties to trustless environments. Most development will be done in virtual reality. But it wont be done the way you might be thinking.

The basic idea will be that everything is built on top of these platforms. Everything comes to the metaverse and stays in the metaverse. You have a social environment then on top of that people will build larger projects on top of it. Even single player games will likely be playable while in a social VR environment. The metaverse is the platform and all games and content are built inside and on top of the core platform.

The most important and difficult piece of the puzzle to grasp is that these are going to be hyper social environments. You need to get this otherwise you will not understand the core function of how this all comes together. Mark Zuckerberg describes this as the "feeling of presence". Your experience in virtual reality with other people is almost identical to your experiences in real life. You can know someone only in virtual reality for multiple years and then meet them in real life and the experience is completely organic with literally zero downtime. The feeling of presence is extremely important. The feeling of presence you gain in virtual reality in a social platform is the glue that binds every single facet of the experience as a whole. Without it, none of this stuff will make sense.

Without the feeling of presence then NFTs make literally zero sense. Corporations attempting to  push this idea are absolutely flubbing the entire concept by trying to make NFT collectibles. Its a complete waste of time. Nobody is going to care about NFTs unless its part of a popular metaverse. The moment you own something that has real world value and its tied to your online persona in some way in an environment with a true feeling of presence is the moment it all clicks. Konami releasing some Castlevania nfts makes literally zero sense. Most people are absolutely clueless about how or why any of this works. Its tonedeaf as hell for Square to release FFXIV NFT collectibles. It does not make sense! Nobody is going to know or even care about you owning these things if its not part of a highly social environment!

Shoutouts to people who have experienced the following.

- Experienced a job interview while at a concert.
- Experienced a job interview at a bar or nightclub.
- Experienced and landed a job interview while drunk. (The interviewer was also drinking)
- developed content entirely in VR and only understand less than half of how it works because everyone who helped were persistent about doing it for you.
- People talking about 2nd Life like it was the Roman empire.
- Has been to a public pug.
- "Is there a mirror I need to calibrate"
- Communicate with hundreds of people in a single night and remember who most of them are.
- Fell asleep while in VR.
- Literally un-phased by partying 5 days a week and it still feels like a job.
- Sometimes prefers to sleep in VR.
- Your right arm is slightly sore from constantly holding up a 3d camera while streaming or recording videos.
- Full body tracking.
- Dancing while in full body.
- Facial tracking.
- Cant properly experience a night without trackstrap plus.
- Know or have met ThrillSeeker.
- You know who ThrillSeeker even is.
- "Maybe I should open up my own night club"
- Know someone who became crypto rich off of an absolute shitcoin.
- Absolutely un-phased by male voices from female avatars.
- Absolutely un-phased by furry avatars.
- Absolutely un-phased by some of the weirdest shit on the internet.
- "Metaverse is ruined, the real term is Virtual underground or The Nexus"
- A large proportion of your friends communicate in a special VR only ASL.
- Have said "I might have a drinking problem." while talking about game development.
- Refer to some of your friends as "mutes"
- "Furniture just clutters up my play space"
- "I knocked a wall down in my apartment to increase my play space"
- Has ever flexed your play space by walking from one side of it to the other in full body.
- Experienced a job interview while inside of your portfolio that is also housing 40+ people. 
- Modded clients, everyone has one nobody wants to openly admit it.
- MOVIE NIGHT WITH FRIENDS!
- Movie worlds silently begin dominating your time watching movies.
- "X other virtual reality platform is going to take over" (it never does)
- More than half your friends are trans.
- More than half your friends are DJs.
- "There is only 20 people here, where is everyone?"
- "Oh shit one of the devs is at the party."
- Knows someone or has personally received a full body lap dance.
- "CHEERS!"
- Has ever suggested someone swig water as a "water shot"
- Experienced someone getting upset when you tell them you are only drinking water tonight.
- Has ever felt sad when someone is only in "desktop" mode.
- A well known streamer or content creator has ever passed out and is snoring in your world.
- Has done at least one IRL meetup.
- It literally takes a half hour to scroll through your friends list.
- Has met the same person multiple times but both of you were blackout drunk at the time. You commence to meet them again while blackout drunk.