Ladies and Gents of the gamesas persuasion, I just had a couple of questions I'd be delighted if you could field for me. If not, no problem. I'm quite certain you got tons going on in your work days, and I'm sure you're not here much on your off-time, if at all. But I ask anyway, on the off chance!

1.) Is there a game design position of a think-tank sort? In example, you have X number of individuals. You tell them, "We need you to think of content for game A, in the lines of components B, C, and D, to work within framework E, F, and G, keeping in mind restrictions H, I, and K through Z. Oh, and I'm going to padlock this door for J number of days, at which point we'll let out any survivors and see what you've come up with."

2.) 3D Modeling and the like. What programs do you guys specifically use? 3D Studio Max? Maya? What extrensions do you use? Is there any kind of student program or what have you out there that can reduce the price of these things? I don't think I have any organs left to sell.

3.) Programming. The unsung heroes. What's a good path to learn how to get up to speed? What languages do you recommend? What are good programming exercises you use to "tighten up" your coding skills? How much say do you get in the overall design of the game?

4.) Looking for work in the game industry. How do you begin? Do you build a portfolio of sorts, or do you sign on as someone's assistant and do OJT / Grunt work until you've proven your ability?

Just a quick couple questions off the top of my head. I'm sure I'll have more later.

Wow. Lots there. Going to need some time to put together a response.

^_^

That's fine. I'd go for a delayed but well thought out response any day. I'd do dreadful things to get into this industry, and right now my biggest stumbling block is not being sure which segment I want to get in to, and how to begin.

Same questions.

Good post.

Hrm. It's been two days since the OP. Not that I'm getting impatient or anything, but let's just say I'm warming up my Amazing Invulnerable Levitating Cat Head army and prepping them for a bombing run.

Non gamesas here,

I think I can answer #4 since I have some industry experience.

Take a job anywhere you can! If a local indie outfit in your town is looking for free work to develop their upcoming title, take it! Once you ship a game it will add invaluable credibility to your resume and can help you move up in the industry. Be the judge here, ask to see what they have so far and think to yourself "if this concept works, can I proudly put it on my resume?".

Suppose you are fortunate enough to live in a place where quite a few developers are located, apply for a job and get in anywhere you can. Even if your degree or quality of work is undervalued, you shouldn't look too much into it. You might not get the best first gig possible, but you will begin to move up overtime since the industry is far from static.

The industry surely has it's fair share of mail room workers who have since moved up to other roles within a company. I know a few people who started off as modders for games that used engines like Unreal, id Tech, etc. Today, as a result of that work they have found jobs at various game developers and have worked/working on some AAA titles to boot. Another popular trend is companies picking talent from journalist, while it's mostly for PR related jobs, some were picked directly for development jobs.

I think #1 sounds like a Producer/Director. In reality, any position can be the "think tank" but I believe the Producer or Director has final say as to what is put into the game and what isn't. David Perry (yes, that David Perry) has some excellent write ups on his site about games industry jobs and what it takes to fill them.

http://dperry.com/archives/jobs/descriptions/

I haven't programmed games/applications in a while but when I was in the scene I believe C++ was preferred by many companies. C# is also pretty popular now if you want to get into Xbox 360/PC/Phone/Zune programming via XNA. The only way to get better at programming is to practices, in your free time think of applications that you can design, preferably complex ones. You will have a better understanding of how things work and will likely ask for questions when you don't understand. If you don't know anyone locally who can help, go online, there are plenty of programming forums dedicated to specific languages that are an invaluable source.

Sorry for the order in which I posted, they were spur of the moment additions.

Nice. Thank you for that link. Game designer sounds right up my alley. Now I just need to figure out how to worm my way into that kind of role.

A. There are game designers, game writers, scenario designers, level designers, dialogue writers, scripters, technical designers, yadda-yadda-yadda. The list goes on and on. All designers contribute to the game design (and so do some producers, programmers and artists, depending on the team and company).

The process you are talking about is usually handled during pre-production, and besides designers, you can also have concept artists and programmers involved. Two design documents are the result of this process, the GDD (Game Design Document) and TDD (Technical Design Document). Programmers write the TDD, and designers usually write the GDD. Producers can organize or direct during this point.

There are many, many ways of skinning the cat, so to speak. Not all companies and teams work in the same fashion. Heck, you can throw a stone in any direction and come up with a different meaning for the word “designer”.


I am deferring to the artists for details on this one. There are free programs that you can start with, but they are drastically different than something like Maya. However, they are good for getting the basic skills down, I would imagine. Try Google Sketchup to start. A 3D artist friend of mine occasionally uses that at home to mess around with stuff.


A. Program, program, program. This is definitely a skill that you need to use, and use often, to become proficient with. C++ is still pretty much the industry standard. There is really no need for Assembly or any real low level language close to the silicon. Another suggestion is Python, which is used as or similar to many scripting languages.

The best programming exercise is one that you complete. Make small games. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Finish a project and move on to the next small project. There are a bazillion books and websites for learning programming. I think someone mentioned Gamasutra (or Game Developer magazine) as a resource. It’s a good one.

How much say depends on the team and company culture. Some projects are lead by programmers, and others a producer, designer or creative director is in charge. I’d say that designers usually have more input into the overall design of the game than programmers, but your mileage may vary.


Eh. I started in customer service and quality assurance. My basic advice is to just get your foot in the door. Especially for designers, most companies like to promote from within. Programmers, and artists, with their portfolios can show off their work easier than designers.

Internships are a great place to learn and do meet and greets. Maybe get a little game credit, too.

I’m not a big fan of the game development schools, mostly because they didn’t exist when I started, and I’m just not that familiar with them. Having a for-profit game dev school on your resume doesn’t really mean anything to me when I’m interviewing. I’m far more interested in an applicant’s personality, intelligence, communication skills, and portfolio than their actual education. There are many ways to learn the ins-and-outs of this industry. Having a degree of any kind more than anything proves that you have the dedication required to get a degree. That’s a bonus.

Hey Wackjob, nice name .

3D Program: I personally prefer to use Maya but have long used Max in the past. Push comes to shove, I don't care which I have to use. Thank goodness I don't have to use them much as I am a 2D artist.

Schools: LCAD in Laguna is the best and cheapest I know of that will create a successful artist in both 3D and 2D. There are plenty of other schools out there but most charge the same and give you less of an education. And don't fall for a trade school that promises they can graduate in 2 to 3 years. It's not enough time to produce a strong artist out of anyone. And much of the time is just a waste because of the short classes and the amount of information each class covers. There is just not enough time to allow for the mind to absorb the information nor to apply it to your artwork. Your best bet is to ignore the money thing, bite the bullet, get the loans, and go to a school with a quality reputation. The higher the rep the better job. The better the job the better the pay. The better the pay the lower impact the loans will make on your final income level. But if you choose unwisely then you could end up in Mc Donnalds as a cook with a huge loan to pay with no cash to pay it. ---------------------------------------
Jeff C
Lead Concept Artist

If you are going by degrees, Canadian developers are more likely to hire someone if they have a "general" degree in a field than one specialized specifically for game development due to expandability and such, I've heard similar stories about American developers as well. I think college/university might be cheaper than a school setup specifically for game design.



Look at job postings for various companies, specifically, the requirements section. It should fill you in on everything you need to have to qualify for a position. Looking at gamesas's own posting for a Content Designer,

http://gamesas.com/about/career.php?id=18

It seems writing, communication, and experience play a good role in this position. Experience is perhaps the hardest area to improve on, you might not find a developer who is willing to take someone without experience. Worst case scenario, grab a few friends and start an indie dev team and release a game/mod, it should suffice.

I will concur with Fallout(R)Chris and Elven6

Unless you are super talented and have produced several games on your own (or for other companies), it will be extremely rare that you can just get hired as a one of those programing/gaming positions.

Also, many companies want a team player (one who can get along with those that they already have and is willing/able to work well with many others), and one of the best ways to find a team player is looking at those who already work for them.

The pluses of working at some other job within a company before you get to your dream job with that company is you and they get to know each other, you get to know the heart beat and feel of the companies goals and direction, and you get to be involved at the ground floor of the games. It might not see like much but there are plenty of opportunities to succeed and get noticed.

Also, keep in mind, everyone has the lastest, greatest idea for the perfect game, but only those who can actually develop, program, promote or pay for it (as the one with the millions $) will actually be kept around.

Dave Chase

I've got military experience in a combat environment, so the teamwork bit is already old hat. I think, out of all the positions we've discussed, that the actual programming appeals most to me. I've done a bit in much easier environments (wrote a pong game in QBASIC) and dabbled a tiny bit in others, but not so much in C. So that's the next step, then. Learn C++ and indie game design a bit.

Thank you for the information, everyone. I appreciate it greatly!

Oh, and here's something in thanks, for your amusemant. Photo taken by myself in the city of Husaniyah, about fifteen miles north of Baghdad. One of those "If I don't take a picture right here and now, there's no way anyone could possibly believe it."


Oh, and happy Halloween!

Your military experience *might* work in your favor, certain companies have dedicated jobs (or are more willing to hire) for ex military personnel in the States.

The unknown is really whether these jobs are only for those who have been recently discharged or anyone who has served within the past few years.

There is really no reazon to try to get employed by comercial company. If you have great ideas for games start making your own indie games, put up a website and sell your game for low prices. That is pretty much the best way to get in to it and make a living out of it at the same time.

There is no difference betwen making games and playing in a band these days. If someone want to learn how to play an instrument he is surley not going around looking for contract signing with any labels the first thing he does. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WgFKuzD4os¨
Fallout 2 mod

If you don't mind me asking sir, how much time did you spend until actually going into the production department? So youre telling me FO3 is better than the first two? Okay i respect your opinion. Can we step outside for a sec?

thanks for your reply. So youre telling me FO3 is better than the first two? Okay i respect your opinion. Can we step outside for a sec?

If you don't mind me asking sir, how much time did you spend until actually going into the production department?
About a year or so. Started hanging out in the producer's room for Lexi-Cross and Bard's Tale Construction Set. They eventually asked me to do some design work and it went up from there.

That closely resembles how I "broke" in to the industry as well. I started as a player for an MMORPG, who also hung out in the games "unofficial" help channel on an IRC server with some of the Game Masters. After a few months of helping other player's and also "teaching" the Game Masters how things worked I was asked to become a Game Master myself.

Once I was working as a Game Master, I got more involved in handling QA/Bug issues as I have good anolytical skills. That lead me to being the Lead QA for the North American side of the game. My performance there lead to me being the only person outside of the head office being able to gain access to the source files for things such as the items, NPC, worlds database, and Script/A.I. files. I was in charge of trying to maintain combat balance, fixing NPC/Object scripting bugs(including some A.I. work), & item/mission creation.

I did all of this for about 3 years as an unpaid volunteer in my free time as I also had a full time job (think 16+hr days). Eventually the last 1.5yrs did result in being paid a "small" fee (about 1.5wks worth of my normal wages per month) for my time and effort, while still working my full time job. Alas family life issues resulted in my having to leave the team.

The experience I gained though more then made up for the lack of financial gain, not to mention I also gained a spot in the game's credits under both Quality Assurance & Additional Content Development.

Edit: I forgot to mention one of the most important things as well. I also gained a past working relationship with many people in various game production and publishing companies.