Videogame jobs

[Pete for President]

After unsuccessfully applying for concept artist at the Dutch Guerrilla Games studio (famous for Killzone) I'm now thinking of applying for temporary tester. It's not in the artist department, but who knows where it'll get me. Last year I also applied for concept artist at Riot Games, but no luck.

Have you ever applied or worked for a videogame studio? Would you want to or rather not? Which one would you want to work for?

Go!

[Night Fury]

Good luck Pete! Let us all know how it goes!

I haven't applied at a Videogames studio, no. One day I'd love to be a successful independent videogames journalist or if that doesn't work out I'd love to do PR for a games company, maybe Bioware or Square Enix :) Wouldn't know how in the hell to go about doing that though.

[krissy]

i've worked at a research group studying video games at the local university as a research assistant before, essentially making unity mock ups and trouble shooting.

i'm ok with working on indie projects, and research positions are also OK, but i don't think i'd want to work as a programmer on a big game
especially with the deadlines and pressure

on the other hand, i'd love to do music for big games or indie games. as long as it's not programming hahaha.

[Slothy]

i'm ok with working on indie projects, and research positions are also OK, but i don't think i'd want to work as a programmer on a big game
especially with the deadlines and pressure

Yeah, working in an industry where the standard has historically been working 7 days a week for hours of overtime in perpetual crunch mode (sometimes unpaid overtime no less) is a frightening prospect. It's slowly changing in a lot of places I think, but when it comes to managing the human resources side of things the games industry is typically one of the more dysfunctional I've ever heard of. And I worked in a call centre for six months.

[Aulayna]

Depends who you work for really as to how bad the crunching is.

As for the topic:

Yes.

[Del Murder]

I think it would be fun, but I don't know if I'd want to take the pay cut.

[Pete for President]

Good luck Pete! Let us all know how it goes!

I'll let you guys know as soon as I hear something : )

De overhours thing is definitely scary, but for some reason I think the art department won't have to deal as much with it as the programmers or modelers, so if I ever get a job as a concept artist I think it won't be too bad.

I bet producers have no social life for most of the time :0

[Shoeberto]

i'm ok with working on indie projects, and research positions are also OK, but i don't think i'd want to work as a programmer on a big game
especially with the deadlines and pressure

on the other hand, i'd love to do music for big games or indie games. as long as it's not programming hahaha.
This is my general feeling as well. I work doing computer graphics stuff with set hours and good benefits and it's already pretty stressful at times. The AAA machine chews up devs and spits them out. I think I could only break into the industry working for a small company, and those jobs are a lot more selective. I'm sure the hours are rough no matter what, but at least working outside of a corporate structure there's a lot more room for passion rather than grind.

[Depression Moon]

I haven't applied, but I want to and will eventually. I'm just not sure how to go about the path and it's been like that for a while with me. The answers I get for getting an education to prepare for the field have been ambiguous and that doesn't help.

[Old Manus]

I think it would kill videogames for me. After all day coding something as mundane as a save point in some game I know isn't any good, the last thing I'd want to do is go home and play games.

[Shoeberto]

I haven't applied, but I want to and will eventually. I'm just not sure how to go about the path and it's been like that for a while with me. The answers I get for getting an education to prepare for the field have been ambiguous and that doesn't help.
Generally yes it will be ambiguous because the type of training you'll need depends on what you want to do. Games are very big, team-based efforts that require people with very diverse skill sets. What interests you in games? The writing? The art? The level flow? Physics? Menus? Depending on your answer you may need to go to an art school, or get a degree in English, or engineering, etc.

[black orb]

>>> videogame studio?..
No, those things only exist at the developed countries..:luca:

[Pete for President]

>>> videogame studio?..
No, those things only exist at the developed countries..:luca:

People can move you know? A lot of the bigger studio's help employees find housing, or some even have a campus of sorts for temporary stay.

By the way, I got a reply from Guerrilla; unfortunately they favored a few other applicants who I'm guessing have a background education in game design. We have quite a few universities offering game design studies in the Netherlands, all of them have become immensely popular the last few years.

I'll keep trying for concept artist, but I think I'll aim for smaller underground studios next time.

[Shoeberto]

I'll keep trying for concept artist, but I think I'll aim for smaller underground studios next time.
How strong is your portfolio? Have you tried making designs for your own game ideas? Are you familiar with the workflow for concept artists and their position in the overall design process?

Just asking, in case these are things you haven't thought about yet (it wasn't clear in your original post). These are the sort of things that can make or break you getting into the industry.

[Depression Moon]

I haven't applied, but I want to and will eventually. I'm just not sure how to go about the path and it's been like that for a while with me. The answers I get for getting an education to prepare for the field have been ambiguous and that doesn't help.
Generally yes it will be ambiguous because the type of training you'll need depends on what you want to do. Games are very big, team-based efforts that require people with very diverse skill sets. What interests you in games? The writing? The art? The level flow? Physics? Menus? Depending on your answer you may need to go to an art school, or get a degree in English, or engineering, etc.


For being a writer I was told more that you need to establish yourself as a known writer first, like being an author or screenwriter as most of these high-end studios get their writers from there.

[nik0tine]

I honestly think that today, the easiest way to be successful in the games industry is to make your own indie game.

[Shoeberto]

For being a writer I was told more that you need to establish yourself as a known writer first, like being an author or screenwriter as most of these high-end studios get their writers from there.


I honestly think that today, the easiest way to be successful in the games industry is to make your own indie game.
Yep and yep, particularly for creative roles. It's becoming an industry not unlike film and music where you just have to work and work and work until you do something that really grabs people. From a coding perspective you can do the traditional engineering route but you still have to have a good background of work to prop you up. The fact that the indie market exists as it does right now is a huge boon because it's a very low cost of entry to get your ideas out there to test and iterate.