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Breaking Into The Games Industry Discussed
Thanks to GameZone.com for their interview with Marc Saltzman discussing his book, Game Creation and Careers: Insider Secrets from Industry Experts. The book includes interviews with many leading creators, plus design docs from Chris Taylor of Dungeon Siege/Total Annihilation notoriety, as well as "..everything from how to protect your game idea, how to sell it, getting a job at a development studio or publishing company, setting up your own development house, working with headhunters and agents, doing it yourself by selling games online (shareware, etc.), proper game testing, marketing, public relations and key organizations, conventions, Web sites and schools." He also tries to address the paradox stumping many wannabe game professionals: "..how do you get experience when no one will hire you without any?"
We recently interviewed Electronic Arts director of advanced technology John Buchanan, CORE Digital Pictures VP Doug Masters (himself a former EA developer) and Side Effects' Robert Magee for an article about major shifts in the games industry and how they affect job prospects.
They said some surprising things that should give anyone thinking about pursuing a career in games a lot of food for thought.
Most surprising was this statement from EA's John Buchanan, which seems to shatter a commonly-held belief among hopeful game developers about what it takes to make it in the industry:
"We now have a huge problem in our industry of engineers, who used to be the gods of gaming, now becoming subservient to the artists."
After you read the full feature article, if there's enough interest in more on careers, let us know -- post in this thread -- and we'll add some of the career-specific tips that were left out of the main article.
Not to toot my own horn too loudly, but as long as we're on the subject... John Carmack was out at SMU here in Dallas on Monday to talk to the first group of students entering SMU's Guildhall game development program. I'm the videogame reporter for The Dallas Morning News, so I went out to SMU and sat in on Carmack's speech and discussion. Here's the article (free reg. required) I put together afterwards, if anyone's interested.