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?"

Comments

The Truth about Marc Saltzman / Getting into Games

[Factomatic]

If you really want to know how to break into the games industry you should read this Slashdot thread on pitching games, and check out this guide to submitting games from the International Game Developers Association. Why waste your money on a questionable book when you can get better information about breaking into the industry for free?

As for Marc Saltzman, read this post about what he's really about. The top post is quoted below but I suggest you read the whole thread.

ShwAsasin is typical of people who don't understand how the news media works and operates, probably because he has never worked in a news environment.

Marc Saltzman "isn't JUST a CNN crony" - he has a syndicated column (in which he summarizes press releases). That means that the newspapers mentioned just dip into the newswire stream whenever they need to fill a hole in a page. It DOES NOT mean he "writes for numerous newspapers" (since when did two papers become "numerous"?) and it certainly doesn't impart to him any real credibility.

The books Marc has "written" are little more than long-form versions of the fanboy game press drek that passes for "reporting", which so many have decried here on Slashdot and elsewhere. The majority of them are game strategy guides and cheat codes. That's not journalism and barely passes for writing.

Marc is well known within the games industry as a flack that even the PR agencies can't stand, but more than one PR rep has confessed that they need him because he has managed to build himself a profile. Marc is tolerated by both games companies and the editors at the papers you mentioned, not celebrated as an authority as you would have us think. Marketing staff at the game companies see Marc as a necessary evil until legitimate technology and business journalists (not fanboys) start to cover their industry like any other technology/software/entertainment business.

Editors have confided that they are aware that he has barely (if at all) played the games he "reviews" but the tyranny of the news cycle compels them to publish whatever they can get their hands on when it comes to games. Because they have already paid for content through their newswire subscription, it doesn't really cost the papers anything to run Marc's bumpf.

At industry events, Saltzman simply walks around the displays, picks up the press materials and sampler CDs, asks the game company reps when the next free trip to [INSERT EXOTIC DESTINATION HERE] will be and what kind of graft they will be giving away, and then he goes home.

Why have I posted anonymously? Because I don't need the flames and grief that comes with exposing one of the worst fraud artists that has latched onto and leeched the games industry.

On a personal level Marc is nice enough guy, but on a professional one he leaves much to be desired.

Marc is the living example of the axiom "Politicians, old buildings and whores all become respectable with age." I'll leave it you to figure out which category Marc Saltzman fits into.

MORE HERE

I am sorry but...

[Morgahastu]

Marc Saltzman is a total, for the lack of better words, asshat.

I've read many of his articles, seen him on tv, heard him on the radio and even bought one of his shitty books. This guy knows absolutely nothing about games and nothing about editing.

All he does is email some people he knows and asks them to write an article about getting into the gaming business and then he staples them together and calls it a book. I have "Game Design: Secrets of the sages" (or something like that) from him and it's a total piece of shit.

You'd think it would go into great detail about things since its quite a hefty book but it definately does not. Just about every second page is a new letter from a different person and 90% of the content is the same in each letter. A proper editor would of compressed the useful information of this book into a backpocket paperback.

This guy knows nothing about computers, he's just a guy who can talk infront of a camera and somehow get people to write books for him and get away with him.

He's almost as much of a poser as Kevin Rose.

Phew.

Why?

[saden1]

Why do so many people have such a grand view of what life is like a game developer. Life as a professional game developer sucks. It is long hours and pay low compared to the rest of the IT industry. And don't forget about the whole sale firing/hiring that is going on in the gaming industry.

Stick to Mod development where there is no pressure and spend your week days working for company X developing business applications.

Re:Why?

[2megs]

Why would you want to spend half your waking hours doing something you don't love? Personally, I think having the opportunity to devote 60+ hours a week to game development more than makes up for the low pay. :)

But no, it's not for everyone.

getting hired as a programmer

[2megs]

I make hiring decisions for programmers at Troika Games, a PC RPG developer. We get a lot of resumes, most of which don't ever get an interview. What's going to make you stand out to me isn't your college degree or your years of work in web development while you wished you were doing games. The thing that will most likely get your hired is a piece of runnable code that shows both your abilities, and your passion and motivation. A little shareware project, a graphics demo, work on an Unreal mod...you get the idea. The fact is that the people who will truly excel working on games already ARE working on games because it's so much a part of them that they can't do otherwise; they just need a salaried position on a well-funded team. :)

Speaking of which, there's an entry-level programmer/scripting position that we're looking to fill on the team for Vampire: The Masquerade. Impress me.

ARTICLE: Games industry changes & career prosp

[Geartest.com]

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.

John Carmack on how to break into games

[VictorGodinez]

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.