Breaking Into the Video Game Industry

An anonymous reader writes "RPGamer has posted an interview with Atlus USA's Tomm Hulett, who has played pivotal roles in bringing various RPGs to North America, as well as the recently-released Trauma Center: Under the Knife. The interview, however, revolves around Tomm's experiences and the advice he would give to those looking to make a living off of the video game industry. From the article: '...You don't get to make games by sitting around playing RPGs and dreaming (unfortunately)--you have to get out there and work hard. I've known a lot of really smart people who just never applied themselves. So, now they're just playing FFXI and talking about how they're going to make games someday.'"

Comments

How I Got My Video Game Job

[th1ckasabr1ck]

When I was a sophmore in college I sent out resumes to some local companies and got a few interviews. I showed up with some demo stuff I had worked on in my spare time, spoke with everyone there about why I wanted the job, and they gave me a job offer. I worked there all through school and got hired immediately after my graduation.

There's no real secret to it - Be smart, work hard, apply yourself, and I'm sure it'll all work out.

My first

[cgenman]

I applied to basically every open post throughout the US after I had graduated college. I needed to look for a year before I found something. But someone finally foolishly hired me for QA.

I'd like to think that it was the backcatalog of levels and mods I had worked on / faqs that I had written / the thousands of games that I had deconstructed that got me that job. But the fact is the person who gave me the phone interview obviously hadn't read my resume, asked me a few sports-related questions that I didn't know the answer to, and offered me the position on the spot. Weird industry, this one.

BTW, parent is right. Apply to your local companies while you're still in early college, or late high school even. Anything you can do in your spare time, like figuring out how systems are working under the hood or creating mods, is very helpful. Your mod skillz may not be enough to land you a lead level design position right away, but they might be enough to convince a QA manager to hire you to test. Or might be enough to convince an office manager that you're hardworking enough to be an assistant. Or get you an art internship.

Re:My first

[somersault]

Err instead of deconstructing other stuff, you could learn to program and create your own stuff? Show your creative side? The difference with the parent is that he said he'd actually made his own demos. Modding can demonstrate skills as well I guess, and there can be decent programming involved, but most mods are just a few new models/maps/weapons models, nothing spectacular (yeah I did some playing around with mods on Quake 3, have been programming since I was 12, and though I've always fancied working in games, I at this time dont have the balls to move elsewhere and look for a decent games job, and also dont think I've been doing enough stuff like OpenGL in my spare time - I'm working as an IT manager just now).

Re:My first

[cgenman]

Sure, you can program your own stuff. But unless you want to be a programmer, it is a lot more problematic than it is worth. Generally you can make several professional-looking mods that explore certain new aspects of gameplay in the time it would take to write up a small engine of your own. Professionally you would likely be re-using someone else's engine anyway, either an in-house developed one or an externally purchased one.

Deconstructing other games, however, is necessary no matter what you get into. Think of it as writing book reports or taking filmstudies. Unless you study what games are out there, you'll be doomed to repeat the same mistkes. This is true across all disciplines. I've worked with programmers so on-point they could take a design and finesse it on-the-fly to come up with something slightly different than the spec but tons of fun. I've also worked with programmers so dead to the world that they would completely misunderstand specs and implement things that had no relevance to the game whatsoever, and couldn't figure out why.

most mods are just a few new models/maps/weapons models, nothing spectacular

What do you think most game development is? Game companies are only about 1/4th programmers. The rest are artists, designers, and managers / support staff.

also dont think I've been doing enough stuff like OpenGL in my spare time

Except for the specialized job of an engine programmer, that's not that relevant.