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

There goes my plan!

[MyLongNickName]

You don't get to make games by sitting around playing RPGs and dreaming (unfortunately)--you have to get out there and work hard.

Seven years wasted! And NOW he tells me...

I broke into the video game industry once...

[hal2814]

...but then they called the cops and I got arrested. Stupid laws.

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.

Re:How I Got My Video Game Job

[badasscat]

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

You mean it's no different than getting any other job?!

Seriously, there are tons of different kinds of jobs in the game industry, and there are lots of different ways to get them. Most of them can be had simply by applying to a classified ad and being the best candidate in an interview. I agree that it's not some big mystery that needs to be solved. The problem is (and I say this from recent experience trying to hire an assistant) that so many people these days seem to lack even the most basic of job-hunting and interviewing skills. Getting *any* job is a mystery to most people. But there's nothing unique about the game industry.

My first job in the game industry was writing for a now-defunct web site (one of the many IGN/Gamespot wannabes) - I got that job because I happened to know a designer at the company and he got me an interview. (Yeah, I got lucky, but social networking is the way a lot of jobs are handed out.) My second industry job, working for a major publisher, I got both because of that first job and because of a web site that I ran on my own at the time. No, I'm not a coder - believe me, you don't want to be a coder working in the game industry. Though I can't say marketing (where I worked) is really much better.

So I broke into the industry with a combination of networking and experience. And yes, the fact that I've been playing games since 1977 did help. Like any other industry, game companies like to know that the people they hire are both interested in and knowledgeable about their products and history. You can't go into an interview and say "now, what kind of products does your company make again?" (I've had people ask me this at my current company during interviews!)

Honestly, though, my experience basically taught me that the game industry is not much fun. So it's all pretty much moot anyway. There are much better industries in which to work.

I will say that that first editorial job was probably the best job I've ever had, and if they hadn't folded I'd still be there despite the ridiculously low pay. But working for an actual publisher sucked. (Despite a doubling in salary.)

How I broke into it

[Surt]

I made a couple of small freeware games, followed by a couple of successful quake mods. The quake mods were successful enough to have been played by the game developers who later interviewed me for a position at Blizzard North, which I got.

Then later after finding out how painful it is to work in the gaming biz, I got out. But if you want in, make some games.

Now I just make fun little games in my spare time, like squish:

http://ptth.net/squish/

If you check it out, journal me how to improve it please!

Nah

[ShadowsHawk]

They don't end up playing FF all day... they end up working at EBGames.

Break into the industry via a new market.

[MiceHead]

One way to break into games and earn a living is to build a small team and develop for a new market such as cell phones.

During the early '90s, shareware authors focused on creating games for the newly-popular desktop PCs. That's much tougher nowadays, due to direct competition from untold thousands of shareware developers and the larger studios. During the late '90s, Palm OS and Pocket PC popped up (another new market). At that time, it was possible to spend a week or two of development on a simple-but-enjoyable PDA puzzle game with a grossly disproportionate number of sales (with respect to development costs) during the first few months, and a decent long tail a year or two out.

These days, the buzz seems to be around casual/cell phone games, on the basis that a) it doesn't take [as] much to develop a cellphone game, and b) there are many millions of cellphone users. Java isn't my cup of tea(!), but J2ME offers individual developers and small teams a way to develop content for the myriad mobile platforms.
_________________________
www.dejobaan.com

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.