The Game Making Game for Graduating Game Makers

Video Games. They’re awesome aren’t they!? I’ve been fortunate enough to work in the industry and be offered the opportunity to participate in the various festivals, conferences and networking events that happen, particularly at a graduate level. It is especially motivating to talk to students as their passion is infectious and inspiring.

The more of these events I attend, the more I seem to be asked similar questions and I offer recurring snippets of advice, or simply spew motivational one liners in-between the molten, crazy haze of video game love that I verbally erupt with when caught in the moment. So I have decided to write this piece in the hope it may help you on your journey towards ‘getting a dream job‘.

Do it, Just, Do it (Don’t let your dreams be dreams)

It’s almost like Mr LaBeouf is the modern Yoda. Do or do not, there is no try. There is so much to learn and experiment with that it’s just mind bogglingly scary. That combined with harnessing the power of the internet really doesn’t give anyone a good reason as to why you haven’t tried implementing that cool game idea yet, or taken a leap out of your comfort zone and drawn a realistic anatomical breakdown of a Great Auk from 17th century illustrations.

Do things that separate you from the rest of the crowd. The month of June sees the graduate application floodgates swing open and you’re already competing with your now sworn enemy university buddies for the same jobs. Scale that up to your regional area, then to England, then Europe, then the world… well you get my point, you have competition. So you need to load the dice a little and show how you are different to everyone else; you have some awesome stuff to talk about, so tell people and they will want to talk to you about it. Awesome people want to work with other awesome people to do great things. If you’re unsure of where to start, why not try scouting around the various jobs that are relevant to your discipline? Don’t be afraid to look at senior or lead roles to identify things that are unfamiliar, new or just rusty. Take the time to figure them out and actively compare yourself to the industry standard. GameDevMap is a great tool and a fantastic way of quickly scoping out some of the studios in your area or throughout the country for openings (and taking a snoop around their job descriptions).

If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail. If you’re considering an application somewhere, there are two fundamental items you should already be carrying in your inventory. A killer portfolio will not only demonstrate your aptitude, but essentially open up a portal directly to your development/art/design soul. I’d argue that it’s a little easier for artists/designers than programmers, but that’s not a reason to slack. Ensure that you are proudly showcasing your prized assets front and centre. It should scream how good you are and provide focus on what exactly you want to do. Environment artists, present your lush environments. Physics programmers, demonstrate your eye for the real (or not so!). Designers, unveil something never thought of before! There’s real value in being able to justify why you did things and explaining why you would have done them differently. However, this is more effective when done whilst providing tangibility to the examples in question. A well designed (paramount for actual designers) and well engineered web based portfolio is probably the most effective solution, but it doesn’t exist without it’s risks… Ensure that the content included isn’t a ‘portfolio killer‘.

Being more specific to programmers, providing code visibility is priceless. It is a brilliant method for potential employers to see exactly how you code, your thought patterns, your bad and good habits and how you structure your projects before they even meet you. Naturally, it makes sense to present these in an optimum manner, so don’t be afraid to document (seriously, document everything) and adhere to standards, potential hirers will want to talk to you about key aspects of it. Tools such as GitHub make it easy to show off your latest path finding algorithms or your vector math classes as quickly as possible (quick access is key). Don’t stop there though! Open source is another great way of gaining experience and actively participating in live projects… then they’re also visible via your portfolio directly!

The second item which you should be clutching onto whilst on your quest is a well thought out and tailored covering letter. Applying customisation that is inspired by research (do not fail to prepare) and passion for the role goes a long way. If the job application is with a company that has a reputation for car racing projects, on a stated ‘secret racing project’, then you’ll have to ignore the internal FPS fanboy/girl and heighten your racing terminologies (you should also probably not have a hatred of racing games). Highlight why you’re suitable and tweak your covering letter and portfolio to strengthen your application e.g. that hobby, 1967 chevy impala replica maya model that you happened to have. Talk about key aspects of their projects (because you’ve already played their entire library as part of your prep), why you’re excited to work on it, where your experience is relevant and why you feel that you’d make the perfect addition to their team. Augment, but do not lie. The games industry is a weirdly small world, not only will they see through your dishonesty and shoot you down, but it could have lasting catastrophic consequences for you somewhere down the line.

There are other ways of increasing your odds in the game making game … having great connections or “who you know who knows what you know“.

How to make friends and utilise people

Although it’s not the ‘be all and end-all’, networking is a great mechanic for meeting new people, raising your professional profile and keeping an eye out for openings. So get out there and attend as many gaming events as you can, sometimes fate throws you the buff of talking to the right person, in the right place, at the right time (and you’ll have a killer portfolio ready, yeah?). I stumbled across a in-depth and comprehensive breakdown of effective networking in the games industry. Even though it was written 10 years ago, but it’s still 100% relevant (there’s even a post from me from 4 years ago!) which summarizes general social protocols and some great tips on maximising networking gains.

My favourite event has to be Animex, I cannot recommend it enough! It is a unique opportunity to sit in on cutting edge, game development talks with some of the industry’s most experienced and knowledgeable individuals and then grill them with questions and portfolios over a beer! Sure, there are the likes of Develop conference which offer a similar level of talks and keynotes, but I feel Animex stands a level above it (I’d attend them all if I could). Additionally, there are more open opportunities to chat games. Events such as EGX or Insomnia are more general gaming festivals (with plenty of hands on gaming), but amongst the seemingly normal gamers there will stand developers in disguise! Just strike up some great conversation and who knows who you may end up talking to!

Alternatively, Games jams are now more popular than ever. They are a great way of meeting, new awesome people and getting relevant experience in a condensed period of time. I particularly love the ideology of “failing hard and failing early” that comes with the ‘jamming’, even more so for the first few times. But, accepting that you’ll make mistakes is just part of the fun and the ‘mad science’ feel of it all. Continue to make them. It’s an important factor of learning, which you should never stop striving to do! Two popular, organised games jams that I’ve experienced first hand are Dare to be Digital (you could win a BAFTA as well, cv++) and Brains Eden. There are also online based games jams such as Ludum Dare. Ultimately, it’s all about the experience of working in a team, contributing to something bigger with peers and just doing it. It’s also really likely that the people you work with will go on to do awesome things, so be the person who they remember for being awesome, and you’ll be first in their line of awesome people to work with. This even applies for those still in University, why don’t you try and amass a team from your fellow students? (awesome people will want to work with other awesome people e.g. You!).

Nothing is Impossible

I hope that you can take something positive away from this article. It is not a guarantee of anything. You’ll find that you’ll have to slog your guts out (even more than you already have). It’s probably going to be tough at times, so embrace the suck, you’ll have to focus, work hard and perhaps no life it for a little bit. But just doing it is worth it, it’s such a short period of time in the grand scheme of things. You speculate to accumulate and that is how you get your dream job and win the game making game!