Greetings, beautiful party people of the world wide webbernets. I want to talk to you guys a little bit about the video game industry – specifically, how to break into the field. I’ve seen a number of videos, articles, Twitter rants, etc., all spouting the same message of “this is THE way to make it in the video game industry.” It is, to be kind about such things, complete hogwash. You don’t believe me? Let me tell you a few stories…
The video game industry is filled with an eclectic tapestry of personalities, almost none of whom set out to be a part of the games business when they went to college. I’ve worked alongside men and women who held degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Political Science, Archaeology, Criminal Justice (including working with three lawyers), Political Science, Theatre, and Journalism. Some of the most memorable combat encounters in Star Wars: The Old Republic was designed by a man who had an epiphany while working as a broker on the New York Stock Exchange and left Wall Street behind to pursue his career.
Myself? Well, my story is one of accident and circumstance. I had my “break” in the video game industry when I found myself bedridden for a few months. A company, 451 Press, was looking for an editor for an Xbox 360 blog that they were preparing to launch. Keep in mind that this was 2007, when just about anybody who was literate and had a passing interest in video games could be considered for a job with a paying publication. I looked around, saw that I owned both a laptop computer and an Xbox 360, and said “yeah, sure, I’ll apply. Why not.” I applied, and two weeks later I was rolling out a brand new video game blog focusing on Microsoft and the Xbox 360.
I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
I read gaming blogs, sure, and I was a very active participant on the G4TV.com forums back before the dreaded TechTV murder. I knew what was going on in the gaming industry – even more than I do today, after nearly eight years of being up to my eyeballs in it – but I didn’t know how to run a daily news and feature publication! So… I faked it. I made it up as I went along, and I decided fairly early on I made the decision that I was going to have fun with it.
It seemingly worked. I mean, I’m here. But I remember the hours I put in; the sleepless nights writing features about the best Xbox LIVE Arcade games, and the news items about announcement, after announcement, after announcement. I remember having the “eureka” moment when I first discovered Digg, and N4G, and eventually Reddit.
I also remember the fury I felt over my first paycheck. I still have it, that first paycheck. I never cashed it – not because I wanted to keep it as some sort of sentimental souvenir, but because the bank I did my business with had a $1 fee to cash checks from rival banks, and if I had tried to cash the check I’d have lost money.
See, back in 2007 most blogs ran their businesses on a CPI model, or “Cost per Impression.” Basically, writers were paid based on how much advertising revenue they had generated, most commonly by how many eyeballs they were able to track to their website. I was a new website, on a young network that hardly anybody had heard of. My first month I drew in a paltry, pathetic 600 visitors.
My check is for $0.37.
I didn’t understand any of this at the time, of course. I only knew that I had worked myself stupid at the cost of a social life, sunlight, and food, and I was rewarded with a check for less than a buck.
I was pissed, but I kept reading into how the Internet works, and eventually I was able to figure out what made other sites popular, and assess what was present and what was sorely missing from enthusiast gaming coverage. I stepped back, took a breath, recomposed myself, and jumped back in with both feet. I can’t tell you exactly how successful X360R, and eventually 1PStart, were under my watch. I can only say that I was able to pay my rent after about two months.
I built myself from there. I left 451 Press after a year to start my own independent publication, which I operated for three years. I used that opportunity to network with designers, PR, Marketing, and Community professionals. I forged friendships that I still maintain to this day. But most importantly, I was able to get my name out there – people knew who I was when I started poking my nose on the developer side.
That work, non-stop for four years by that point, is what afforded me the opportunity of a lifetime at BioWare.
And that’s the part that nobody bothers to mention in their “how to break into the game industry” commentary. “Breaking in,” is easy – you, quite literally, need little more than a WordPress website, a decent URL, and some free time to maintain it. There are numerous gaming websites out there, right now, that exist. The actual effort comes in making somebody care that you’re there. The hard truth is that the video game industry is very incestuous – we hire from within, and when we see a designer out of work vs. a college graduate who has no practical experience, that laid off designer will be hired 99% of the time, saving 1% for the instance where said designer is a supreme bastard (it happens). If you want to be noticed, you have to work yourself stupid and blow people away with how awesome you are. You must convince people that you can offer them something that, frankly, they both need and can’t find anywhere else.
While I’m on the subject of busting your ass off, don’t think that stops once you’re in. The video game industry is hard work, day in and day out, and while some companies – ones that can afford to financially and artistically – are taking efforts to balance the work/life split, you should still expect to spend many late nights at the office. Crunch, the dreaded C-Word amongst game developers, is an unfortunate fact of life at far too many companies, and you will learn to appreciate things like bottomless coffee and dinner on the company dime.
And if you think that Quality Assurance and Testing is just “playing games all day,” get out. QA, quite often, is the most overworked and under-appreciated department in any game company. If your QA team sucks, your game will suck. Period. So remember to buy your QA guys pizza and Mountain Dew every once in a while, because that part of the stereotype is entirely too true.
Despite the “less than savory” parts of working in game development, the work itself is great. You’re given a wealth of creative freedom, and the people that you will be collaborating with will open your eyes to entirely new ideas and philosophies. Plus, after busting your hide on a project for two, three, four years, the sense of accomplishment you feel at seeing that game ship is unmatched. I’ve seen grown men; big, burly dudes who started their every daily stand-up by forcing their team to do ten push-ups, break down into tears – blubbering ones, too – when release day came along and you get the email reading “congratulations, we did it – take the day off.”
“But James,” you may be saying. “I’m ready to take on that workload but I don’t know how!”
Okay. If you’re wanting to get in with QA, which is the most common way to break into the games business, you need to show that you have a critical mind. Showcase your critical thinking skills as well as attention to detail and thoroughness in your work.
You want to be a designer? Create mods. Plural. Tinker with games across genres, and learn the tools of the trade – Unreal and Unity, especially. Some companies will have you working on Frostbite, CryENGINE, Heroblade, or something completely proprietary, but they all share similarities with Unity and Unreal. Once you’ve made stuff, for the love of god create a portfolio. Highlight your best work, either through screenshots or through video (esp. video if you’re looking at animation jobs).
This goes double for aspiring artists. Portfolios are required.
Programmers? …I’m not the guy to ask about that. I consider what y’all do to be dark magic in the first place. You people are magicians.
Finally, and I cannot stress enough, expect rejection. For every one job you see that you want, you will be competing against a hundred-plus people. Companies take a lot of factors into account; experience, knowledge of the company and the game, personality fit within the team, location – a lot of European game design jobs are impossible for foreign designers to land because of laws on international hiring. Do not let any one, or two, or hundred, rejections keep you down. Use that time to further refine your work, and keep at it. You may not land the most idyllic job right out of the gate, but if you keep at it you’ll find your opportunity, and find your place.
Promise.