What's It Like To Work In The Games Industry? As a kid you dream of making that next super mario game because you feel as you are escaping into a world of fantasy. Is it as fun as playing Skyrim in the evening when you've come back from a physical session of Badminton. What are the perks of working in this business compared to other media industries such as Television and Film. Do the highs outweigh the lows? Thanks.
'Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll'
Shigeru Miyamoto
Ask Prankster. He seems to think he works in the industry.
PSN: Sasukekun
Currently trying to play: FIFA 12, Virtua Tennis 4, Uncharted 3 MP, Portal 2, Naruto: UNS2, Nier, Ico & SotC HD, Child of Eden, House of the Dead: Overkill EC, Alpha Protocol.
Its amazing.
Done.
I hear it's shit. Hopefully I'll find out in 3 years time...
It's great pleasure for the players racing Lakitu on Wuhu Loop but maybe creating the inner mechanics for the players is not so fun. Depends on how hardcore you are.
You get to make entire worlds out of thin air. It's kinda fuckin' awesome. Workwise you're looking at look hours, expected unpaid overtime and extreme adaptability, but that's not so different to working in TV.
Spacehost, is that from experience?
What the fuck are "look hours"? "Long hours" I mean.
It's from experience, yeah. I was lucky enough to do a uni course where you spent a lot of time on micro-studio style development projects, I did Dare to be Digital last year, and I'm a few months into my first grad job, and they all back up what I've always read about games industry work, and frankly creative industry work in general.
How long would it take a person who has just got his graduate job at a small company to work at a triple A company like Nintendo, Konami or Vigil Games?
How long is a piece of string? ;) Depends on how good that person is, what skills they have, what vacancies the company they're after has, etc. I know some AAA studios would hire very talent graduates straight out of university (and a few of my coursemates have had this happen).
What course are you studying and which university are you at?
I've just graduated from Abertay's Computer Game Applications Development course. It's the less maths-intensive version of their Computer Game Technology course.
Wow, that's Super Cool. I'm planning to study the MProf in Games Development at Abertay University when i've completed my BA Degree. I'm based in Cornwall, doesn't seem like there's much games business down here unless you are a freelancer.
I'm doing a degree in Games Programming, interesting to hear what it's like working in the industry in general. At the end of it I'm hoping to go the indie route though, which is presumably much more stressful.
You'll like Dundee for games stuff then. Go along to Bert Wednesdays and the IDGA chapter meets, you'll make a lot of contacts that way.
Mouldywarp, if you're still studying I suggest looking at Dare to be Digital if you want to go indie. Do it in the summer before your final year, it's CV gold dust, and it's going to give you a very realistic idea of indie development (no money, stress, long hours, and the awesome feeling of standing on a show floor watching thousands of people play your game).
Will look into DTBD. I'm only just starting the degree now after finishing the equivalent of an access course. I'm going to try to brainwash someone from the Game Art degree into becoming my personal slave so we can make mercilessly difficult arcade games together during the summer holidays.
I like your thinking! In my experience iit's usually coders who wind up the bitch of artists, though. ;)
I'm starting a Computer and Video Games Development Diploma in 3 weeks which is based down here in the South West. Hopefully will give me the chance to create a good portfolio which i could use for a job interview at a company like Team 17, Codemasters or Sega.
Word of advice: evidence of practical experience is what you want for job interviews. If there's a particular company you want to work for try to get an idea for what languages and tools they use and try to make some polished demos using similar stuff. If it's console stuff you probably want to look at C++ programming, XNA, Unity...