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Most broadly applicable skill(s) for getting your foot in the door in the Gaming industry?
- Thread starter jcorb
- Start date
Herr Edgy
Member
Generally speaking you should choose to become a T-shaped person, if you want to get hired in the industry and not work indie.
A T-shaped person is a person that is familiar with many disciplines, but an expert in one. And even then, the 'other' disciplines are only relevant insofar they relate to your specialization. Example: If you want to do programming, you shouldn't just be 'a programmer', you should be an 'animation programmer' (with some knowledge of tools programming), a 'tools programmer' (with knowledge on graphs, serialization, and then some section like gameplay, animation, UI,...) and so on.
If you want to be a 3D artist, you should find a niche you excel in, while being at least intermediate in other areas (down the line, don't stress yourself).
Starting out in Unreal doing whatever is a good idea. You can explore what disciplines you are interested in, and what you naturally gravitate towards, and go all-in.
Playing around by itself will not get you a job though, not even entry-level most of the time.
You have to seriously learn what you are doing.
A piece of advice also: once you feel somewhat comfortable in a specific area in Unreal, seek out game jams. They are great ways to explore your capabilities and to get to know people.
As for your question 'most broadly applicable skill' - there is none because Game Dev companies don't seek out someone with a broadly applicable skill, they want experts.
That being said, there are levels to this obviously. There will be more programmer and 3D art roles in general than there will be Audio roles.
If I had to say, the broad areas of programming and 3D art (encompassing rigging, animation, sculpting or hard-surface, materials) are likely the most commonly needed descriptors.
Generally, tech artists are in high demand and get paid well. Tech Artist is one of those extremely ill-defined roles though. Could be anything.
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You'd think the blue haired trans joke would be done after the first few replies but literally over half the thread is people making the same joke like it's new.
Learn to code, learn Unreal, it's free to download and play with to get to grips, get into modding games as it will further help you understand how engines are put to use. If you want to be in marketing then trailers are usually edited with AVID this these days so it'd be good to focus on that. Aside from that build connections.
Learn to code, learn Unreal, it's free to download and play with to get to grips, get into modding games as it will further help you understand how engines are put to use. If you want to be in marketing then trailers are usually edited with AVID this these days so it'd be good to focus on that. Aside from that build connections.
BbMajor7th
Member
Do you want to be in development or publishing? They're two different sides with quite different requirements. I'd say the publishing side is probably easier as it's more diverse in terms of roles and is more likely to be draw on transferrable skills from other industries. Game development is a way more specific skill set.
{insert code here}
Member
You might be asking too broad of a question. Are you more interested in the engineering side, or the art side? Maybe start there because both paths require different sets of skills.
If you like the engineering path then my general suggestion is pursuing an engineering degree because you're going to want to focus on building up your problem solving skills and learning how to work under pressure. Engineering degree is going to require a lot of math/physics (in addition to programming) so you will gain a lot of experience in problem-solving across multiple disciplines (it will also gray you out if that hasn't already happened
). Either way this is just my opinion, have fun with it and keep a clear long term goal in mind when making your decision.
ReyBrujo
Member
Programming and resilience, working for the gaming industry is something I don't recommend unless you absolutely love programming and you love gaming. I wouldn't try getting a job as playtester or QA or anything else, though, as there's a gap between those who make games and those who break them. You can learn C++ for Unreal or C# for Unity, ideally both but objectively C# is better, if you quit or give up you can actually get a good job in the enterprise world knowing C# whereas with C++ you are pretty much limited to low level stuff like controllers and real time systems, robotics and simulation.
At your age though you will be competing against young people who not only might have spent more time programming than you already but also who can work for a far lower salary. So, you will have to practice quite a lot to match them, just use the skills you got in your jobs to your advantage (especially soft skills).
At your age though you will be competing against young people who not only might have spent more time programming than you already but also who can work for a far lower salary. So, you will have to practice quite a lot to match them, just use the skills you got in your jobs to your advantage (especially soft skills).
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cormack12
Gold Member
Seriously man, it's a closed shop. My brother got a 1st in video game art. He did all the networking, going to most expo's and indie events and shows, speaking to the likes of Rare, CA, Reflections, startups, TCR etc.
He did 3 placements with indies, one of which got their game to production recently, but it was basically an internship.
No studio wants to touch him for free work experience as they would be exposing their IP. Big houses point you to their grad programmes which are saturated or speculative CV.
Right now he is cross training as a data analyst, using python, R, scripting etc.
The industry is a massive boys club, that works on nepotism and favours unless you're in the 1% of insane talent. Problem is that 1% is such a tiny sliver and that 1% is insanely talented.
He did 3 placements with indies, one of which got their game to production recently, but it was basically an internship.
No studio wants to touch him for free work experience as they would be exposing their IP. Big houses point you to their grad programmes which are saturated or speculative CV.
Right now he is cross training as a data analyst, using python, R, scripting etc.
The industry is a massive boys club, that works on nepotism and favours unless you're in the 1% of insane talent. Problem is that 1% is such a tiny sliver and that 1% is insanely talented.
Wildebeest
Member
The CRPG scene is sort of small and weird. If you want to get into writing related jobs for it, then I guess you could try a bit of modding to work on a portfolio. Bethesda games are the most popular for modding but getting involved in some mega mod for Fallout 4 would probably be a waste of time. Though its old some people might have cut their teeth making Neverwinter Nights mods, which is better for roughing out a dialogue heavy adventure with combat, but still shows off some scripting. I actually asked a Disco Elysium guy once what they used to prototype it, but I forgot. Probably some sort of toolkit they got for Unity, they didn't hand roll it.
ThatOneGrunt
Member
Making coffee. My in-law started at a cafe at blizzard. Now is a UI designer.
cireza
Member
Around this age I personally decided to start making games on my free time as passion projects. My current job is good, interesting, captivating, but not my passion and does not have to be anything like it. Two separate things.
I did have a strong background around development in C, algorithm, data-structures. And then C++. These things sound essential to me.
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As someone who works in the gaming industry, and have done for around 20 years, I’m happy to answer this.
It completely depends on what you want to do; game design, art, production, programming. QA etc. each one has different needs and requirements, so they all vary depending on that.
Production, for example, doesn’t need a game industry “background”. This involves things like project management which can lead to producing etc,
So it really all depends what you are interested in. My son’s friends would always ask me; “how can I be a game designer?” And I would tell each and every one the same thing; read and learn as much as you can about variety of subjects.
Architecture, comics, philosophy, physics etc.
I hope this helps. Try and narrow it down what you would like to do and take it from there.
It completely depends on what you want to do; game design, art, production, programming. QA etc. each one has different needs and requirements, so they all vary depending on that.
Production, for example, doesn’t need a game industry “background”. This involves things like project management which can lead to producing etc,
So it really all depends what you are interested in. My son’s friends would always ask me; “how can I be a game designer?” And I would tell each and every one the same thing; read and learn as much as you can about variety of subjects.
Architecture, comics, philosophy, physics etc.
I hope this helps. Try and narrow it down what you would like to do and take it from there.
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StueyDuck
Member
depends what you are expecting to be and how low you are willing to start.
I can't talk about games in particular. However, I can tell you from the tech side of development in general that any position that isn't an entry-level junior position is going to want prior experience and quite a large amount of knowledge in many aspects of development which is usually multiple languages or some sort of stack, you'd most likely be expected to at the very least be proficient in gitbashing (github), aws or azure or some sort of cloud solution as well as methodologies like agile, honestly the list can go on for long. I feel jumping straight into the deep end in any sort of technical role in today's development environment is going to be very intimidating if you haven't had some sort of experience in the industry already. It's no longer a white board question and analysing logical thinking anymore.
my personal question would be, does it have to be in the industry? why not a personal project, create your own game, it'll be a good way to learn something like C# with Unity or Godot or Blueprint (UEscript) with UE5 and get your foot in the door and possibly earn money.
look at something like vampire hunters. Obviously nothing can ever be a sure fire hit, but it might be a better way to transition roles rather than trying to get a foot in the door with no experience.
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BbMajor7th
Member
Digital marketing is a huge (and quite lucrative) part of the modern industry. If you've got experience with web production, CRM, paid media, stakeholder liaison and the like, you could apply to pretty much any publisher mid-sized or above.
What's more is that most are running on remote/hybrid models these days so you don't even necessarily have to relocate. Aside from that, marketing and publishing get most of the perks, the better salaries, the endless freebies... and they get to work on hundreds of different products every year, rather than working on one for years at a stretch.
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Build games, lots of games…and do udemy courses etc (don’t bother with a games degree like I did
…they barely existed when I did it, they were shit then and as I understand shit now).Make small games in your spare time with a couple of friends (find those with complimenting skills), don’t over complicate them, start by building them with a view to actually shipping as fast as possible. I used to do mini game jams with some colleague where our goal would be to come up with, build and submit to the AppStore an original simple idea in 2 days. With full working gameplay loops, supporting mechanics and ui, menus, monetisation, AppStore assets, original audio production and music, optimised keywords, and social posts, just 3 of us. Did half a dozen or so of those.
Attend as many proper game jams as you can forming bigger teams with your friends and strangers, or just finding a team you can join, and actually make games whilst honing whatever related skill/s your have an interest in and talent at. Be as useful as possible at as many things as possible, in small teams there’s value in having quite broad skills.
I used to help organise some of those, and would also run teams at them. Ran a team of students and fresh grads during one of the global game jams, it won one of the categories, and one of the student team members saw people from the Scottish BAFTAs were their looking for people to submit for possible nomination, they submitted and actually got nominated. MS then funded to take the idea from a game jam project to full production as a windows phone game. So the team of fresh students formed a company to do it (I had my own shit going on so bowed out at that point). One of those team members was already pushing 40 with grown kids, so never too late, Most of them, including her are now fully established with careers in the industry.
My main interests were always games industry adjacent, such as apps and edutainment. Games were a fun side hustle, it’s a pretty gruelling industry that I wouldn’t recommend for everyone (particularly aaa, had many friends in Aaa, it’s 100% not for me
) But if your committed to it, then spending a year trying the above wouldn’t be a bad route.Showing up to interviews with a dozen actually shipped games in your portfolio will be of more value than showing up with nothing but an expensive 3 year degree and a portfolio of “stuff”.
SF Kosmo
Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Any skill you develop that can get you a job in the game industry will probably get you a better, more dependable job outside of the game industry.
But if you want to find your way in, modding is often a good start because it lets you build a portfolio that you can actually use when it comes time to apply to jobs.
You don't necessarily have to start with game development to get your foot in. You can start yourself in a different role like a tester, customer service, hr, sales, marketing etc...alot of companies like to hire/promote from within. Once you're in do a good job and get to know the decision makers. Between two equally qualified candidates the internal one will usually get the nod over the external one.