Advice for Would-be Game Programmer/Designer?

[MoodyBlues]

Hey, guys!

I have a dilemma that you've probably have or soon will have - job searching!  Like most people here, I have a passion for game programming and design, but it's difficult to get my foot in the door, let alone find places that are hiring.  Part of my problem is that I just graduated, and I don't have much experience yet. 

To those of you who've made a living off making games, I ask - how'd you do it?  Did you have to "pay your dues" first by working in a field other than video games?  Did you do a bit of social networking?  Did you do anything unusual to get attention?

[RickJ]

I haven't worked specifically in the game industry but have been working as a contract engineer/software designer for the past 20 years.  I think it's currently fashionable in the software business for employers/recruiters to have very specific experience/skill requirements.  I don't know if this because of lazinezz on the part of HR people and recruiters or if it's because of a glut of software people left over from the dot com bust.  I am not certain but it seems to me that it's common to put teams together for specific game projects; if so then being flexible and having an entrepreneurial spirit/attitude may be helpful.  

Anyway here are some job listings from Dice.com.   Apply to the jobs you think you are qualified or are interested in doing. If possible, phone the recruiter, ask for his/her direct e-mail, and send your resume directly to the recruiter.   Keyword searches etc are all the rage and many of the job boards won't even forward your resume and the recruiter many never ever see it.  Career Builder is particularly awful at this and I would recommend avoiding it, if at all possible.  Follow-up the next day and confirm that the recruiter has your resume and use the  opportunity to network and glean as much information as possible.  

Anyway I wish you the best of luck.   Maybe some oth ers will be able to offer better advice.

[edit]
Here is an ad for multiple entry level positions.
http://seeker.dice.com/jobsearch/servlet/JobSearch?op=302&dockey=xml/5/f/5fbb2f7f6d988d129be1e017d3f01f56@endecaindex&source=19&FREE_TEXT=game&rating=99

[Clarvalon]

Likewise, I don't work in the Games industry but am in the process of entering it as an independant.

I'd hazard that the best way of getting your foot in the door is having a good and varied portfolio of completed projects, as this is the next best thing to actual commercial experience.  There are plenty of open source game projects you can get involved in.  It also wouldn't hurt to have a few other side projects, web development etc. as proof of technical competence if nothing else.

C/C++ seems to be the defacto industry standard for game development, though I'd happily recommend C#/XNA to anyone.  The Xbox Live Indie Games channel probably provides the easiest route to market to an established audience.  A self-funded, published and profitable game would look good on any entry-level CV.

Good luck!

[Mr Flibble]

Any programming jobs in my city seem only to require a strong knowledge of Java.

[MoodyBlues]

Any programming jobs in my city seem only to require a strong knowledge of Java.

Yeah, I was raised on C++, but everyone wants Java nowadays.  I feel so old now. XD

Thanks for the advice so far, guys.

[Adamski]

I'd hazard that the best way of getting your foot in the door is having a good and varied portfolio of completed projects, as this is the next best thing to actual commercial experience.  There are plenty of open source game projects you can get involved in.  It also wouldn't hurt to have a few other side projects, web development etc. as proof of technical competence if nothing else.

C/C++ seems to be the defacto industry standard for game development...

The advice above is probably the most useful, a good porfolio is a necessity these days. When I got my first job I basically demoed a couple of indie games that I was working on at the time and bits and pieces of University work.

It is astonishingly hard to get in to the industry if you don't have any previous experience, but it is possible. Some companies are more friendly towards graduates and juniors than others, but usually you end up having to grab anything that comes your way, even if it means slumming it with a less than desirabe development company for a bit. I got incredibly lucky, but most people don't!

It's absolutely crucial though that you have a very well written CV, because I've seen so many bad ones come my way and it's just so darn competitive there isn't time to give a second thought to the ones that haven't had the time spent on them that they should have! I'd be very surprised if you can get a job without a relevent degree in the field you're going for, especially if you have no previous experience... I'm pretty confident that my degree and grade contributed a large amount to me getting my first job too.

Also, I'm not a programmer but everyone seems to use C++ as a standard, so you'll need to know that. Never seen any professional use of Java, but it varies from company to company.

[Layabout]

Java is used for boring stuff like writing mobile games. You don't want to do that. You want to know C++. AFAIK, C# and XNA are pretty much frowned upon by programmers in the industry. C# is used pretty much only for tools programming. Games = C++.

[MoodyBlues]

I'm curious, Adamski - how did you get your employer's attention in the first place?  Just a combination of good grades, the right degree, hard work, and a little luck?

At this point, if the job I'm looking at right now falls through, I'd be willing to do really unusual things to catch the eye of a game development company.  The process of constantly applying for jobs online and getting rejected almost every time - video game jobs or not - is becoming frustrating.  Heck, I have good grades, two degrees, some experience, and a nice resume; I wonder what I'm doing wrong?

Meh.  Guess it's one of those rite of passage things.

[TheJBurger]

Yeah, just like other people have said, I think C++ is the standard in the games industry.

I spoke to a guy from Activision a while back and he said the same thing: If you want to be a programmer, you have to be proficient in C++. When employers ask what your proficiency of C++ is on a scale of 1-3, it must be 3 or else they won't hire you. In essence, he said that C++ is the language of the games' industry.

[Layabout]

I'm curious, Adamski - how did you get your employer's attention in the first place?  Just a combination of good grades, the right degree, hard work, and a little luck?

At this point, if the job I'm looking at right now falls through, I'd be willing to do really unusual things to catch the eye of a game development company.  The process of constantly applying for jobs online and getting rejected almost every time - video game jobs or not - is becoming frustrating.  Heck, I have good grades, two degrees, some experience, and a nice resume; I wonder what I'm doing wrong?

Meh.  Guess it's one of those rite of passage things.

I think with games jobs it's a matter of knowing people and showing that you want to make games. Ie, have a sample of your work from a game project you have programmed (ie with C++). It is that way with art related jobs I know for sure.

[Buckethead]

It's a good idea to do some MOD work to get experience. Game mods are often lacking good programmers. Doing personal (and a little more proffesional) projects shows dedication. Not to mention that working in a team on something interesting is loads of fun! If you are looking for a job in the gaming industry, you must have a portfolio. Even if you are applying for a programmer position. And joining a mod is a good way to build one.

[Stee]

In terms of C#/XNA, apparently its not taken seriously by Game Dev companies, probably due to its infancy and restricted use (portability concerns etc). No big companies really use XNA, whilst C++ is considered standard.
I have a few friends graduating from a games tech course struggling to find work with XNA, luckily they got a c++ (module) whacked on at the last minute (i'd switched course by then), but the industry is damn near impossible to break into.

I haven't worked specifically in the game industry but have been working as a contract engineer/software designer for the past 20 years.

Just out of curiosity, how popular is UML (ie does it get used or does everyone think its a waste of time). Just wondering as we were told it is essential to learn by our lecturers, whilst I've met people who develop for companies who say its useless and they don't bother with it.

Personally, I think its a waste of time that could be spent develop an actual piece of software, but then I've never worked on something large scale, where i can see how it might be useful.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

In my experience, breaking through the games industry has become more about who you know than what you know, though sooner or later what you know will be the difference between keeping the job and losing it.  My perspective on this topic comes from years and years of experience, both on the outside looking in and somewhat on the inside looking deeper, and I know at least a handful of people who are brilliant in their particular field that just get no breaks when it comes to the game industry because they aren't well connected or bullshit artists or part of the 'everything must be 3d' bandwagon.  Lacking the aforementioned bullshit skill, you'll have to completely explode the minds of potential employers with a 3d engine or modelling skills, know someone on the inside who will take a chance on you, or work on the fringe in an indie company making casual/cell phone games.

As an aside, I used to really want to be part of the whole commercial industry.  This was until I saw a steady decline in innovation in favor of guaranteed profits and a growing shift in control from the developers to the publishers.  I can't remember the last time I played a game where I felt the developers were truly trying to stretch or break some boundaries and give me something more than just a slightly improved version of last month's best seller.  I think independent developers like Dave Gilbert are in the ideal position to exercise some innovation within a tightly controlled industry, so for now I'm more excited about indie games than becoming yet another big industry drone.

[Clarvalon]

The comments about C#/XNA are mostly valid;  C++ is industry standard due to portability and speed, though these issues can be mitigated - you can achieve some pretty impressive results with C# if you are careful about garbage collection.  Likewise, portability improves thanks to projects like mono and silversprite.  Thanks to the latter I should be able to get my XNA engine running on Mac/Linux.

XNA's strengths are code cleanliness and speed of development.  It's remarkable easy to prototype with, and Xbox Live Indie Games remains the easiest route to the console market for amatuer/indie developers.   

[Adamski]

I'm curious, Adamski - how did you get your employer's attention in the first place?  Just a combination of good grades, the right degree, hard work, and a little luck?

I pretty much emailed my CV to every single company I could find the contact details for, and followed up every relevent job advertised on places like gamesindustry.biz, datascope, aardvark swift, etc. It was a combination of brute force, sheer luck and timing that got me an interview eventually... and once you have experience under your belt the whole thing becomes a lot easier! Basically you'll want to be on the lookout for Junior or Graduate positions, and as a programmer you'll find quite a lot of them... designer positions less so.

Oh, the other good advice would be to be prepared to move to the other end of the country! It makes the difference between breaking in to the industry and... well, not.

[MoodyBlues]

Thanks for the insight, Adamski. 

Oh, the other good advice would be to be prepared to move to the other end of the country! It makes the difference between breaking in to the industry and... well, not.

Yeah, I figured as much.  Unfortunately, there aren't many gaming companies here in good ol' Kansas. :S

[edmundito]

moodyblues the best advice I can give is that, aside from doing the typical job stuff like having a good resume and being prepared for an interview is to build your experience making tour own games and building a portfolio. If you want to be a programmer in games you I recommend building your own engine, even if it's for a simple game like tetris and leveraging libraries like sdl, etc. It's important that you master c++, unfortunately.

If you want to be more of a gameplay programmer or scripted you should definitely mod some games, or even release a few games with ags, flash, whatever. Make sure you do something that hasn't been done before even if it's small.

Go to gdc. If you don't have much money try to volunteer. If you get connections there then you can start getting your foot in the door.

In America don't aim for the big studios first, they are very competitive and inecessarily selective. Look for anything that can get you started on harnessing your interests in game development.

You could also do what I did and go to grad school for it, but it's expensive. The reason I did this is because I'm not an American citizen and in general it's dificult for me to get a job because of the legal issues companies have to do to keep me here.
Finally don't get discouragednif you don't make it in a year. Right now the American game industry is on hard times and there's lots of unemployed people looking for jobs

[edmundito]

Oh and some true stories here: I almost worked at tellltale games once just because of saturday school. I even flew to their office to interview. Looking back i didn't think the Interview went that well and i didn't feel confident enough. I did get flown there because the phone interview was pretty good.

However, miss inquisitive stranger who made adventures with sludge did land an internship there and now days she works for mr Ron "monkey island" Gilbert in Vancouver, showing if that you can prove that you can make and complete games then anything is possible.

[TerranRich]

Just out of curiosity, how popular is UML (ie does it get used or does everyone think its a waste of time).

It's utterly useless unless you're developing a colossal-sized piece of software with a team of dozens. I was forced to learn it, never understood it at all, and never needed it, ever.

[Stee]

Just out of curiosity, how popular is UML (ie does it get used or does everyone think its a waste of time).

It's utterly useless unless you're developing a colossal-sized piece of software with a team of dozens. I was forced to learn it, never understood it at all, and never needed it, ever.

Just as I thought.

Cheers