So, here is the situation, I am an avid video game creator in my free time: I love making music, I love making art, and I am delving deep into the scripting side of things more and more with each passing day while I learn about using Unity. But all of these things aside, currently I work in a grocery store bakery and I hate feeling stuck in this job. I want to find a way to apply my variety of skills towards the wonders of video game kind, where they belong!
What I would like is a job that pays better than 9$ an hour (obviously). Alternatively I would like to make some connections with people in the industry who can talk with me / help get me involved somewhere to start⌠I mean honestly at this point, even some advice would be nice, because I know nobody and it would be refreshing to speak with some supportive people who know more than me!
If this isnât forum appropriate I am sorry, I just want some help with my life and I love talking with the people from this community. If there is a more relevant unity forum discussion for this topic, please let me know!
Go to a game development conference. Smile and talk to anyone and everyone that will listen. If youâre ready, you may find a connection that gets you some information on a job. No matter what, youâll get invaluable tips and advice.
the competition is tough and it is hard to get noticed⌠after 3 years and having started knowing nothing, Iâm still trying to put enough material and skills together to make a passable demo reel⌠and Iâve been working at this nearly full-time, solo.
Generally speaking, companies big enough to hire people donât get one person to make a whole game on their own, so you donât personally need skill in every area. Theyâll instead get full skill coverage by putting together a team of people who each specialise in some area - one or more coders, one or more artists, etc. as required.
So, when looking to hire someone companies are looking to fill a position. That means theyâll have some criteria and be looking for a fit to that. When looking for an artist, they probably wonât care if you can also do a bit of music - thatâs a different position. When looking for a coder, they probably wonât care that you can also do a little art - thatâs a different position. What they will care about is how well you fill the position theyâre looking at, and your strength in doing that directly correlates to how much time youâve invested into developing the associated skills. A jack of all trades will typically struggle to compete with a master of one.
There are exceptions, of course. Small businesses who canât afford to hire specialists for everything often pick generalists, because itâs better to have some capability than none and itâs useful in filling gaps. Or if youâve been doing it so long that youâre genuinely good at more than one field that can be super handy.
Itâs really important to have a portfolio, or some tangible proof that you have skills. It could be a simple mobile game (and you probably will get points for some moderate success on the app store) or a more traditional PC demo (doesnât have to be a 40+ hour game, a single good level could show promise). So really, Iâd advise getting some demo material out there and putting it in on a somewhat decent looking portfolio webpage.
Move. There are plenty of places in the world with minimum wages much higher then $9
Iâm in the opposite situation. Iâd love to do game development full time. But Iâm not willing to sacrifice my high salary for game development wages. Even the senior developers jobs advertised are going for less then a junior chemical engineer.
I am fortunate to be one of âbigâ company exceptions. Even so, as our studio is now a over at 100+ staff, there is only one other person than me, who really does that (general, wide range development). It is very rare role, most are very specific. And at times, I even get locked in to narrow roles for short periods time. Though having a broad skill set sure helps you avoid cutbacks.
As AP said, having a clear area of focus will help land a job. Usually when staffing up, it is done to fill a specific need. UI, TechArt and VFX often have more general dev tasks, or at least often have to interact with those areas.
This has all been really interesting to read through, I want to thank all of you for responding, I wasnât expecting this much feedback!
For those of you who were wondering about a portfolio, I do have a couple of things that I can share, but I should specify that I have only recently begun actually building my first functioning game, so when it comes to an example of a game I have made, that piece of the portfolio is still in the progress stage. For music/art stuff, I have some of my older creations up on a Bandcamp Page (all album art and background art I created):
Artistic portfolio stuff I have been withholding from the internet these days because I have been concentrating very hard on making a game, but for anyone interested in seeing some developmental stuff on my project I will toss a picture or two in here just for conversation I suppose:
In the end, I would consider moving, but that would need to be a result of getting a job, not while looking for oneâŚ
Also, regarding the topic of Generalist versus Specialist, I highly appreciate the discussion. I would like to specialize in music if possible because it is my strongest of the three, but realistically I want to be hired for any of the skills if at all possible because I want to be in an environment where I can benefit in a learning way for more advanced artistic or coding challenges while being a useful member of a team⌠I just donât know how possible that is I guess, which in the end is why I decided to ask all of you about this stuff! â Any advice directly related to finding music work would be most useful in terms of my most relevant job searchâŚ
As another point of this discussion, where would you consider to be the best places to find work as a game developer? - Any particular U.S. states or other countries around the world?
You could look into a job that allows you to study on the clock. There are A LOT of jobs where being there is 90% of the job and has a lot of down time that you could use to study.
Overnight positions, working at a college or university, jobs that require travel, truck driver, EMT, firefighter⌠All of those come to mind as having lots of free time.
Of course every employer is different, but there has got to be something more calm than working at a bakery (which I imagine is often hectic and draining).
But its in Auckland. We have such a beautiful country with so many creativity inspiring environments, and a digital company sets up shop in Auckland. With a decent internet connection they could have been anywhere.
That said, Iâm currently out of work. It might be worth the commute to get an in in the industry. Despite my earlier comments about a lower salary then engineering, Iâm currently not being paid in engineering.
@JamesLeeNZ You have any idea on how competitive the industry is over here?
Honestly, working in the bakery is a bit hectic, but think of it like this: most days of the week I am done with work by almost 1-2 in the afternoon. From that point on until I go to bed, I have been spending loads of time learning about Unity and C#. In fact, I had never once thought of using a script or expected that I might actually make my own game previous to February of this year⌠Since that point, I already have about 12 scripts in my game, and it is starting to function pretty nicely in terms of controls and interactivity for the playerâŚ
Long story short, I basically have plenty of time to be teaching myself the things I want to be learning. What I have trouble with is understanding how to project myself from where I stand right now into a position somewhere. I donât know how to accomplish that step without a resume that says that I went to school for game design, or that I have worked with a company in the past⌠so far as hiring employers are concerned, my resume doesnât look like I make games at allâŚ
You donât need to go to school for game design, or have previous experience at a studio (though that helps, of course!) - but âan employer canât tell that I make gamesâ is a problem that is entirely within your power to solve. You just have to make some games, and put them up so they can see them.
This, right here. Iâve never worked in game development. (personal circumstances and priorities) But a lot of the fields that I have worked in have overlapping skills with game development. And all of them pay pretty well. (certainly better than grocery store bakery salary) Iâm currently working a job in web development, where Iâve been learning a lot about C#, data-driven design, and database management. (as well as a little MVC architecture) Just the other day I was able to take some Linq-query concepts that I learned on the job and apply them directly to a Unity project that Iâve been working on in my free time.
A lot of the skills you learn from working with Unity apply to tech-sector positions. And technology jobs usually provide consistent work that pays well. Most of them also involve sitting at a desk in an air-conditioned office, which I personally find to be very comfortable work.
One of the beautiful things about the games industry (and tech industry to a degree) is that constant learning is critical and in a lot of companies, built in. We have access to pretty much all online learning resources (lynda, safari, gnomen, etc), and often have several classes a week (and many of us teach them as well). There is always time made for learning. I should clarify, it is not âtrainingâ. If you are looking for a job or to change roles in a company, it is expected that you have the skills for that role already.
Also, I donât know how it works in every studio, but my experience has been that sound/music is pretty separate from regular game development, often a dedicated team. Our sound team isnât even on site, they do the sound for many other games, we send requests, they deliver sound files. If you want to build more general skills and experiences, sound/music may be not be the right direction.
