I wasn’t sure where to ask this, but I decided to ask here since it seems that there are some people with experience.
I’m a student from a Game Art bachelor’s and I also had some lessons in programming. I’m about to graduate soon but there’s a problem, I don’t know how to start. I was thinking of going for an internship but not that many companies offer internship and the ones that do have a deadline that passed or aren’t a category I qualify for. So what other options do I have?
I consider myself above average in modeling and average in programming. I can pretty much do every role on a game but I’m not “AMAZING” at a role, just good. If I have to say what’s my best, it would be character design. I’ve made several game prototypes in Unity, a hack’n’slash beat 'em up, an on-rails shooter, and a turn based strategy game. I’ve always wanted to make my own game rather than work on someone else’s game and I got several ideas, but I wanted to start in a company so I could get the idea of how it is to work on a retail game. I work a lot when making a game, in those prototypes I made, I could not stop working until I completed all of the basic of what I wanted.
Should I start by making my own game since I already have experience with Unity or should I look for a job at an existing company or is there another option?
Nice to see a newcomer not wanting to create a MMORPG on his own as a first gig.
First get a job! Any job!
If you are familiar with Unity make something small in your spare time. While you have your job in a restaurant keep sending emails to game companies.
Good luck
I wish there was an easy guide to getting into the games industry, but alas, it does not exist. Everyone has their own story and there is no right or wrong way to go about it. You need to show off what you can do, create a portfolio if you don’t have one already, keep it updated and keep adding to your collection. The only way you will become “AMAZING” is through practice and dedication, if you can’t get your dream job straight away, try go for something else gaming related or otherwise, get money coming in and work on your own games in your spare time.
A year ago, I was in a similar position, about to graduate with a bunch of dev skills, good at everything but not amazing and I couldn’t find the job I wanted. It was a very “wtf do I do” stage, so I decided to branch out, the games industry is huge with lots of different roles to fill so I looked into Community Management and it turns out I absolutely love it.
I’m not saying you should take the same path as me or even listen to what I’m saying :p, but don’t be disappointed if everything doesn’t turn out how you planned and don’t be afraid to look in a different direction. Keep your passion and dedicate yourself to what you love doing, just make some kick-ass games.
It’s not easy with the economy being what it is right now. There are many people out there with degrees that can’t find work, any work. US and the UK are hit the worst right now. Your best bet to to get real good at one thing and stand out.
Are you talking about fresh out of school grads that think a piece of paper is a get-all qualifier or a person with years of experience under their belt? Because the former is to be expected and thus not to be treated like a “holy grail”.
I’m talking about fresh out grads that can’t get a job cutting hair or flipping burgers, not thinking their resume will get them into their industry even.
Get involved, go to the collaboration forum and look for people needing artists.
Start with some small jobs and help a few people out, build your portfolio, then once you’re a little better and a little more experienced start doing some work for cash in the Commercial work forums.
Take a look at other portfolios and take them as example. Something apart from “being AMAZING”: Try to network as much as possible.
GDC, PAX, E3, GamesCom, you name it. Watch out for game jams. Try to get involved, do not just visit them. Maybe you could organise some sort of “Newcomer Booth” at a fair, with the help of IGDA or another association. I´ve done so back in 2007 together with the german G.A.M.E. Association at the Games Convention in Leipzig and it helped me to get a foot in the door.
Try to make appointments with developers, publishers and middleware developers before you went to a fair.
Grind, grind, grind. Eat, sleep, drink, and ish your career. Luckily, with Unity (and other indie engines), you can bypass the whole gaming job thing, and make your titles. Do get a job and make your game at nights, no sleep allowed. lol. Realize that this might take some years or not, if you’re lucky.
Networking is important too. Try to find a Yahoo or Google group that have similar interests and live near to you. You can probably progress faster that way.
P.S. If using Unity, invest in PlayMaker. It’s an awesome tool.
Not sure about the minimum amount, but don’t throw everything you have in there, keep it to your absolute best work. This will clearly change over time with improvement, but that’s ok.
I was thinking on working on one of my games and see how it goes when I release it. But then I thought it might not work the way I’m thinking. Out of the games I made so far, the only one I have a clear vision on what I want to do is the turn based strategy game for mobiles. I was thinking on making it f2p, where you get preset units when you create an account. I wanted to make it so after each game, you get points to get new units or you could buy them faster with cash, kinda League of Legends. But I was thinking of making things not as expensive as League, nothing over $5 and about 5 victories to get enough points to buy the highest tier unit while in League it takes around 30 or more victories to get a character in the highest price tier.
I wanted to make it feel like you have miniatures like Warhammer and those similar games, where you can paint the unit or give it some other customization. While I’ve never played them, I’ve been researching them to get a better idea. I never got a chance to play those types of games because TCGs were more popular in my area and miniatures weren’t sold anywhere. There is something else I want to add to the game but I’m not sure if I should which is a chance of permadeath for your units. In games like XCOM or Fire Emblem, some people find it fun when they name their units(in the case of XCOM) and grow attached to them as they grow stronger. Then they feel sad as the character dies and is no longer with them. It’s those kinds of emotions I want to players to have because of permadeath. The reason I might not want to add it is because people will just say its a dick move where it’s only purpose is to force players to buy more.
But the permadeath is not the reason why I don’t think the game might work. This game will be is PvP focused, and if barely anyone plays, then the people that do play will most likely leave due to lack of players. My concern is that if my game doesn’t get enough players, then there won’t be much reason to buy stuff, even if it’s cheap. How many players do you guys think a game like this will get if it’s released for Android or iOS? Will marketing be necessary to have a playerbase big enough to sustain it as a PvP game? Or is the indie market too unpredictable that I won’t know unless I try?
I also thought that I might need to get a server to have all the account data, would I need a team to help me managing it or can server maintenance be done solo?
I pretty much programmed the basic gameplay of the game and I’m ready to add new units and other stuff, but after thinking about this, I’m not sure if I want to continue.
My basic advice is not have a lot of unfinished concepts, but to push a smaller project to completion and have it available for purchase on a place like the iOS/Android app store. It doesn’t have to be a big epic project but having something done and being able to put it on your resume I think helps a lot. If it takes off and supports you solo, great! If not, I found that it really helps on your resume/interview talking about the complete process of a project that you participated in.
I don’t want to rain on your parade but I remember hearing about an indie game that is in Beta right now which is that exact concept minus the customisation. I heard about it on RebelFM (podcast) but I can’t for the life of me remember the name of the game.
It takes a lot of time and practice to be valuable enough to be employed as a programmer. I dunno how to do it as a designer, somehow you’d have to showcase designs that a company sees as doable and profitable. Real game design is a lot harder than it’s perceived.
edit:: On a positive note, since you’ve made some prototypes you should make a video of how each works, and a nice portfolio that’s easy to view by potential employers.
I just did and registered on elance, saw a unity 3d developer job in my city looking for someone local, all the other offers were from indians. I sent the guy a webpage with my unfinished prototypes, told him I’ve been using my mobile basic license for a year.
He got right back to me and I’m meeting him today to discuss the position…more action than I’ve had on any of the job sites, and it’s for making unity games, my dream job…I’m in school too.
