Hi
I been with Unity3d little more then a year now, still have a lot to learn. Besides unity I also leanring C# .Net framework, 3D software like Maya.
So I went to looking at how far away I am from a job ready level, turns out it is not so plesent.
I went on site like indeed, craglist. All the job requirment are relative hig, some are very high. Phrase like
“X number of years expirence in Unity”, “At least ship X professional level game”, " Profecient in programming lanaguage across the board" “Profecient in Maya,3D Max, this and that” all those make me wonder, is there any hope for beginner level? or I am just looking at wrong place, where all they want is a really professional?
I also notice that “VR,AR,C++,Maya,3DMax,3D software” pops out a lot, so is this some skill sets to go?
From what I saw, you need to be professional about both side of the game, you have to be professional about the programming and the art oriented side, special effects, animation, 3D modeling all that stuff.
What is freelance work structure looks like? Do the contractor gives a list of things they want and how they want it to be done?
I have a bullet hell game I started like four month ago, still continues working on that in my free time. Now look at the things I did the code I wrote back then, it is no good and needs improvement.
Guess just have to be more patient with this.
The biggest thing you can do is make a small game and give it away. Don’t worry about making money directly on it. Just use it to show that you can build a complete game.
The other thing you should do is double check the spelling in everything you do, including forum posts. You had several misspellings and grammar errors in your post, and that will turn off a potential employer. For example, in the first sentence, you said “then” instead of “than”, in the second sentence you said “leanring” instead of “learning”, and in the third sentence you said “plesent” instead of “pleasant”. Then you went on to misspell the words requirement, high, experience, language, and proficient. That will turn off potential employers, so you will want to be more careful about spelling and grammar.
“Beginner” is like other’s have mentioned… making your own games. Everyone is a beginner game developer, there are millions of them. To get a job, you are going to have to be better than the millions of others trying to do the same. Not to mention competing worldwide with others in different economic situations. There just aren’t shortcuts, on-the-job trainer or beginner positions. There used to be, back in the day, there were jump off spots into professional game development, but even then those were lateral from other artistic or technical roles.
It works (although I don’t recommend it for everybody) for freelance repair/troubleshooting gigs, but I don’t see it going very far for postings about software development, unless you lived in a place like silicon valley
Buy vr/cardboard + suitable phone, make couple nice demos to show off —> (probably) hired in this vr rush!
or could take unity certification too, if want to have some ‘papers’ to show.
internet freelance work,
quite often it can be that: you do lots of work & extra changes for a small pay…
It sounds like you have a crystal clear picture of what’s needed already: games under your belt.
Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but companies don’t exist to give people experience. Companies exist to make money by pooling the talent of its people.
If you want to work for a company that pays people to make games you need to show that you can make games.
Go make some professional quality solo games. Then work with a group of people on one fair sized game that requires collaboration.
On my side of the world Indeed is a fairly reputable job board. It’s one of the places I was looking through in my last transition.
Craigslist’s reputation on the other hand…
And here I was thinking I was pretty good when it comes to grammar and spelling.
It is worth noting my job isn’t in game development at all. In my profession and position I can just list the last half a dozen projects I’ve worked on, and it pretty much guarantees an interview. The interview process is more of a discussion of fitting the position and company culture, rather then a demonstration of skills. I’ve walked away from a few interviews because the position wasn’t right for me.
I haven’t really done much in the game free lancing scene over the last year or so either. So my experience there might be a bit stale. When I started a few years back all I did was put a link in my signature saying ‘available for freelance coding’. I ended up with more work then I could manage.
Ultimately this is the answer. Make good games. Publish them. Build a portfolio. A bunch of completed games will be the best thing you can do to get in the door.
Do some research into where the Unity game hubs are in your country, remember any industry is a network of people and all the studios probably know each other and compete for top talent.
So relocation could be an option. Or finding or setting up a local Unity group and getting involved with them.
You could try the alternate route of trying to get into Unity as a coder and then with inside experience or even better unity could outsource you to studios that you help make games. Again very location dependent.
The thing is unless you are around and interacting with people in the Industry (most of the people here are not in the industry) then you are limiting your connections to the industry and chances to gain access.
Also it’s a very tough market out there you have to be able to outshine the best in the business to even get a foot in the door. So if you can get into up and coming technology like VR/AR then you could have an advantage.
A lot of Media and Tech companies also use Unity for presentations and VR stuff, check out the Unity Blog 2017 AR/VR summit it should be a growth market.
Finally have a plan B, C, D…Z as life is what happens to you when you are planning other things.
PS Also learn Unreal as a lot of studios stick with one engine and it’s not always Unity.
hmm like what is the kinda games you guys usually make for these portfolios?? crappy phone games like flappy bird??? is that impressive to anyone??? … i guess so…
i made a few but theyre all half done ( i mean, 0 polish) and made in like 3 days cause i didnt like to make em i just wanted to know i can make em in like 3 days… i woulda recycle binned em but idk i guess i still have em…
