I would like to hear some stories how everyone actually started developing games?
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What career? 
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Initially Iām not meant to speak directly about the career, I meant more like a path instead of it, but I would like to heard it.
Full Sail from 2005 to 2007, learning the basics of modeling, texturing, drawing, illustrating, lighting, rigging, animating. graduated decently competent. Went to work in Mission, Kansas for a small company called DXD FX. We did motion graphics for professional sports teams, like TV intros, lower 3rd adverts, and the like. My 3 month contract was up there and I did a phone interview with a company in Florida called Firebrand Games. Got hired over the phone, was told I would be working with EA on the next Need for Speed. That turned out true, ended up starting doing ambient traffic vehicles for Need for Speed Undercover. I did taxis, minivans, and sedans. After 2-3 weeks of that, they let me start doing environment work and after a month or so I was full on creating environments. I ended up working on 4 or so titles thereā¦multiple Need for Speeds, Hot Wheels, Cars 2, Spongebob, etc. I went through a nasty divorce with child custody issues and had to leave that studio after 2 years there.
I went home and started a freelance company building projects and assets for other clients. I also started selling on the Asset Store. At that point I took on site contract work too. I started at nSpace in Orlando and got to be back in a studio with a team. I worked on Jaws Ultimate Predator for Universal and then moved on to rigging and animation for Skylanders. I was there for a year just about and then returned to my freelance work at home. I would freelance for a few years and then jump back into the studio.
During my freelance time I also shipped multiple titles. I shipped a mobile game for the band Train (50 Ways to Survive), shipped a mobile game for the band Panic! at the Disco (Panic! in Vegas), a mobile game for Fallout Boy and for the singer Sia (Bob Job). These games all shipped to the iOS and Google Play app stores and got pretty decent ratings. I was an artist, an animator, a programmer and a tech setup guy for these games.
I returned to nSpace to work on Sword Coast Legends as a technical artist. Was cool to work on the next game for the Dungeons and Dragons IP. Inbetween freelancing and nSpace studio working I took a 3 month contract gig as a Unity final project instructor at the DAVE School at Universal Studios in Florida. They wanted to keep me on permanently to teach Unity and Unreal engine, but I just wasnāt ready to retire. I say this because teaching was really cool in a lot of ways, but in a lot it pulled me out of creating and I felt like I was retiring. I returned to more freelancing, and then about a year ago took a job as a 3D Modeler at Lockheed Martin. Very similar to the gaming industry, the content creation is almost identical. The only big difference in the engine that uses the art content is quite different than a traditional game engine. So far thatās my career path. Iām hoping to return to the gaming industry and get back into something much more creative. Simulation is cool, but itās not creative at all. Vehicles and buildings each and every day.
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wish i woulda always cared about video games , i had thought when i was younger that it was a stupid and wussy waste of time to care about it as a career, i want to like change the world lolā¦ science, inventor, something like thatā¦
and then i realized video games is an art form lol and it can change the way people think.
i wanna deliver morality messages and stuff to children, hope to make the world better,
Undertale is my hero and idol now! 
then again i suppose i wouldnt care about most peopleās video game projects, to have it as a paid career, i only care about it in the epic world changing way, screw money its a lame goal to do all that work just for money 
ā¦ sure entertaining people is a noble goal, but they have all that mtx gambling crap nowadays, id probably literally have to kill myself for honor, if i was working for those greedy scumbags some GDC stuff i seen like āhow to take advantage of peopleās psychological weaknessesā - in a perfect world theyd be executed by the govt LOOOL
I would never get into the game industry for money. Itās unstable and the art side doesnāt pay as well as some other careers out there. You get into it because you love to create things. You love to create things and you feel like the medium of video games is a good way to share your creations. I canāt explain the feeling of going into a store and seeing your game there in the glass case.
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thats awesome, youre a badass lol, i read all those things youve done and iam like mmaaann i wish i woulda cared about video games in High School and on, iam 28 now ā¦ i didnt care about video games like i do now until i was like 25? 26? kinda slow going learning, i had alot of experience with modding and stuff, as a kid, teenā¦ learn basic things like binary and hex and powers of 2 for textures, basic computer stuff so thats cool
coding is my weakness part of the individual doing all the things to make a game, and so iam thinking of going to college for like Software Engineerā¦ but i dont want a job doing that lol i just want to gain that knowledge for myself, i think its a little silly but whatevs i might
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Itās funny you said what you did. Iām not a badass :), Iām a lifelong student of this trade. What I wanted to say to you is, it isnāt too late by far. I know personally that it isnāt. I missed a big part of my own story. I didnāt have a clue what I wanted to do when I was 19 and then before I knew it I turned 21. I was sleeping in my 1984 Chevy Citation II, underneath a bridge in our town. I donated blood plasma to make money for cigarettes and $.99 hamburgers from fast food places. I actually took dishwashing jobs because I could get free food. Anyways, getting to the point. I was lost, didnāt know what to do. I enlisted in the Marine Corps and joined the military. I then spent the next 5+ years in the military and by the time I was discharged I was turning 27 yrs. old. I didnāt come out of the Marine Corps with video game development skills, in fact I spent the last 5 years in there and didnāt have any other career goals when I got out. I went to school at 27, graduated at 29 yrs. old. Iāve done all of that stuff after the age of 29, so I can definitely tell you itās doable. Itās possible well after that age to completely switch your career or even go to college and learn a new career.
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cool thanks youre a cool dude
i guess i just assumed to do all the things you listed youd have to have been HS to FullSail U
yeah i had no idea what i wanted to do for the longest time,
i wanted to do stuff with robots, went to electronics technician college, its a start, but then i saw theyre making military robots and it made me lose ALL interest in that field in anyway lol
but really all the time āwastedā ā¦ if what things happened in that time didnt happen, i wouldnt have the passion i have now for wanting to make artwork, to hopefully make peopleās lives better in someway, at least like 1 person lol
thanks thats reassuring!
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I was working in 1994 at a big textile printing place in Florida creating graphics for t-shirts, for NBA, MLB, NASCAR, things like that. A friend of mine who worked with me let me know about a game development company starting up, and he encouraged me to call them. I got an interview, landed the job, and was one of the first ten people hired at Tiburon Entertainment (later EA Tiburon), as an artist. We worked on SNES, Genesis, Saturn, and Playstation games, including the Madden series, NHL Hockey, the Strike series, etc.
From there I went to nSpace, although it was before @JamesArndt1 worked there. Worked on Playstation games including āDuke Nukem : Time to Killā. Then later to Boss Game Studios in Washington State where it was N64.
After a year or so at Boss Game Studios I started modding PC flight sims and train sims as a hobby outside of my regular dev job, and that lead to a huge contract from Terminal Reality to work on their next flight sim. Quit my job at Boss and started a company with my wife in 2000 to do that contract. Around that time I started learning programming. Iād done a bunch of BASIC when I was younger but hadnāt coded in years, so it was fun to get back into it.
We finished up our contract with TRI in 2001 and were in talks with Valve to use their Half Life engine for a new game, but like a lot of game ideas that one never happened. Thatās when we decided on a whim to make an adult game, and released it into the world. It turned into what was for almost 15 years a very lucrative market for us. There were very few competitors and we did well, having released 9 additional adult games over that time.
Our final adult game was released in 2015. Itās an experiment in some ways, being our first game released as a work in progress. So far itās done ok but nothing phenomenal. The adult game marketplace has changed dramatically within the past couple of years. Tons of people are making them now, and itās no longer something thatās totally hidden away. It was a good run and sort of fun (but also difficult), but weāre hanging up our adult hats and moving forward.
Right now, aside from continuing work on our last adult game, weāre working on two new non-adult projects, an auto racer and another small project. Neither have been officially announced, but we should have news after the first of the year. We also do some contract work for clients, making games or assets.
Iāve been doing this for 20+ years. I never planned to be a game developer, I just sort of fell into it. Itās been fun but as anyone here in the forum might have noticed, I frequently decide to leave development and move on. One of these days that will happen, Iām sure of it. You get up in your forties and your eyes change (harder to look at the monitor), your kids move out, you start seeing greener pastures elsewhere. In the mean time Iām sitting here chugging away, and itās a good feeling to know that I took something on and made it work, and along the way gave a lot of people a lot of good gaming times. Iāll always be thankful for that.
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@JamesArndt1 You have an interesting story. Thanks for sharing both the career and personal journeys thus far in your life. Hope you continue your success.
EDIT: I posted before I had a chance to read @Ony 's story, which is also great. Thanks for sharing.
As for me:
- Up to high school, I grew up as a self-taught traditional artist.
- Through high school, I āacquiredā Autodesk Animator/3D Studio/Photoshop and transitioned traditional art skills to digital. I tried programming numerous times, failed miserably, and stuck with Doom modding.
- Entering university, fought with parents about my major, Art vs. Engineering. I chose Computer Engineering as I saw it as a greater challenge, and thought it would have more opportunities.
- Through college, I discovered OpenGL, DirectX via gamedev.net and various Andre LaMothe books (remember those?), and started to build my own games.
- Out of college I joined a startup company doing a budget racing game, while my classmates took IBM jobs 10k+ more in salary. Due to lousy business practices, my naive self went unpaid for several months, but I shipped the game anyway, for street cred.
- I was unemployed for a year, trying to develop my own games/software, but it never went anywhere, as I was still inexperienced. The ādot comā bubble burst, and I had difficulty finding entry-level engineering work, so I went into retail for a year.
- I got fed up with retail, wanted to get back into the game industry, so I left for a QA contract job at EA.
- After a couple of years of this (separate QA contracts), I finally got hired as a full-time software engineer, and worked there for nine straight years on several projects, getting promoted twice.
- After finishing the large AAA title, EA laid off a large part of the workforce (as is per game industry standard, especially EA), including me.
- Free of any non-compete clauses, I created Under the Weather, went indie for a year, and released a couple of mobile games.
- Andā¦ the rest of my story can be found in the following links:
If you noticed, EA seems to be a trend. One major difference from JamesArndtās story though, is that Iāve always known that I wanted to be an artist and eventually make my own game(s). EA was fantastic when I worked there, but by the end of it, I was burned out, and realized what I really wanted to do was make MY OWN games (which you canāt do while working with a game company). I would probably go back in the industry if the opportunity was great. But as it is, Iād rather have my career in software engineering, but away from games, and utilize my EA experience for building my own games moving forward.
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I get it, Iām almost there, and Iām scared when this happens. I feel like all my life Iāve just wanted to make my games, and Iām scared that I wonāt ever get a chance to finish what I wanted to, because as you get into your 40s (I really donāt know yet, but soon), I think that Iād want to more enjoy life, enjoy the world, instead of slave away to make stuff. The window is getting smaller, so I have to plan these strategies a lot more carefully now.
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I took this line out of context a bit, but I did want to add something. I did know I wanted to be an artist from 4th grade onward. I started doing clay sculptures in school that we would glaze and kiln fire and such and I would enter into art shows. I also did a lot of painting and loved pointillism artwork. The difference is, this was around 1989 or so we didnāt have access to computers at school or at home. I just didnāt know I wanted to be a digital artist. I figured that out around 27 years of age.
@Ony - I find our histories ironic somehow. I am now moving back into screenprinting as a side thing to the day job. I learned this in the Marine Corps as part of my job making signage and stuff. I then did t-shirt screenprinting here in Florida for about 5-6 months hard labor (manual 6 platen press in a hot non-AC warehouse). I love printing and just want to step off the computer and physically create something tangible. The other thing that caught me: My wife sees me struggle with projects over a duration. She told me she thinks I should start making adult games Said there had to be money in that content.
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That would do it. I was in high school at around the time computers were starting to become ānecessityā. You know, when AOL mailed you like 8 discs a day.
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Well one can definitely look to Hideo Kojima and see that you can continue to make creative interactive media for a long time (and do it VERY well no less). Heās like early 50ās and people still wonāt shut up about his PT demo. 
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- Liked playing MMOs
- Wanted to make a better MMO
- Found out I was stupid
- Liked making other things
- Made cool stuff instead
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Hey, yeah, cool. I grew up in my Dadās sign shop, so screen printing, sign making, pinstriping, all that is in my blood. My first regular job (starting at age 11) was working for my father as an airbrush artist painting t-shirts and vanity license plates at race tracks in New England. That textile company I mentioned I was working for, it was that: screen printing. In addition to creating the designs my team also developed a new method of doing the separations in Photoshop for full color printing. Good times.
The adult game world can be interesting, but what I find these days is the people who are into things like furry, hentai, all of that are the ones taking it over. Traditional western adult āsimulatorsā like the ones Iāve made are on the way out. Times change. Iām not into that other stuff so Iāll leave it to the new generation. Thereās still money in it Iām sure, but it totally depends on your ability to give yourself over to it. Itās not an easy thing to be in, to be honest. Most devs keep it on the down low. Itās only within the last year or so that I finally started being up front about what I do. For almost 15 years we hid it from everyone. That takes its toll on you, believe me. If youāre truly interested, hit me up on Facebook or something and we can talk.
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Yep. I worked a sign shop in the military. Iāve weeded a ton of cut out vinyl in my day (not sure how long these Gerber vinyl cutters were around). Cut an epic ton of foam core board. Printed everything from tiny business cards to large banners. Cold and Hot laminated almost everything under the sun. Sounds like we had a similar experience. I may hit you up on that Facebook offer just to chat a bit about the market in general.
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I always wanted to be a scientist type growing up. As a kid I saw the rise of the home computers, from the Amiga right through to the modern PC. My parents made sure we always had access to a computer. They were convinced that computers would be āas important to us as reading was to themā. And they were right.
My first forays into programming was building batch files for MS-Dos games. Many games wouldnāt run unless you set up the conditions just right. My father did a lot of work building spreadsheets, databases and websites for local sports clubs. As I got older I helped out with a lot of the grunt work. And of course I messed around with text based games.
I got my degree in biochemical engineering. I had considered computer science, however it was a dead end field. Not much was happening, the market was saturated with graduates, and jobs were hard to come by. Just to prove me wrong, both FaceBook and smart phones were invented while I was studying.
Just a few months into my first job and my plant was in major trouble. We had a series of major safety incidents, including one that hospitalised an operator. The site was closed down, and production could not start unless there was a significant turn around. I was given a team to prevent more chemical spills, and we implemented an intensive leak reporting system. The poor clerk who had to process all of the reports was absolutely overwhelmed, spill reporting took up all of her time, and I still wasnāt getting enough data. I built a prototype for a database that cut out the need for a clerk. I showed my boss the idea, and my prototype went live the next day. My programming skills learned as a teenager ended up being more valuable in that role then my degree.
Somewhere during that time I discovered Unity. Unity opened up modern languages and engines for me. OOP was like discovering that magic really did exist. I spent a lot of time on answers and the forums (who knows, maybe someone will write something like this about me one day). I put out a couple of small games, including Pond Wars. I also got involved in the beta testing of 4.6, which lead directly to my YouTube channel.
Around this time I was made redundant from my chemical engineering role. I mentioned the change on the forums, and I ended up getting a PM asking me to do some freelance coding. While it wasnāt a huge project, the money helped bridge the gap to my next chemical engineering role. And it gave me the confidence to realise that I had accidentally developed a skill that people were willing to pay me for.
Since then Iāve settled in to a chemical engineering role. But as time permits Iāve done multiple freelancing jobs on the side. Its been a nice set up. The day job pays all of the bills, but I still get to work on some very interesting and complex projects.
That beings me to today. My engineering contract is coming to an end in December. Iām currently evaluating my options for the next couple of years. Engineering has the money and the stability. Games have more risk and excitement. Either way its a great time to be alive.
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Thatās a really cool story. I have worked on some industrial safety simulations for chemical and oil plants and such. I bet you have a ton of great firsthand knowledge of this kind of environment. You might be able to use that to secure some very nice contract work.
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