The Game Industry

Here's a few things about the game industry you may not know.

1) Design your own game? 99.9% of the time you don't get to design whatever games you want to work on. Publishers come to the developer and say, we want to make a ____ game. Developer decides to do it or not, if they do, they draw up a concept for the idea, if the publisher approves, the development process begins. There's more to it then that, but the overall idea is the publisher tells you what to make.

2) Why do Buggy games ship? Buggy games are not always the fault of the developer. Many times the game is rushed out to make a deadline and shipped with bugs. I have yet to meet a developer who wants to ship a buggy game. Almost every time the publisher wants to meet some date, so the sales happen in a certain quarter to make the stock holders happy. More often then not there is some great feature the developer wants in the game but it gets cut beause of deadlines. Unfortunatly the publishers can't see that shipping a game a month late, but getting extra features and better quality game would generate more money in the long run.

3) What is crunch time? Usually near the end of a project, or near a milestone you will work crunch time. Which means working long hours, sometimes 7 days a week. A lot of developers work salary and aren't paid overtime. There is a lot of controversy about this in the industry. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know if you should or shouldn't get overtime, I get conflicting stories all the time. And each State has it's own laws on overtime. The company I work for is kind enough to pay us overtime....one of the few that does. It's not uncommon to work 80 hours a week...sometimes for a few months. When I worked at a previous company, we spent 5 months work 80-100 hours a week, with no overtime, no time off, no bonus, nothing, it's one of the main reasons I left that company. The current company limits us to 60 hours a week.

4) Is making games fun? Yes. Even though it's alot of hard work, the job is creative and fun. Before working in the industry I did warehouse work in a factory. I didn't enjoy going to work, now I do.

How to get into the industry...

A lot of people ask how one gets into the game industry. There are a lot of different ways. One of the most common answers people give is for the person to get a job as a game tester (QA). These jobs usually don't pay well (not much more then minimum wage). The idea is you get your foot in the door, and then later work your way up into better positions. I'm not sure how well this works, in fact I know only a few people this worked out for. One thing a QA job will give you...you will know if this industry is for you. It's hard work, tedious, and not as fun as some make it out to be. Picture playing a game for 8 hours a day...sound fun? OK now picture the game doesn't work...it crashes a lot, you can't beat it, in fact you may not be able to do anything. But you have to keep playing it to find all the problems.

The way most people get in the industry is go to college first, earn a degree, and then apply for junior position. This way works well, if the company you apply for is looking for lower level people to train. The biggest pitfall is "you need experience, but without the job you can't get experience" Biggest catch 22 of the industry.

The final way to get in the industry (and the way I got in)...get lucky. OK, it wasn't just luck.

First you have to figure out what area of game development you want to work in. There are 3 main areas. Programming, Art and Production. Programmers write the code to create the game. Artists create the art, animations, models, etc that the programmers put in the game. Producers run the project, make design decisions, write documentation, and keep the project going.

Once you know this, study that area. It's not a bad idea to learn other aspects to have an overall picture of development...just understand in the industry, you do one job, not all.

If you choose programming (what I choose), learn C and C++ programming languages. Learn how to use DirectX SDK, learn what an SDK is. Start making your own games. This is really important. Make working games, not just demos of technology. These demos...are what will get you a job. Impress an employer with a good game, and you may have an in. This is how I got into the industry. I applied at a company...later found out the lead programmer there said, the first person who sends us a working game is hired. I was the only one who sent a working game (menus and all).

If you chose art, learn how to use programs like 3D Studio, Maya, and Photoshop, create models, artwork, sketches to build a good portfolio...send this to companies with your resume. If your style is good and consistent, you may just get an interview.

If you chose production, study up on game design, write some game design docs, get a job as a tester (tester sometimes leads into production work).

Good luck.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog about game development. Let me tell you a little about me. I've been working in the video game industry for about 7 years now. My first job was at a small game company in Santa Cruz, CA. The company went out of business a few months after I started there due to some publisher issues. After that I went to work for Sony Computer Entertainment of America in Foster City, CA. I spent the next 5 years there, before moving to Big Bear Lake in Southern California where I now work at another smaller game company.

I'll be discussing the industry, software, and techniques of game development here. Come back often, drop me a line if you have any comments or questions.