During my brief stint at PopTop the guys worked normal hours. A couple of people worked late – I was one of them, but I think that was more to me trying to figure out how do things more than anything else. The hours seemed reasonable.
I am quite content with my 40 hr / week job. I made a decision a long time ago I would never sacrifice my family life for my job. Luckily I have a good job where I don’t have to work like a slave to earn decent money.
And don’t bother applying for a producer or designer position if don’t have any experience in those roles because you won’t get hired. Ever. It has never happened in the history of computer games.
And don’t expect to work alongside any women because outside of marketing and Human Resources there are about 7 in the entire industry. And none of the dudes working in the industry know any women to introduce you to. Internet porn will be your mistress.
I play D&D every Sunday with 3 of them.
And none of the dudes working in the industry know any women to introduce you to. Internet porn will be your mistress.
Hang out at the local bars and become good friends with the waitresses. They’ hook you up as long as you don’t ooze desperation.
Hey dudes, I hate to be a forum nazi, but my original post was about getting a gaming job, not getting chicks.
If you get the former, you’ll need to worry about the latter. :P
Besides, there’s already been a lot of pertinent info posted in this thread. What else were you looking for?
Heh. Well I wasn’t saying that my question wasn’t answered, I was just kind of encouraging further posting to drift back to the topic. Besides you’re right there was tons of good info in there, some of it what I thought and some of it not what I thought. I’m working on it.
I suppose we could really trash the thread and do some Sacrifice-NuclearWar-Yawn-LegalizePot-ConsolesRock kind of thing to see where it leads, but alas.
Absolutely untrue. That being said, it’s extremely rare, and don’t ever pin any hopes on having this happen.
And don’t expect to work alongside any women because outside of marketing and Human Resources there are about 7 in the entire industry.
There are quite a few female artists.
And none of the dudes working in the industry know any women to introduce you to.
Again untrue, I know folks in this industry who sleep with far too many of them.
— Alan
Good… perhaps Kim Gandy (president of National Organization for Women) will hear you and “Equal Opportunity” will be brought to the table… flesh and blood women in the dark development houses in addition to digital ones!
We all know women who work in the games industry, but lets be realistic. 95% of game developers are men. There are very few women in the games development side of the business. There are a smattering of women artists, animators, designers, producers, and level architects. There are almost no women programmers, musicians, or sound engineers.
If you mean jumping right into line producer or lead designer, then this is true. But if you mean assistant producer and “designer” than this is not true. I went from PC Gamer to EA and now I (along with 3 others) am designing and producing the new features in Madden 04. The game’s line producer is more involved with legal stuff, leaving the game design to the younger producers. Other companies will hire designers who used to be writers. Not often, but it happens.
I can’t speak for the rest of the industry, but at Tiburon we have almost 200 employees and only 4 of them are women (not counting HR, reception). Those 4 women have their male co-workers “dropping by” their cube CONSTANTLY. :roll:
Ok I can give on the women thing :)
— Alan
Oh man, missed you by this much. :D :D Here I was, sitting around waiting for that particular storm. :D
I’m sorry I am bumping such an old thread, but it beats creating a new topic when many of my concerns are pretty well laid out and explained here – basically, this thread pretty much elaborates how terrible working in the game industry is to people who enjoy having time to see their spouses and lead a somewhat normal life.
I only bump this one because I haven’t stumbled across any more recent threads that seem as succinct. I’ve spent half the night searching for and reading a multitude of threads on various topics related to some topics related to my future plans, and this one addresses a lot of my questions (difficulty in finding work at entry level, what it even means to be entry level any more with such a variety of education available to prospective students, and the difficulties that come with the job after you’re hired).
But… this thread is also seven years old. How relevant are the problems in this thread now days? Are 100 hour weeks and employment difficulties and such still common place in smaller development houses etc? I would hope there are more opportunities than ever given the huge number of popular gaming platforms and the much larger gaming market now days.
I’m sorry if you’re irked I bumped an old thread instead of creating a new one, just don’t bump this one and it will go away all on it’s own. Thanks for any input.
In the ‘industrial’ part of the industry (your Madden & FPS factories); yes, very long working hours are still common (Especially since the recession kicked off). Yes, there are still relatively few women working in the industry. Its also probably still easiest to work your way up through QA or by getting an entry level programming position. At least where I work most art is outsourced abroad where it is cheaper so the only art positions are senior/experienced & most designers/producers clawed their way up through QA or transferred from other industries.
On the other hand indie/iPhone/flash gaming is bigger than it was seven years ago. If I was starting now I’d kick off with doing something like that alongside a part-time job. You’d get to set your own hours and if you fancied the industry and its larger wages later you’d probably have a better chance with some published games under your belt whatever their level of sophistication.
Modding’s never been more fully fledged… get a well paying job in non-game development, where you’ll learn x, y and z, work on your own projects, and in two years, you’ll be in a better place to decide/choose.
First off: I’m a programmer. So I’m only going to talk about that, although I’ve done design as well. Started by making mods, created a hit UT2003/UT2004 mod that placed pretty high in the MSU contest and was included on the UT2004 special edition, got a call from a recruiter, started programming at EA, and have moved up to senior and lead positions in various other companies over the years. A lot of people start in QA to get a feel for the industry, but you’re better off getting a gaming college degree on top of a BS in Comp Sci. I know a lot of companies that look really closely at those guys as junior talent that can be molded into solid, at least mid-level, talent.
I’m one of the few exceptions that has only a basic AA degree, even though I majored in Comp Sci, and earned instead of learned my way through the industry (not that I don’t respect people who do go through the full college swing, because that’s equally as tough, there are just a lot less people out there like me who are in senior/lead positions)
The modding recommendation seems like a great idea. Having lived in that environment for the past few years I know several guys that have gone on to work for gaming companies.
But I tend to believe that the gaming industry suffers from to many very talented 20-somethings who are willing to do it for next to nothing.
Voltaic,
If you go the testing route I recommend you start applying to larger publishers first. Large publishers hire many more Q/A folks than developers do and they usually require no experience. Once you have a project or two under your belt, start sending resumes to developers, because in my experience they often allow for greater career advancement for testers. At a Developer everybody knows everybody so career advancement is usually easier. However, because many developers have smaller teams they generally want Q/A people with at least some experience, thus my first point.
Lastly, if you go the QA route it is really important to have a career plan and stick to it. I have seen too many unfocused testers go from temp job to temp job, never having a plan and because of that they stagnant within their field until they give up and become crappy employees or just quit the industry all together. You will need to remain focused and keep your eye on the prize. It is not enough to be the most dependable, hard working tester, you must also jump at the chance to learn other disciplines, so when the day comes that you decide to apply to a job in production, design, art, or code, you have some direct experience to go along with it. Also, as previous posters have noted get involved with the community (IGDA) and as with any career get to know your coworkers (it really is a small industry in many ways) because in a few years all those people will all be at many other companies within the industry and that can help you a great deal.
Good luck to you
Spooky, look at the date. Voltaic posted that in 2002 but kerzain did have some questions a few posts above yours.