Comments on: New Year’s Resolutions for Game Industry Newbies.

By: Erik Franken

Erik Franken — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:24:52 +0000

[quote]Regardless of the fluff you might do in the periphery like attend a conference or read gamasutra, if you don’t make something cool and start showing it off, to peers, to forums, to potential employers, you’re never going to get where you want to be.[/quote]

Obviously that’s step number one the moment you actually got something to show. The feedback, especially the very first you get is invaluable to further designing your idea and game. It’s a crucial process and it’ll also show the first signs of whether or not your game will have a chance of becoming succesful at all.

Ultimately if you want to ‘break in’ the industry, the only way is to get known for what you can do. The phrase “An artist is only as good as his/her last painting.” comes to mind too.

[quote]Is there an official sign that tells you when you have broken into the games industry? Is this just about getting a job? (ergo: independent developers can never break in?)[/quote]

No it’s a blurry line that you’ll only be able to see long after you’ve crossed it.

By: Michael Samyn

Michael Samyn — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:05:19 +0000

Is there an official sign that tells you when you have broken into the games industry? Is this just about getting a job? (ergo: independent developers can never break in?)

In my experience, the games industry is very easy to “break into” -in the larger sense of the word. There’s a very active community of gamers, developers, journalists, academics and publishers eager to look at new things. It’s fairly easy to channel some attention in your direction. It helps, of course, if you have made something that is worth looking at.

But what do you do after you’ve broken into the industry? That’s the more interesting question, in my opinion. Getting into the industry is easy. But what do you do when you’re there?

By: Al King

Al King — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:51:02 +0000

Hmmm, I was about to say – but Chris got their first – it really does come across as a thinly veiled attempt to get people to use Gamasutra and associated resources more. The remaining points seem focused on career-building rather than the aim of the career itself – on rubbing shoulders and networking rather than actually making games and refining your skills. Why are you reading books? To facilitate conversation with people in the industry. Why talk to developers? Why, to find out how their job interview went, of course! It’s a dismal and impersonal view of the industry, from my perspective, though perhaps just realistic.

Anyway, I’m off to get some cottage cheese.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:01:22 +0000

A number of years ago, before I was in the games industry in any way, I went to some seminar thing up in Washington about “how to break in.” It took all afternoon and was basically a panel of industry people sharing their experience with the assembled crowd. Even though they went on for hours, only one solid piece of advice surfaced, no matter what discipline you were pursuing: “Make Cool Shit (and then show it to people.)” That’s really all there is to it; it applies to programmers, artists, or designers. Regardless of the fluff you might do in the periphery like attend a conference or read gamasutra, if you don’t make something cool and start showing it off, to peers, to forums, to potential employers, you’re never going to get where you want to be. Just like with the simplicity of your fitness advice, it’s taking the initiative and having the discipline to follow through that is the real challenge.

By: Darius K.

Darius K. — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:18:42 +0000

Nice list. And you’re right about the losing weight stuff, too: I’m attempting to lose weight by training for a 128-mile bike ride in June. I figure that ought to do it.

By: Manveer Heir

Manveer Heir — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:12:36 +0000

I fully agree with the posted article, especially this point: “Learn new things; push yourself in your discipline”.

Personally, I’ve been using the awesome power of Google Reader and have about 30 subscriptions to RSS feeds to blogs (such as this one and Level Up) and other sites (such as Gamasutra, Game AI for Developers, and your favorite website The Escapist).

I’ve found by readings all these design blogs and articles, I really learn a lot and get a variety of opinions. Raph Koster’s recent slides from GDC Prime and your own Design Reboot lectures are excellent examples of that. I’m already in the industry as a programmer at a large company, but I feel there is so much more to learn, which is why I try to read as much as possible.

Something I’ve been thinking about is using the Friends feature of Google Reader to share more items that may be of interest to developers or soon-to-be developers. Half of the 30 feeds I have were linked to in another blog I read… I am sure there are tons of sites I should be reading regularly that I’m not, because I don’t know they exist.

Do you or anyone else reading this know of a good way to share information like this with other individuals. I haven’t played with the Google Reader friends features so I don’t know if there is a way to centralize that sort of thing. Devbump is a site that SHOULD be able to do this, but it seems to get so little hits or ratings that it’s not nearly as useful as I would have hoped.

Sorry for the ramblings of a sleep depraved developer… stupid New Year’s.