If
there's one question I'm asked more than any other, it is
"How do I get into the games industry?"
Firstly CAVEAT
EMPTOR it's not all
sweetness and light. What do I mean? Well, after all these
years there is still nothing like the feeling of starting
with a blank canvas and taking a product to the shelves -
really - nothing beats walking into Game or HMV and seeing
the fruits of your labour jumping off the shelves. However
it must be noted that at times it's damned hard work with
some very late nights, long weekends and sometimes,
depending on your role (and indeed the company you work at)
there can be an awful lot of pressure. It certainly isn't
for everyone - if you've got the talent and enthusiasm,
AND, you're not phased by bursts of hard graft then its a
really cool place to be!
Getting
a Foot in the Door
So, how do you get that proverbial foot in the door? Well,
depending on your discipline (art, code, design,
production, audio, QA), there are different avenues of
approach. For example, the trickiest discipline to get in
with is undoubtedly that of the programmer. Ten to fifteen
years ago it was a case of you sat in your bedroom with
your home computer and you put a demo together. Nowadays a
good proportion of the industry is all about the consoles
and console experience. To get work on the consoles you
need to be a registered developer, and to be a registered
developer you need experience (and a bucket of cash to buy
the development kits). It's a bit of a Catch 22.
So, the easiest route is generally via a computer science,
maths, or science degree (there are also game development
degrees that are starting to become the norm), that said,
there's a lot to be said for raw talent and enthusiasm - if
you've got a PC get cranking out some demos!
Good
Advice
Well, I'd been planning this big long brain dump of how
best to get a foot in the door and what skills you
require... But then today I was surfing the web and came
across EUROCOM's new web site. On their site is a
section all about getting into the industry, what to
expect, and all the pros and cons. To be perfectly
honest, the advice they offer is bang on the money, and
I couldn't possibly have put it better myself. If you
are at all interested in working in game development I
highly recommend popping over to their site and reading
what they say. CLICK HERE for a jolly good read.
As you can tell, I'm pretty darned impressed with these
boys (and girls!) - they consistently deliver the goods
time after time, they have excellent cross platform
technology, combined with top class art, animation, design
and production.
Damn their hides! I'm jealous! :o)