Game Job: Getting a job in the game industry simulator
rakkar.org
rakkar.org
Moral of the game:
Connections trump everything. Talent means nothing. With seven billion people on this planet, what you can do means nothing. Your access to capital is all that matters. Making capital is insanely hard. Convincing others to give it to you is much easier. PG went to Harvard. Zuck went to Harvard. Gates went to Harvard. Go to Harvard. Don't drop out of high school, and don't listen to people who've only gone to Harvard.
A would be game professional is born.
Background You drop out of highschool. You have enough social skills to make people think you are in the know when you are in the not. Your 'art' gives programmer's art a new, ugly, meaning Know that publisher? No? Well I do, he's my uncle.
Job Results You manage to convince your uncle that playing golf all day is a real job. Congratulations, you run a publishing house! Pay: $2,000,000 a year!
Maybe you could intern briefly in the game industry and have the same experience?
Also, I wouldn't recommend anyone join the game industry for any period of time. I've never been in it, but I know 7-8 developers and they're all usually miserable and stressed out. Not only that, they make about 60% of what I make and they have no equity or reasonable vacation schedule.
It seems to be a very rollercoastery industry, where one moment people love what you made and then hate it the next. If you're a developer, you're basically a tool to implement the nonsense game designers come up with and your project manager is a cross between Gordon Ramsay and Tim Gunn. It sounds like a nightmare.
"You drop out of highschool. You have enough social skills to make people think you are in the know when you are in the not. Your 'art' gives programmer's art a new, ugly, meaning Know that publisher? No? Well I do, he's my uncle.
Job Results You manage to convince your uncle that playing golf all day is a real job. Congratulations, you run a publishing house! Pay: $2,000,000 a year!"
The problem with game dev is the same as Hollywood, professional music, and popular pro athletics, namely that there are waaaaaay more people who aspire to it than there are jobs. As a result, there's an extreme hockey stick distribution for success and a lot of exploitative labor practices like unpaid internships, long hours, unusually low pay, etc.
Connections seem to count for more in narrowly gated fields too. It probably has something to do with the number of top insiders being close to the Dunbar number, causing them to form a close-knit insular club of mutual back-scratchers. All the insiders know all the other insiders. Not an insider? Go home.
There are problems of exploitation of the workers but this isnt through people scared of getting work, I think everyone with a few years in the games industry knows they have the skills that would help them get another programming job without too much hassle. The problem is that people are passionate and that is being exploited in some places. The trick is find the good games companies and stand your ground on salary and working hours, admittedly this is probably easier in the UK than the US.
Background You are highly intelligent and decide to study programming. You have enough social skills to make people think you are in the know when you are in the not. Your 'art' gives programmer's art a new, ugly, meaning You're a nobody as far as the game industry is concerned.
Job Results You were smart enough to pass the programming tests, and did great in your interview. They hire you as a programmer! Pay: $60,000 a year!
Where can I apply?
Indeed!