Comments on: Hacks: Breaking Into the Games Industry

By: Mathew Anderson

Mathew Anderson — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:23:38 +0000

Bit late in responding here, but I had a question that has been with me for awhile now:

How do you know when a company doesn’t want you because of a lack of skills, experience, or some other quality they really need, versus something more vague and emotionally decisive, such as “this guy just isn’t a good fit, I don’t get a good sense from talking to him”?

And how can you tailor a follow-up e-mail response to try and probe that a bit more without looking like you’re doing so?

By: Babs

Babs — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:32:01 +0000

Scott hired me (an old person). He gets props for practicing what he preaches. I’m still not sure what my “comprehensive benefits” are but I’m happy to be talking design schedules instead of arguing the finer points of force majeure =)

Can’t find my walker, though. Musta left it by my soaking teeth.

By: Jute

Jute — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:38:02 +0000

As someone who has asked that question thanks for the answer! I’m very interested to see more along these lines.

By: Ferrel

Ferrel — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:33:34 +0000

A very interesting read. I’ve never really considered the age equation other than when (previously) hearing teenage guild members stating they wanted to drop out of school to join a development team. I frequently advised otherwise.

One thing that is of great interest to me is the community support target (or representative) and non-technical design.

I think some companies get so hung up just in programing knowledge that they fail to find solid writers and design people who don’t know a thing about the technical issues.

What avenues do non-programmers have into the industry? I think a lot of folks would like to hear that elaborated on.

By: adam

adam — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:42:00 +0000

Good hack. I’m bored of seeing the same-old “how to break into the industry” articles on mainstrea sites that just re-iterate the same points over and over again and never really broach the questions that people trying to break in really need answered. Age is a great one (that they rarely mention).

I’d like to see a real overview of the spectrum of game designer roles and responsibilities in game companies, and how they fit together to make a career - and most importantly, what make good reasons for wanting to be a game desinger and where you should expect to end up.

I’ve met a lot of people who *think* they want to be a game designer, but actually wanted to be a game programmer, or artist, or producer, and just didn’t realise it.

Obviously, I’ve met a lot more people the other way around too :).

I collated a couple of brief notes on this - http://t-machine.org/index.php/2008/07/26/221/ - very scattered thoughts at the moment, it would be great to see a better thought-out version from someone who actually IS a designer :).

By: T=Machine » Computer Games Industry Careers - Designers

T=Machine » Computer Games Industry Careers - Designers — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:32:59 +0000

[…] (also, I’d actually forgotten this wasn’t published yet. I only realised when reading Scott’s first “How to break into the games industry” hack) […]

By: Joe Ludwig

Joe Ludwig — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:27:15 +0000

I hired a guy who was about 20 years older than the average age of our programmers a couple years ago, and he was great! He had zero game industry experience, but tons of general programming. He turned out to be a real craftsman, so when there was something that just had to work right, he was the perfect guy to give it to. (He still is all those things, he just doesn’t work for me anymore.