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[Synnah]

I recently found out I'll soon be returning to the games industry, after about a year and a half on the 'fringe' (I work on a piece of 3D software at the moment), having landed a Senior QA position. I know several people here have mentioned working in the (commercial) games industry before, so come forth! Do you currently work in the industry, or have you in the past? Got any interesting stories to share?

I'll start with a fairly dull story: At my current company, we've been visited several times by Jon Hare, ex of Sensible Software, and creator of one of the 'games that shaped my childhood', Wizball. First time he was here, I shook his hand without even realising who he was.

"Good story, Synnah!"

Edit: I've remembered quite a good story, actually, but it concerns someone who has an account on these forums. I may wheel it out later if there's enough interest in the thread, and just not mention any names.

[Nulldorf]

I've only been out of school for about 9 months, so no real good stories, but I work in the industry and I launched my first product in January (I was only around for part of its 3+ year dev cycle though).

While I'm really attached to the indie scene, and particularly the TIGers, so far I'm loving working in the commercial industry. Though I have been hearing an awful lot of stories about how everyone's old friends are getting laid off...tough times.

I'm still trying to find the balance between the industry and hobby combo. Working on my Cockpit compo entry after work I'm now spending 12+ hours a day working on video games. Burns me out. Sometimes the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is more gaming.

At the end of the day though, I think of the frustrations my econ, consulting, med-school friends have and I have to think that even on the worst days, I'm still having fun. Can't ask for much more than that.

[Synnah]

I'm still trying to find the balance between the industry and hobby combo. Working on my Cockpit compo entry after work I'm now spending 12+ hours a day working on video games. Burns me out. Sometimes the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is more gaming.

Tell me about it. As a games tester, I've found at several times that my enthusiasm for playing games in my free time has taken a hit. After 8-12 hours of testing, it's hard to muster up the strength to play something when you get home. Also, the fact that I can't ignore bugs any more has had an affect on my gaming home-life, too! However, like you, I pretty much always enjoy my work; and it's definitely one of the most interesting and creative sectors to work in.

[r.kachowski]

I may wheel it out later if there's enough interest in the thread, and just not mention any names.

+4 interest in hearing this 

[Melly]

Didn't Fish have plenty of interesting stories about working in mainstream game companies? I think he worked at Ubisoft.

[Synnah]

I may wheel it out later if there's enough interest in the thread, and just not mention any names.

+4 interest in hearing this 

Well, okay!

My second games testing job was at Lionhead, where I was part of a fairly large team of testers, many of whom were... 'characters'. There was never a dull moment, and to this day it remains the best environment I've ever worked in. Anyway, one day a large cut-out drawing of a cock, about 2 feet long and drawn in thick pink marker, made its way into our possession (I think it came from someone in the Art department); obviously, it made its way around the testing office, taped to the backs of peoples' chairs when they weren't looking. This was too easy, however, and a plan was hatched. One of the coders, slightly unpopular in QA, was called up to look at a bug, and while he was doing so, the cock was taped to his back. I don't remember who did this, and quite how they managed to do it without the coder noticing is beyond me. He didn't notice, however, and walked back to his seat, all the way at the other end of the office, with a large paper cock stuck to his back. It was, obviously, hilarious.

[Melly]

Thanks Synnah. I shall now be constantly wary of pink paper cocks being glued to my back and my chair.

[Border]

Ok, My name is david and i am an ex game artist "hi David"

well for me most of my game industry experience was with small studio. mainly doing the One man army for art asset;3d modeling, texture and rendering sometime.
i worked for  Reality Flux and Digital Fiction for a tycoon game and a PS2 title respectively. Unfortunately both are closed now. shit happen. Or maybe its my karma... i make studio bankrupt. And yeah i apply for EA and ubisoft here in Montreal.. strangely they never wanted me... they can feel it, i guess :D

Oh and i worked for a place called triotech amusement... worst place ever.
i was also doing the art guy plus i had to do some technical research for scripting, rigging and such since they had no F*(*ing organization and i bet they still aren't.
The guys of guys who believe a game doc is superfluous.
anyways after that place i left gaming industry, they completely suck all the fun of it.
that was my experience.

[Peevish]

All you folks in the industry: HOW did you get in? I know some people can start from the ground up in QA, but I never see jobs like that on Craig's List.

[David Pittman]

All you folks in the industry: HOW did you get in? I know some people can start from the ground up in QA, but I never see jobs like that on Craig's List.

You might have better luck with job postings on Gamasutra, or at individual developer or publisher web sites. QA isn't the only way in, either; in fact, I think it's a bit overrated. Yes, it technically gets your foot in the door at a company, but QA experience alone doesn't demonstrate any applicable skills to development. You'd still want to pair it with any significant indie game work on a resume.

For my part, I attended the Guildhall at SMU, applied to a bunch of places, interviewed with several, and got a few offers. The industry isn't impenetrable, but you have to be useful to a developer from day 1. Can't expect to be hired and then learn the applicable job skills, because there's no time and no resources to spend training people on the job.

[Xion]

All you folks in the industry: HOW did you get in?

i was also doing the art guy

[TeeGee]

I posted that already in another thread, but whatever...

When we were working on The Witcher, we had a request from ESRB to somehow cover the nipples on vampiress' breasts for the USA version of the game. So we covered them with blood splatters, and everything was fine.
Covering breasts with blood, gotta love USA's moral principles .

All you folks in the industry: HOW did you get in? I know some people can start from the ground up in QA, but I never see jobs like that on Craig's List.

- Made and sold a game on my own
- Applied for a junior designer's position at a small indie company I wanted to work for
- Haven't got the job but we kept in touch
- Applied for a job in a AAA company
- Got the job and gathered some good (if painful) experience
- During a conversation with the founder of the first company, he said that there's an opening for a designer's position and I could come in
- Accepted and escaped the AAA industry with a sigh of relief

[Peevish]

So step one: make something.

I'm WORKING on it! Looks like I'm gonna keep temping til then.

[Nulldorf]

I got in purely on networking...which is really what my $$$$ college education paid for. Two of the other guys on my team went to my university.

Got an internship summer before senior year, got a training position (contract basically) after graduation and then got lucky again when my immediate supervisor quit to go cycle South America, and now here I am, with the lofty title of "Production Coordinator".

If you don't know people, having your own games to show is definitely the best way. One nice thing (or not, depending on who you are) about the game industry is that your talent and the work you have to show for it can make up for bad grades or no college education at all. It's much more important to be able to prove you can work and you know what you are doing.

But I'd also say that having games to show is not the only way to prove you have something "they" want...I'm most interested in content design, so the portfolio I submitted to get my job included design docs and even screenplay excerpts (I was a film major).

Anyway, just being on TIGsource is a great headstart...I learn stuff every day from these guys. It's an amazing pool of talent.

[fish]

i got in the game industry, spent the worst 2-3n years of my life, got the fuck out of the industry, doing much better now thank you.

[GregWS]

i got in the game industry, spent the worst 2-3n years of my life, got the fuck out of the industry, doing much better now thank you.

Yeah, I have no idea why anyone would want to get into the games industry; video games are cool and all that, but the game industry is just brutal.  I mean, it's bloody got the word "industry" in it.  Can you think of any nice, good work environment "industries?"  Clearly, it's all about profit, and I doubt anyone who wants to get into the game industry wants to do it to make someone else rich (or broke).

[TeeGee]

So how do you plan on getting money for living without getting into any industry ? Even being indie you are a part of it.

Sure -- "all industries are evil" is a nice and funky sentiment, but it's a bit naive. It really all depends on who (could be yourself) you work for and why. There's lots of bad vibes to get from working on games for sure, but there's also plenty of fun to be had if you find the correct people/company/style/whatever.
 

[Anthony Flack]

Made a couple of games on my own, and then moved on to direct a team of experienced developers to do my evil bidding

So I've never been a part of a project I wasn't in charge of, and pretty much stumbled into the industry by accident, just by doing my stuff and being somewhat distinctive. I couldn't imagine doing it any other way, although be warned it involves a lot of work and a whole lot of poverty along the way. Ten years, in my case.

Still very poor now, actually... hopefully all you nice people buy our game when it comes out, so we can afford to make another one.

[Peevish]

I understand that working in the industry can suck ass, but it looks like I'm going to have to work in some kind of industry. If my job is going to suck at least it can be remotely related to my interests. Right now my prospect is doing data entry for a bank, and it took me two months just to get that opportunity. Aftermath of the Bush economy.

[Lynx]

I think the supposition is that one can work a 'day job' and pursue indie game programming at night, in much the way that superheroes adopt secret identities and mingle with the ordinary citizenry.

Obligatory game industry reference: back in the days of Mplayer, we got sent to E3 for a day!  It was pretty darn loud and filled with smoke and floodlights, and it's kind of sad that those days aren't likely to recur - GDC is rather more restrained - but yes it's all true, the game industry really did have a show where they hired up-and-coming would-be models and starlets to work as scantily clad video game characters and there were huge displays made up to look like action-packed settings from the games, including some 'bigger than life' armored vehicles.  I'm not prepared to assert from memory whether it was a tank, an APC, or some science fictional vehicle.  I can't comment on the subject of drunken parties however, since we were only there for the day, not the evening.

Being less than rich in terms of scantily clad characters in our oeuvre, Mplayer had one of our own dress up in a big M-shaped plastic costume.  Fortunately she was able to laugh about it.