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cgeq posted:Does anyone know if Apple even bothers contacting you if they're interested in featuring your game anymore? We noticed an option to upload marketing materials a while back, but after an update that option is now gone.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 07:32 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 15:13 |
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Have any engineers made the transition from games to another field? Right now I would rather stay in games, but I have been tempted by the stories of higher pay outside of games. I'm also wondering if there's some way I can combine my engineering experience for video game development with my new passion for 3D printing. Since getting laid off, my time has been divided pretty evenly between three subjects: Updating my resume / linked in / other job hunting stuff, building a new Unity project, and futzing with my 3D printer. And in gaming related 3D prints, one of my favorite prints I've done so far has been a dice tower: http://i.imgur.com/Pbkbykb.gif
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| # ? May 19, 2013 02:40 |
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Chainclaw posted:And in gaming related 3D prints, one of my favorite prints I've done so far has been a dice tower: http://i.imgur.com/Pbkbykb.gif That tower keeps throwing up the same two numbers though.
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| # ? May 19, 2013 02:45 |
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cgeq posted:Does anyone know if Apple even bothers contacting you if they're interested in featuring your game anymore? We noticed an option to upload marketing materials a while back, but after an update that option is now gone. We were contacted about six weeks ago for art, again without any other information. Eventually we showed up as a banner in the app store under a featured section pulldown sub category (no impact on sales, but neat anyway).
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| # ? May 19, 2013 08:16 |
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Super late, but I've been on a no-internet island off the coast of Spain for 10 days, so... 35 years old and "in the poo poo" for 14 years. 8 in the MMOs. 5 years in startups making FB games, and now in year 1 of another startup doing mobile/tablet. Just call me an inadvertent trend-chaser. 
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| # ? May 19, 2013 09:51 |
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devilmouse posted:Super late, but I've been on a no-internet island off the coast of Spain for 10 days, so... My new plan is to find out what you're doing and copy it so that I may be forever employed in this industry.
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| # ? May 20, 2013 06:20 |
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devilmouse posted:Super late, but I've been on a no-internet island off the coast of Spain for 10 days, so... I have not had a proper abroad vacation for about a decade now, during which time I became literally hooked on the internet. I guess what I'm saying is I don't know how I'd manage without my daily influx of funny cat videos.
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| # ? May 20, 2013 08:42 |
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Frown Town posted:My new plan is to find out what you're doing and copy it so that I may be forever employed in this industry. There's a whole book to be written here. It's mostly a story of luck and stubborn inertia and finding a group of friends who I've been working with since '97 and '01 and then just never stopping because we don't know how to do much else. Though we'll see what happens after this latest venture, since there's no safety net and success / failure is entirely on our shoulders. Yay? Aliginge posted:I have not had a proper abroad vacation for about a decade now, during which time I became literally hooked on the internet. It was part of the deal with the girlfriend. She's as much of a workaholic as I am and we both agreed not to bring our laptops. I only had my ipad for reading while lounging around (and my phone for impromptu picture taking). It's weird to unplug for the first day or two but after that, you don't miss it. Upon coming back, though, there's a huge backlog to catchup on. I mean, this thread alone had like 200 posts!
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| # ? May 20, 2013 12:32 |
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devilmouse posted:There's a whole book to be written here. It's mostly a story of luck and stubborn inertia and finding a group of friends who I've been working with since '97 and '01 and then just never stopping because we don't know how to do much else. Though we'll see what happens after this latest venture, since there's no safety net and success / failure is entirely on our shoulders. Yay? Title: "Game Dev Startups: a rolling stone gives no fucks and katamari damacy's up friends"
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| # ? May 20, 2013 15:06 |
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My first game in the industry is out!: Working in social/casual has been really enjoyable and it's actually really nuts how much this game has changed since the initial prototypes. Now to wait and see if facebook really is a dying platform 
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| # ? May 20, 2013 16:11 |
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RoboCicero posted:My first game in the industry is out!: Working in social/casual has been really enjoyable and it's actually really nuts how much this game has changed since the initial prototypes. Now to wait and see if facebook really is a dying platform Congrats, glad to see this finally shipping! Facebook is hardly dying, don't believe the haters (Zynga on the other hand....). quote:“Q1 represented our largest three-month quarter of games revenue to date despite a 37 percent drop in year-over-year payments volume from our largest developer,” Facebook CFO David Ebersman said during the company’s earnings call. “Our other developers increased their payments volumes by almost 60 percent, and we saw record numbers of people playing games on Facebook.”
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| # ? May 20, 2013 16:45 |
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RoboCicero posted:My first game in the industry is out!: Working in social/casual has been really enjoyable and it's actually really nuts how much this game has changed since the initial prototypes. Now to wait and see if facebook really is a dying platform ... and honestly, you're fine period. It's a freaking Plants VS Zombies game. You've also got Plants VS Zombies on your resume now, which is AMAZING - that's like the Halo/CoD credit of casual games.
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| # ? May 20, 2013 16:50 |
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Thanks! We're all pretty optimistic actually, and because of some launch planning we're not even really scrambling at the moment*. I haven't been able to work on my own games as much as I'd like to, but from what I hear it's all about the adjustment process going from spending ten hour a week in classes to forty-five/fifty at work. *now all the servers will catch on fire.
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| # ? May 20, 2013 20:21 |
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RoboCicero posted:My first game in the industry is out!: Working in social/casual has been really enjoyable and it's actually really nuts how much this game has changed since the initial prototypes. Now to wait and see if facebook really is a dying platform Goddamn it, it had to be Plants vs. Zombies. My productivity is doomed.
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| # ? May 20, 2013 21:43 |
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RoboCicero posted:My first game in the industry is out!: Working in social/casual has been really enjoyable and it's actually really nuts how much this game has changed since the initial prototypes. Now to wait and see if facebook really is a dying platform Congrats man, you're now obligated to pass my resume along when Amazon fires me for playing too many FB games at work. There's only so much "research" I can justify...
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| # ? May 20, 2013 22:30 |
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I've posted in here about my current job misery and I think I'm finally going to bite the bullet and look for something else. The only problem is I don't even know where to begin... I've checked through Gamasutra's jobs section and every position just seems way out of my league, wanting at least a BS and/or years of industry experience. I don't have a degree, I don't have a resume built, and I've only been working in software/games for a little less than a year now - it's sort of starting to feel like there's no hope for me. Can I call upon the wisdom of you vets to help me attempt to snag a new job??
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| # ? May 20, 2013 23:19 |
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Send in your resume anyway. The worst that happens is they don't call you back. Most of those requirements are just to try to cut down on the number of applicants.
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| # ? May 20, 2013 23:40 |
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Every job I've had required a degree. I took one class in college, and that was bowling. My current job had the same requirements, and the art director didn't go to school either. It's just something HR puts in.
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| # ? May 20, 2013 23:44 |
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mastermind2004 posted:Send in your resume anyway. The worst that happens is they don't call you back. Most of those requirements are just to try to cut down on the number of applicants. My favorite thing to say to this is a Gretzky quote: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Whats the worst that could happen?
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| # ? May 21, 2013 00:15 |
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A Bloody Crowbar posted:I've posted in here about my current job misery and I think I'm finally going to bite the bullet and look for something else. Most places really don't care that you don't have a degree. At the end of the day, your abilities and personality are all that really matter. If you're even a half-decent programmer and can communicate effectively, you'll go places.
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| # ? May 21, 2013 00:35 |
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The real issue is getting your résumé into the hands of a real person. If you can do that, then the degree part doesn't matter. But if you are submitting via one of those automated application systems then that will weed you out based on the stated criteria.
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| # ? May 21, 2013 01:53 |
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I'm 28 and have been in the industry for quite a while...can't honestly remember when I started other than it had to be at least 8 or 9 years ago. A few in QA, a few in design. Getting a little demoralized with the whole job search business. Heard that a much more junior designer I used to work with landed a senior designer role at a company I was interested in. This is the second time in recent memory I've really seriously considered getting out of game design, but I'm sort of lacking an easily transferrable skillset. Considering learning to program again, because I'm pretty technically minded, and it'd have application elsewhere than games. At the very least, I could work on some side projects without assistance. Not really sure where to start. I still really enjoy design, but I seem to have pigeon holed myself with the work experience I have. And most smaller companies, the kind I enjoy working at, don't have a lot of dedicated designers. You really need to be able to build the thing you're designing - either from the art side or the engineering side.
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| # ? May 21, 2013 02:57 |
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Iron Leg posted:You really need to be able to build the thing you're designing - either from the art side or the engineering side. It's always been a good idea to know how to script as a designer, though. Especially if you want more senior rolls. (check out Unity - it's good at turning pure artists or pure designers into technical artists/designers)
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| # ? May 21, 2013 03:05 |
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SynthOrange posted:That tower keeps throwing up the same two numbers though. There's something wrong with the seeding.
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| # ? May 21, 2013 03:08 |
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Shalinor posted:That'll only become more true, not less. The nature of the current industry - smaller teams overall - mean that's an expected design skillset these days. Even if we staff back up to larger teams, the job market will have an easy supply of technical designers, which will get first pick of the jobs. A recurring theme through my most recent trip through school has been that if you are a designer, you absolutely need to know some code or art-- code more than art, preferably both-- if you really want to be marketable into the future. I know a couple of places that flat-out will not hire a designer if they don't know how to code (unless they're the kind of verteran that could get a job anywhere anyway). The good news is, code isn't really that tough for a good designer to pick up and being able to prototype your own stuff is awesome and a half.
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| # ? May 21, 2013 03:43 |
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Still playing how long have we been in the games industry? 23 years old, programmer/designer graduated last year and set up a indie outfit for mobile and tablet with 2 friends. We're about to release our first game in a month. It's been a really tense and exciting year. I feel like I've learnt more in the last year than I did throughout the whole of uni.
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| # ? May 21, 2013 12:27 |
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1st rule of indie marketing - when you mention your game anywhere, add a link to your game's site  2nd rule of indie marketing - public call a well respected developer / title / entire country "shite".
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| # ? May 21, 2013 15:15 |
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FreakyZoid posted:2nd rule of indie marketing - public call a well respected developer / title / entire country "shite". That's pretty key, you can't be a successful indie developer until you've offended the internet. You could also just insult Phil Fish on twitter until he says something about you and the internet flocks to your game to show him he's wrong.
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| # ? May 21, 2013 16:35 |
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Shalinor posted:It's always been a good idea to know how to script as a designer, though. Especially if you want more senior rolls. Ironically the more senior of a designer you are, the less likely you are to be scripting.
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| # ? May 21, 2013 20:12 |
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emoticon posted:Ironically the more senior of a designer you are, the less likely you are to be scripting. I die every time I end up in a position where I'm not implementing day-to-day. At the last job, as the lead designer, I was "secretly" implementing tools for my team just because I couldn't stand my only output being emails and meetings. NEVER GIVE UP NEVER SURRENDER
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| # ? May 21, 2013 20:30 |
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FreakyZoid posted:1st rule of indie marketing - when you mention your game anywhere, add a link to your game's site The site proper, isn't ready yet. So have a press kit and Facebook page instead. As for calling something or someone "shite". I do not yet posses the necessary amount of bile or the ability to speak in constant hyperbole required to maintain a twitter war. Give it a couple of years then we will see. On an unrelated topic, if I remember correctly there are a couple of Teesside grads in this thread. Whats up fellow or ex Teesside goons.
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| # ? May 21, 2013 22:13 |
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Meridian Rizing posted:On an unrelated topic, if I remember correctly there are a couple of Teesside grads in this thread. Whats up fellow or ex Teesside goons. Tees Games Art here, just passed a year doing in-house QA for a mobile games dev. Struggling to find time/motivation after a full-time job (ok, mostly motivation) to update my portfolio and get an art job.
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| # ? May 22, 2013 10:16 |
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You were in Teesside for years and haven't built up bile? (Teesside born & raised here)
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| # ? May 22, 2013 12:11 |
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Teesside Games Art graduate still living in Middlesbrough like I have done forever struggling to get a job stacking shelves. Also gently caress the world and everyone in it. e: Double 11 are shite. Now to go indie.
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| # ? May 22, 2013 12:20 |
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Teesside Games Programming graduate, living in Dundee, been here almost a year now, I used to run a small iOS contract developer with some friends in Middlesbrough via the Phoenix Building's development fund and the Victoria House incubation thing. The company is kind of still around, it got 'reborn' as Landslide Studios and I believe they're doing fairly well for themselves, although I'm still glad I left for various reasons.
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| # ? May 22, 2013 12:58 |
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A Sloth posted:e: Double 11 are shite.
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| # ? May 22, 2013 13:05 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 15:13 |
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brian posted:Teesside Games Programming graduate, living in Dundee, been here almost a year now, I used to run a small iOS contract developer with some friends in Middlesbrough via the Phoenix Building's development fund and the Victoria House incubation thing. The company is kind of still around, it got 'reborn' as Landslide Studios and I believe they're doing fairly well for themselves, although I'm still glad I left for various reasons. I've heard it's pretty nice to work with Landslide. FreakyZoid posted:Care to elaborate? Just things I've heard. "Eutechnyx all over again" is a phrase I've heard a couple of times to... not sure what's so bad about Eutechnyx though. I better stop gossiping...
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| # ? May 22, 2013 13:41 |
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