|
mutata posted:In my opinion, all game artists should be prepared to work on either at this point. If someone wants to be a character artist, for example, he'd better be able to make characters low-poly with hand-painted textures as well as high-res zbrush sculpts and normal bakes if he wants to be widely marketable. Hell, entry level artists even have a good chance of working on Nintendo DS titles at this point.
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2011 06:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 14:04 |
|
|
I know there's not a lot of community officer / public relations people here, but I would like to ask anyway: What are the chances of a non-Marketing/Business/Journalism/PR graduate when applying to those positions? I'm a graduate student in Anthropology worried about my academic job prospects. My interest has been in game studies and online sociality. By this time next year I'll have my MA and hopefully some published material to show for my efforts (most likely on community management for small non-commercial online games such as the Shadowbane emulator group). Would this be enough to be competitive with the usual candidates for these positions? I have no illusions about the economy and am willing to work my way up from internships / entry level positions.
|
|
#
?
Jun 6, 2011 06:12
|
|
|
Well I've got a phone interview with Vigil Games this afternoon for an entry level character animation position. Wish me luck!
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 13:01
|
|
|
treeboy posted:Well I've got a phone interview with Vigil Games this afternoon for an entry level character animation position. Wish me luck! Good luck! The Vigil guys are really cool people.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 18:10
|
|
|
Whelp, I just applied for a narrative designer position I'm pretty sure I'm totally unqualified for, but it's kind of hard to tell with that sort of position. For anyone out there that might hire for that sort of thing, what would you be looking for? I included samples of my writing and made sure to mention in my cover letter the various highly rated story arcs I've written for City of Heroes using the mission architect (I also included as a reference link the developer post for when my arc was awarded developer's choice), but none of that is really "real" industry experience, it's all just amateur stuff. Do you think they'll even bother to read my work samples if my resume is basically blank (not literally)? I'm probably being overly pessimistic about it but it's a job I both A) Really want and B) Have no relevant work experience for, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. It's difficult to really feel out what people are looking for when it comes to writing positions, since I honestly have no idea how much experience matters for that. I mean, I'm a pretty good writer, I've received enough feedback from strangers and teachers to feel fairly confident about that (not enough to rest on my laurels though. That's how good writers turn into bad writers), but I've never been published or anything.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 19:19
|
|
|
The Cheshire Cat posted:For anyone out there that might hire for that sort of thing, what would you be looking for? I included samples of my writing and made sure to mention in my cover letter the various highly rated story arcs I've written for City of Heroes using the mission architect (I also included as a reference link the developer post for when my arc was awarded developer's choice), but none of that is really "real" industry experience, it's all just amateur stuff. Do you think they'll even bother to read my work samples if my resume is basically blank (not literally)? EDIT: I would similarly be skeptical of someone who applied for a designer position on the strength of their Little Big Planet level, though I know that their tools are at least quite complicated and capable of depth. So I'd be less skeptical, but that question would still be there - "if s/he really wants to make and design games, why on earth haven't they ever tried making or designing a proper game." (unless I happened to be hiring for people to work exclusively in LBP, which is... unlikely) Narrative designers don't just sit in a padded room and push manuscripts out from a little slot in the door, they need a very strong concept of how dialog, plot, missions, random events, etc are integrated into game environments, and to write to the strengths of those systems as appropriate. They absolutely need to be able to implement said narrative themselves, at the very least in a prototype fashion, since printed pages don't translate well at all to "is this fun? is it too wordy? how does it flow?". Shalinor fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Jun 8, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 19:27
|
|
|
just got off the phone with the Darksiders 2 lead animator...talked for close to half an hour. I think it went well 
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 20:36
|
|
|
Shalinor posted:I would immediately wonder why you'd never tried the mod tools for something like Fallout, Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights, etc - pick your favorite moddable RPG - and probably bin your resume. I've never seen the mission architect, and would tend to assume that user-facing content creation tools in MMOs are far, far less complex (and I'm absolutely not going to fire up City of Heroes just to try and hunt down your mission - so I'd hope you at least included video of how your mission played out). Hmm, I have messed around with the GECK and... whatever the NWN editor is called (it's been a while), but never really made anything of substance except for a small add-on to someone else's Fallout 3 mod that's mostly only popular because the original mod was popular, so I didn't think to include that as relevant experience. Should I have done so, or should I try to produce something more significant with them first? I think my issue is that I've done a lot of little tweaks and mods in a bunch of different games, but they're all just really minor things; I've got a programming background so modding isn't really that difficult for me, so I just get this feeling of "this is annoying; I'm going to change it", do that, and then kind of forget about it. I'm not really sure about the threshold of what I should consider as "experience" versus "I dicked around in GECK for an hour or so".
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 21:14
|
|
|
The Cheshire Cat posted:I think my issue is that I've done a lot of little tweaks and mods in a bunch of different games, but they're all just really minor things; I've got a programming background so modding isn't really that difficult for me, so I just get this feeling of "this is annoying; I'm going to change it", do that, and then kind of forget about it. I'm not really sure about the threshold of what I should consider as "experience" versus "I dicked around in GECK for an hour or so". No portfolio => sad panda. If you've got that portfolio, then there's your background / that's all you really need. EDIT: VV No one plays NWN anymore, no, not really. I think even... Bioware, was it?... stopped asking for modules in their applications. Even with Fallout, getting them to download your module would be difficult, though at least more doable. Regardless, yes, video is an easy way of getting around that, and yes, you could simply throw up a complete playthrough video. It isn't the most ideal thing in the world, but Youtube videos make it easy to skip around and get a sense for what is being shown. Either way, game design jobs are going to require a proper game design portfolio... which, yes, isn't just writing samples. Ideally, you would show entire games too, not just mods, which'd make it a little easier to get people to see your work. Unity and Stencyl would both be simple non-coder options. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Jun 8, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 21:37
|
|
|
Shalinor posted:You need a portfolio. That portfolio should be full of cool stuff you have taken to completion. If you are applying for design roles, that portfolio should be full of cool design-themed stuff (whether you built the underlying engine or not) like quest-lines and fleshed out worlds and gameplay as opposed to particle demos and BRDF. Well, I knew I needed a portfolio (which is why I included writing samples with my application; not game design stuff but the closest I have, and they are complete works, not just random "I dashed this off 20 minutes before I sent in this application" crap), though it's helpful to know what kind of stuff I should include. Somewhat of a tangential question, but do people still consider NWN mods to be current/relevant? You mentioned it in your previous post. I'm familiar enough with the designer that I could actually put something together if I had an idea, but I didn't realize that people were still playing it. Jumping off from there, how should I present things that require a specific game to play? As I mentioned, I've designed a few missions in City of Heroes that have been very well received, but obviously I can't assume that anyone I'm applying to has the game. Even something more popular like Fallout 3 I don't think I'd want to make that assumption. In that sort of case, what's a good way to show off my work? Would a screenshot/video highlight reel be appropriate, or would it be better to just record a full run through of the thing and send it in unedited? The latter seems like it would be way too long for anyone to actually want to watch. (Also, apologies for being yet another "How do I get into the industry  " poster. I really just wanted to mention that I applied for a position but felt that was a little content-light to be a meaningful contribution to the thread)
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 21:53
|
|
|
treeboy posted:Well I've got a phone interview with Vigil Games this afternoon for an entry level character animation position. Wish me luck! Good luck fellow animator!
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 22:11
|
|
|
Shalinor posted:I've never seen the mission architect, and would tend to assume that user-facing content creation tools in MMOs are far, far less complex. Shalinor posted:I would similarly be skeptical of someone who applied for a designer position on the strength of their Little Big Planet level, though I know that their tools are at least quite complicated and capable of depth. So I'd be less skeptical, but that question would still be there - "if s/he really wants to make and design games, why on earth haven't they ever tried making or designing a proper game." (unless I happened to be hiring for people to work exclusively in LBP, which is... unlikely) "Adventure creation kits" don't automate that process any more than UDK; a designer still needs to use his/her expertise. At Disney in Solana Beach (San Diego), Metaplace (the brainchild of Raph Koster) is the primary toolset. Look up the reviews of Metaplace when the toolset was a consumer-facing web-based platform; it's an enterprise suite of applications now. If I were hiring designers, the top three attributes I'd look for in candidates would be a) the quality of the games produced from design and marketing perspectives, b) experience/proficiency with "our" tools, and c) experience/proficiency with a variety of tools. (By the way, I'd bet that NCsoft looks for designers who have experience with the City of Heroes Mission Architect.)
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 22:33
|
|
|
Black Eagle posted:The complexity of the software only demonstrates that the user can understand and make use of (often needlessly) complex software. That's undoubtedly an increasingly important skill when dealing with software, but that skill alone makes a designer neither good nor great. It doesn't matter if it's needlessly complex, they're the tools the studio uses, and they're the tools whoever you hire is going to need to come up to speed on quickly. Experience with LBP or a user-friendly tool doesn't tell me much about how well you're going to handle a complicated tool - using something more industry-standard does. Now if you have a few examples done in one of the typical game engines AND something done in LBP/etc? Hey, that's awesome! But showing that range is still necessary, if you want to stand out next to the guy who can show solid experience with industry-standard tools. EDIT: And I agree, I have no doubt that NC Soft looks for that. I suspect he's applying to studios other than just NC Soft, though. EDIT2: Off-forums chats ahoy. To be clear, I am not saying "only complex tools are valid." I am saying "try and show experience with the tier of tools that the studio in question is likely to be using." When you make a level with LBP, for instance, what you're showing competence with is a user-friendly WYSIWYG visual editor, as opposed to competence with scripting. It's, in general, higher level than even Kismet or Stencyl. LBP is an unfair example, though, because it CAN get quite insane with its logic, so that more depends on how complicated you get. In general, I would simply hedge my bets by also throwing in a UDK example, or something made with Flash/Stencyl or Unity, etc. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jun 8, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2011 22:42
|
|
|
Hey, I just heard about this and have nowhere to show it but here. lovely game school I got suckered into going to when I was 17. They have a student showcase once a year and some idiot got featured in it for this: http://www.shutupsara.com/!portfolio If you're going to steal, and call yourself something, at least don't make it as obvious as abusing Poser. I guess you can file this one under :gameschools:
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 08:24
|
|
|
Shalinor posted:
I saw a Bioware job ad late last year that was demanding a NWN module as a prerequisite - though I can't imagine that's very common and may have been the last ever. Something new that involves at least some scripting possibilities is a better bet.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 09:54
|
|
|
Does anyone in this thread work at Playground Games in Leamington Spa?
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 11:02
|
|
|
19orFewer posted:I saw a Bioware job ad late last year that was demanding a NWN module as a prerequisite - though I can't imagine that's very common and may have been the last ever. Something new that involves at least some scripting possibilities is a better bet. They require that of their writers, if not other positions as well.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 11:40
|
|
|
Quick question: Is it impolite or anything to apply for a job during or shortly after E3? I've heard that about GDC, since a huge portion of the industry is there and everyone is generally drunk/tired/busy and coming back to a weeklong backlog.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 11:58
|
|
|
wasabimilkshake posted:Quick question: Is it impolite or anything to apply for a job during or shortly after E3? I've heard that about GDC, since a huge portion of the industry is there and everyone is generally drunk/tired/busy and coming back to a weeklong backlog. They don't have to read your application until later if they don't want to. Don't worry about this kind of stuff if I were you dude!
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 12:37
|
|
|
Andio posted:Does anyone in this thread work at Playground Games in Leamington Spa? Not yet, but I've got an interview there next week. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 13:32
|
|
|
Pardon the name-drop/brag, but my mind is sort of blown right now. I spent last night sitting around drinking and playing board games with Brian Reynolds, Bruce Shelley, Bob Bates, Paul Neurath, and a bunch of other dudes who made the games of my childhood like it was no big thing. And then when one of them turns to me and says, "Oh, hey, you worked on X? I thought that was brilliant and I still play it from time to time!" My only response is "stammerstammergoshthanks" and then I'm pretty sure I spent the next 30 minutes blushing like a 14 year old girl.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 13:38
|
|
|
Are there any good 2d game engines that are free to develop on?
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 14:15
|
|
|
Backov posted:They require that of their writers, if not other positions as well. Bioware does still require NWN modules with applications for writers, world designers, and scripters. Possibly other types of designers, as well. It may also be dependent on the studio, but I know Austin stills asks for submissions in NWN. If you're wondering why, it's because NWN is still actually a pretty good suite for designing levels and doing crazy scripting stuff. It's also cheaply available and easy to learn.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 14:26
|
|
|
Aliginge posted:Not yet, but I've got an interview there next week. For which position? I'm contemplating applying for the AP job. A close friend had an interview for their QA Lead opening too. My problem would be that once me and my family relocate from the North West tothe East Midlands there will be a 1 hour 25 min commute there and then the same back. Not sure if I could afford that but I would really like to work there. I was hoping to find out the salary for the role. Regardless of what I choose to do, good luck with your interview! I'm always lurking in this thread and I enjoy reading your contributions. Be sure to post how it goes!
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 14:47
|
|
|
Monster w21 Faces posted:Are there any good 2d game engines that are free to develop on? http://polycode.org/features/ this popped up on Reddit a few days ago, looks interesting. Can unity be used for 2d? You could also roll your own with a mixture of SDL or SFML (Both of which have bindings for various languages), and Box2d for physics.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 14:57
|
|
|
dogmaan posted:http://polycode.org/features/ IIRC Unity can be used for 2d sprite based work but it requires a 3rd party plugin that you'll need to fork over some cash for. Don't remember how much though...
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 15:11
|
|
|
treeboy posted:IIRC Unity can be used for 2d sprite based work but it requires a 3rd party plugin that you'll need to fork over some cash for. Don't remember how much though... We wrote our own handler for all of that, and it really didn't take long. What SpriteManager2 does beyond ours, I think, is make the whole process more user-friendly and integrated into the editor, but I haven't seen it recently to know for sure. (now that said, I'd certainly recommend you go with SpriteManager2 if you can - it'll save you time/money - if but you have more time and no money, just write your own, it is not hard) ... anywho, your other big 2D engine is - well, Flash, obviously. Flash is still the reigning king of 2D gaming, that's what it was built for. Look at Flashpunk and Flixel, or Stencyl if you want a visual scripter for it. (EDIT: and yeah, UDK's fine for 2D gameplay - check out their Wizzle demo) Shalinor fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Jun 9, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 15:14
|
|
|
Cheers. I think I might actually be able to hammer it out in UDK. Now I need to learn UDK to prototype...not too daunting a task then.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 15:19
|
|
|
Andio posted:For which position? I'm contemplating applying for the AP job. A close friend had an interview for their QA Lead opening too. Environment Artist. It'd be my first post in industry. And thanks, hoping for the best  Salary for my postion I'm expecting would be around £20k if not a touch more. Leamington can be a pricy place to live, at least compared to the shithole that is Middlesbrough :p A brief search indicates that you'd be looking at around £26k for Assistant Producer. A housemate (also a goon iirc) is going for the Level Design position too. He's into racing games, he has level design sketches all over his room and he knows a bunch of engines from UE3 to worldcraft. Mighty big goonpile if all turns out well. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 15:29
|
|
|
Aliginge posted:Environment Artist. It'd be my first post in industry. And thanks, hoping for the best I think it would be nice to be on 20k, but I wouldn't expect them to take Leam in to consideration. I started three and a half years ago on considerably less than that. It does go up quite quickly though usually.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 15:51
|
|
|
^^^ poo poo, really? I mean I'm a programmer but I thought they'd be comparable. Edit: Actually thinking about it now I was on less for the first six months, then around that. This was also several years ago. Aliginge posted:Salary for my postion I'm expecting would be around £20k if not a touch more. Leamington can be a pricy place to live, at least compared to the shithole that is Middlesbrough :p Akuma fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Jun 9, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 15:55
|
|
|
holy gently caress...I got the job with Vigil. It's a full time entry level temp position but I got it...I'm kinda speechless and in shock. Please tell me it's a dream.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 16:30
|
|
|
You're dreaming you lucky jerk 
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 16:32
|
|
|
treeboy posted:holy gently caress...I got the job with Vigil. It's a full time entry level temp position but I got it...I'm kinda speechless and in shock. Please tell me it's a dream. I PINCH U Congratulations, man! Work your rear end off and make it count.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 16:41
|
|
|
Another Playground applicant here, for an entry-level programming post. Still waiting on hearing back from companies, so I'm just learning Unity in my spare time. Anything else I should learn that'd be worthwhile?
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 16:59
|
|
|
Irish Taxi Driver posted:You're dreaming you lucky jerk typhus posted:I PINCH U Thanks guys! (meant to say please tell me it's *not* a dream) This is crazy, i can't stop smiling.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 17:05
|
|
|
Akuma posted:Edit: Actually thinking about it now I was on less for the first six months, then around that. This was also several years ago. treeboy posted:holy gently caress...I got the job with Vigil. It's a full time entry level temp position but I got it...I'm kinda speechless and in shock. Please tell me it's a dream.  Seriously bro, well done.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 17:08
|
|
|
Hi I'm wondering if someone could answer my question. Is XNA a viable platform to work on with 2D sprites? Or will it more difficult? Also I was wondering what type of engines do indie developers use for PC games such as Spelunky, Supercrate and La Mulana. I"m asking this based on that my friend who is a programmer is going to use unity as the one of the engines for the game. I"m curious, considering the only example of something being as used for unity was that Sonic the Hedgehog demo.. (which was more 2.5 D)
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 17:15
|
|
|
Shindragon posted:Hi I'm wondering if someone could answer my question. Is XNA a viable platform to work on with 2D sprites? Or will it more difficult? XNA works fine with 2D sprites. Pretty sure most of the functionality you need to use sprites is built-in. Either that or I programmed that functionality whilst pissed, because I don't remember it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 17:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 14:04 |
|
|
Shindragon posted:Hi I'm wondering if someone could answer my question. Is XNA a viable platform to work on with 2D sprites? Or will it more difficult? The three you mentioned seem to use their own engines. -e- Spelunky uses GameMaker.
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2011 17:25
|
|
