No developer will hire you without some example game levels to show. Luckily almost every 3D game out there comes with a level editor so you can get cracking making up some levels to show off your skills.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions

I don't mean to pick on the original poster or sound harsh, but I hear claims like this all the time:

quote: Original post by Longtimeaway
...I wrote a graphic rpg years ago (in C++, in DOS!) and I haven't programmed since. The game was actually decent, it won a contest--Boston Computer Soceity Compufest, 7th-9th grade division.

Okay, now imagine you're a newspaper editor. Someone comes to you and says, "I'd like a job. I can write! I wrote a really cool paper in 8th grade that won an award!" Or you're a movie director and someone comes to you and says, "I'd like a job. I can act! I had the lead role in my middle school play!" How relevant do you think those experiences would be?

For years now, if someone says on a resume something like "I've been programming for 15 years" and I do the math and realize they're counting back to when they were 11, they're on the express track for the circular file.

Industry experience means industry experience . I don't really care how old you are (if you really were programming for Apple, Inc. when you were 11, that's different than "I made a cool game in basic in my parent's basement"), but I do care about actual industry experience.

So back to our original poster:

quote: Now that I'm out of college and through being serious, I'd really like to get a job doing level editing, 3d, 2d, anything except sports games. I'm obsessed with puzzles, secrets, fractal patterns, that sort of thing, and I've always wanted to design levels. I've got all sorts of ideas.

So far you've told us you've always wanted to join the circus when you grew up. And as for having all sorts of ideas, well, get in line. The one thing there is no shortage of in this industry is ideas -- even really really good ideas (to say nothing of the morass of gazillions of bad ideas that somehow manage to survive).

quote: But I've been out of the field for a long time, and I don't know MAYA or TREAD or whatever they're called, these new editors. I figure I could learn new editors pretty fast, it's very intuitive for me. I'd just need some practice.

These days, people go to school for that sort of thing. Why would you expect someone to hire you to learn on their time, especially when highly qualified applicants with actual portfolios are going begging from door to door?

quote: It seems to me that a knack for _thinking_ about level design is the skill/talent you need for this.

Yes. But unless you can actually demonstrate, via something you've done -- and what you did in 8th grade doesn't count -- then this skill is useless. Lots of people can think about creating good levels. Far fewer can actually get ten of these done to show.

quote: However, companies seem really to want someone with titles and industry experience. Where can I start? can I get some kind of entry-level work on a project? or join an independent team?

You might be able to find space on an indie or student team where no one's getting paid. But you'd be better off buying some modeling tools and learning them first, getting your hands dirty making a few Counterstrike level mods or something along those lines, etc.

You might also be able to find work doing QA for game companies -- this is a common starting rung on the ladder -- but in the current economy, even these jobs are often mobbed.

quote: (Not looking to get rich, just need to pay the bills

You won't get rich in the games industry, especially not as an artist, level designer, etc. I'm not sure why this myth persists, but it does. The number of "rock stars" in the industry is vanishingly small, and shrinking.

quote: I've also got 14 years' writing experience, including a lot of writing for film, TV, and especially stage;

If, as I said above, that's professional experience writing for plays that were produced, films and TV shows that were made, etc., then this is possibly worth pursuing. Though the lot of the writer in the games industry seems to be even worse than that of the designer -- everyone is sure they can write (or worse, do voice acting) so why hire someone to do this?


I hope all this doesn't sound too harsh. But I don't think there's any sense in being unrealistic. This is a difficult, risky, overpopulated industry. It's possible to make money and do well, but it is never easy or risk-free. And particularly when you're trying to break in to the industry, you need to have things -- your skills, experience, etc. -- stacked as heavily in your favor as possible.

[edited by - archetypist on September 25, 2002 9:50:34 AM]