The Hows and Whys of The Games Industry

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The Hows and Whys of the

Games Industry

Sjoerd “Hourences” De Jong

http://www.Hourences.com

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"Hourences" De Jong

By possessing and/or reading this book you agree to the usage terms. See the Copyright and

Permissions chapter for more information. I am an independent individual who is in no way backed or supported by any company, group or organization. I put a lot of work and knowledge into this book. By stealing content or illegally reproducing this book you don't hit a multi million dollar company but you hit me as the author. Please respect my work. If you obtained this book through illegal means do buy it if it proves helpful to you. Knowledge is precious and if it can garner you a (better) job then those few dollars are well worth the money.

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The Hows and Whys of the Games Industry

About This Book

This book is for those who are interested in the video game industry, but who are still undecided as to whether or not to pursue a game development career, and those who have already made their decision but are looking for additional information and guidance before plunging in head first.

The basic questions this book will attempt to answer are: Why would one want to work in the games industry? Or why not? And, if the decision has already been made, then: What would one look for or expect? How can one pick a good mod (modification) team or a development studio that will fit one’s personality and meet one’s expectations?

This book will also delve into how the game development industry works in general and some of its current issues. In addition, it will also touch on game development schools and how they currently fit into the larger picture. Finally, there will be some ruminations on what the future may bring to the industry.

The overall goal here, is to provide an objective and honest discourse on how the industry works as a whole; the general expectations within it, and discussion of its positive and negative aspects. A career in the games industry may sound nice, but is it really as good as it sounds? Is it actually what you – the reader – are looking for? It is your dream job? Are you a good fit for it? The intent here is not to disparage or praise the industry. The intent is to examine the perceived pluses and minuses of the industry which would subsequently allow you, the reader, to make an informed decision about whether this is the right industry for you.

The text will attempt to provide you with answers to some of the most common questions. For example, how much can one expect to earn?

What’s the best way to apply to a position with a company? What can once expect during a job interview? Plenty of tips for what to look for when searching for a job will be provided.

The content should not be perceived as a ‘step by step’ instruction book on how to land a job in the games industry. The successful paths to an industry job are still quite different and more varied when compared to other, more ‘historical’ industries. A few different paths will be discussed, but in the end – it’s up to the individual to decide how they will handle it. Finally, try to keep in mind that the North American, British, and

European branches of the games industry all differ – sometimes a little, sometimes dramatically. This book will attempt to present a picture as accurate as possible of the whole Western branch of the industry. However,

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due to regional differences, some of the information may not be as important to other regions, and perhaps, not applicable at all.

It should also be noted that this is an industry evolving very fast. While what has been described fits the industry well today, it may not be entirely applicable in five years time. The overall description of this industry is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future though.

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The Author

I originally came from the Unreal Tournament Mod scene in which I am still active. I started my career when I was fifteen, and worked my way up since then. I am entirely self-taught.

As a level designer and environment artist I have worked both on and off-site for a range of studios; small & large, startups as well as established studios. These include: Guerrilla Games, Streamline Studios, Psyonix

Studios, Digital Extremes, Epic Games, Webzen, Prophecy Games, Playlogic, and Khaeon. Titles I have worked on include Killzone, Shellshock nam'67, Unreal Tournament 2004 and its ECE add-on pack, Warpath, Huxley and The Chronicles Of Spellborn.

For UT2004, I created two of the most well-known levels from the game: DM-Rankin and ONS-Torlan. Both were also featured in the UT2004 demo, and have been played millions of times.

As a mod developer, I have created dozens of free stand-alone levels for a number of games. I also worked on several very large mods such as Operation Na Pali, Xidia, and Jailbreak. My mod work also won me several prizes in the large, one million dollar, ‘MakeSomethingUnreal’ contest. Including a first prize.

I am still active in online communities, and have been so for the past eight years. I moderate chat channels, forums, and answer people’s game development questions. Participation in community activities has made me very familiar with the issues and questions of people who are trying to break into the games industry. It is these issues and questions that are the inspiration for this book, and I aim to answer the majority of them here. Because of my extensive experience with online communities and the modding scene, as well as with permanent on-site jobs and freelance off-site jobs, and having performed work in both small studios as large studios, nearby as well as far away, I believe I am able to present an accurate picture of the games industry and approach various subjects from a different and more community minded perspective than similar books.

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Chapter 1 Introduction

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History

While Pong was the first commercially successful video game, other various experimental games were created before Pong ever saw the light of day.

In 1962, a group of friends wrote a little space game named “Spacewar!” for their DEC PDP-1 computer. The game was controlled by two players, each controlling a space ship, and the goal was to destroy the others’ ship. The game attracted the interest of the DEC’s manufacturer who then

decided to distribute the game with all of its computers in order to

demonstrate its power. This decision caused the game to be distributed to university labs across the United States thus influencing an entire

generation of students.

Almost ten years later, in 1971, two students from Stanford University put the game to its first commercial use: they hooked it up to a coin machine and placed the computer in the university.

One of the students influenced by the game was Nolan Bushnell. After graduating he developed his own “Spacewar!” clone with the aim of getting video games into arcade halls. He struck a deal with a coin operator

company and distributed 1500 units. Unfortunately the game proved to be a little too complex for the average customer and the venture failed.

However, this did not stop Nolan Bushnell and soon after, with co-worker Ted Dabney, he founded Atari.

Almost simultaneously, another important development too place. In 1951, Ralph Baer started thinking about the principles of an interactive TV game. In 1966 he put his idea to the test and built a simple two-player game called “Chase”. Each payer controlled a dot on the screen and one player would chase the other. The game was well-received by the company he worked at and a toy rifle was added to control one of the dots.

Soon after, Bill Rusch joined the project and, with his help, a third dot was added to the game, but this time, the dot was controlled by the

computer. Soon, this new variant led to a game very much like Pong. This, in turn, led to the development of two controllers, and a simple console to control the game.

A few years later, Nolan Bushnell witnessed a demonstration of the project and saw commercial potential in this little game. He hired a

programmer to create a separate version of the game and named it Pong. In 1975 the home version of Pong was released to the public and it was a hit. Soon, games quickly began to gain popularity.

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Facts

The games industry is one of the newest and fastest growing industries in the world. It’s internationally oriented, has grown almost continuously since its inception, and now generates billions of dollars a year. Yet there remains plenty of room for additional growth and continued success is expected for many years to come.

Some Facts:

• Since 1996, the games industry has grown by nearly 300 percent.

That's an average of about thirty percent a year. Compared to ‘historical’ industries, that's a lot.

• Over $13 billion worth of games and related hardware will be sold in

just the USA in 2007.

• The average gamer is over thirty years old.

• Three fourths of all households in the developed world play games on

a more or less regular base.

• Currently it can cost from ten to twenty million dollars to produce a

large and complex game. Blockbusters may take up to thirty or forty million dollars over the course of three to four years, or even longer.

• The games industry is projected to, in one way or another, employ

over 250,000 people in the USA by 2010, and hundreds of thousands more across the world.

• Nearly all developers are male and, on average, between twenty and

thirty-five years old. The average age largely depends on the age of the industry in the region. The developers in the USA and the UK in general have the highest average age. In other regions most

developers are in their twenties.

The times when games were a kid’s toy are long gone. Games, more and more, are becoming a fusion of technology, art, and design, and a method to generate revenue. Today, games are a multi-million dollar industry where the focus is shifting more and more to adults. Current games are more serious and even though it’s unclear exactly what direction they’re heading in, one way or another, it’s clear that video games are here to stay.

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The Expectations

If you’re looking for a stable job in a stable industry where you can live the remainder of your life in a quiet suburban home, then the games industry probably isn’t for you. The video game industry is new and dynamic; it changes rapidly – both for the good and the bad. It’s highly volatile. One bad game can break a company, and even if the company is solid, sometimes the games don’t even reach ‘beta’ before getting canned. Many reasons for this exist: complexity of the game, costs, bad

management, bad organization, staffing problems, missed deadlines, publishers losing interest or trust, and more.

In this industry, one must be dynamic. If you absolutely must have job security then you’d be better served picking another industry. In the games industry the only sense of stability one can attain is that of one’s own skills and experience. If you’re good enough, you’ll never be without a job for long.

Additionally, work in the industry can be lonely, and antisocial. It’s also an indoor job and most developers focus almost entirely on their job. If you’re an active and social person, then sitting quietly behind a desk all day may not fit your personality very well. Usually, more quiet and introverted people pick these jobs; of course there are always exceptions.

Because of its fluctuating nature, odds are that you will move a few times, or more. The industry is spread all over the world and there are few

companies. Unless you live in one of the few locations where game

companies have already congregated, then it’s quite unlikely that there are more than a few interesting companies within a 100 KM/60 mi radius

around you. Moving cross country, or even internationally, is an option you’ll need to keep in mind if you want to get anywhere.

A common misconception is that game developers play games day in and day out – almost like a big, ongoing party. Usually, you’ll really only be playing the game you’re working on, unless you’re doing research. Also, playing your very unfinished game that you’ve already played hundreds of times usually isn’t much fun – and certainly can’t be considered a party. Development includes boring and repetitive work – it’s simply part of the job.

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One of the largest problems beginning game developers (and actually all beginner-level professionals) face is that one needs experience to get hired in the first place. It’s the common problem: if you don’t have experience, no one will hire you, but without anyone hiring you, you can’t gain

experience. It may seem like an endless circle, but there are a few ways out. For example, some companies offer internships or and/or junior positions, and there’s also non-commercial mod work. This issue will be addressed more in depth further on in the book.

The bad issues aside, there are also positive aspects that one can expect of a job in the games industry – we’ll get to these shortly.

The industry will expect to see certain traits in their employees. The most common are:

• #1 Passion: A person who loves games.

If you don’t play games, you don’t know games, and therefore you can't create games. Studios look out for avid and passionate gamers; not occasional gamers who can never get further than the first three levels and have only played a handful.

• #2 Competency: A person who can prove his or her skill.

In this industry you are nothing if you can't prove your skill. A great resume and a good school grade can only do so much; a

portfolio with examples of your work will have to do the rest. Without showing what you can do, no one will believe you.

• #3 Dedication: A dedicated person.

This work requires dedication: long workdays, moving abroad, and sometimes, for example during ‘crunch time’, even giving up the rest of your non-work life. This industry is really only meant for those who absolutely love what they are doing. Do not get into the games

industry because you ‘kind of’ like games. Get into it because you love games and game development. It shouldn't just be your work and livelihood; it should be your life.

Studios don’t want developers who go home when the clock strikes five pm. Nor do they want someone who quits a project halfway through. They want people who believe in what they do.

• #4 Initiative: A self-starter.

The industry looks for those who need little supervision and don't need to ask for everything. They search for those who can figure out

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what to do themselves and get started on it without being told. This industry is not looking for people who do nothing until they are actually told, nor does it want someone who can't figure out basic tasks for themselves and who constantly bothers others with simple questions. It does not want people who wait passively until

something happens. On the contrary, it wants people who are active, inquisitive, and undertake action themselves.

• #5 Completion: Somebody who finishes what they start.

The last thing this industry wants is people who are never able to finish what they start. In a commercial production environment it's obviously very important that work gets done. This industry is looking for people who have the dedication to finish what they start.

• #6 Efficient: Someone who is organized; can stick to the rules and

the available time. A perfectionist!

Game development distinguishes itself from other types of digital art and design by its need to be rendered in real time on the platform of choice. All parts of a game must be created and implemented efficiently so the maximum benefits can be achieved. There are rules for this, and the games industry looks for people who can stick to these rules and accomplish the work within the available time. The group that has most problems with this is normally the artists who often care more about how it looks than how it runs. Great looks are good, but they mean little if it doesn't run well when rendered in real time.

• #7 Analysis: A problem-solver.

Don't just ask, research it first. Experiment with techniques,

research it online and, if after all that you still don’t have the answer, only then are you expected to ask. A person who asks for help for every little problem will quickly become an annoyance and will waste the time of the senior developers who have better things to do than to answer basic questions.

• #8 Potential: Someone who is eager to learn.

This industry is constantly evolving. If you don't keep up with the pace, you stagnate. Studios are looking for a person who can keep up with the pace of industry developments, new tools, new engines, and new whatever else. You need to be a quick adapter in this industry.

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Chapter 2 The Industry

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The Good and the Bad

Compared to other, more historical industries, the games industry is a different world with its own set of rules. What may be regarded as a standard procedure in other work could be, and often is, completely different in the games industry – for example, wearing a suit during a job interview. Some game developer human resource people could ‘read’ an applicant wearing a suit as too strict or serious for their company. The office atmosphere, job application process, benefits, and other ‘standard’ office accouterments can vary widely from developer to developer and are generally different compared to more traditional industries. This difference has both advantages and disadvantages. Here are some reasons why you either would or would not want to work in this industry.

Why

• #1 Love: It's your hobby and passion!

What’s better than being able to make a living from your hobby? Even though work is always work, and there will always be days that are worse (and better) than others, being paid to do what you like and want to do is a blessing. For far too many people work is

regarded simply as work. It’s a necessary evil that they have to drag themselves through each day. If you truly love the work, then you can be different: you can go to the office every day with a smile because you enjoy what you’re doing. And that’s worth much more than a paycheck. If you love the work you do in the games industry, your work will become your life, and your life will become your work.

• #2 A Sympathetic Culture: A relaxed atmosphere and likeminded

people.

The atmosphere in the offices is usually fairly relaxed, sometimes even very relaxed, depending on the studio. Some studios even have free working hours, most have no dress code, and the atmosphere, generally, is open and friendly. Colleagues talk to each other while music plays in the background, and it’s all quite casual. Artists and more creative people usually appreciate this looser environment. Another advantage is the fact that you’re able to socialize and work with people who share your interests. Everyone in the games

industry is as passionate about what they do as you are. You’ll find people who understand what you’re talking about when you talk about vertices and UV coordinates, unlike your family and friends

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who, at best, usually feign interest. Also, a good portion of the people in the industry have introverted, quiet personalities which can help you feel more at ease – especially if you share those personality traits.

• #3 International: Get paid to see the world.

The games industry is a very internationally orientated industry. Moving to another region or country is sometimes simply part of the job. If you’re the adventurous type who likes to travel and get paid to do so, but also likes to stay in different places for short to long periods, then this is the job for you. Especially since relocation expenses are often either wholly or partially taken care of. In just five years time, it’s conceivable that one could have lived in three to four different countries and cultures, thus widening one’s vision of our planet and the people who live on it. If you’ve never been happy in your home region and always thought the grass was greener on the other side, then the games industry can give you the opportunity to see exactly how green it is.

• #4 Creativity: It’s a creative job.

Few things are worse than a mindless job where you’re just a cog in the machine. Working in the games industry allows you to use your brain and be creative in what you do. It challenges you to think about what you create and search for the perfect solution yourself. The games industry encourages you to think for yourself. Especially

further up in your career, in more senior positions, you can really use all your imagination and creativity to help shape the game into what you envision, and there's nothing better than that.

• #5 Blossoming: A young industry.

The industry is young and there are still many things that haven't been done before or aren’t yet written in stone. Unlike traditional forms of art, where, to a certain extent, pretty much everything has already been done, and where older and more established artists look down on anything new; game development, as a whole, is new. Even though plenty of things have already been done, there are also ever growing possibilities to go further than anything ever done before. The rising hardware power and understanding of the media can open up new doors in the future, and you can be part of that ‘revolution’. There is no real group of established people with set rules that may not be broken; everything is still possible and is open to exploration. Because of the young age of this industry, there are also relatively few really experienced developers around. Most developers have only been active in the industry themselves for a few years.

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Especially true in regions where the industry is brand new (mainland Europe comes to mind), and where you can still become a veteran with just a few years experience; unlike other industries where one might require ten to twenty years of experience before getting promoted to a higher position. A quickly rising career is more than possible in the games industry; promotion can be right around the corner at all times.

Another positive point of the young nature of this industry is the average age. Most developers are young; the average age is between twenty and thirty-five at most game development studios. Being able to work with people of one’s own age is quite a big plus, and

improves the atmosphere on the office floor.

• #6 Satisfaction: Exactly how much?

Your work matters - kind of. Although it won't save any lives, it is quite a satisfying job. The work that you do actually gets noticed, it gets printed in magazines, uploaded on websites and perhaps even shown on TV. You're not working on anonymous projects with little prestige such as small internal applications that only a few

enthusiasts cares about. People actually care about what you make. They might even be excited about it. A whole fan base might even develop and try to support you and your fellow developers. They'll give you the feeling that all the time you've put in might actually be worth it, and that's satisfaction.

Why not

• #1 International: Seeing the world can come at a cost.

Moving all the time can certainly complicate one’s life. It doesn’t make building a stable life easy, and it can be frustrating for

someone who generally avoids change and doesn’t like being independent in strange places.

Moving may not be much of a problem when you’re young and adventurous (and single). But it becomes a much larger issue when you’re older and try to settle down. If you have a wife/husband or boy/girlfriend moving suddenly becomes much more difficult. This issue becomes even more pronounced when you have a child/children or if your partner is unable to get a visa or work permit for an

international move. Likewise, it also makes buying a house or other type of property more difficult. Even relatively simple moving tasks,

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like dealing with furniture or vehicles, can become much more complicated the farther away the job – especially if there’s an ocean in the way.

Moving also usually takes you farther away from friends and family. If there’s a problem, you’re on your own to deal with it. And there’s also the potentially thousands of dollars/euros a year to spend on trips back home for the holidays or significant family events. We’ll go over this more in depth near the end of the book in the section about moving.

• #2 Insecurity: An unstable and volatile industry.

The industry is highly volatile. It is possible to lose your job at any given moment. Few companies are wealthy and stable enough to withstand serious problems. In most areas of the world, there are only a few studios near each other. Losing a job usually also means moving away, thus adding to the stress.

The constant danger of losing a job is also disastrous when you’re trying to purchase a mortgage, a house, or are exposing yourself to other kinds of financial risk. This situation is usually impossible to deal with for most.

• #3 Exploitation: It’s everywhere.

Like other young industries work and office standards are still being developed. This leaves various portions of the industry open to

exploit. Developers get exploited by the management and

publishers. Employees are often expected to work unpaid overtime – usually near milestones or the end of a project. Unrealistic and highly stressful deadlines are often imposed which sometimes turns a

developer’s studio into something akin to fifty monkeys sitting in cubicles working like machines. Developers are still often regarded as expendable and simply part of the machine that makes a game. Obviously, this is regrettable; developers are actually the most important element of the process and the least expendable. Developers can’t simply be replaced. Their skills are unique and there’s a shortage of skilled developers – few of the managers who work with the developers realize this.

The developers earn relatively little compared to what less essential people, such as marketing, earn, and they see little or no financial return on their own game, unless it’s a blockbuster hit, and even then the return can be paltry. The pieces of the game-making machine that had very little to do with the actual development get rich from the developers’ hard work but when something goes wrong, the developers are the first to get the blame, and are the first to be fired. If the industry ever wants to mature, it needs to become, and

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encourage, stability. Recent graduates may be willing to work overtime every day, but older developers will not accept that as easily. People will grow older, they will want to settle, have kids, and demand more predictable hours and conditions.

• #4 Blossoming: When the petals wither.

Because the industry is still relatively young, mistakes and mismanagement are rife due to the inexperience of the entire industry. People with too little experience are often in charge.

Sometimes managers who have never worked on a game before lead a team of developers. Completely unrealistic projects and deadlines are set by people who have no inkling of what to expect. There are far too few experienced people around and because of it, people get promoted much too quickly in a bid to close the gap of experienced developers and leaders. Those new people mismanage a dozen things and sometimes micromanage the staff to a state of creative paralysis, and the errors pile up until the game crashes down or get butchered in reviews.

Often, entire development teams are new and have never worked together yet on a project. They don't know each other and they have insufficient knowledge of each other's priorities and workflows. The result is often a complete chaotic mess where every department works individually with insufficient communication about what each department needs from the other. In fact, the organization altogether in some studios is a disaster; simply nonexistent or just plain wrong. People in charge design workflows and organizational rules that either do not work for the company as a whole or a specific department, or completely miss the point and are irrelevant.

• #5 A heavy, closed door: Hard to get a foot in.

It's hard to get into this industry, especially if you're not living close to a number of game development studios. The often lacking support of relatives, and sometimes even governments, only makes things worse. Game development is a new and relatively unknown industry and those who are not familiar with it usually don't regard it as a valid career path for you. The government often has no clue that it even exists, let alone that they would support you or the industry in the quest to success. Although this certainly also depends on where you're living.

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• #6 Frustration: Across all aspects.

As you may have figured out already by reading all the other negative points, the industry can be incredibly frustrating at times. There is a high turn over rate among developers. People quit because they are fed up with a company’s or game’s progress. Because of the significant passion involved in this industry, the slightest problem can cause a huge amount of frustration. The frequent mismanagement, insecurity, exploitation, games getting canned, or released too soon, and so on only make the matter worse.

A Frustrating Industry

As previously discussed, the industry can be incredibly frustrating. Some say the average developer only survives for five years before they leave the industry, burned out by frustration. This is, of course, largely dependent on who you are working for and what you are working on, as well as your personality and personal expectations. But rest assured that at one point or another, this industry can be extremely taxing on one’s patience.

There are several common sources of frustration:

• #1 Passion!

This is a very passionate industry. Every developer in this industry is passionate about what he or she does. To many, this isn't just work; this is their life, blood, sweat and tears. The more passionate you are about something, the more any setback will upset and disturb you. Even the smallest issue could become a huge source of frustration when blown out of proportion by emotional investment.

• #2 Incompetency: Both with colleagues and publishers.

Incompetent colleagues or other industry people are also a huge source of frustration. They might request things that make no sense or put emphasis on completely irrelevant tasks. Their incompetence could slow you down or even crash the project in which you've put all your hard work. You might have coded the greatest engine ever, but if the artists are terrible in their job no one is ever going to notice your talent. The other way around is also true. You may be the best artist in the world, but if the engine programmers are bad at their job then you’ll never be able to display your talent. The success or failure of everyone as the project progresses eventually all boils down to what is being done together as a team.

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Publishers might simply cancel the project for whatever reason, or decide to put it on hold for a couple of years. Or they may come up with the absolutely worst name, or release marketing screenshots or box art that does not represent the quality of the game or the hard work you've put into it.

• #3 People: Interfering colleagues.

Sometimes colleagues who have little to no clue about what you’re doing can interfere with your work. Either someone from another department may request an impossible, or extremely difficult to implement, feature; or your own lead might not fully understand your specialization, and thus fail to represent you or your work, let alone defend it when decisions are made.

This also depends on the position you hold. Higher positions are usually assailed by worthless requests more often, but they can usually defend against them better. Someone in a senior position can usually defend themselves much easier than a beginner. As a beginner, you sometimes have little to no voice in the team and you therefore cannot protect yourself against stupid tasks. If the lead want you to do x or y, then as a beginner, you’ll likely have to do it, no matter what you think of it. A more senior person is better equipped, both through experience and authority, to repulse such requests and will have a better go at pressing their point of view. Whereas senior developers often fight decisions and requests from outside their department, a beginner usually has to fight their own team members. Beginners are more likely to have their work reviewed more critically than a senior developer, and will receive more comments back than usual on what needs to be changed. This can become especially frustrating when combined with the first point regarding incompetent seniors. If your lead has no clue what you’re doing and yet orders you to change something that would ruin or slow down your creation, and you’re unable to stop it, then that can certainly cause a huge amount of frustration. An example of this is a Lead Artist who has absolutely no animation experience, yet

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• #4 Creativity: Or rather, a lack thereof…

Even while game development is a creative profession, there is no guarantee that you personally will experience much creative freedom. In some cases the work can be extremely boring and repetitive.

There are several reasons for this:

• Teamwork. By working in a team, you often have a very

narrow task list and you might only be expected to make a small part of the larger whole. It can quickly become repetitive to have the same narrow set of tasks for an entire year or longer.

• Low position. As a beginner you usually have little influence

on the game as a whole. You are likely to work on smaller tasks, and you are told what to do. You are unlikely to design new features or entire areas of the game yourself. You are closely watched by more experienced developers who will push you into the direction they want, and that may not be the one you were hoping for.

• Deadlines. The game must be done in time, even if that

means sacrificing quality and originality. Features may be cut or drastically minimized. You will not be able to design or create anything you have in mind because whatever you come up with must fit the larger picture and deadlines.

• Money. The same is true for money. Whatever you create or

design must fit into the budget, this can severely restrict what you want to make.

Depending on where you work, the games industry may not be as creative as you expected it to be, especially in lower positions.

• #5 Luck: Well, do you feel lucky?

We will return to this later on, but for now, to put it briefly; sometimes not skill, nor talent, but luck is the deciding factor. Another, much less talented, person might find a job more quickly than you, and possibly earn more, simply because they happened to live close by or because they knew someone on the inside.

• #6 Deadlines: A necessary evil.

Like most projects, games need to be finished on time. Exceptions aside, very few developers actually take the time to truly finish a game. Most games are developed on tight schedules and are often released before they’re completely finished. The result might be decent; but more often than not, it could have been so much more if adequate time was invested into the game. Time makes the

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given this chance. Whatever you do, there is always the stress of an impending deadline on the horizon. You, or the team as a whole, might have to rush through a particular task or you might never have the chance to truly finish a game to match what you had in mind. After years of hard work you might have to abandon the game

because some guy in a suit tells you it’s good enough to be released, even though you still see a hundred shortcomings. This issue

becomes even worse when a game is released and completely butchered by the press and the public - something that could have been avoided if the game was given another few months. All your trouble and effort can be rendered useless in just a month.

• #7 Money: The other necessary evil.

Money is all some people care about. Even while game

development is a passion for many, it is the money that is the final deciding factor. Games are made to be profitable, even if that means sacrificing things like quality and originality. You might need to work on low quality games for budget reasons. Small games usually aren't very motivating to work on, and the more creative a mind you have, the more trouble you will have with working on simple games or sacrificing, for example, the visual quality purely for the sake of a little money. In the end, this whole industry doesn't revolve around passion; it is all about the big money. This means for some that you, as the developer, are just a tool to get rich quick – the means to the end and nothing more. Personally however, you will likely not see any of the money return to you...

According to surveys, less than half of all game developers see

themselves working in the games industry their entire life. The other half expects to leave the industry within the next five to ten years. On the one hand, their departure can make room for new people, including beginners, but on the other hand, it is a huge brain drain.

The games industry does not have a great reputation regarding the quality of life of its employees. Too much overtime, missing deadlines, and, in general, various ways to be exploited can make this industry a living hell. The problem is that many developers still see their job as their hobby and passion, while the people at the top happily exploit this willingness to push their employees in whatever direction they want.

Passion should never be an excuse to be exploited! That might well be the most important sentence of this entire book.

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The Money

One does not work in the games industry for the money. People who think they can get rich off it or wonder if they would earn more in industry a or b before making their career choice are not meant for the games industry. I have seen plenty of people who leave the games industry after a year or two to return to the ‘real’ world, simply because a ‘regular’ IT company offered them a car and a laptop. If you are truly passionate about games you don't leave the industry purely for financial reasons.

Few game developers will ever get things like a company car or an expense account. However, the industry does not pay badly either. The average salary is highly dependent on the region but is, in general, around, or slightly more than, the average income of that region.

The highest salaries can be earned in the United States, followed by countries like the UK and Canada. The salaries in mainland Europe are in general only half of what the same position would earn in the USA, or even less.

According to surveys the average salary in the USA is between 3,000 and 6,000 USD gross a month. Cut that in half and you end up with an average salary of 1.300 - 2.600 Euro a month gross for average European

developers. The UK is somewhere in between those two.

The salary is, of course, also very dependent on the position one holds and the type of projects one works on. A junior artist working on a local market game is obviously going to earn much less than a lead artist working on a AAA blockbuster.

Within the same company a lead developer could easily receive double or more, than what a junior developer receives monthly. All other positions are in between the two.

Programmers usually earn slightly more than designers who, in turn, often earn a little more than artists. Testers and all kinds of other less essential team members earn the least of all. Any type of lead or senior position usually earns the most. In general, the more specialized it is what you are doing, the more you will earn. For example, an animator will earn significantly more than a general 3D artist.

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More information regarding this subject can be found on various websites. Note that most of these surveys focus on the American game development scene and are, in general, much less applicable to other parts of the world.

• http://www.animationarena.com/video-game-salary.html

• http://gamecareerguide.com/features/266/features/266/are_you_in_

demand_2006_game_.php

Also note that even while some salaries might appear either huge or tiny, you need to take into account that another region or country might have more or lesser expensive standards of living. This is especially true in urban areas: in parts of the USA rent might be a tenfold higher than what you are used to paying and you may also have to pay for insurance, a dozen hidden taxes, and multiple utilities. Europe, on the other hand, is usually somewhat cheaper to live in, but also features much higher taxes.

Occasionally one might also receive bonuses. When certain milestones are achieved on time or when a game goes gold the developers are often

rewarded with a bonus; sometimes worth thousands. And while those bonuses are great they are, most of the time, also some of the only extras the developers ever receive. A regular developer will never become wealthy from their own game; even if the game sells millions. Most of that money goes to the publisher and other parties. The developers themselves usually don’t see any of that money at all, or only a few thousand, return to them. Royalties are usually not part of a contract.

The only way to ever become wealthy in the games industry is to start up your own company and turn it into a success. That may sound easy but it is very hard to pull off these days. The main reason being that it is a huge challenge to acquire the funds necessary for a decently sized project. Budgets of five to ten million USD are not unusual for the average game, and even larger budgets are slowly becoming the norm.

Private investors are often wary of getting into such a new and unstable industry and game publishers want to see a smoothly working company with a strong game demo before they will commit themselves to financing the project. Both of these are hard to pull off without a significant amount of investment money in the bank. It's the same story most beginners face. You can only get hold of a job if you have experience, but without a job you can't get the necessary experience. The same is true for companies. A company needs experience as a studio if it wants to secure funding, but it can't get experience if it doesn't have funds in the first place.

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However, those who start small and have enough patience, or simply a lot of luck, may end up becoming successful and very wealthy in this industry. A single good game can make millions and make up the initial investment several times over. Some dare to take that risk, others don't.

Like other companies in the computer and internet industry, game

companies too have the unique ability of returning a huge profit within just a few years and with only a relatively small team of a few dozen employees. What most forget though, is that the number of companies that do not make it is larger than those few who manage to shine. This is a very volatile and funding-intensive industry and it is very difficult to pull off a successful project when you have very little. The days of garage developers working on the next sleeper hit are over and unlikely to ever return. Game

development has evolved into multi-million dollar projects and few independent studios survive.

The Public Opinion

Although games are becoming massive in size and even though the games industry receives more money than, one could say, an third world country, the general public still has a stigma toward video games. The unknown scares humans; and this is no different with video games. Today's youth is the first generation that has really grown up with video games and understand them. Those who know little of games often do not regard a game developer job as a real profession or valid career path. These people often view games as entertainment for kids. If the people close to you have such opinion you might be in for a hard time.

Although the situation is, luckily, slowly improving because of the increasing influence of games on daily life and because of game

development schools, the public support is still a long way from where it should be. Negative media coverage – stories of violence in video games -and simple lack of knowledge -and underst-anding may make your family -and friends respond negatively to a game career.

Regardless of their opinion the most important consideration should always be what would make you happy. What do you want to achieve and what do you enjoy? What do you dream of? What do you think you should do with your life so you will not regret your choice once you're retired? Those who are cynical will usually turn around and be convinced once you achieve success. Although it is not easy, try not to worry too much about them; their doubts and opposition usually melt away when you begin to be successful.

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Personally, I received plenty of criticism myself when I announced I would pursue a career in the games industry. I ignored all of it and worked

towards my goal because I was 100 percent convinced it was the right thing to do for me. And it was. It certainly wasn't easy to overcome all of the criticism. Apart from a few online friends I was completely on my own when I started, for years on end. I had nothing to fall back on if my plan failed but my dedication and belief in what I was doing kept me going and in the end I was lucky enough to succeed. I am in a much better position now than those who criticized me.

Try to convince the people around you that games are a valid career path, that it is what you enjoy and most importantly, that it is a very serious business in which one can earn a healthy living.

Involve them in what you do and what you create. Try to give them insight into your work and prove to them that you're not spending your entire day dreaming or playing games. Show them your work and put it into

perspective as much as possible. Show them any online success you might have had with your creations such as reviews or comments from the public. The point is that they need to understand that it is not just clicking, but a profession that requires real skill, and that you are good at it.

Attending a game development school might also help them realize that this is a serious business that is not just about seemingly randomly clicking your mouse in an attic or basement, but requires years of study and hard work to get to a professional level, much like any other profession.

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Chapter 3 Skills, Schools, and Study

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Skills

Nearly all the people who currently work in the games industry are almost entirely self-taught. Personal initiative is one of the most important aspects of the games industry. Without plenty of personal study and practice one will not be successful in the games industry.

One of the most decisive aspects in the industry is your skill. What you are capable of is very important - perhaps even more important than any experience you might have and much more important than any education. How you achieved that skill is irrelevant if you are good enough. Whether you learned what you know by going to a specialized school or by personal study doesn't really matter in the end. Whatever works best for you is the best method. Both approaches have positive and negative aspects.

Skill also means that you can demonstrate what you can do. In this industry skill means nothing if it can't be proved. Stating that you are a great modeler will do no good if you can't also show a couple of great

models. Your portfolio, the work you have, is even more important than the actual skill because it will demonstrate your skill, as well as your dedication and passion.

It can take years to really master a skill. On average it takes most people at least two to four years to reach an entry-level skill level in their

profession, dependent on how motivated they are, how talented they are, and how much time they put in. It takes about twice as much time (or even more) to become an expert. It personally took me seven years of 24/7 work before I fully understood what I really do and more importantly why I do so. There are various stages to go through before one reaches an expert status. The difference between an expert and a person of an average skill level is the level of understanding and the time spent on trying things out. A person with an average skill often does know how to achieve certain results but they do not always know why exactly they take certain steps - the reasoning behind the actions. Most people simply do something because they remember it worked out well last time, or perhaps looked great in another game they've played, instead of understanding the actual reasoning behind it or the bigger picture. This understanding, in general, takes many years to acquire.

Related to this is the amount of time spent on trying different techniques and options. An expert has to experiment little because their previous experience enables them to foresee any future problems with a design or technical approach. Also, because they likely encountered similar situations earlier on in their career, they know exactly what to look for. An expert works efficiently and quickly with little need to repeatedly experiment. A person with an average skill level works slower and often has to redo and remake something because they hit on an unexpected problem they should have foreseen.

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Skill is also something that becomes more satisfying over time. A

beginner constantly faces issues and problems they don't know the solution for. It can be incredibly frustrating to get stuck all the time and I have seen many people quit over it. Once past the initial problems however, things get more fun. You will not get stuck often anymore and you will never, or

rarely, face issues that you can't figure out. Instead, you will be able to focus on the actual task. That's where the real fun begins.

Lack of skill is a limiting factor for beginners and it affects their potential and the quality of their work. The only way to overcome it is to practice, a lot.

Starting Out

Beginners can gain experience by focusing on just one or two things and trying to master just those few before moving on to something else. Once mastered, progress on to the next few things you want to learn. If you dive into too many different things at the same time, you can easily become overwhelmed and give up. In addition, your time will usually be too fragmented over a many different things. This will not give you the time necessary to really master any of them.

I started my career by investigating the Unreal Editor and Level Design. It was only two years later that I also moved into, for my profession,

secondary programs such as 3DSMax and Photoshop. I would never have been able to handle all the complex new material if I had gotten into all four at the same time. Split up and focus on what's most important first, then gently move on to related skills. We'll get back to this more extensively in Specialization.

At first, it was never my intention to get into the games industry. I never started designing levels to get into the industry; at the time it was just my hobby and nothing more and that kept me motivated. The desire to do this for a living only came much later when I realized that this was what I wanted to do with my life. There are two things that can be learned from this:

• You need to enjoy what you do or you won't evolve. It needs to be

your hobby and you need to like what you do. If you create things simply because you want something out of it (a job, money, or fame), you will likely give up. It takes a tremendous amount of time and dedication to get anywhere in this industry. If you don't really like what you do, you will never persist through those countless, sleepless nights and years of hard work. I have seen people who enter game development solely to get a game development job or a good salary. Work is not just work in this industry, it's a passion.

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• Don't look too far ahead when you're just starting out. Just as in

developing skills, the same goes for looking ahead to work: do not look too far ahead or do too many things at once or you can loose your motivation quickly. If I would have known what a huge pile of work there was ahead of me, I would have probably given up. I didn't, because I never knew where I wanted to end up with my skill and how much there was left to learn. And while that may not be the ideal way, and perhaps even impossible these days, it does illustrate the need to focus on the present time and focus on what's important right now. Patience is the key.

I feel that one of the most important reasons why I have succeeded in everything I wanted to achieve is that I didn't lose precious time by talking or thinking about what I was going to make - I simply made it. Talk means little in this industry - you need to show what you can do. I have seen dozens of people advertise their upcoming mods or levels on a grand scale, and in the end they disappear without a trace and nothing got finished, let alone released. Don't talk, just make it and talk afterwards. Don't sit passively next to your computer, thinking of how great it would be if you could make this or that. Simply start on it and see where you end up. Practice is the only way to learn something valuable, and the only way you can fill up your portfolio.

Similarly, many people are too critical of themselves and end up finishing nothing they start because they don’t have the confidence that their current design is worth the time. This can be very detrimental to one’s career or personal development. Plenty of beginners never progress because, by the time they are halfway through development, they start to doubt their own design, or they get stuck on technical issues. They give up, start a new project, and that ends up crashing down halfway through as well. This cycle can continue for years and, in the end, their portfolio is either still empty or filled with half-finished projects. This certainly is not what a potential

employer likes to see in a portfolio.

Do not expect your work to be perfect right away. You won't be able to achieve a level of quality similar to professionally made material right from the start. It's perfectly normal that you can't as a beginner. The

professionals spend years making it to the point where they are now -you're not going to beat them to it in just a few month.

Attempt to be realistic about your expectations and allow yourself to make mistakes. And when you do, accept them! Do not start over again on each new problem you face. Accept it, learn from it, finish the project, and move on. I never drop the level I’m working on when I discover a problem. Either I fix the problem or, if I can't, I simply accept it and learn from my mistake. The whole issue can be compared to musicians. When a musician

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plays out of tune, he or she doesn’t stop the performance because, if they do, it will only become obvious that they made a mistake. Don't put

attention on your failures. Do not obsess on the problems you encounter – they’re inevitable, but not the important part of developing yourself. What counts is what you do right, and what you learn by doing so. And the only way to show this to potential employers is by finishing the work.

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Specialization

Why?

Becoming more specialized in one aspect of the work over others is often necessary in order to reach a sufficient skill level and then, through that, find a job in the games industry. The amount of specialization depends on the exact circumstances.

Game development is incredibly complex. It has taken me years to get to a skill level where I feel like I truly understand and control my own

specialization; namely Level Design. Years to master just one skill! Imagine how long it would take to master a wide range of completely different aspects of Game development! It takes years of practice to truly master a particular skill. If you try to master too many new skills at once, your time, effort, and memory will become fragmented between them. It will become impossible to practice each and every one of them to the necessary extent. By the time you're ready to go job hunting, you may have the luxury of looking at a wide variety of job types, but it’s unlikely you’ll have mastered any of the appropriate skills to the level you would need to actually get any of the jobs. For any job you apply at, there will likely be someone else who has spent the last four years trying to master that one single skill, and therefore, they’re going to be light-years better. And that will cost you the job.

Without a significant amount of practice you will not be able to stand far enough out of a crowd to get the job you want. Specialization on one skill is essential so you can be completely focused because, believe me, you will need all the development time you can get. Getting a job is harder if you’re the ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’.

There is another problem to being too well-rounded: namely your own level of talent. I am strongly convinced that whenever you are not very good at something you should consider giving up and look for the skill for which you do have talent. If you don't have ‘it’, then no matter how hard you try, you will never become a master in that specific skill. By the time you would achieve an intermediate skill level there's always somebody else who has already become an expert in the same, or less, amount of time. Simply because they had ‘it’. It's that person who is going to get the job you apply for - not you. If you are talented, you will have much easier time learning a skill than someone who isn't. It's the time that a talented person saves that will allow them to invest that extra available time back into the desired skill. The result is a more skilled person.

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Programming and art are two drastically different aspects of game design. Programming is logic and ratio. Art is emotion. Most people are talented in one of the two, but very few in both. Programmers often lack the sense of balance and harmony an artist has. Likewise, an artist often lacks the logical and mathematic insight a programmer has. If you don't have the talent for it, you won't get very far with it. You could have better spent that valuable time where your true talent lies; where it would really pay off! Regardless of what some will try to tell you, without specialization you're nearly useless in this industry. Most jobs demand a certain amount of specialization, even if it's just the basic Programmer or Artist separation. Very few professionals are both good artists and good programmers; even fewer actually use both skills in their daily profession because it simply isn't practical for the company to have one person in both types of positions. If a single developer has to handle too many different tasks they will loose focus and will run out of time. They will have to rush through everything, at the cost of quality. Plus, this is not an efficient way for a company to handle staff skills.

Due to the ever rising complexity of game development, more and more positions are split up and divided over multiple, highly specialized,

individuals. An example of this is one from my own profession: Level Design. At first a single developer created the entire level: from the initial concept, to texturing, to gameplay, to decoration and lighting, to its final iteration. A few years later a texture artist got involved and started taking over the texturing tasks of the Level Designer. Some time later, the job of the Level Designer was split into one person handling the gameplay of the level, and another handling the environmental art. This progressed to the point that today there are gameplay designers, scripters, sound composers, texture and material artists, concept artists, environment modelers, particle artists, level artists, and so on simply to create just one level. Ten years ago this used to be handled by one and the same person! The rising complexity of the gameplay, materials, particles, environment geometry, and the like, made the original single task so complex that a single

developer would never be able to handle all of it on his or her own anymore. This process is going to continue and soon there is also going to be

somebody dedicated to just environment physics. Specialization is key if you want to stand a chance!

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There are only two exceptions to the rule of specialization.

• Outsource studios and small studios in general often do require a

good amount of ‘renaissance men’. This is the case usually because they do not have the financial means to hire specialized developers for every separate task and also because the tasks and projects can often vary quite widely. It is better for them to have a good number of people who can handle multiple aspects of development, but this is often at the cost of quality.

• Technical artists and similar positions often require developers with

a broad skillset. Because these jobs overlap several specializations, such as animation, modeling, materials, gameplay/render

programming and so on, the person must understand a substantial amount of all of them. On the other hand, technical art is a type of specialization on itself.

In my experience it is very difficult to find a job without some sort of specialization. Only large companies require technical artists, and even when they do, they'll only need a few of them at most. If you do not focus your time on one aspect a hundred percent, you will not reach a skill level high enough to stand out from the crowd. You will become the ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ type of person. You will know a little bit of

everything, but nothing well enough to do professionally.

Pick what you like best and focus on that. Forget everything else. There's nothing wrong with having a good amount of general knowledge about other aspects of game development, but it shouldn't go further than that because it will likely damage your chances in the long run.

If you try to master too many new skills at once you’ll lose your

motivation and all the different, complex subjects will confuse you. Focus at first, and evolve other skills later when you've sufficiently mastered your primary specialization. Not only will you learn other skills noticeably faster since you have a solid foundation to start with, but it will also help you keep focus on what's important. Take it step by step, and help yourself.

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What?

What to master is purely a personal choice. Pick what you like the most, not what would earn you the highest wage or for that which is in the most demand. This is about what you are going to do for a good part of your life. You should enjoy it!

There are a number of widely differing specializations in the games

industry one can pick from. While this is by no means a definitive list - there are too many sub-specializations and variations within them to list them completely here - it will give you an idea of the most common

specializations there are and what is generally expected for each of them. Since most of those reading this book have very likely already made a choice, the list is kept brief. You can probably skip this section if you've already found your passion.

• General Programmers

• Most essential people on the team.

• Write most of the game code including: interface, weapon

behavior, and so on.

• Requires someone who is good at math, has a strongly

logic-orientated mind and can work with precision.

• Tool Programmer

• Not essential to the team.

• Increases the team’s efficiency by automating common tasks

and creating new tools.

• Usually only larger studios require this kind of person. A very

technical job that requires someone who also has some art and design experience and can think like an artist.

• Network/AI/Physics Programmers

• Programmers who have specialized their skills toward

programming how the network traffic of online games is handled, how the computer opponents react, and how physics are interpreted by the engine.

• Very technical job that requires strong math skills. Usually not

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• Graphics/Engine Programmers • Essential to the team.

• They design and create the engine on which the entire game

runs, including programming complex visual effects such as water surfaces, or they modify an existing engine.

• Requires someone who is very good with math and has some

kind of art experience. This job is usually not suited for

beginners due to its complexity, although exceptions do exist.

• Scripters

• Creates mostly gameplay-related events in the game such as

story related events and enemy behavior using the scripting language the engine uses.

• Since scripting does not require a huge amount of

programming experience, this job is usually well suited for beginners.

• Game Designers

• Essential to the team.

• Design everything in the game. The kinds of enemies,

weapons, areas, and how all of those fit into the bigger picture. It is their job to turn the game into something fun.

• This is a “text job” that involves quite a lot of typing and

requires a great deal of experience which beginners usually do not have.

• Level Designers

• Design the floor plans, descriptions, and events for the levels

in the game. They are usually also responsible for enemy and powerup placement. In some studios this person can also play a large role in implementing graphical content and therefore also be responsible for making the environment visually appealing.

• Usually this job is well suited for beginners and, depending on

the studio, this job requires either a lot of typing, or a lot of visual work with architecture, lighting, color, and so on, or sometimes both.

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• Interface Designers

• Design and create the interface of the game. Both the menus

as well as the heads-up-display in-game.

• Relatively easy to get into as a beginner but few open positions

are available. The job is visually orientated and similar to designing websites.

• Writers

• Write the game’s story: the characters and anything else

relevant to the virtual world such as its history.

• Hard to get into as a beginner since there are often very few

open positions available.

• General 2D and 3D Artists • Essential to the team.

• Creates just about any asset required for the game. These

artists help wherever they are needed. Varied work.

• Easy to get into as a beginner; plenty of jobs are usually

available but there are also many people interested in these jobs as it is the least specialized.

• Technical Artists

• The middle men between the Art and Programming

departments. Responsible for art tasks that are very technically orientated and may require some basic programming.

• For those who like to be an artist as well as a bit of a

programmer. This position is hard to get as it usually requires someone with experience and there are few of these types of positions available.

• Concept Artists

• Responsible for the visual design of pretty much everything in

the game. Sketches, draws, and sometimes creates ‘paint-overs’ of environmental, weapon, and character concepts as guidelines for the artists to follow.

• Requires a massive amount of drawing and traditional art skills

and usually only medium to large studios require this kind of artist. Other than that it is relatively easy to get into as a beginner.

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• Environment Artists

• Creates anything to do with the environment; mostly involving

modeling and texturing the geometry.

• Relatively easy to get into as a beginner, and plenty of jobs

available.

• Character/Texture/Lighting Artists

• Specialized artists who are responsible for modeling characters

or weapons, creating textures, and material setups or lighting environments.

• Relatively easy to get into as a beginner, especially as a

texture or character artist.

• FX Artist

• Creates special effects such as particles for magical and

weapon effects. May also be responsible for materials and environment effects such as waterfalls and explosions.

• Only larger studios require these artists, there are few fit

candidates and there is a high demand for this job.

• Cinematic Artists

• Creates or recreates environments and/or characters from the

game, lights and renders them out, and composites the final result in order to create cutscenes and intro/outro movies for the game.

• Again, only larger studios require these types of developers.

This is also a portion of the game that is often outsourced to external studios. This position is ideal for artists who don't care about performance as cinematics are often pre-rendered or not as heavy on the computer. The result is all that counts.

• Animators

• Essential member of the team.

• Animates characters, weapons, and, optionally, some

environment geometry.

• Harder to get into due to the complex subject matter but that

difficulty is offset by the shortage of capable people. Demand outstrips supply usually.