Full Sail University College Student (GDBS) Networking Class Discussion

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening,
Depending on when you are viewing this forums post will depict the time of day it is for you. My name is Brandon LaPinska and I am currently attending Full Sail University seeking my degree within Video Game Design. We were issued a task/assignment to put ourselves out on a networking project to try to reach out to industry professionals to begin networking prior to completing our degree field. To be honest with you I have never heard of Unity before and will continue to seek out the technology behind this tool that has made so many different games. While we seek these industry professionals online we were also told to ask specific questions in which I will post below to see who would like to respond to them. Please keep the thread professional and Industry professionals that have been working within the Video Game Design field for some time would be appreciated.

What advice would you give to a student trying to obtain a job within the Video Game Design Field?

There was also a request to have a mentor and to be able to ask other specific questions about the Video Game Industry but as of right now I will wait to see if I can find a mentor within the Unity Community.

R/S
Brandon LaPinska
Full Sail University
BS- Game Design

 

I'll start this off by saying that FSU is completely over-priced and that I personally believe you can't be taught game-design as it's something that comes naturally, however I'll attempt to answer your questions the best that I can.

The first thing that you need to consider is the kind of games that you're interested in developing, because the advice you should be given would change course at every little detail. There's so many differences in a way a game is designed, between a FPS and a RPG, or an RTS and a MoBA. Other factors are things such as Singleplayer or Multiplayer development.

When designing a game you have to start with the final product, then work your way down. Some of the best games have some of the most basic stories. Think of Mario, the overall story behind the franchise is "Save the princess." There isn't a single word more you would need to say to describe the mario brothers.

So give us some more information about what kind of games you would like to design, before we can give you any type of advice. I'm more experienced in networked developments, so if you're looking for advice on single-player designs, I probably wouldn't be the guy to talk to.

 

I'm also a student and regarding networking, find your local game dev meetup, go and confidently talk to people just chat. It's super hard but think of everyone being nice and if they don't want to talk to you they are a douche and it's nothing wrong with you.

 

I have heard of the Unreal Engine... and that's all I have been paying attention to because that is the Engine that I will be learning while attending Full Sail University. I want to work for making FPS RPG's because that's what Borderlands and Destiny are made on. Or my other alternative would be wanting to work for Blizzard on Diablo because those are the major types of games I play and want to learn on how to develop. Game Design is the route I am currently going right now. I started doing the Art portion of the field but I guess my art work was not up to par. I am loving the whole FPS MOBA that Gearbox Software is making currently called Battleborn. I am a huge Gearbox fan since there Borderlands franchise.

What sort of advice would you give someone that is trying to get a career within the Video Game Design industry?

I am aspiring to eventually work for or become apart of a publishing company like Activision or 2K Games. What advice would you give to someone that is aspiring to do something like that on a large scale within the next 5 to 10 years?

Thanks for the advice.
R/S
Brandon LaPinska

 

Networking in this industry is very important, and as someone mentioned finding meet ups and game talks at your location is a great way to do it. Attending Game Jams is another. Also maybe try and get an internship while studying. The experience for that is often really good.

You do know that everyone wants to be a game designer at those company's right? What makes you a special candidate compared to the 100 or 1000 other that want the same position as you? What skills do you bring that other's don't?

Can i ask you what topics you go through at school? Is it a very practical study or more a theoretical study?

 

I've never known anyone who was solely a game designer. The largest team I've worked on is 12 people and the project manager was also an artist/modeler.

I would pick between artist and programmer, depending on the person, if you're looking to get a job.

 

Indeed. Currently we have 3 dedicated game designers (and one creative director) on our game. I believe one has a engineering background. (One started in board games, and one is from Blizzard.) Our sister team's lead designer also started in board games.
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I'm not sure if networking is much use at this stage though, if you really have nothing to show yet. There isn't much of a demand for entry level designers. The market is pretty full of experienced designers already. You are going to have to build up some of your own work to show.

 

Make lots and lots of stuff. Quality stuff. The market is full of people that want jobs in the industry, so there are plenty to choose from, the ones with a lot of experience are going to the get pick of the jobs. Even though our studio is mobile, we really don't hire anyone below Sr. and at least a decade in the industry. Get building asap, and start working on that portfolio.

 

I can tell you what *not* to do... don't talk about doing a bunch of stuff with your buddies and tinker with little toy projects, fill notebooks full of drawings and designs and just never really get around do doing anything with any of it. Learn to bust @$$ and do what all the pro's have been telling us new guys to do since the dawn of time and make games.

 

I am currently attending for my BS in Video Game Design. Specific to Game Design nothing else. So level creation, character stuff that usual jazz. I think having 10+ years in a leadership position and being a Marine kinda puts me aside from the rest in my eyes... I don't know about the whole industry.

 

As a person who has a very abrasive personality, I have found that you can get hired anywhere as long as they feel they can put you to work today without any training and you would do a good job right out of the box.

 

Experience > All

 

Indeed. And a degree doesn't mean much. It may help in Art or Eng in conjunction with industry experience (though experience/portfolio being the driver). But game "degrees" are pretty much useless with regards to getting a job. (they have may some value to the person getting them in terms of knowledge, but little to nothing outside that.) Experience means "experience making games".

 

I bet if you used college as a time to meet people and make a zillion games while hitting the books like a madman, that'd help get a job.

But if you figure a degree is your golden ticket, you're missing part of the picture. Everybody else is doing this stuff, too. What are you doing that nobody else is doing?

 

Bingo.

 

Game design is becoming a field in more and more places. It happened at NJIT just in time for there to be enough classes for me to have my IT specialization be game design. They're also migrating from flash & gamemaker to unity for just about every class.

 

Seems really different from country to country how its set up at university's.

I'm doing a Master's Degree in Games Technology. Sure a lot of us are using Unity, but we are not teached as such in a certain framework, we are teached the methods of how to do things so you can apply it anywhere.

I have courses like Modern AI (MCTS, ANN, Machine learning, Evolutionary algorithms and such), Procedural Generated Content, Game Engines, Data Mining and so on. I Think it is a great approach.

But with that said, getting a few releases under your belt is important. I've worked beside my studies and got one released game now (two in two weeks time) and will have around four released titles when i finish my masters degree, and we are not talking release of some scrappy mobile game. I think this will get me a job and not my degree in most cases (well people already hire me, and thats based on what i can show them ive done so far). But ive put a lot of time into game development on the side of my studies. I highly recommend that, even if your working for free to begin with!

 

How do these people get to their designer position? Every one I'm aware of (admittedly quite few) came from some form of technical background to get there. So in my view, even if they're not actively using their technical skills as a coder, artist, etc. as a part of their design job, they're absolutely critical in the bigger picture of your career. If you want that design job you'd better build whatever bridge you'll need to get there.

On a similar note...

Make games. Start with small simple ones you can finish in weeks. Build them, show them to people, get feedback, get experienced in the entire project life cycle, apply the experience to new projects, rinse, repeat. Learn your craft.

Edit: Oh yeah, and do what TylerPerry says re: networking. It's done face to face far more so than via the Internet!

 

While true, you might find that if you had a less abrasive personality, they'd have more uses for you and thus you'd be worth more to them. And during review time, they'd stop marking you down in the personality section, and you might get better raises.

Having said that, my experience in the software development industry is that good raises only come when you are badly underpaid, and if you're anywhere near the appropriate salary they don't happen unless you're an absolute rockstar. It's pretty well known that the way you get good raises in this industry is to go get a new job, which is absolutely ridiculous.

 

Well, I work for a company with no advancement options and at age 29 , I'm at the top of the food chain. Be glad there are other jobs for other companies, that things like raises and benefits exist. I know how good a corporate job is so I'd be happy as a clam to be there every day... so work ethic and attitude would be in my favor. Personality.... I guess if you're having beers with guys from work, it helps. Nerds like me, though... I guess there are only so many attribute points to go around. Lol.

 

To me that still falls under the banner of a technical background. They're still using tools to build things, and that skill would still fit somewhere in a production pipeline. My question was more aimed at finding out if there are people who become professionally relevant game designers without coming from some kind of production background along the way, ie: a predominantly theory-and-design only method of becoming a designer.

 

Keep in mind this is most likely not how your career is going to pan out.

For now focus on the core principles of game design and development, networking with people in the industry, and learning as much as you can about the industry as possible.

If you get get a job offer, take it, build up experience. More importantly, make games in your spare time while studying to improve your portfolio.

Don't wait around for your dream job or project, as that might only come along after many years and after you've proved yourself on much lesser projects, or never at all.

 

This, 100 times.

People new to game dev often think they're working towards jobs at Activision, Blizzard, and other top-tier development houses. The reality, however, is that they only account for the top couple of percent of all developers, and that's only counting the ones that actually make it into the games industry - many wont. Many who do get there decide not to stick around for long, so there's that to consider as well.

This isn't to be discouraging, it's just to say that you should invest in skills and experience that maximise your opportunity, and to do so with a real idea of what the industry - and job opportunity - landscape is like. It's great to aim for work at Blizzard, but even if that's what I wanted I'd make sure to cover my bases so that I could eat while I built my way towards that job and so that I wasn't stuck if I never got there.

Also, even if you do get that job it's unlikely to be your first. Every job you get is a learning opportunity at least as important as your studies, if not more important. Same deal goes with your own game projects.

 

Yes, that's exactly it.

 

Raises aren't just for promotions. They're also for representing your worth to the company. As you gain experience, you're able to do more and better work for the company without moving from your current job role. They *should* be matching that change with a monetary change that does more than follow inflation.

Most development job roles do not see this wage increases as they should, and programmers are forced to leave that job and get a new one to get the money they're worth. My last job change saw a 40% increase in pay, and my job at the old company was advertised at exactly the same rate I was getting at the new company. Wouldn't it have been a lot smarter for them to just give me that money? I knew their systems inside and out and would be *way* more productive than a newcomer. It was absolutely foolish of them.

And yet it's not unique. It's the norm in this industry. It absolutely baffles me. Whatever, I got more money, a better culture, more time off, better medical, *and* I got to do different kinds of work, instead of the same old stuff I'd been doing for years.

 

I think if you are a good software engineer and get complex projects done in time and on budget with all customers very happy about you, you should expect a 8-15% raise each year. Of course each company will try to fight that, but if they see what you can do they will pay it (if they assume you leave otherwise).
If they don't want to pay that money they are the wrong company or you are not as good as you think.

Extra trick: each time I told a company that I plan to leave soon (without a date) they threw even higher raises at me. I still left, but then the final year/months payed extra (and all overtime collected in the years before is getting payed for the higher rate too then).

Edit: but in if your projects are a success it maybe is better to fight for a part of the project profits instead of a higher wage.