The Art of the first game job.

So like everyone else on the internet these days I'm an art student. I have read so many books and GDC talks about how to get that first game job. And if it takes you a really long time to land that first job then you just need to get better and try again in a year or so. Don't get me wrong I'm all for getting better everyone can always get better at what they do. But today one of my friends told me today that he has been told to get better for the last five years and has just given up on the game industresty. He is just going to get a job at target and try to pay off his student loads for the next 15 years. After I heard this I started freaking out and spent 20 hours online applying and sending emails (with not one reply) and just trying to find out if I myself would end up like my friend years from now.

I guess what I'm asking is how does everyone feel about how crazy it can be sometimes to find any kind of work with-in games and why isn't there and industry standard for students. when I say standard I mean a model or concept art that every student can look at and say if I can model that or draw that within this amount of time then I will be o.k.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, I just know a lot of good students and game designers that work at gamestops or walmarts and should be making the game's that make kids want to grown-up and do the same.

 

Getting a degree and then a job in the game industry is not like getting a degree and then a job in auto mechanics, or architecture. However, its also not as unlikely as a movie star or famous musician. Its somewhere in the middle.

While its easier to get into game development than it is to become a rockstar, its much more difficult than getting a job at an auto shop.

The main reason for this really boils down to supply and demand. Game development costs loads of money (more than it takes to open your average grocery store or auto shop). Therefore, there are far less developers in the world and far less jobs. Add to that, the fact that more people WANT to create video games than those who want to fix cars or bag groceries. Your chances of getting a job have just dropped to about 5%. This means, you'll have to be in the top 5% of the industry in order to get that job (assuming no one with experience wants it first).

In the end, you can:
A: Get a job flipping burgers
B: Pursue your dream and most likely starve to death
or
C: Go indie and join me

 

Well I think even in indie you have to be in the top 5% unless you mean the unpaid indie where you work for free in hopes of making something big?

 

Thats if it even sells

 

I think there's a big misunderstanding in the indie world. Being the next "Super Meat Boy" or "Braid" is even more unlikely than getting a job for a game developer.

However, making a good game, selling it and making a solid living off the profits is significantly easier. I read a great story about a guy who I never heard of. He makes one RPG each year, sells it for about $15 and aims to sell something like 5,000 units a year. That's really not a very lofty goal, but doing the math, this guy is making $75k a year (on average).

EDIT: That being said, I'm in no position to offer advice, as my iOS game is currently struggling to turn a profit. But I'm still hopeful!

 

Hi Neil,

I read your post, and the first thing that occurred to me is to check out your portfolio site to see if you actually are any good. You are. You need more work in your portfolio as it is quite small at this point but your quality is spot on, so you can lay the "am I good enough" worries to rest. However, ultimately though being good enough quality wise is important (bare minimum credential for entry into the game-art-job market) it is far from the only thing. In a way, you've already realized your problem from what you said in your post. Your problem is not quality, but supply side economics. I'm going to break this down for you into bad news, and good news.

Bad news first:

You see, when you said "Like everyone on the internet these days, I'm an art student..." you self identified your problem. There are a truly dizzying number of objectively very talented artists who want to work in the games industry. Conversely there are objectively relatively few actual jobs for artist in the games industry when taken as a portion of sufficiently technically skilled artists. Because of basic supply and demand, this means those who have the jobs to offer can and will demand extremely high quality of work, pay relatively low wages, demand extreme working conditions and hours (family life? Free time? Yeah, right), and largely get away with it. This condition will not be changing any time soon, as there is truly a glut of artists in the market. Worsening the situation, ever more artists are being churned out of colleges who make their money by charging students for classes regardless of if those classes are likely to enable that student to ever pay back the money they had to borrow to take them.

The situation is further complicated by the "best selling author effect". The most likely predictor an author will write a best seller is weather or not they've written a best seller before. Writers who have already published best sellers are actually more than 900% (no, that's not a made up number) more likely to write another than a published writer that hasn't already made the best seller list. How does this apply to you you wonder? It's the "shipped title effect" for game artists. The most likely indicator that you will get a job doing art in the games industry is weather you have a shipped title to your credit or not. If you have a shipped title under your belt, potential employers can objectively judge your work quality, have the peace of mind knowing you've already created work good enough to sell, and posses the professionalism to get a job done. Of course, this leads to the inevitable chicken and egg situation. How to get a shipped title to your credit without having one?

Okay, doom and gloom over, here's the good news:

First, you're still a student, so your final skill set is not yet fixed. If I could make a strong recommendation it would be to get some technical skills worked into your ed plan as well as art skills. Learning to program in Perl, Python, Java and even Action Script are not only going to make you stand out from other artist, but drastically open up the pool of potential jobs you can take. If all you can do is model, rig, texture and animate (not that that is a small skill set), that opens up about four or five jobs in the game industry for you. However if you also have strong coding skills, you have a lot more options. In fact the options increase exponentially. Now you can also work as a technical director, a rigger, work in the tools department, you're just a lot more versatile. Frankly, even if a company only wants you as an artist, the're more likely to take you over someone with no programming ability just because they know they may well be able to move you into a different department later on, giving them flexibility, and you the chance to broaden your experience. I'm not sure if it's still the case, but Sony used to require all their artist be able to script in Perl, it was so fundamental to their pipeline.

Second, hopefully, you're not living on your own yet. That gives you flexibility, and potentially the ability to overcome the "Best selling author" paradox. If you are living at home, make a point of doing freelance work while you're not entirely engrossed in school, such as on your summer breaks. Price yourself lower than market rate for professional artists (you're still a student not yet a professional), find a good solid project that has some funding, and work for them. That way, once you're out of school, you could potentially have not just one but perhaps two or three shipped titles under your belt and some solid references for a future employer to check. You don't need to live on the money right now while you're a student, so consider any forgone wages an investment in your career. A caveat here would be I strongly dis-recommend working for free. Projects that are being produced with no budget whatsoever, or "on shares only" rarely actually see the light of day. If they can't afford to pay their people something they're probably neither serious enough or professional enough to actually bring a product to market. There are exceptions to this, but they are rare.

Last, make connections while you're a student and work them. When I'm hiring, I do a lot of this in my day job, if I get a recommendation from someone who already works for me, I'm much more inclined to give the recommended candidate a good hard look than someone who just blew in off the street. Keep in touch with all the other art students, and also the computer science students you'll meet while you're taking those programming classes. Your personal network is your ace in the hole, and perhaps the thing most likely to land you your first job. It happens frequently that one person gets on somewhere, and a while later three or four of his classmates are working there too. It's not coincidence.

Don't get discouraged, but do have a clear eyed understanding of what you're going into and what the things that are most likely to increase your odds of success are. Raising your chances is going to involve learning some things you may not have planned for originally. That may be uncomfortable, but isn't it better to accept the pain of changing trajectories to one with a higher chance of success than continuing on doggedly with one that has a much lower chance? Also, feel free to drop me a PM next time you have a block of free time to dedicate to a project. I may have some freelance work for you or know someone who does. Alternatively, you could always offer your services on the "commercial work" forum. Plenty of indie developers (unlike the big boys) are willing to take a chance on a promising student that offers indie friendly rates. Particularly if you have a couple references (there's that damn chicken and egg again...) Best of luck and be well!

 

Khanstruct, of course, you would be the one to offer essentially the same analysis of the situation as me. Next time I'm in Wisconsin, I'm hunting you down and buying you a beer.

 

Awesome breakdown blurededge. I'm still freaking out but not as much.

 

Haven't got to update my site on here but its looking more like this Awesomeness Here but I have ALOT of work but didnt want to overload my site.

 

Deal

 

So, why don't they download Unity and make a game?

Why don't you make a game with Unity?

At least, upload some assets to the Asset store and make some extra cash.

If you wanted to be a shipbuilder, and you had everything you needed to build a ship for free, wouldn't you start building ships? Or at least parts of ships? Or would you sit on the dock and wait and wait and wait and wait until somebody came along and paid you to build a ship?

A year? Five years?!!!! Be serious. Come on.

 

My ex-artist opinion. Your website should 'land' a 'my-work' section rather than your home page with just that logo. Your first fantasy artwork (looks like a Photoshop filter gone wrong) is not as strong as your second piece (they should be ordered best to worst). Your 'Artists Bio' switches its 'mode of narration' which sounds unprofessional and seem under 18 and immature (spelling and grammar are important in selling yourself). Your 'Subway' section isn't strong enough to be shown in my opinion. I like your 'Games and Demos' section which should logically be the default page (employers look for credits first). If I was a recruiter it would really irk me that I couldn't click on the photos of the games and hyper-link me to the website of the game (when I hover I get a magnifying glass). About me should be the last page listed. Your email should be selectable text or a email link because no one likes eye-ball copying email addresses. Sorry for being harsh but this is exactly what they will think. Edit: Your game credits links are not obvious enough. The 404 error is really really bad. The picture should be a link as well.

 

People do make little game for unity but everyone is not as awesome as you Ryan some people can't make a super awesome game doing all the code and art themselves then get it put onto the xbox or steam. They would also be doing all of that in hopes that people like the game and pay for it.

 

Thank you for your feedback AqusSeven I didnt design the site I used http://portfolio.deviantart.com the first site I used was http://neiljones.carbonmade.com/ it has the same work but different layout.

I also dont know what you mean when you say "sounds unprofessional and seem under 18 and immature"

 

I agree with most that blurededge said except for quality/quanitity part. Most important is a portfolio of consistent quality, so weed out the old stuff that isn't up to standard and try to raise the overall quality instead..3 Awesome pieces is better than 3 awesome pieces and 5 crappy ones. The portfolio is only as good as its weekest link I guess one could say If i should give direct feedback to your portfolio I think you can raise the overall quality by just giving your finished assets some more love in lighting them

 

+1

There's more to a person that a portfolio - you also need confidence, flexibility, communication, efficiency, right pricing etc - but that portfolio certainly does seem to say scream 'hire me'.

What I've seen some smart artists do is order them by age. That way you get to see the breadth of their work, and the progression they've made while not confusing older works with newer ones.

 

My thoughts are:
-Just to echo whats been said, your website could be a lot better.
-But I'd be delighted if I could afford to pay an extra artist of your quality! I really like your work.
-Game/Indie studios aren't the only fields where you can use your modelling skills. There's several related fields that need the same skill set as what you have but even probably pay better as well.
-Might be worth diversifying a bit, getting some technical knowledge as well, if your up to it. In my experience there's a positive correlation between knowledge and money.

 

It is an idea, and it will show for a long expereince within the field sure but I think it might hurt more than it helps. When I review a portfolio in a job application I assume that the person who applied wanted me to see a particular image for a reason. It is either that he/she feels that it is very good or that it helps showing a broader work compentence (I am primarly a character artist but I also know a little bit of level design for instance). If I see a crappy character and a very good one next to each other I start doubting the artists judgement. The person wanted me to see it after all so he most think it is of importance.

If the stuff in the portfolio is awesome but abit slim the applicant will most likely be asked to provide some more work examples, but atleast he is over the first hurdle, he caught the attention which is very important, especially in an area where so many people compete for jobs.

 

I should clarify that my experience is with freelance artists primarily found via forums - their portfolios are for general viewing not selected on a per client basis.

 

Agreed

 

They don't have to make a game. They can make a model, texture, or effect and put it up for sale on the Asset store. They will immediately start making money and have a new piece for their portfolio. They would be getting paid to make their portfolio better.

Other benefits of selling your work online:
- Demonstrates an ability to work independently
- Immediate and honest feedback about the value of your work
- Experience in selling yourself and your work

All of those things make you much more attractive to an employer.

 

You might consider creating business cards and going around to local churches and other non-profits (religious and sectarian) offering your services for free in the creation of flyers and posters and whatnot (certainly not the printing of them for free).

Not to be crude but you'll liable to meet people with connections to hook you up with good paying steady work. Also you may come up with original game and art ideals of your own as I find 'modern game artwork' kind of stale now. It most always has a 'cast of dread' on it so find another niche to stand out from the crowd.

 

OK, first thing lets get the harsh truth out of the way:

If you want to make games, I hope you are ready to give up a lot of money. Look at any video game you have. The artists that made the box art are part of a marketing agency. Those artists are way better paid than the artists that worked on the game itself. Video game "skill" carries a very very low price tag. You want to make a GOOD living? Forget game dev and start applying to marketing agencies, and possibly special FX studios for TV, film or marketing agencies.

Still want to make games? That's cool, still doable just remember: you better love this because you are forsaking money to do what you love.

OK, here is the problem with any job, in any field: there are 4 things that can get you a job. They are, in this order:

Who you know: got the job because a friend recommended you or he hired you himself.
What you done: experience experience! How many titles/products/projects have you worked on AND completed (unfinished projects are worth their weight in dirt)
Education based internship: programs educative institutions take part of to get their students some real world experience.
Random luck: you happened to be one of the random guys who's resume was picked up the day they needed some one NOW.

You already noted you don't have the first 2, and it seems your institution did not do a good job at getting you internship experience. You are down to #4 and that's a very bad position to be in.

HOWEVER, we live in magnificent times! The internet and digital distribution models have created an amazing tool for people to manufacture their own experience. You can go out there, and start making games. Tag team with a coder and make some cheap stuff. Try to make the most gorgeous looking Galaga clone you can make. An epic looking Tetris clone or Breakout. Simple stuff, but showoff stuff. Some simple hack and slash game may work too.

You don't need to sell these, or better said, you don't need to make a lot of money selling these. What you need to do is publish them. By publishing them I mean anything from uploading them into the iOS App Store to simply hosting them in a website free to play.

When some one looks at your resume, it wont matter (much) how many copies your games sold or did not sold. What maters is that they see you have a lot of stuff under your belt, actual projects that have been done from sart to finish. That shows many things publishers want:

Skill. Determination. Leadership. Planning. Execution. Professionalism.

If you are still a student and living with family, you are in the perfect position to "waste" some time doing these tiny projects and building up a resume, not just a portfolio.

Another thing you can do, for money, is create models and sell them in the asset store here. That's more of a money maker than a resume point, though. Recruiters will be more impressed by seeing your art in a game than by seeing it in an indie asset store.

 

Don't matter how good you are. You want in the game industry you need to either know somebody, already have 5 years experience in the industry (internships) or you made it big as an indie dev. Your work is good. You could perform fine in a game dev job. I know guys from art school who couldn't properly model a basic chair, but they landed a job in the industry making 50k starting because he had a family member connection. That's life.

 

Ha! Man Life -____-

 

lol awesome

 

Oh well it's not quite as bad You do have to stand out in the crowd though. It can be hard to push your portfolio to the right level on your sparetime but keep working on it.

 

Well, the first thing you have to stop doing is thinking like that. It's not about speed, it's not about being able to model and texture a barrel or a crate in the space of 2 hours. Being fast won't get you hired. Being good will.

You'll generally find that you will never, ever get to spend the amount of time and effort that you do with your portfolio items on anything within the games industry. The trick is to know how to do things "The Proper Way" and get really fantastic results, but also to know when and what shortcuts to take so that you can get things done quickly to a good enough result.

Secondly, there are very, very, very few courses in the world that will actually teach you enough or tech you well enough to make it in the games industry. Most of them are just fleecing you for money - the knowledge you gain from them is often shallow, outdated or just completely wrong.

Your best bet would be to sign up to a game art forum like Polycount or Game Artisans and post your work up there to get feedback from professionals, read the stickies, the wiki and everything you can. There's a mine of information there. I learned more about game art browsing polycount for a year than 3 years at University ever taught me.

Also, it gets your name known. This is really important when it comes to getting a job in the industry. We're a tight-knit bunch and it's a small world. The jobs I've gotten are from being active on Polycount (the job I'm in now, I got from being on there). People recognise you and your work, so if you can apply to a job and the HR person says, "hey, I recognise that piece, that dude's pretty cool" then you're in a better place than you would be even if your work was better but you were unknown. Really, really get on Polycount.

It's tough at the moment, with studios closing down left right and centre, so the market is flooded with skilled folk looking for jobs and less companies around to soak them up. You have an advantage over them, though, in that they've been comfortably working away at a job for years and their folios will be lacking - you can get in there quick, be more up to date than they are and show you're just as good.

This all comes back to being memorable, though, and that's where your folio's letting you down.

The rules of folios run like this;

• You've got 30 seconds - absolute tops - to grabthe HR person's eye, otherwise your site's getting closed and they're moving on to the next person in the huge stack of applicants. Probably more like 10 seconds.
• Your skill level will be based on the worst piece on your portfolio. You think a piece is good enough to show in your folio? Then you'd better think that piece is representative of your best skills.

As your folio stands, you've just about got the first point covered (but I'd have a 2x2 grid of images, rather than 4 thin strips, you can show more of the image that way) but the second point lets you down.

You've got a lot of lazy texturing going on - for example, all of the normal maps in your medieval scene are simply thrown into crazybump. You didn't make high res meshes for any of it and you don't understand what normal maps do if you think throwing the diffuse map into crazybump is enough. Here's an ooold thing I wrote that should give you some pointers there. Employers will want to see you can sculpt environment pieces or at least create high-poly geometry to bake from. This is a folio piece so you should be doing that - it should look the best it can.

Subways are pretty generic scenes for noobie environment artists, too. There's a million of them and none of them end up being very good.

Pick something more unique, something people will recognise you for having done. Get it inside an actual game engine to take screenshots for the folio, don't render out images.

Nothing in your environments use tiling textures, either, which is pretty strange. Get into that workflow, it'll help you out a lot.

So I'd ditch;
The blacksmith's workshop.
The borderlands stuff (the robot and the vending machines/crate).
The character.
The vans.
The petrol pump.

Cut all that stuff out of your folio as they're your worst pieces and they drag the rest of the work down with them, work on replacing them with better stuff.

And make a bigger deal about the games. Being able to see projects through to completion, especially working with a team is a really important ability employers will be looking for. They shouldn't be stuck as the last thing on your folio.

The other big thing is, don't be disheartened. Most folks don't hear back from studios they apply to, hell, most folk won't hear back from a studio if they get a first response and then spend a solid week or two of their lives working on an art test. This is sadly normal for the industry, you've just gotta keep at it.

 

I thought your worked looked like it had good quality.

You should make game-ready packs and sell them. Ive brought a few of 3drt.com's packs, because im a coder, and I needed models. These ones came textured/animated/low poly. perfect for people like me, and im sure im not alone and that this guy is making a decent amount of money of his work.