Peter Harries is a game designer who has worked at several game studios since 2012. He provides advice for getting a job in the game industry, including playing a variety of games to understand design, using in-game level editors, experimenting with industry tools, getting involved in online communities, creating finished assets, participating in game jams, modding existing games, and learning about the advanced workings of the industry such as development processes and pipelines. The path to a career in games is competitive but there are many routes in, and gaining experience through internships, contract work or quality assurance roles can help land a full-time position.
2. WHO AM I?
• Peter Harries
• Game Designer
• Worked in games since 2012
• Started in QA
Creative Assembly
Tools QA
Microsoft Studios
QA
Gameloft
Game Designer
Butcherlab
Game Designer /
Programmer
(Self published)
Small Impact Games
Producer
Sumo Digital
Game Designer
3. STUDIOS
SHEFFIELD
Founded in 2003
Founded in 2003
Over 500 staff
NOTTINGHAM
Founded in 2016
PUNE,
INDIA
Founded in 2007
NEWCASTLE
Founded in 2018
BRIGHTON
THE CHINESE ROOM
Acquired in 2018
HUDDERSFIELD
RED KITE GAMES
Acquired in 2019
LEAMINGTON SPA
Founded in 2019
6. • Degrees are good! (But not everyone can get one or wants one!)
• Relevant to school & college students.
• Useful even with a degree.
• The industry is competitive.
8. 1) Play & understand games.
2) Use in-game tools (level editors!)
3) Experiment with Industry standard tools.
4) Get Involved with online communities.
5) Create finished assets.
6) Take part in game jams.
7) Create mods for already existing games.
8) Begin to understand the more advanced workings of the games Industry.
26. Find communities relevant to you.
Use these for advice, solving problems and getting feedback.
Talk about what you’re working on – Work In progress threads.
• Twitter
• Facebook Groups
• Reddit
• Software specific forums
• Discord
46. Development Process.
Alpha, Beta, Milestones, Vertical slice / Demo etc.
Being aware of the stages of development is useful as it will effect your own deadlines.
50. Landing the job.
But not the one you want…
• QA can be a good position if you’re not sure what area you want to work in.
• Can also be a career path if you enjoy it!
• Continue to work outside your day job to increase your skill level.
• Companies like to hire internally.
• Don’t arrive on your first day and ask about another job at the studio.
• Once settled, talk to the people in positions that make hiring decisions for the job you want.
• Find out the skills the studio values for that position.
• Keep your portfolio up to date.
• Keep doing a good job in your current role.
51. TAKEAWAY
There is more than one path into games.
People come from a variety of backgrounds.
DON’T GIVE UP!
The most interesting games come from teams with diverse backgrounds and
experiences!
Today I’ll be covering what you can do to get a job in games... Outside of getting a degree.
- First a bit of an introduction.
- Who am I to be telling you how to get a job!?
- 7 years in the games industry.
- Started out in QA, have been a producer, now a designer.
- Currently at Sumo Digital Nottingham.
- Sumo Digital consist of 7 studios
- Employs over 500 staff.
- Founded in 2003.
- Sumo Digital have worked on a number of games over the years.
- Including LBP 3, Snake-pass, and Crackdown 3.
- Not pictured the soon to be released TSR!
- I want to cover a few key points before we dive in...
- I’m not condemning degrees!
- Even if you have one this talk should prove useful.
- It’s a competitive industry, you can always do these things to help get a job.
- Ok, you want to make games - good!
- What now?
- Here’s an overview of things to work on when aiming for a job in games.
- I’m going to go into detail on each of these points.
- Point 1: Play and understand games.
- If you look at a game and have no idea how it’s put together start here.
- I distinctly remember looking at games and having no idea how they were made, apart from a vague idea that coding played a part.
- Yes, even ones you don’t like.
- This helps build to build a broad picture of what games are (and it’s fun!)
- Whilst you do this think about the experience you’re having.
- If something is very intense consider what the developer has done to evoke that feeling.
- Make notes on what you find.
- Next, try and get a peek behind the scenes.
- I used to do this with No-Clip mode in Half Life 2 (this disables collision).
- In this example (Mario Kart on the Wii) you can see flat trees, building
without roofs, walls you can see through etc.
- You may not understand why some of these are done but now you know that these tricks are happening - smoke and mirrors!
- Point 2: Use in game tools.
- Seek out games that allow you to build and share content.
- Start experimenting and building your own experiences for people to play.
- I’ve listed some examples here.
- You’ve got access to the basic building blocks in the level editor, try and identify how the developers use these features in the core game.
- Finish what you set out to make and share (online if possible!).
- Gather and Evaluate feedback given.
- Don’t be precious / egotistical. (This helps later as well)
- This can be hard, don’t be discouraged.
- People can say awful stuff.
- Yes I’ve had awful things said to me...
- Find the constructive feedback an try implementing it.
- The aim here is to better understand how games are put together.
- 3D assets, 2D art, logic, objects, code, like a giant jigsaw.
- Turns out it’s not all code!
- And understand the process of putting all that together.
- Point 3: Experiment with Industry standard tools.
- Spaghetti blueprints and Mayas UI - fun!
- Don’t be put off. These pictures are quite extreme examples.
- The sooner you get stuck in the sooner you’ll get to grips with them.
- Choose a tool you want to start learning how to use.
- Choose something based on your interested.
- Some of these are free, so no excuses!
- Pick them up online, sometimes they can even be on sale.
- I still do this now.
- Usually via YouTube! But there are other places like Udemy that also have great contnet.
- For example, back in the day I used WoW model viewer to see how Blizzard constructed their 3D assets.
- Artstation is great for this!
- You’re surrounded by very talented people here at Rezzed, so you’re in an awesome place to start doing this right now!
- Point 4: Get involved with online communities.
- Leverage these communities for advice, problem solving, getting feedback and networking.
- Work in progress threads are a great way to showcase your work and get feedback.
- People may point out better ways to do things - you don’t know what you don’t know!
- Point 5: Create finished assets.
- This is called scope, keep it small. This is crucial.
- Small, good quality and complete is better than ambitious, low quality and unfinished. No open world MMOs!
- Use already existing assets, for example if showcasing your level design skills don’t feel the need to create you’re own AAA quality 3D models.
- The same process I mentioned earlier, release, get feedback, iterate.
- This is a good opportunity to create finished portfolio pieces.
- Release finished content. Ship it!
- Finish something, even if it’s not “perfect”.
- Point 6: Take part in game jams.
- Game Jams when individuals or groups get together and make a game in a pre agreed time period. Sort of like jamming with a band, there’s no plan ahead of time!
- Here are some good jams to get started with.
- Keep doing it, you’ll just keep getting better and better.
- Again, release finished content, ship it!
- Unless it’s an absolute car crash.
- This happened to me once. The game didn’t run. :(
- Point 7: Modding
- Steam and Steam Workshop are a great platform for this.
- There are plenty of games that support mods with some hug player-bases.
- Most genres are catered for.
- No need to go at it alone, you could join a team and offer your skills.
- There are plenty of teams developing some excellent experiences!
- Most importantly in our case this is a well trodden path in terms of getting a job in the industry. Many people have done it before.
- Sumo hired directly from the Little Big planet community.
- Finish what you’re working on. Ship it!
- Point 8: The advanced workings of the Games Industry.
- Don’t worry if some of these things seems complicated or a bit dry.
- Just being aware that these are things that exist is enough!
- A lot of these you will learn more about on the job.
- It’s important to be aware of source control, in most studios it will be part of your day to day work.
- It’s used to collaborate on large projects and keep a record of changes.
- Good idea to google this.
- Examples are perforce and Git.
- 99.9% of the time games are made by team.
- Working with people is key.
- It’s worth understanding the concept of “buy-in” successfully communicating your ideas to other team members and getting them on board with what you want to do.
- Social skills are important!
- Pipelines are establishes processes for creating parts of the game.
- Useful to be aware of these as your will have to follow these.
- They can vary from studio to studio.
- Sound restrictive but actually very useful.
- A games development has different steps.
- This varies studio to studio and publisher to publisher.
- Milestones, demo’s, alpha build and beta build are all examples of this.
- Useful to be aware of as these can dictate your deadlines.
- There’s a lot take in here, but don’t worry you just need to know it’s a thing.
- TRCs (Technical Requirements), compliance and compatibility are key words to remember! Again no need to know them in-depth, just be aware!
- There’s certain requirements platforms have.(TRCs and compliance).
- More open platforms like Android and PC have compatibility to think about. Does your game work on X graphics card or Y mobile phone. (Compatibility)
- Good to be aware of as your work will need to abide by these.
- All studios can vary what they do and how they do it.
- AAA, Indie, Mobile focusses, console focussed etc.
- Keep this in mind when applying.
- This all may sound a bit heavy - so remember, have fun!
- I want to talk about landing a job but not THE job.
- I started in QA but always wanted to be a designer.
- Do a good job but outside of work always be working towards the job you want.
- You don’t have to do all of these points, there’s lots of paths.
- Don’t get disheartened, especially if people don’t respond to your applications.
- Most importantly, don’t give up & stay passionate!
