Hello All! I thought I could offer my perspective in this forum to mirror and build upon some of the responses above. Let me just preface this by saying that I thank you for this post! The responses have been great and extremely helpful.

A few texts to recommend: "Theory of Fun" by Ralph Koster is a great, simple read for some game design theory (he has an illustration on every other page that offer some humor and help delineate some of his ideas). I also highly recommend "Rules of Play" by Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen for an extensive, academic and systematic breakdown of game design theory.

I would definitely agree that experience is the greatest thing that you can offer to a future employer. Find a group of people who are interested in creating games and work with them -- keeping in mind that small team dynamics and large team dynamics are vastly different. To echo what Bill said, get involved in communities on the web -- ModDB and Gamasutra are great places to meet other developers (and can even land you an unexpected job).

I also highly recommend exploring multiple toolsets and making mods. UDK is free and has a ridiculous amount of support from the community and 3D Buzz. Unity 3D is also a great toolset for creating 3D gaming experiences, but I would try moving into the tabletop realm as well. Technical skills are incredibly important, but creating 3D games is a long process that can sometimes require a lot of external help. If you're looking to create games solo and quick, board games can be a easy way to flex your design muscles and learn more about your design process.

As a game designer, I would also recommend working on your soft skills as well. Practice public speaking, learn a bit about small group communication theory, write write write until your fingers are tired of pressing the keys, and socialize. One of the main things I've learned about the game industry in my time in it is that networking is your greatest tool to landing a kickass job. Go to the IGDA meetings in a city near you (if there is a chapter there, of course), and continue posting on forums like this. Look into other game developer communities that meet up monthly like the Boston Post Mortem in Boston and the Design Dojo in Vancouver. Every game design job I've had has been greatly helped by previous connections I made at GDC or other development related events. I would also definitely recommend scouring Gamasutra and other online communities.

Anyway, if you have any questions (perhaps even about how I even know these things), feel free to contact me! I've got a lot more to discuss about getting into the industry and ways to harness and foster a stronger skillset.

Cheers -- Heather

TheMadSpin said:
I have a fiction portfolio due on May 5th, but once my summer starts I think we should all think about an Irrational Forums independent game competition or something. If nothing else it would force me to do some work scripting--although I might end up writing a Zork style adventure.

Make it happen! Love those old text adventure games, anyone remember Wishbringer?

Anyways back on topic...

Grabbing that gaming job will be difficult but not impossible. I interned for 3 months, splitting 40 hours a week with another intern. A little nerve wracking for sure but an excellent learning experience, applying book/lab theory to real world. I was really persistent but not overly aggressive and just knew my shit, got hired out of school. I agree with Adesilva in that getting the degree is the easy part, but even if you're not hired there's always plenty that you can do in your field in the meantime to build a portfolio. Pretty basic advice really but hopefully it helps.

drewjamicks said:

TheMadSpin said:
I have a fiction portfolio due on May 5th, but once my summer starts I think we should all think about an Irrational Forums independent game competition or something. If nothing else it would force me to do some work scripting--although I might end up writing a Zork style adventure.

Make it happen! Love those old text adventure games, anyone remember Wishbringer?
Anyways back on topic...
Grabbing that gaming job will be difficult but not impossible. I interned for 3 months, splitting 40 hours a week with another intern. A little nerve wracking for sure but an excellent learning experience, applying book/lab theory to real world. I was really persistent but not overly aggressive and just knew my shit, got hired out of school. I agree with Adesilva in that getting the degree is the easy part, but even if you're not hired there's always plenty that you can do in your field in the meantime to build a portfolio. Pretty basic advice really but hopefully it helps.

What sort of things did you do at your internship?
I have had a few internships in the past (mainly for web design when I did that in high school ) but the ones I had varied greatly.

One that I had I honestly learned nothing because I essentially turned into the lackey of my "mentor" doing random errands / speaking to people he didn't want to talk to, etc.

The second one I had was actually in the high school itself that I was in. The school had a website and I was thrown into the fire with a stack of papers each morning and told to update and innovate. This is coming off only having one half semester of a web design class and basically taught myself how to do everything over the time period. It started out difficult and slow with lots of trial and error but by the end I feel I had a pretty good grasp on how to do things.

seethrumirror said:
Hello All! I thought I could offer my perspective in this forum to mirror and build upon some of the responses above. Let me just preface this by saying that I thank you for this post! The responses have been great and extremely helpful.
A few texts to recommend: "Theory of Fun" by Ralph Koster is a great, simple read for some game design theory (he has an illustration on every other page that offer some humor and help delineate some of his ideas). I also highly recommend "Rules of Play" by Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen for an extensive, academic and systematic breakdown of game design theory.
I would definitely agree that experience is the greatest thing that you can offer to a future employer. Find a group of people who are interested in creating games and work with them -- keeping in mind that small team dynamics and large team dynamics are vastly different. To echo what Bill said, get involved in communities on the web -- ModDB and Gamasutra are great places to meet other developers (and can even land you an unexpected job).
I also highly recommend exploring multiple toolsets and making mods. UDK is free and has a ridiculous amount of support from the community and 3D Buzz. Unity 3D is also a great toolset for creating 3D gaming experiences, but I would try moving into the tabletop realm as well. Technical skills are incredibly important, but creating 3D games is a long process that can sometimes require a lot of external help. If you're looking to create games solo and quick, board games can be a easy way to flex your design muscles and learn more about your design process.
As a game designer, I would also recommend working on your soft skills as well. Practice public speaking, learn a bit about small group communication theory, write write write until your fingers are tired of pressing the keys, and socialize. One of the main things I've learned about the game industry in my time in it is that networking is your greatest tool to landing a kickass job. Go to the IGDA meetings in a city near you (if there is a chapter there, of course), and continue posting on forums like this. Look into other game developer communities that meet up monthly like the Boston Post Mortem in Boston and the Design Dojo in Vancouver. Every game design job I've had has been greatly helped by previous connections I made at GDC or other development related events. I would also definitely recommend scouring Gamasutra and other online communities.
Anyway, if you have any questions (perhaps even about how I even know these things), feel free to contact me! I've got a lot more to discuss about getting into the industry and ways to harness and foster a stronger skillset.
Cheers -- Heather

Thanks for the input Heather, I noticed that you list your occupation as game designer so it is always good to hear some feedback from someone with the job. Thanks especially for the book recommendations I have quickly built up a library of great books that should certainly help. I have been working hard to spend my free time reading them and absorbing whatever knowledge I can from them.

The UDK idea I think will end up being great for the future. This past week I picked it back up because my classes were on the less intense side homework wise and had some fun messing around with different things and learning my way through. When I get some substantial time I am going to go back to the book I have and starting doing some tutorials again though.

I am certainly glad that you mentioned the soft skills as well. I was rather surprised that I did not hear more of this earlier. It would appear that speaking is a huge part of being a designer and you need to be comfortable with it. When I was younger I had a problem with that but over the years have really grown to enjoy public speaking. I find it enjoyable now my game design class actually taught me how fun it could be. Once we established our idea for our game we had to come up with a presentation and pitch the idea to the class(much like you would do in the industry to a publisher) I loved every minute of it. Having an audience genuinely interested in what your talking about and them just wanting to hear more and more. It just reminded me the entire time of Peter Molyneux and how he gets so into it that sometimes he divulges ideas that may not even end up in the game lol.

adesilva said:
What sort of things did you do at your internship?
I have had a few internships in the past (mainly for web design when I did that in high school ) but the ones I had varied greatly.
One that I had I honestly learned nothing because I essentially turned into the lackey of my "mentor" doing random errands / speaking to people he didn't want to talk to, etc.
The second one I had was actually in the high school itself that I was in. The school had a website and I was thrown into the fire with a stack of papers each morning and told to update and innovate. This is coming off only having one half semester of a web design class and basically taught myself how to do everything over the time period. It started out difficult and slow with lots of trial and error but by the end I feel I had a pretty good grasp on how to do things.

Those internships where you learn nothing and are basically a go-fer aren't real internships in my opinion. Being on the inside of the industry might be helpful I guess, but its too bad people take such advantage of them and don't really teach anything.

My profession being in Audio, internships are particularly bad historically. I was lucky in that I got into a game studio where they actually used me for what I went to school for, even nabbing a couple game credits before my internship was up. I edited dialog, created simple sound design, went on a couple field recordings and generally helped where I was needed. Overall a great experience where I was able to really showcase my knowledge and that absolutely helped me in getting hired. While we aren't talking about the same work field, the process to break into the industry is about the same across the board.

Best of luck to you, from how you present yourself just on these forums you shouldn't have too much trouble landing a job.

Hmm, speaking of game credits--I have a single game credit to my name:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/35782

or

http://www.flashanywhere.net/en/shootgames/6040-fire-bad.html

If the first link is still down.

I got an internship offer in Philly with Camp Chaos back in 2000, but I still thought I was a jazz musician at the time, so I was afraid to embark on a new career--plus I'm terrified of Philly.

I also want to echo the thanks to Heather for her advice. However, all I have are a bunch of "soft skills" (never heard it put that way, but it feels somehow wimpy).

I think it's kind of amazing, by the way, that so many people on this forum are actually game designers. Something tells me you won't find that on the Infinity Ward forums.

No problem! I can understand the association you feel between the term "soft skills" and "soft willpower" or something like that, but in reality, it isn't always the person with the most technical or artistic skill that gets a position -- especially if they have great soft skills. Being a friendly, warm, and charismatic people person can get you far, I think, and if someone with great technical skills doesn't have the soft ones to back it up, well ... would you really want to work with them?

very true, "soft skills" are really something that are expected from any job. You always want to be able to work with people who are sociable and able to communicate thoughts clearly. In design though it is of the utmost importance because communication is critical to being efficient. This is especially important with designers doing more PR work like Cliff Bleszinski, you need to be able to speak with the media and attract peoples attention to your game even when given only a short period of time.

TheMadSpin said:
I also want to echo the thanks to Heather for her advice. However, all I have are a bunch of "soft skills" (never heard it put that way, but it feels somehow wimpy).
I think it's kind of amazing, by the way, that so many people on this forum are actually game designers. Something tells me you won't find that on the Infinity Ward forums.

I doubt you'd find many designers in the Infinity Ward offices now, never mind their forums. Seems their entire design team and other leads jumped ship.

The tally I believe is up to 26 or 28 people who have left now which is pretty crazy. I wonder how many of them are going directly to respawn? I know that some of them have already.

aliborio said:
I doubt you'd find many designers in the Infinity Ward offices now, never mind their forums. Seems their entire design team and other leads jumped ship.

I'm glad someone made the joke.

Couldn't help myself

Really great thread, guys! I don't have a whole lot to add to it besides complimenting the obvious. Inspiring!

Actually, I guess I could make a comment to the effect that it seems that the creative job market, in general, is pretty well saturated with requirements for specific college degrees. This is both enlivening and discouraging. On one hand, if you work your way through a college program, you'll have the leg up over the other guy who may or may not have comparable experience. On the other hand, the amount of mobility you have in the way of sneaking into another field is somewhat limited.

That's just general talk, though, I guess - still pretty important to the discussion, I guess. You be the judge.

-Andrew Marathas

I haven't been around too much lately but I wanted to update everyone on what is going on with me lately. I got an internship at Creat Studios to be a design intern and I started this week, everyone here was great and certainly helped me gain the confidence to go to every studio I could to gain even more knowledge. Now I know this is Irrational's forum but Ill let it be known I tried A Lot to get one with them haha (and I am only working there half the week you guys at Irrational are welcome to have me the other half for whatever you'd like ) I have only been there this week but I already feel like I have learned so much. The hours have been pretty long my first two days (12 hours first day and 11 second day including one hour drive each way) but it has been soooo worth it! Just being in a studio is a dream come true and I feel amazingly privileged just being around some of these guys because I know how much other people would love to be in my position.

I know that Heather also started her design internship I believe this week or last so I want to give her a shout out too in hopes that everything is going great for her at her internship!!

Thanks again to everyone this thread has been great and it is a great example of how going the extra mile and essentially bothering people till they will give you a chance to show how good you are will allow you to succeed. I hope this thread helps other people with my same dream to keep it alive and attain it someday!

Another book to look into is "Hero with a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell

Here is a quick blurb by amazon about the book.

"Originally written by Campbell in the '40s-- in his pre-Bill Moyers days -- and famous as George Lucas' inspiration for "Star Wars," this book will likewise inspire any writer or reader in its well considered assertion that while all stories have already been told, this is *not* a bad thing, since the *retelling* is still necessary. And while our own life's journey must always be ended alone, the travel is undertaken in the company not only of immediate loved ones and primal passion, but of the heroes and heroines -- and myth-cycles -- that have preceded us."

I think every game designer, present and future, should read this.

Let me echo Haversack and say that if you're in a creative world at all, Hero with a Thousand Faces is worth having on your shelf. I couldn't find my copy when I saw this post I wanted to order a digital copy. Amazon didn't have one so I put in a request. Hopefully when my iPad shows up next week they'll have a copy on ibooks.

Until then I'll have to settle for the different packets I have from classes where this has been taught--but it's an amazing resource.

First off let me say that this is a great Forum and I don't use forums very offen (reader not a poster). I'm just starting my senior year in high school and I was thinking of college classes to take. So my first real question is what recommendations do you have and what do you think of these?
major: English of some type
minor: psychology of some type
and some computer science.

thanks

Hey, I just stumbled across this thread - how are you guys getting on? I know nobody's posted in here for a while but I just wanted to ask how the internships went.