I just wanted to hopefully get some advice from the more experienced users here about how to make myself more of a desired asset for a development team.
Here is my post on the LFW area of the forums but after 20+ views I’ve gotten no bites yet so I’m wondering what I need to do in order to be more enticing.
I realize more and more experience and completed 3D models will be one of the biggest if not THE biggest boons to my marketability but do you notice something I’m just obviously missing?
Well as far as advice goes I found that it’s not what you can do but what you have done and I bet that it’s rather normal to get to the point the one looks at their own work and starts thinking about what they can do with it besides taking up space on their hard dive.
The first jump though is usually the big one in that they would like to get paid for the work they think they can do with out the experience of how their works is used in a practical manner combined with the ideals of what it takes to release a usable product.
So the question is not so much what you can make but what have you released?
What it takes to release is a totally different experience as to the requirements of making something of use so the next step in my accumulation of experiences was to join any project that I felt that my abilities could be used even though there was no hope at all in getting paid for the work.
By the way every thing counts as a release, even though not a million copies of a $60 game, even if it’s a trooper dancing to Funky Town.
Yea I’m currently looking for a project to join that I think I would be a good fit for and would learn from, but so far, no luck. In the meantime I’m working on my own projects but those honestly can’t be released for a long time due to the time involved with learning EVERY aspect of the engine instead of just a few.
The only local game developer group is Microsoft sponsored and is pretty much 100% Unity, it’s still a fun group to meetup with though and maybe I can get some good connections there.
I personally wouldn’t concentrate on too many aspects of game development (in the post your mention programmer, 3d artist, sound artist) -> it’s better when you concentrate onto one, but in that you have to be so good, that you can show something “complete” -> in well organised teams they have a clear structure like a guy for 3d assets, another one for programming,… So mostly they search for one that can fill this certain position -> so he has to be very good in it (it’s just my opinion as I’m unfortunately also more like an allrounder :p)
But beside that, just contact some projects that you can find in the “got skills…” section -> most of the recruiters start their threads and then the want **you **to get in touch with them Also create stuff that you can put into a portfolio.
If your looking for a project then the Unreal Tournament reboot is a great opportunity to get involved.
For the “Love of the Game” projects is still the best training grounds to learn the craft of making a game with a lot of people involved where no one will turn down free work as a contribution to the project. It is also one of the few projects that has a good chance in being released.
Get a gig at any AAA company there are probable more developers who have a project based back ground that those having a degree in <cough cough> game design.
In general going to a free work project on your end should be about what you can get out of it as an experience rather than something you feel has any chance of success. This is how Microsoft and Apple started.
As for completing your own projects then once again experience wise you can never get it were you think it should go with out the help of others so as a logic companies hire individuals who join up to make others works looks better and most of that involves grunt work.
Yea this is an issue I struggle with, unsurprisingly, in my IT career as well. I’m very interested in all aspects of my job from programming, networking, hardware, database, *nix, windows…etc etc… that I tend to get good at everything I do but master nothing.
But I’d say as far as my overall enjoyment, it would probably have to be 3D art. I just need a bit more experience in the modeling and some lessons on the texturing aspects.
Probably known by more than just a few different names but before games became big business and the ideals that one needed to have a degree to learn how to make a game most of the innovations came out from the modding community.
Games like Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament had the ability to create unique game types and game play creating a different game experience and some games started out this way.
To name a few.
Team Fortress 2.
Counter Strike.
Portal.
Just to name a few but they all started out the same way as just a bunch of guys looking to have fun making a video game.
@bokuden My advice and I am not in the game industry, only mobile dev and such is the old cliche’ of the lost keys.
If you know how that ends, it could be the start of your game/artist career. If you stop looking for something that is lost and focus on the present, what is lost becomes found in your present’s future.
I say this because your story is a lot like mine, I have been a programmer for 12+ years from compilers to mobile applications and web development. But I was a Land Surveyor and used AutoCAD int he 90’s, was into Lightwave and Director around 2002. I put it all down for a realistic programming career with my own business.
But now I want more so its like starting all over again, all the posts here are exactly right, JUST DO IT! Create your own future and do what you love, the rest will come when its meant to.
Also create stuff that you can put into a portfolio.