Sorry guys this may be labeled as off topic and in a way it is…but its not as well. Basically, I want to get a job in the game development industry, but is it just me, or do most of those jobs require 2+ years experience, which I don’t have because no one will hire right out of college, or so it seems. I have applied to many game companies but usually with no response. there are the indie companies which usually only consist of 10 max people and usually aren’t hiring. My issue with this is I can’t take chances, my wife has multiple sclerosis and I don’t want to move her somewhere for an indie company, just in case something happens like bankruptcy. So I have to try for the more sustained companies like EA, Epic, Nintendo, Microsoft, and on and on and on…
Where I live there aren’t any jobs for game devs, or even programmers in general. I wish I could find a remote job but there are very few of those around, so any suggestions or advice? Let me know, my current job really doesn’t pay enough for even having a doctor for my wife or meds so I’m really open to suggestions here. Thanks guys…Epic keep up the good work.
Sorry that you are in such a predicament.
Yet another victim of Fiat money and the economy…
Do you have any experience in any other fields? Because you might end up having to get a job outside of game devolopment.
It’s getting pretty @%!% hard to find a job nowadays. And I sure know about how expensive those meds are. They are literally worse than Thieves.
Hope you luck turns for the better! 
You know, its not so much a bind, as it is I would like a change of scenery, I have mostly had custodial and inventory work. At this current moment my wife is receiving no treatment, and we make too much for medicare so its just so unusual to me hard hard times have been. But we are happy and thankful for what we have so, please don’t take my post in a negative way. I wish I could put more humor into it but the way it sounds, yea it does come off as a complaint. At least I do have a job so no problems there. I just want to do more. I am working on a game right now but I honestly don’t know how long it will take me to complete, a year maybe two…not too sure, but I love that I can do it when I have the energy and time for it. So Thank you, Champion, for your support!!
Okay! That sounds much better. It kind of sounded like you might not be able to pay the bills.
I wish you and your wife good luck! And hope that your game gets published and gets you some much needed cash! (And some REP with the game devs!)
Yea I have two kids with my wife, so I can’t be without any job.
Yep! Definitely can’t be without a job.
Wish you luck sir! (Now to play some C64 games…)
You didn’t mention what type of work you are trying to find, but you did vaguely hint at programming. If you are doing programming, I will just tell you that under 2 years is not enough experience to effectively program, and I am speaking from experience, which is why many companies may not be hiring. There isn’t really anything that I can suggest, all I can say is that experience is key.
Hi, sorry to hear about your situation. Praise God you still have a job. I think if you set a timeline of 6 months to have something working, no matter how basic, you can show your skills and experience that way. I myself am still thinking of how to break into game development but Praise God there’s still web development etc. work which I can do (and have been doing).
I agree do not take a gamble on moving to a city as companies, particularly small ones, are highly unstable (in game development no less).
I am not in the US but from my understanding the US and Western economies have destroyed their economies by insane untenable debt.
Personally I would suggest not to freak out but you should definitely start preparing for some insane times. “Prepping” as it were.
As for medical help, I am not affiliated with http://infowarslife.com but I’ve tried some of their products and when you try them, you will understand how the medical tyranny works. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate modern medical tech (needed it even this morning, serious cough and fever!) …However I moved recently, and so I wasn’t taking any certified organic food, and I used up my colloidal silver and I used up my liquid echinacea. BOOM my body is destroyed, but Lord willing I’m on the mend now.
Are you and your wife in your 20s or 30s? MS at such early ages have been shown to be due to a variety of factors and could be reversed: Reverse Multiple Sclerosis by eating the Paleo Diet, increasing vitamin D, and avoiding artificial food additives - NaturalNews.com
Basically US food is banned in many other countries, when I lived in the US for a few years my body got quite badly messed up, started getting lactose and gluten allergies, etc.
All the best.
Don’t get me wrong; but reality is: ‘finding work WITH experience is already too hard’.
Too many people.
Too many games.
Things became way harder from 2008 up to now because of Mr. Jobs and his apple…
And big companies have their own universities now, if someone want to work for one of those nowadays, must first to give them 100~200k to have a chance or be experienced and connected to insiders.
Yeah, ppl are paying a lot of money to work in games industry these days.
Selling your own game may not pay off too. If I was in your situation I would look somewhere else for stability.
That’s not true, there’s plenty of job positions for those with skills. Meaning if you can show that you can do quality work you can definitely find a job.
I don’t know of any game studios that run a training program. The closest I can think of was when Digital Domain was doing stuff with the University of Florida and it fell apart spectacularly.
Thanks guys for your support. Currently I am building a game in UE4 and having so much fun with it but, there is still so much to learn on this particular engine. I graduated with a bachelors in computer science, majoring in game development, but honestly my code isn’t the best, but my ability to design a game is pretty good, I wouldn’t be able to create anything without design first. UE4 kind of lets me fiddle around and make something awesome happen. My biggest concern with my game is creating a scan ability, similar to the Metroid Prime series, but with way more going on.
Back on point though, I do have a job, working on UE4 on the side, so not a bad trade really. Plus I have a great family that gets along better than most, without substance abuse, so I have what I need at least.
Most positions are open until the given project is finished, after that we are all let go most of the time.
Some companies keep people’s jobs, like Epic Games, but they are not many out there.
Most job positions are ranging from 12 to 20 months in general; ‘Durable’ positions are ranging from 3 to 5 years at max. That’s not what I’d call stability to raise a family.
Everything is fine for lone wolfs having fun enjoying a cool job, but when you’re in a position where you need to support your family with everything that it involves, the general census is most professionals are having difficulties to raise a family and most of us have no wife or kids at all.
And last time I checked, EA is only hiring newcomers if they are from an specific partner University.
Activision Blizzard have an army of wannabes waiting for a chance in their University programs; If an intern happens to be amazing they keep him else let him go with the thousands.
Too many people wanting the same thing; If I were looking for stability to raise a family I would do a job most can’t or don’t want to do, there’s quite a few carriers like this out there…
That can be the case, but it’s not that you can’t find a job, some people end up having to move from project to project but that’s not the case for most people. And those that do that can still find a job because they have the skills.
Create something on your own. Ship it to the greater world. , you can point at it, and say “I did that!”
This is something you can do nights and week-ends.
It is definitely difficult to find a job without experience, and jwatte has a good suggestion, as making your own experience is most likely the best way to get noticed. Also, please do not assume that a job at a major and established company will mean that it is more stable. The video game industry is rarely stable and if you’re working on a project, it is always a possibility that your job will end with the project itself.
That said, if games are your passion, never give up and keep working on bettering yourself all the time.
Personally I’d say that this kind of job as I think of it sucks a lot and that’s because as Bruno Xavier rightly said it’s not a job to raise a family but not even have dreams for yourself as you may get dumbed after the project has ended.
Aside that, we love creating games that we like. Being a member on company that makes games will force you to make games that you don’t even like to play and making you stressful in your everyday life as the game must be shipped in a specific timeline.
So as I see it, work somewhere else where you will be more comfortable than being in stress all the time and on your free time make your favourite project and who knows, you may get an extra budget if people will like it.
Have you guys checked out what’s happening in the MMO, MOBA and Free-To-Play etc. markets in China and Korea? The Asian Free-To-Play scene is really hot right now. And it’s AFAIK not just the established Valve, Blizzard, etc. crew. The Korean 3-v-3 Basketball MOBA(?) is quite impressive:
Indeed standard “Western” AAA PC/Console projects will probably ~not~ give you the stability you desire, tapping into other markets may be the key. And some days those new markets are completely ridiculous - Look at the CS:GO in-game purchases, or the black market trading of coins, virtual gold, etc. in all kinds of mobile and PC games.
For me it was all about who you know, I would say have a look at sites such as ModDB etc, a few people I know have been successful with getting jobs by working on something released on there.
Knowing people is extremely helpful. At our company they let us know what job positions they are looking for so if we know someone we can recommend them. And there’s a lot of software engineer positions that we have a hard time finding people for.
It is pretty tough! I’m fortunate enough to live in a very technology-deprived county, but the EU is throwing money at tech startups down here to try and bring more money in. Luckily for us Games Companies count! Games are the sexy new thing that all the oldies’ wanna try and be hip with, and it’s up to us to teach people about the industry too.
Internships / Incubation programmes I can recommend. You usually get a lot of creative freedom too. Also well worth making something as well, hobby projects can turn into much more than just hobbies!
It’s also kind of how you play yourself up as well, I found this out last year at EGX - If you act like a big shot (within reason, and without being an ****) you’ll be treated and remembered as one!