Rob Precious met David Smith from Game Careers at the Develop conference in Brighton, UK. Rob is Geomerics Vice President of Sales bringing years of middleware expertise, drawing on positions with companies such as Criterion to drive and develop global sales for Enlighten, Geomerics’ revolutionary real-time lighting technology. His advice for job seekers looking to work at Geomerics: “With Geomerics don’t be scared about what I said about PhDs, it is by far not the only criteria we are looking for. We want a mix of people with all of the skills that we need. That is some deep rooted in academia but then we need highly practical people who have game industry know how, people who have console know how. I would urge people not to be scared by that fact or that the technology is kind of the holy grail of lighting in the industry right now, but not to be put off by that. It is really just putting one foot in front of the other and making things better every day. That is the kind of people that we are looking for.”
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In this series fom ABC, they take an in-depth look at some of the key careers within the Games Industry talking to game developers across Australia. This video shows what it takes to get a job working as a programmer on games. Adam Levenson met David Smith from Game Careers at the Develop conference in Brighton, UK. Adam serves as Director of the Central Audio and Talent groups at Activision where he oversees original music, sound effects, post-production, audio technology, voiceovers, celebrity talent, and scriptwriters across Activision portfolio of titles. In addition, he is spearheading the creation and implementation of shared audio standards and technologies across Activision’s global studios. He joined Activision in 2006 as the Director of Central Audio. He has more than 17 years experience in video game audio production having contributed to games as a composer, sound designer, supervisor and audio director. Prior to joining Activision, he founded Immersive Sound, a full-service game audio production company where he directed audio production for publishers such as Electronic Arts and Atari, both companies he later worked with as Audio Director. Before this, he worked on the award-winning audio team at Interplay Entertainment and began his career in audio production at Trilobyte. Prior to joining the video game industry, Mr. Levenson worked as a recording artist and performing musician for several years. His advice to audio people looking to work on the music for an Activision game: “I think the most important thing is, do your homework. If you want to work for Activision, learn about the company, do some research, find out the recent titles, know what they are all about and figure out how you can contribute to those games. That is really critical. A cold call is great, but you need to do your homework in advance so that when you get on the phone with someone like myself you know what you are talking about. The other important thing is to have demo material ready. If you’re a creative person, make sure you have your reel prepared and make sure it shows the best of your work. People often think they are supposed to show X, Y and Z, NO. We want to know what you do best and what your unique contribution is going to be. Those are the two most important things.” Adam Boyes met David Smith from Game Careers at the Develop conference in Brighton, UK. He is a 15 year game industry veteran who has specialized in Production and Business Development. He has held positions such as Executive Producer at Midway and most recently he ran the Product Development group at Capcom US. At the helm, he delivered the most successful digital games initiative of the industry. Adam has more recently founded a company, Beefy Media, which specializes in helping developers create identities for their studios and better sell themselves to Publishers. He works with teams from the pitch process through to the Post Mortem to ensure that developers are taking a mature approach to game development, and are taking their initiative seriously. His advice to those seeking a job in video games: “I think getting out there, being persistent obviously, but classy persistence, meeting people, and going to shows like Develop. There are a lot of opportunities around the globe to go to great shows and meet people, engage with them and ask them questions. A lot of guys who are senior in the industry want to answer questions and they want to help and get you placed so you can enjoy the great things they have enjoyed in their careers.” Ricky Haggett CEO of HoneySlug met David Smith of Game Careers .BIZ at the Develop conference in Brighton 2010. Honeyslug are a small, North London dev studio who make interesting, original little titles across a number of platforms. Ricky started Honeyslug in 2008 with fellow Morpheme alumni Mark Inman and Nat Marco. In 18 months they’ve created a number of premium web and iPhone games, a budget PC game called My Pet Dinosaur, and Kahoots – a launch title for Sony’s PSP Minis channel. If you like the cut of their jib, whether it’s about current titles, press, video game jobs or work for hire, why not contact Ricky. Sally Reynolds is a QA tester for Jagex, “I test the games to ensure that they are ready for release and also post release, if any issues have come up, I track them down and help the developer to sort them out. I love my job, I get to be a big kid!”. She left school at 17 but went back and got A levels and a degree, “people who didn’t think very much of me because of the lack of qualifications… I can absolutely prove them wrong now”. Jagex has over 350 employees. Roughly half the team work on providing players with support, answering queries and assisting with disputes or lost passwords. Most of the remaining half work directly or indirectly on RuneScape – scriptwriting, coding, graphics, audio and testing all make up the giant development effort required to keep RuneScape frequently updated. You can see more women in games at Women in Games Jobs. Andrew graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1998. He started working in the industry in commercials as a freelance artist. Later Andrew, worked on feature film intro, music videos, commercials, architectural visualization, medical animation, print. Then he was hired by Black Logic in New York City as a Technical Director and eventually became their CG Art Director. In 2002, Andrew was hired by Pixar as a full time employee for lighting – modeling. He continues to teach 3D Animation at various schools such as School of Visual Arts, Parsons, AnimWerks and is currently teaching at California College of the Arts. Andrew met with David Smith from Game Careers .BIZ at the recent Develop conference in Brighton, UK where he gave an overview into Pixar’s production pipeline. He discussed how Pixar connects up each department such as Story, Art, Sets, Editorial, Characters, Layout, Animation, Lighting Effects, and Render. Check the video to see his advice on getting a job at Pixar. Hannah Crosby, Character Artist with Rare, met with Antonia Cullum of Women in Games Jobs at the Develop Conference in Brighton. Her advice on the qualities needed seeking a job in the games industry. “I think persistence; there are sometimes a limited number of roles, especially in character art out there so you might need to be prepared to go into a slightly different role. I started out in environment art even though character art is what I wanted to get into. There are a lot more roles in environment art, so sometimes you need to get into a parallel role or into a similar industry. Basically doing your own work. If you go as an artist and having a portfolio of art you can present that shows you know how to do this stuff and that you’re passionate about it and do it on your own time.” Dajana Dimovska is CEO and Producer at Copenhagen Game Productions, currently producing physical spell-duelling game that aims for players to look at each other, rather than at the screen. She is one of the founders of Copenhagen Game Collective, network of game companies, non-commercial projects, and creative individuals with the agenda of developing and promoting experimental games. Dajana is also a Vice Chairman of IGDA Danish Chapter and co-organiser of Nordic Game Jam. She met with David Smith of Game Careers in Brighton at the Develop Conference. Her advice for both men and women think of working in the video gaming industry: “What my advice is very much based on where we began and we became. Job seekers who are not very experienced, I would suggest to just go out there and activate yourself and do projects before you finish your studies. Have something that can prove your skills even if it is a model, just prove what you can do. Even if it is team work, it is better because team work is what we are focusing a lot on. We want the team to click so we are interested in people who can work together with other people and not alone in an office.” As a graduate with a Masters Degree specialising in Business James joined Kuju in 1995. He was quickly promoted to Project Manager for titles such as Terracide, Halcyon Sun followed by a number of important prototypes and technology experiments that led to several signed titles. He moved on to become Executive Producer, most notably leading the critically acclaimed Fire Warrior (PS2/PC/PS2Online). He was then Studio Head of Kuju’s Surrey studio, responsible for sales, forming strategies and preparing for the next generation, as well as overseeing Dark Messiah of Might and Magic multiplayer and Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics. He then “span-off” a new studio, “doublesix”, whilst delivering the critically acclaimed and award winning Geometry Wars: Galaxies. James is now leading doublesix into the bold and exciting new world of digital distribution, creating “small” and fun games more like the way they used to be made. James met with David Smith from Game Careers and Interactive Selection at the recent Develop conference in Brighton. His tips for working at a devloper like Kuju: “Obviously, the big thing we are always looking for is talented people and don’t worry so much about what tour qualifications have been. A case in point is myself, I qualified as an engineer but went on to do art and came in through my artistic talents. So people coming in with talent that we can see and is demonstrable so make sure you do something that we can see, that is visible; it is harder for some disciplines than others. Even game designers can download certain packages or buy packages that will allow them to demonstrate their skills. You’ve got packages you can get a hold of and make some level, artists have a portfolio, and programmers can come in and be we can test their skills. But you really need to have raw talent. It’s not necessarily the courses you did at university, the main thing about university is that you finish your course, get to the end and show you can stick it out. If we get people that dropped out halfway through how do I know you are going to make it to the end of the game, and that is really important. Realistically demonstratable talent and we’ll know what we are looking for when you come.” |
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