How to make career in gaming industry

Gaming Technologies

Many times the video gaming industry can seem like a black box without any way to get inside. For those who are keen on making big on the gaming industry and want to develop games like Pokemon series, you need to have the right strategy to get your foot into the door. And to discover these strategies you need to understand how the current generation of game developers got started. Here are a few proven strategies that will aid you to land a dream job at a game studio.

1. Publish work on discussion boards

As an aspiring game developer, you may be reading and referring a lot of discussion boards and forums to gain necessary knowledge. Professional developers do the same and hence, showcasing or publishing your work here may actually assist you to get noticed. Therefore, instead of lurking start posting and engaging with others. And as you get better, someone may take notice and hire you for a suitable job.

2. Gaming Blog

Starting a gaming blog is yet another way of showcasing your extensive knowledge in the field. Writing for the gaming community or boards is one of the best ways to get started. Jason Beveren started a gaming blog when he realized that the gaming sector was his calling and not the traditional 9 to 5 job. For him, he was noticed by Parris Lilly within a month and was offered a task of running a gaming website. Today Jason Beveren is the head of the player experience at one of the famous game studios.

3. Build Your Games

The most intriguing question that budding game developers usually face is not having enough experience or credibility to get hired. Remember that Dan Posluns developed indie games on TI-85 calculator and Apple IIc before getting noticed by a game studio. With better and free game developing tools it has become considerably easy to build your own games.

4. Apply For Game Tester Job

You can opt for entry-level game tester job as it can be easily obtained as it does not require any specialization or degrees. This lets you observe and learn how gaming professionals work to make your way into the industry. For Instance, Kelly Toyama, who is presently Senior Game Designer, once worked as QA. He kept contributing to design in his team which made him stand out to his bosses.

5. Get Internship

If you have any skill such as art, sound designing, animation, programming, etc that can be utilized in the game development than you can easily get an internship in at game studio even if you have zero experience regarding the actual game building. Many studios don’t have official internships but are willing to lend part-time or temporary jobs to those who can aid them.

6. Get a Traditional Degree

Most of the job openings in gaming sector require you to have a Bachelor’s Degree without specifying which Bachelor’s Degree. For the matter of fact, as long as you have necessary skills and knowledge that can be utilized in game development you don’t need to have any particular game-related degree. Brandon Fogerty worked as a programmer at a non-game organization with his Master’s in Computer Science before landing his job of creating a video game.

7. Participate in Game Jams

Participate in game jams as they provide you the opportunity to display your skills and expertise. Apart from this, game jams let you develop a new set of skills, teach you to work with teams under pressures, help you to expand your network and add weight to your portfolio. Again there are chances of being noticed by recruiting agencies and gaming professionals.

Bottom Line

Publishing your work, getting a job at the game studio, taking up internships, participating in jams, are few of the many strategies that may assist you to achieve your dream only if you are persistent enough to turn it into reality. There will be moments when you may feel lost, rejected, discouraged or you may doubt your capabilities. But improving and updating your skills little by little each day would turn out to be the best strategy that anyone can come up with.

One thought on “How to make career in gaming industry”

  1. Nice Information. There are lots of gaming companies in India. Furthermore, new startups are being launched every now and then to leverage the scope of the industry. You can capitalize on these opportunities by pursuing animation and design course from Arena Animation. You can also read this article:

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