Hiya.

Today I figured I’d talk about one of the questions most frequently asked of game developers: How does someone (masochistic enough to want to do this) get started in the game industry?  Lots of variables weigh on the answer – everybody I know in this industry came here by a different path, but there are a few points we all share in common, and I’m going to talk about these.

At the most basic level, it works like this: Three things have to be true for you to get in:

1) You need to know how to do the job you want to do.

2) The people who could hire you to do that job need to know you’re there, what you want to do, and what you know how to do.

3) You have to be fresh enough in their mind that you’re the person they think of when they’re in enough of a jam that they need to hire someone they haven’t worked with before.

Let’s talk about each of these.

Learning how to do the job…

First off, this advice will vary depending on whether you know what it is you want to do.  The path is different for aspiring engineers or artists than it is for designers, but the underlying principles aren’t that different.

Whether or not you’re sure about where you’d like to focus, I recommend beginning with a practical, hands-on overview of the game development process.  If you’re still figuring out your path, this will help you do that, and if you already know where your interests lie, knowing how all the pieces fit together will still deepen your understanding of the craft.  To do this, I suggest that you begin by building simple games in a relatively accessible development tool.  Unity3D (http://unity3d.com/) is a great choice for this.  It’s powerful, flexible, well-documented, reasonably comprehensive, and its toolset is masterfully built.  Start out by doing the tutorials. You’ll learn a great deal that way about the component parts that make up any game and how they’re built.

If your interest is in game design, I’d recommend that you then strike out from here to build a small game of your own design.  Keep it simple – don’t try to build Skyrim on your own.  Minimize your dependence on art and animation and stick with a simple, well-executed design.  Remember, you can play Chess with bottlecaps, and Go with rocks.  You don’t need great art to execute a great design.  What you need are well-considered rules that encourage your player to make meaningful choices in their approach to an understandable goal.  At the design level, games are systems, and players are central parts of these systems.  Come up with a simple but clear design, see if you can make it work, and see if you can make it fun.

If you’re specifically interested in level design or RPG design, you can diverge a bit once you’ve done the basics.  I still recommend beginning with the overview I just described, but as an aspiring level designer, your next step should probably be to download the modding tools for a game you know and like, and begin building your own levels.  The Unreal Development Kit (http://www.udk.com/) is a great place to begin learning about first-person and third-person shooter construction.  Build levels, and then – here’s the important part – get your friends to play them, and watch your friends as they play them.  When they get stuck, resist the temptation to help them out – instead, write notes to yourself about where they got lost or frustrated.  This is how you’ll learn the most important part of the game designer’s art – communicating with the player.  And trust me, you won’t get it right the first time out.

For RPG quest design, I’d recommend that you pull down the Elder Scrolls Construction Set (http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Main_Page), which allows you to design environments and quests for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.  Oblivion is a tremendously flexible game with a very active mod community.  It’s relatively easy to learn how to create new environments and quests, and you’ve got a ready-made game system in which to play them.

The key is this: if you want to become a good designer, you must build working games and/or game levels, and test them on real people.

Books I generally recommend for designers:

A Theory of Fun, by Raph Koster (http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Game-Design-Raph-Koster/dp/1932111972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305068596&sr=8-1)

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, by Jesse Schell (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1305068596&sr=8-2)

Rules of Play, by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. (http://www.amazon.com/Rules-Play-Game-Design-Fundamentals/dp/0262240459/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305068605&sr=8-1)

There are other great books out there as well, but these do a great job of setting up your mind to think about the structure and operation of a game’s design.  A few people have recommended Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, by Scott Rogers (http://www.amazon.com/Level-Up-Guide-Great-Design/dp/047068867X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305068611&sr=8-1).  I haven’t yet read it myself, but I trust these peoples’ taste.

If you’re interested in learning game programming, XNA is a good place to start. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa937791), and you can also learn a lot by developing for Unity or Unreal. On the book front, I’m a fan of Jason Gregory’s Game Engine Architecture (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568814135/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=14WQ8WAS31VCMN4V42FR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846) – it’s a reasonably comprehensive overview of a game engine’s component parts, and approachable to a beginning developer.  I highly recommend Bruce Eckel’s Thinking in C++ for a general introduction to object-oriented programming in C++, available in print (http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Introduction-Standard-One-2nd/dp/0139798099/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305068796&sr=1-1), or free here: (http://www.mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html).  Since my own background is in design, I don’t have quite as much to say here as I did for design, but these recommendations are a good starting point.

If you’re interested in art, work on mastering 3ds max, Maya or Softimage. For PS3, 360 or PC games, Z-Brush will be an essential tool as well, less so for Wii or mobile.  Other artists can give you more specific advice, but here’s one thing I’ll insist on: whether you’re learning to build characters, environments, or both, test your stuff in a game engine.  Game engines are unforgiving masters, and you will at some point in your career create a piece of art that looks magnificent in the DCC, and bogs your game down to a slideshow.  Make that mistake early.  Test your stuff, and learn how to make things look great at a decent framerate.

Okay.

We’ve talked a bit about learning how to do the work.  Let’s move on to the next point.  I’m going to spend a little less time here, since, truthfully, getting good at the craft is the important part.  Lots of people want to do this, but most haven’t taken the time or effort to get really good.  Distinguish yourself by doing that.

Meeting people.  If you live in a city with a lot of game development going on, like LA, Seattle, Austin, etc., it’s a little easier. It can be harder if you’re elsewhere, but far from impossible. Seeking out a local IGDA chapter (http://www.igda.org/) can sometimes help, but you’d be surprised at how many people in the industry will  answer an email from someone who shows genuine interest. Here, however, comes a big caveat: don’t open communication if you’re not prepared to do the work. Just about every pro will tell you the same thing when you first contact them: It’ll go something like, “okay, send me something and we’ll talk about it.” That’s a test. 90% of people will never follow up with a working game level, character model, etc. If you seriously want to develop games, do the work to get good at it, and that means putting in the time to practice the craft.  It also means learning how to take direction and criticism well, and learning how to respond to it with genuine improvements that show that you’re really engaging and developing. It’s entirely possible to forge a relationship remotely, and if you show that you’re serious about the work and have potential to get good at it, things could progress from there. Remember, this part of your self-presentation is as much about demonstrating your professionalism as it is about demonstrating your talent and potential.

Point 3 arises out of point 2. Be around, even if virtually, be visible, show good work and improvement. Don’t pester people, however.  Just show them what you’ve got when you’ve made something you genuinely think is worth showing.  At this point, you’re hoping to get lucky, and it may take a while, but there’s truth to the old aphorism that “luck is a function of your preparation for it.”  If your work is good, and you’ve given the impression that you wouldn’t be so bad to work with, you’ll be given your shot sooner or later.

On the topic of game design and development schools, I’ll say this: they vary widely.  If you’re considering a school, learn about the program and the people teaching it.  Look for a program that teaches genuine design principles, and shy away from those that focus too much on teaching specific tools that’ll probably be obsolete by the time you graduate.  You can learn the tools on your own.  Look for a program that will teach you how to think.  There are some outstanding programs out there that’ll get your mind reeling in exactly the right ways, and equally important, that will kickstart the network that could get you hired later on.  Nobody, however, will ever ask you for your degree in this business.  They’ll want to see your work.

Finally, be aware that this can be a hard industry. Just about everyone who’s made games for a while has suffered through a deathmarch crunch at least once. Most of us have poured our heart into a project that met a sudden death in a marketing meeting. Most of us have had the experience of seeing something being done wrong (at least to our belief), and not having the political clout to change it. That having been said, lots of us love it, and wouldn’t want to do anything else. Part of this process for you should be to figure out whether that’s you.

Let me recap with what I believe to be the most important point from all of this: Do step one before step two.  Take the initiative to learn the craft before you start banging on doors.  We’ve all been accosted numerous times by people who wanted to make games but hadn’t done the work to develop their craft.  Don’t be that person.  You wouldn’t try to join an orchestra if you didn’t play an instrument.  That having been said, if you do work diligently on your craft, your chances aren’t as daunting as they might seem.  For all the people who claim to want to make games, only a few do the work beforehand to get good at it.  Do this, and you’ll be ahead of all of them.

Good luck!