Over 400 join Game Careers LinkedIn networking group. Join us!
Sat, 28 Jan 2012
If you are a member of LinkedIn, you can now get together with over 400 others who share the same interests.
Please link through to http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2739538 . Start a discussion, share news! Just join the group and start networking. Good luck.
UK Game Developers trade association, TIGA, launches new jobs board for industry.
Sat, 28 Jan 2012
A new jobs board has been launched as part of the new web site for the UK Game Developers trade association, TIGA. Built on the engine of DS Interactive Ltd’s very own Games Job Board the site boasts 248 senior level and 182 mid level games industry jobs in the UK (175), China (45), Germany (31), Sweden (23), Irealnd (22), and Canada (19) and many other countries. Vist the new site at http://www.tiga.org/jobs
Jon Hare of Sensible Software gives Game Careers a games designer masterclass.
Sat, 21 Jan 2012Jon Hare – founder of Sensible Software, one of the most successful European games development companies of the late 1980s and 1990s spoke to David Smith of Interactive Selection and Game Careers in Lyon. His advice on working in the games industry as a games designer: “You need to understand what the industry is, and a lot of people make the mistake when they come in – they have a fantasy about what being a games developer or designer is. As a games designer, it is not about having a great idea and then just going and sitting down and having a can of coke in an office and waiting until someone does it. As a designer your job is to communicate every single aspect of that game to every other person on the development team. If anyone has a question you need to have the answer, if you don’t have the answer no-one else will, so you need to take the responsibility of leading something. If you want to come into a games company as an artist, you need to understand what part of the discipline of art you are going to be doing – animation, modelling, texturing etc. A lot of people come in with a very general view or a too-specific view. Making games is like being part of a football team. You have a goalkeeper, defenders, midfield, attackers, a manager and a chairman. Its the same in games, you need to know your position, who you must respect (who will give you work). Equally, if you have people below you, you must know how to delegate to them properly, how to manage them, how to communicate, and understand that making games is about teamwork, about compromise, its about hard hard graft. Its not about getting 75% of the way and quitting, its about getting over the finishing line – a 100% finished thing, whether in a box or online, which is where most people fall flat because until someone has gone through 2 cycles of completing games, they are actually not much use in the industry – you are still earning your spurs and unfortunately that process can take you 3 or 4 years, but its the truth. Once you’ve gone through those phases, if you’re prepared to do that kind of apprenticeship, then maybe you might get the chance of doing your own game, or more likely, a bit of an idea of a game you want to do. There is a big difference between having an idea and saying you want to turn it into Call of Duty and get it backed by a publisher, and the reality of you coming into a team of 30 people all above you in the pecking order, and only 1 or 2 are getting to do the concepts they want. Having that reality and wanting to be part of a team, and enjoying that is essential.” See the full interview in the clip below:
Matthias Hellmund, Head of Mobile Development for Exozet Games, talks to Game Careers
Thu, 15 Dec 2011Matthias Hellmund, Head of Mobile Development for Exozet Games in Berlin (Germany) talks to David Smith of Game Careers and Interactive Selection at GDC Europe. Matthias studied Media and Computer Science at Hochschule Furtwangen University (Germany) with stopovers in Tampere (Finland), San Francisco and Berlin. Today, he leads the mobile unit of Exozet games, creating award-winning games and lifestyle applications across a broad range of mobile platforms. His advice to those looking to apply for a job at Exozet:
“One thing we are interested in is which kind of practical projects you have done before. It always helps to not only describe your skillset, but also show some the projects you have done before. It can also be some mod projects, or just some drawings, or even if you are a programmer you can do something, just do some pen and paper drawings just with your address, and it always helps to tell us which areas you would like to work in. We are also very much looking into your motivation and personal situation.” See the full clip here:
John Mamais, Executive Producer at Polish studio CD Projekt RED talks to Games Careers
Thu, 24 Nov 2011John Mamais, Executive Producer at Polish developer CD Projekt RED talks to David Smith of Interactive Selection and Game Careers at GDC Europe in Cologne, Germany. John started his career in games as a production assistant with Activision about 15 years ago, and worked at Virgin Sound and Vision, Digital Domain, Vivendi, and Acony before joining Atari as Senior Producer in 2007 where he was credited on the following titles: The Witcher, Neverwinter Nights 2 Storm of Zehir & Mysteries of Westgate, and Dungeons and Dragons Online. John joined CD Projekt RED as Executive Producer in January 2011, with their latest release The Witcher 2 achieving AAA status in May 2011. His advice for those looking to join a company like CD Projekt RED:
“We are really trying to push the envelope and make really high-end AAA and top notch games. So we are looking for really experienced guys, really talented, who like the kind of game we are making and just want to come and work on the next things we are doing with that kind of attitude and that kind of passion.” Watch the full clip here:
Chee Ming Wong, Creative Director for Opus Artz in London talks to Game Careers at Gamescom
Thu, 17 Nov 2011Chee Ming Wong, the Creative Director at Opus Artz has over 12 years of creative visualization and design experience, working with a diverse range of game & animation developers worldwide such as Visceral Games, Sucker Punch productions, 2K Marin & 2K Australia. His roles include being the External Creative Director on The Edge of Twilight, Art Consultant on Bioshock 2, Dead Space & Infamous franchise and a ardent Wacom Evangelist.
In addition, Dr. Wong also regularly hosts artist workshops, tutorials and articles, and is a keen proponent of continuing art education and the promotion of entertainment arts to the wider public via the auspices of TIGA/UKTI. His works have been published in a variety of international books and magazines.
With a longstanding passion in future space and aerospace technology, Dr. Wong is an official artist for the International Association of Astronomical Artist (IAAA) and also holds a medical doctorate, having specialized in Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine.
His advice for those seeking to find a creative role in the games industry:
“You have to start very early on. There are various forums where you can find out more about being an artist. When you finally do you apply for a games job you have to do the necessary background research. The chances are you will be competing with existing artists already in the feed so you need to be comparable or better than other candidates. Just sending a bland CV is not good enough, you need to personalise things, research, and find out what various styles or requirements each company has. Not everyone might like manga style or melissa style so you need to be very versatile. Apply yourself to various package tools like 3D, also have a strong base in 3D. As long as you have a good graphic of various skills I think you can do very well. The main thing is to be very enthusiastic and keep on trying. Don’t give up, you might have to try 40 or 50 times. That’s normal, its very competitive.
Have the right mind set; if you are not getting much luck with various companies you need to reassess why this is happening. Just asking someone to review your portfolio is not enough. You need to have enough acumen and an understanding of where you are. Sometimes its very hard to go to a friend to ask this.” See the full clip here:
Tim Closs, CTO at Ideaworks3D in London talks to Game Careers at Develop in Brighton
Wed, 16 Nov 2011Tim Closs, the Chief Technical Officer at Ideaworks3D in Notting Hill, London talks to David Smith of Game Careers and Interactive Selection at Develop in Brighton. Ideaworks3D Ltd is a leading developer of mobile games and mobile applications technology. Tim had several 8-bit games published whilst still at school. He gained a Maths degree at Cambridge University before returning to the games industry. At I3D, Tim has overseen the creation of Airplay, a binary-portable solution for native applications on mobile devices. His advice for those looking to apply for a position at Ideaworks:
“If its on the engineering side, we look for people with really strong core skills. We have a gaming side to our company but its not all about games, there is a real strong technology core to what we do. We do look for people who have a strong degree in mathematics or computer science or one of the related sciences. And also some real demonstration of interest and ability outside their coursework, so a portfolio that’s purely based upon projects that are done within your course is not going to get us excited, but if you’ve done something, however small, however esoteric on your own, then that’s gold dust to be honest. Especially in today’s app store economy where you can build a Facebook game and put it up yourself, or build an android app and put it up on Android Market without any cost investment, then we are really looking for people to do that extra step as part of their portfolio.” See the full clip here:
Livingstone Hope Report Next Gen from NESTA featured on Newsnight 10 October
Sat, 12 Nov 2011A report by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC Technology correspondent on the UK Education system and whether it is failing the Games and Special effects industries. Newsnight ran this report on 10 October 2011. See the full video report that follows:
Scott Pitkethly, Lead Programmer at Creative Assembly talks to Game Careers at Develop in Brighton
Thu, 10 Nov 2011Scott Pitkethly, Lead Programmer at Creative Assembly in Sussex, England, talks to David Smith of Interactive Selection and Game Careers at the Develop Conference in Brighton. Scott has been at The Creative Assembly since 1999 and worked on the award wining Total War series for almost a decade. He has been working on the real-time battle AI and gameplay since the groundbreaking Rome: Total War and most recently worked on the critically acclaimed Total War: Shogun 2. He has been the Battle team lead since Napoleon: Total War. His advice for those looking to get into the industry as a programmer:
“Its very important to have a good technical background. We are always looking for people with very very good C++ skills, and ideally knowledge of maths and physics is useful, but not necessarily essential. To me one of the most important things is enthusiasm, I’m always looking for people that are reading around the subject because that’s what they like to do in their free time. People who are spending their free time coding up their own projects because that’s what they are interested in. If you get an interview and you come to interview and you have a load of projects you have worked on, not only does it show us you have enthusiasm, but it gives you something good to talk about and allows you to show off your skills and knowledge base.” See the full clip here:
Rob Davis, Founder and Director of Playniac, talks to Game Careers at Develop
Tue, 08 Nov 2011Rob Davis, Founder & Director of Playniac in London talks to David Smith of Interactive Selection and Game Careers at Develop in Brighton. Rob founded Playniac and has been game designer and producer for many games productions, as well as programmer for quite a few. His games include International Racing Squirrels (Channel 4), The Big Generation Green Quiz (British Gas), Battlefield Academy (BBC History), Fashion Fixer (UKTV), Alien Farm (CBBC), Springwatch Trackers (CBBC), Kung Fu Panda The Adversary and The Field of Fiery Death (Nickelodeon / Dreamworks), The Lost Army of Fu Shi (BBC Bitesize), Feel Up (Getty Images), First Aid Action (BBC), and Survive Dickens’ London (BBC Drama).
He graduated in Computer Engineering at the University of Bristol with a thesis on artificial intelligence and created his first commercial game, a text adventure that reached number one in the UK charts, at age 14. His advice for those applying to work at Playniac:
“We like people who are passionate about games, who are knowledgeable about games. People who think beyond what they are making right in front of them, who know what the implications of what they are doing are across the whole game, so we end up with games that are very beautifully designed, very thoughtfully designed, and really high quality products.” See the full clip here:
