Right as you may have read im now jobless and looking for work.. im now also treating this as a possible chance for a fresh start in a new industry and would love ot getinto the VG industry somehow. Bearing in mind i have no formal qualifications relating to this, how and where should i start? Any advice wouldbe greatly appreciated! :thumbsup: Lee
First you need to decide what job you want in the 'industry'. For example if you like the jouranlist-side it's rather easy to roll-in-to, at least when your good at it. Just start at a not-professional game website, and from there progress
hmm must admit.. staff writer for a magazine/website has always been of interest to me... any chance of knowing where i should go to find a role?
I guess it depends on how much passion you hold for it. Say you get a job reviewing games, true it might get somewhat lame when they give you the latest edition of Barbie's Magical Gumdrop Horsey-race dressup challenge, but still, could be worse. You could be sacking french fries somewhere for minimum wage. A really easy way to break into games is to start as a tester - more for getting your foot in the door that the actual job. It's at the bottom of the totem pole but you get to meet people from various studios, and there's always room to go up (depending on which company you work for.) However, didn't you mention you have a family to support? Just that finding such a position without prior experience that actually pays enough to support a family isn't easy. Writing for a website you'll probably have to do for free for quite some time before anyone signs you on, and testing pays like nothing.
must admi tha the salary that goes with a junior/new tester is abismal and yes i have a family to support.. i guess that its something that will alsywa have to stay as a dream...
I been thinking of doing something similar, maybe even start my own site with it. The main issue is everyone else is doing it too so the chances of becoming big is tiny.
It`s a shame game reviews and industry insider type journalism doesnt go hand in hand with articles on development hardware etc as it would make for an interesting site. obviously you would be disclosing information about companies you would have potential ties with.
Gaming journalism doesn't often pay, let alone enough to support a family. It usually takes quite a while to build up a site large enough to make decent revenue. From fellow game reviewers/journalists I've talked to, most do it for the love, not because they expect to make money off of it, though it's always a dream. As for getting into the industry, game testing could be a good way as suggested. Or if you have real development experience, you can always try applying to various studios/development houses the world over. http://www.gamedevmap.com/ and http://www.igda.org/ Those might be good places to start if you're more interested in the development side.
I believe art related positions in projects are very attractive, although I have no idea what they pay and you'd need a good portofolio besides experience (Talent is a foundation, i ve seen talentless people learn systematically and they can make amazing things too)
art positions get paid less than technical positions. Programmer gets paid more than a 3D artist. My buddy, a level designer, did not go to college to learn his skill. He developed it on his own and under UEd. he eventually got into a job that pays him $45k a year approximately, whereas his fellow programmer gets paid more than he does as they tend to have a college degree for their skill.
yes, but an art position would be more attractive to me for example. If you're going to work in something so tedious and demading, it might as well be something you don't hate. I know how to code to an extent, but I can't say i enjoy it.
