I would greately appreciate any massassi help on this.

Ok so heres my situation:

Spent 2 years at Surrey University studying Astrophysics, although I can be quite good at physics and space science, I couldnt do the math, and the depressing mature of the subject just depressed me.
At the end of the last academic year, i called quits on physics. After having to borrow a lot of money from my parents. And for what? Nothing, exactly, they arent too happy.

I am very artistic and musical, which is what I relied upon when making my stargate mod, models textures animations and generating sound effects.

Just like Spiral has just been offered work at Universal Studies doing what he does best, I wish the same for myself.
I wanted to start an art course this year, but applying so late reduced my possible choices, and the fact I have no money in the for-seeable future

To that end, what does massassi think i should do?

My parents want me to show all my best games design stuff to games companies*, including the high poly models and textures I made for other engines with Jenny Kitty.

I have already had many offers through from mods for other games, but without a pay packet, I said no. I also offered to do art concepts for Black Water Games(who posted at massassi a few times) but I cant get in contact with them anymore.

So, I'm welcome to suggestions and whether you think my stuff is good enough for any games companies to take me seriously

Ruthven.


*btw, I found out I cant send my stargate mod stuff to the official stargate games designers at JoWood, its more than possible they will file a lawsuit against me and force my mod to close down. Well I plan to release it before they can do this :p

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

You definately have a major talent in terms of game design, but I'm afraid I don't know much about the options open to you, especially in the UK.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help, but whatever happens, I hope things work out for you Ruthy and that your talents get the appreciation they truly deserve!

demonstrate stuff in more up-to-date engines.

you need a portfolio that can compete with some pretty stiff competition.

There arent too many UK games companies anymore, they were all bought over the last few years.

there are loads.

theres one in Guildford as a matter of fact, and the others are in London and Midlands I think

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

You would certainly rock in game editing career, but it might take some time for you to get into proper positions and... well, if you don't enjoy it... then don't! Or something.

That kind of school/education is ridiculously expensive, at least where I live. You'd probably have to work hard for a while before starting.

You should pick up electric clavichord and then hit up the Parisian metro system.... or move to Atlanta and just crash at my apartment and we could go out EVERY NIGHT! ....I'll even throw in speaking privelidges with my asian friend, who I think is hot and I have standards!

Most game companies actually prefer experience over a BS in the field. Build a portfollio and a resume oriented around your game editing experience and submit it to as many companies as you can. I've been to several interviews in the short time I've had mine setup. I would suggest not aiming for the large companies first. Aim for the companies that are just starting out. The larger companies ussually require (or at least prefer) experience in pushing out at least one published title onto the market. Just get your foot in the door, after that, you shouldn't have any problems getting a better job in the gaming industry.

I hope for the best for you but have no advice to give.

Taken from The Job vacanies from perception gaming at : http://www.perception.com.au/

We require a number of programmers, artists and level editors for some upcoming projects on PC, X-Box and PS2. If you are among the best in your field, are looking for a challenge, work well in a creative team environment and have a wealth of commercial games experience under your belt, take a look at our Jobs section.
Please note that commercial games experience is a requisite for all programming and art positions.



OH WHY DONT YOU CRAWL INTO A HOLE AND DIE!!!

seriously peeves me off, how the hell do my parents expect me to just suddenly JUMP into a games design career when the companies say CRAP like thus???

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

simple.

offer to work for free for a month or so to gain experience.

or, just apply to Raven, based on who they recruited from the JK2 editing community they'll accept just about anyone.

Or just realize that the market is insanely saturated and you'll never find a game design job and you'll be writing for some crappy magazine the rest of your life

i know loads of people who've got game design jobs.

know one guy who is just starting out at Rare.

And that somehow proves that the game industry is not highly saturated?

it's showing that it's just like any other job and if you have the skill it's as good a career path as any.

just so you know, I was addressing the second half of your wildly inaccurate statement.

Every n00b and their cat wants to design games. EVERYONE. It's appalling.

But there's still game designing jobs available because:

1) If you're going into game design, chances are you have a career to fall back on. Even if it's just Redhat admining most of the time, that's still around 30k a year at a good job.

and 2) EVERYONE BUYS ASSLOADS OF GAMES.

Contacts. What Detty said about demonstrating your skills in up-to-date engines. Start making a portfolio (expand beyond basic designs and develop your own artistic style), keep everything and start showing your stuff off to game editing communities and forums such as cgtalk.com, polycount, etc. Get feedback for your work (good idea to adhere to criticism), improve your skills. Talk to people already in the gaming industry through forums and irc, or even contacting your local game developer. When people start noticing your work on such forums as above, you'll get offers pretty quickly. Make friends with people on the such forums with a mature approach. It's also a good idea to start joining mod groups (ones that are attracting quite a bit of attention are always good) so you get team work experience.

and most of them tend to lose interest by the time they reach college age.

And i'm NOT a freakin N00b, Freelancer

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

i know a few people who work at raven, one who went to capcom and another in some company who's name escapes me, but they have quite a few games out right now, what the told me while i was still inteterested in video game devlopment:

get into the community as much as you can, and especially the one's where developers working for for company who makes that game visit. if you get noticed, then employees will say to their boss "oh yeah, i saw some work by the guy, he's great"

on a personal note: Stop editing Jk. if you want to seriously edit video games for a job. go back to it in your free time once you've gotten a good job, but for the sake of this being a lot easier, update your game to edit. and showcase at more visited sites than massassi (wow ive got a good vibe going on here. "jk sux, massassi isnt popular lolol")

oh, and get your mod released, even though i said you should move on to newer engines, they would love that you made a mod like that partially by yourself even. and! keep it ready to put on your portfolio CD (or at least screens of it, but companies love videos/playable content)

What Cazor said.

From what i know the only way seems to be from mod making or making your own game as a whole. It's one of those bottleneck industries where nobody has entry level positions so when the current crop retire there won't be any new ones.

Yeah, let's ease up on the noobcalling, okay? I have no advice to offer except to be careful. The gaming industry is shakier than the stock market, man. Companies go outta business like THAT *snapz*.

Of course, there are those successful companies that can build up profits and live off the land for eighty years, whether people buy their product or not. Some companies will last, which are mostly big-name ones.

But then again, everybody remembers Westwood? And Ion Storm? Poof. Gone.

So don't flame me about being a noob or whatever. You all know I'm right. :banned:

Here in Portland there's these gaming conferences where small gaming companies and beginners go to show off their work and stuff. I forget what it's called, but my friend goes to it ever couple of years and gets good feedback on his artwork and music. He showcased a couple of my better compositions I made in FL Studio 5, and people seemed to like them. I *almost* ended up making music for a game called "Spirits", developed by a very small company called NEI Games. But I lost contact with the head dude and the project never got off the ground.

But Ruthy, there's probably a lot of possibilities out there for you. And hell, a little experience in astrophysics can't hurt when it comes to actually programming the game physics, right?

Yeah, seriously, have you ever seen any of his showcases?!? Forking amazing work, definitely some of the best on massassi

This guy who submitted this map now works at SplashDamage.

This guy who submitted this map now works at Raven.

What a negative nancy. Go rain on someone else's parade!

Nancy...

[QUOTE=Raoul Duke]What a negative nancy. Go rain on someone else's parade![/QUOTE]

Isn't that your job?

Shhhh. Anyways, I wish you the BEST of luck, and I'm confident that you can succeed, if, as Caveman mentioned, you build up your contacts and put your name/work out there.

Wootles.

Don't worry if he starts to stall i'll be there to beat him with a stick

Here is pretty much my plan, not sure how it will pan out but we'll see:

Basically I like programming and all the big stuff in computer science right now, like Software Design and all that. Right now I'm enrolled @ Neumont University (there is only a few game design oriented classes) and I plan to get a good job and a software developer & work in my spare time on learning game design once I get there. But I figure the real world experience combined with stuff I cook up in the mean time will be what I need to feed a game design company to get a job there. But in the mean time I'm still not sure whether I want to develop software or games. I am hoping that whilst I do this, the industry will mature a bit more.

I don't. So shut the **** up.

Wow, it looks like I've exposed a lot of insecurities.

Done, master.

Well it has also been my great aspiration to design games. I could sit and think for hours how a game I designed is put together, the art, the physics, GUI, everything, in my head.
Although I have been unable to make up mym ind for sure, especially since I write as well. Problem is all my writing is extremely visually oriented.
So I haven't decided for certain which route to take to get into the industry. I thought perhaps at first that I should learn 3d modeling and animation first, got the modeling down as far as vehicles and starships go, can't say I do for characters, and I can do fundamental animations and special effects. I thought from there I could work my way up to design.
But with my stop and go approach towards building a portfolio, plus wanting to do things I only enjoy, like Trek and Star Wars, I admit my 'portfolio' is a noncoherent collection.
And modding First Person Shooters is relatively new to me but I am sure a necessity to learn. Only thing is I am learning to map for JA is a possible additon to a portfolio, however I am not sure if JA is actually what I should be working on...

Finally when I look at want ads for the gaming industry its always something like '3 years gaming industry experience preferred'. But my god how do you start to gain the 'industry experience' in the first place?

The other thing is the companies seem to always be either on the east coast or west coast, which would mean a major migration for me, and personal interviews really difficult.

I say go for it dude. You have to *know*!