The reality of the games industry

Attributes
As mentioned earlier, the qualities an employer is most concerned with aren’t necessarily your qualifications. Certainly qualifications play a role in the selection of employees, but there are other, vitally important attributes they look out for. Attributes that aren’t taught at any university or private institute.

Whether seeking a job as a programmer or an artist, the prospective employee needs to demonstrate that they’re creative. After all, the games development industry is a creative one. One of the best ways to demonstrate this is through having a playable demo to go with your job application. Demos are very important in this industry. Having spent your own time creating something shows dedication and enthusiasm – important qualities in this industry.

Furthermore, it shows not only the ability to finish a task, but also the ability to find a happy medium between attaining perfection and actually finishing a project in a reasonable timeframe. Demos need not be complex – a simple puzzle game can be enough – but they need to display your talents in your chosen field. If you’re seeking employment as an artist, obviously your game should look good. Mods and independently-developed titles can look nice on a resume, but unfortunately with collaborative projects – unless you’re a lone programmer teaming with a single artist – it can be difficult for developers to figure out the exact nature of your personal contribution. Don’t underestimate the importance of the demo as, ultimately, experience is more important than qualifications. Designing and completing a project as a self-motivated as opposed to a graded exercise not only displays what a studio would consider good character, but would be a valuable learning experience.

Important, too, is the ability to think critically and analytically about one’s own work and about the work of others. It’s not a love of playing games that makes one suited to working in the business of creating them. Rather, it’s the ability and the desire to analyse them – to figure out how they work, to understand what they successfully do and what they fail to do – that makes for a skilled games developer.