I´ve often seen and read various texts on how to get into the gameindustry but as many people are getting hired now and we have quite a fair amount of people that have been in under a year or a year, I would like to hear some thoughts and tips from the pro's what they think is nessesary to survive in this industry.

Anything really, from how to deal with teammates, managment, expanding your art, learning new tech, personal expierences what you have learned. It would also be intersting what kind of thoughts and expierences the "juniors" have made.

... so that once you are in you don't stay behind.

Well, I've been inhouse for about a month now. The biggest thing I would say is be open and honest. If you can/can't do something let them know. Communication seems really important.

yes you also get a better view of what is going on and can act according to that.

Another thing I find is not beeing attached to your work like you would be to private stuff. Beeing able to understand what your AD want's and if you don't get it right the first time don't take it personal just because you think your way is better.

I also think talking to people from different fields is something that should not be neglected either. You can learn alot from your techdirector or from the programmers wich gives you a better picture of the whole game and how it is built up.

Think about your job like you would think about your art. It's a craft, and you will make mistakes, and you will need to improve. I know I learned a ton of valuable lessons about myself and how I interact with a team, and what needed changing, in the past two years.

Try to find out what aspects of your personality might annoy or hinder the team dynamic, and conversly, what do you do that unites and uplifts your team. Figure out the best way to communicate in times of stress. Being open, honest, and direct, is all find and dandy if everyone is open, honest, and direct in return, and if stress levels are low and everything is going fine. But if you have difficult managers, or the project is under stress, sometimes you have to change up the way you approach things.

Ideally you want every member of the team to have nothing but glowing praise for you. Sometimes that can't happen because you're asked impossible things, or your personalities conflict, but do everything in your power to get a long and carry through.

Companies will come and go, managers will change projects, games get canceled, and sometimes you decide to move on, but your reptutation follows you and is probably just as valuable if not more so than your abilities as an artist/coder/designer. There are some tallented folks in the industry that have such a negative reputation no one wants to touch them with a ten foot pole. Conversely I know artists that aren't really all that good, but have great personalities and get along well with their teams, and have an overall positive attitude, and they are very hireable.

I know I've made some mistakes in the past, and I have to live with them, and work on those things about my personality that caused them in the first place, but they were valuable lessons learned.

I'd say getting into the industry, it's mostly about your portfolio, followed by how well you interviewed (what they thought of your personality). But after a few years of experience, and you have a higher asking sallary, and want more responsibility in the team structure, it becomes more and more about your reputation at your past jobs, and how they think you'd fit into the team dynamic.

I did freelance for about a year, then I've worked at one company for about 5 months, then did freelance for about the same ammount of time and now I've been on my new job for 5 months so far, still going strong though.

I've had good teammates on both teams, main thing is try and get excited about the game early on, and have a positive attitude, the game may not be badass from the start, it'll be what you make of it, so always have a positive outlook, everyone likes positive people, just don't overdo it.

Management is tricky, best thing to do at the start is to stay out of their way and try not to bash them too much if you end up leaving and don't like the way things were run, don't burn bridges.

Expanding your art can also be tricky, depending on what job you have, if what you do at work is what you want to do for the next 5-10 years, great, if not, well make time and do what you want to be doing eventually. For me that meant doing contract and personal work and get 2 hours of sleep every day, not fun, but it paid off in the end.

Learning new tech can be intimidating, when i started at Ritual I've had to learn 3 different engines and their pipelines simultaneously within the first 2 months. Don't be intimidated, most engines work in similar fassions, once you know one you can figure out the rest.

Main thing is, be a team player, don't be a dick, respect other people's work and work hard yourself, everything else will come. Seems simple enough. Your first job may not be the best thing ever, and most likely it won't, but just live with it, and work towards what you really want to do. I've heard alot about people that can't find a good place to work so they hop around from place to place, it seems I've done that quite a bit, but it really doesn't matter, if settling down is your thing work towards being in a stable company (M$ owned is the best way to go I hear) if not find the company that will suit your personality and make the kind of games you like and go there.

Here are some nice things to keep in mind.

Never Talk about salary:
Just don't do this. The only person who really knows how much I make is my father and my older cousin. <u>Never share this info with anyone you work with, or anyone who could tell people that you work with.</u> Don't even drop hints. This almost always causes problems. no one needs to learn this the hard way.

Anxiety problems at work:
If you have a high stress environment think back your priorities:

Your employment agreement that you signed asks you to create the art that has been asigned to you, if you find yourself worrying about something go back to this: "what does this have to do with my primary responsibility to make art?" If the answer is not much it probably shouldn't be concerning you so much.

Treat Everyone with Respect:
Seems kinda self explanitory, but trash talking (especially behind someone's back) is how uncomfortable working environmnets start, and it's generally not the best thing to do in any situation, but most especially at work.

I can't think of anything else atm.

-R

Great advice from all of you, I will take it to heart when I get to start a career in the industry. Let's hear some more!

Find a niche and get good at it.

Have a good work ethic. Work hard. By that I dont mean work all hours God sends, but work smart and use your time wisely and efficiently. To be seen playing games during the day or browsing a lot probably isn't going to be a good idea. So get good with Alt-Tab ;-P

Be nice and try not to make enemies. Especially in management.

Tempting though it is sometimes when a project isn't going well, try not to be seen to be overly negative/bitching about the project and or co. Management dislike team members that lower morale, so that's a surefire way to gain a rep as a 'bad egg' and not get raises and besides, that's what lunchtimes are for [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] If you do have a major bitch that you just have to bring up, be diplomatic and try to offer a solution.

Oh how I miss those EA lunches. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

i know a certain individual, and fellow polycounter in fact, that has a very practical way of dealing with annoying management and co-workers:

a headbutt.
"i quit, you fucking cunt".

friday is your day my man. take a deep breath (friday is considered weekend in israel [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] - and go for it!

USE YOUR VACATION TIME

I've seen many people get burnt out where they work (any industry, not just games) because they don't take time off.

Don't worry, it comes back to you. Take time off, go on vacation, enjoy life.

Take random days off to just sit around.

If you hit an artist block, go and drive around. Go to the mall, best buy, etc. Get your mind off of things. I'd rather spend 1 hour driving around town, then coming back and working 1 hour inspired, than spend 2 hours staring at my screen, frustrated.

That's my main advice to staying sane in our field.

Find a comfortable chair. Seriously.

Dont Stop learning!!!!.... this is a lesson i have learned from working with people that have been in the industry for awhile...they did stop learning.. and now they are just dead weight.. once your dead weight your pretty much done.. learn the new features of a program when it comes out.. reguardless of if you will use them at work.. one day you might... also new technologies.. right now with normal maps and 7-8 grand polycounts for "next gen" titles.. start thinking about highpoly stuff, keeping quads and shaders.. if not you might find yourself slowly falling down the latter just to find work you know how to do.. now handhelds are as powerfull as consoles were only a generation ago... you might try and dodge the tech by moving down.. but what happens when cellphones can handle the current tech?? just from seeing all the dead wieght that accumulates from ignorance and lack of simple self instruction it might be something that could make or break you in the industry...

Learn to deal with stress. And ye, get a comfy chair as Adam says.;)

/Palm

&lt;--------- Surely not the only one listening. How difficult is it to stay on the Tech Curve when being so busy with daily work? DO you guys get slapped with "Hey, we're going next gen, figure this stuff out."?

don't talk to hr, they're a management tool..

[ QUOTE ]
&lt;--------- Surely not the only one listening. How difficult is it to stay on the Tech Curve when being so busy with daily work? DO you guys get slapped with "Hey, we're going next gen, figure this stuff out."?

[/ QUOTE ]

this is really the arugument for falling behind.. no time to learn with a family or a life outside of work.. i consider my job important enough to spend maybe only a day every two weeks.. hell, a day a month is all it really takes to go over some new stuff... i went over all the new new features in max 7 the day it came out.. and its not really like those have changed in the last 6 monthes.. just try to learn something everynow and then.. and its not like there is some secret reposatory for this information ... its all free and on the internet!!! from making normal maps to programming HLSL shaders.. everything.. from art to code can be found for free someplace.. i really see no excuse to not keep up.. its just a matter of being lazy.. think of all the work you might have gone through to get the the point you are now.. now divide that by a 1000 and thats the minascule amount of work you really have to put into keeping up with the tech.. i dont even think this should be a real worry if it wasnt for the lazy people in the industry who simply refuse to learn something new.. its really their own fault.. and should not be a concern of anyone truly passionate about what they do..

Amen to what Arsh said. ^^^

what paul steed once told me: "If you need someone to teach you this stuff you will not make it in this industry."

gotta teach yourself, the more tech stuff you know the more valuable you will become, don't be an art asset/tool, be a member of a team, an actual developer, learn the tech, its not hard, hell learn to script or code, it won't stop you from being a good artist, it'll give you more freedom to do what you want, more freedom to let your artistic abilities grow, and the more they grow and the more technical knowledge you obtain the more valuable you will become in the industry, be carefull to not become the jack of all trades though, for that is the path that leads to the dark side.

Keeping a job is not a complex science. Try to get along with people, be nice, have fun, stay away from morons... just like in that thing called RealLife

How to deal with people specifically depends on the people you deal with. If you consider some as good friends you can even talk about salaries. Never say never.
Nobody can really help you there, use your brain and own judgement.

As for the tech and general learning, there's usually a dead period after finishing a game (etc). Either companies give you time off or the concept phase is pretty loose. Enough time to catch up on anything you need to know for the next project.

[ QUOTE ]

Never Talk about salary:
Just don't do this. The only person who really knows how much I make is my father and my older cousin. <u>Never share this info with anyone you work with, or anyone who could tell people that you work with.</u> Don't even drop hints. This almost always causes problems. no one needs to learn this the hard way.


[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, I read a good article about young poeple dont know what to say to the desired salaries in interviews. Often they are dirt-cheap because they where not brave enough to say a higher salary. However, onereason for this is that the sociaty we live in NEVER talks about salaray. I think its good if you are a fukcing broker and get 5000 a amonth or something. nobody is intrested in that. But if you want to start as a junior, then ask somebody freely waht salary he has. I think thats ok. Money is money, it not bad its not good.

heh, I went off topic a bit.. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I think that everywhere where creative people work in a team you must be a good teamplayer. Always keep in mind that you work with artists. artists are just a species off their own. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[ QUOTE ]
Amen to what Arsh said. ^^^

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. You can either neglect it for long periods of time and play catch up, or you can keep ontop of it a little at a time. If you haven't learned something yet don't shy away from it. At least investigate it and maybe play around with it. If you do have to use it you are ready to go.

If you wait for someone to come over to your desk, put thier hand over yours and guide the mouse around the screen it's too late. You already have a "this end up" sticker on your forehead and are waiting to be shipped off to "nojobville". This is true for almost any job, self starters are good employees. Lazybob Mc Donothing's normally get to feel what winter is like on the streets.

[ QUOTE ]
The biggest thing I would say is be open and honest.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'd have to say that this can be a bit tricky. I've known people who were open and honest with people (without being a dickhead) who soon found themselves jobless. Sometimes circumstances are that your immediate superiors don't seem to have a good grasp on things, and they may rely on you and your good ethics and hard work to make them look good to their immediate superiors. It becomes a case by case judgment call. Being open and honest may not be the best thing to do all the time.

also for luck,every year kill 1 hobo with a hammer. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

give your hands a stretch and break every now and then [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

When it gets to 3pm and that afternoon tiredness kicks in , breath through your mouth deaply and focus on somthing far away. haha