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Businesses Entertainment Games

Breaking Into the Video Game Industry 28

Posted by Zonk from the you've-got-to-do-it-to-do-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "RPGamer has posted an interview with Atlus USA's Tomm Hulett, who has played pivotal roles in bringing various RPGs to North America, as well as the recently-released Trauma Center: Under the Knife. The interview, however, revolves around Tomm's experiences and the advice he would give to those looking to make a living off of the video game industry. From the article: '...You don't get to make games by sitting around playing RPGs and dreaming (unfortunately)--you have to get out there and work hard. I've known a lot of really smart people who just never applied themselves. So, now they're just playing FFXI and talking about how they're going to make games someday.'"
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Breaking Into the Video Game Industry More

Breaking Into the Video Game Industry

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  • There goes my plan! (Score:5, Funny)

    by MyLongNickName ( 822545 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2005 @02:00PM (#13819524) Journal
    You don't get to make games by sitting around playing RPGs and dreaming (unfortunately)--you have to get out there and work hard.

    Seven years wasted! And NOW he tells me...

  • I broke into the video game industry once... (Score:5, Funny)

    by hal2814 ( 725639 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2005 @02:20PM (#13819735)
    ...but then they called the cops and I got arrested. Stupid laws.
  • 1. Crowbars and Balaklavas are optional.

  • Atlus is picking up where square/enix/borg have dropped the ball, at least in my opinion. Disgaea was one of the most fun rpgs I've played in quite a while, and Riviera was a fresh look at single-pathed rpgs. I can't wait to see Disgaea's sequel next year.
    • There have been other games published by Atlus and Nippon Ichi Software that you may like -- La Pucelle, Makai Kingdom, Atelier Iris, and Phantom Brave. I haven't played any of them but from what I have seen and heard they are pretty much awesome, being in the same "feel" as Disgaea.
      • Atelier Iris is not anything like the other games mentioned. It is a traditional console RPG. Turn-based combat and a neat alchemy system for synthesizing items.

        It's fun, but it sure isn't Disgaea (or any other SRPG for that matter).

  • How I Got My Video Game Job (Score:5, Interesting)

    by th1ckasabr1ck ( 752151 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2005 @03:07PM (#13820192)
    When I was a sophmore in college I sent out resumes to some local companies and got a few interviews. I showed up with some demo stuff I had worked on in my spare time, spoke with everyone there about why I wanted the job, and they gave me a job offer. I worked there all through school and got hired immediately after my graduation.

    There's no real secret to it - Be smart, work hard, apply yourself, and I'm sure it'll all work out.

    • My first (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2005 @08:29PM (#13823252) Homepage
      I applied to basically every open post throughout the US after I had graduated college. I needed to look for a year before I found something. But someone finally foolishly hired me for QA.

      I'd like to think that it was the backcatalog of levels and mods I had worked on / faqs that I had written / the thousands of games that I had deconstructed that got me that job. But the fact is the person who gave me the phone interview obviously hadn't read my resume, asked me a few sports-related questions that I didn't know the answer to, and offered me the position on the spot. Weird industry, this one.

      BTW, parent is right. Apply to your local companies while you're still in early college, or late high school even. Anything you can do in your spare time, like figuring out how systems are working under the hood or creating mods, is very helpful. Your mod skillz may not be enough to land you a lead level design position right away, but they might be enough to convince a QA manager to hire you to test. Or might be enough to convince an office manager that you're hardworking enough to be an assistant. Or get you an art internship.

      • Re:My first (Score:2, Interesting)

        by somersault ( 912633 )
        Err instead of deconstructing other stuff, you could learn to program and create your own stuff? Show your creative side? The difference with the parent is that he said he'd actually made his own demos. Modding can demonstrate skills as well I guess, and there can be decent programming involved, but most mods are just a few new models/maps/weapons models, nothing spectacular (yeah I did some playing around with mods on Quake 3, have been programming since I was 12, and though I've always fancied working in

        • Re:My first (Score:3, Interesting)

          by cgenman ( 325138 )
          Sure, you can program your own stuff. But unless you want to be a programmer, it is a lot more problematic than it is worth. Generally you can make several professional-looking mods that explore certain new aspects of gameplay in the time it would take to write up a small engine of your own. Professionally you would likely be re-using someone else's engine anyway, either an in-house developed one or an externally purchased one.

          Deconstructing other games, however, is necessary no matter what you get into.
          • Well basically the engine is the only part I'd be interested in, and for some reason I assumed that most slashdotters would be more interested in the code also. I know that visuals are important, but I consider gameplay and engine design to be more important than making everything nice and shiny. Take GTA:SA over most other games.. not too graphically impressive in relation to today's games, but the coding that went into smoothly allowing you go move around such a massive world is impressive. Also I wasnt e
    • There's no real secret to it - Be smart, work hard, apply yourself, and I'm sure it'll all work out.

      You mean it's no different than getting any other job?!

      Seriously, there are tons of different kinds of jobs in the game industry, and there are lots of different ways to get them. Most of them can be had simply by applying to a classified ad and being the best candidate in an interview. I agree that it's not some big mystery that needs to be solved. The problem is (and I say this from recent experience try

  • How I broke into it (Score:5, Informative)

    by Surt ( 22457 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2005 @03:13PM (#13820258) Homepage Journal
    I made a couple of small freeware games, followed by a couple of successful quake mods. The quake mods were successful enough to have been played by the game developers who later interviewed me for a position at Blizzard North, which I got.

    Then later after finding out how painful it is to work in the gaming biz, I got out. But if you want in, make some games.

    Now I just make fun little games in my spare time, like squish:

    http://ptth.net/squish/ [ptth.net]

    If you check it out, journal me how to improve it please!

  • Nah (Score:2, Funny)

    by ShadowsHawk ( 916454 )
    They don't end up playing FF all day... they end up working at EBGames.
  • It's getting out of the industry that is the trick. My title sold 10 million copies, but there's little chance of me ever going back into the trenches unless the industry goes through some major changes first. (ie Workplace Living Standards)

  • Break into the industry via a new market. (Score:5, Informative)

    by MiceHead ( 723398 ) on Tuesday October 18, 2005 @05:08PM (#13821620) Homepage
    One way to break into games and earn a living is to build a small team and develop for a new market such as cell phones.

    During the early '90s, shareware authors focused on creating games for the newly-popular desktop PCs. That's much tougher nowadays, due to direct competition from untold thousands of shareware developers and the larger studios. During the late '90s, Palm OS and Pocket PC popped up (another new market). At that time, it was possible to spend a week or two of development on a simple-but-enjoyable PDA puzzle game with a grossly disproportionate number of sales (with respect to development costs) during the first few months, and a decent long tail [wired.com] a year or two out.

    These days, the buzz seems to be around casual/cell phone games, on the basis that a) it doesn't take [as] much to develop a cellphone game, and b) there are many millions of cellphone users. Java isn't my cup of tea(!), but J2ME [sun.com] offers individual developers and small teams a way to develop content for the myriad mobile platforms.
    _________________________
    www.dejobaan.com
  • To get into engineering:

    a) CompSci or EE degree. 4 years.
    b) Internship and show that you know how to apply the skills you SHOULD know.
    c) for god's sake, learn C++. If your school only teaches you Java, you're already left behind.
    d) have something interesting to show you're passionate about games! cool demos. cool anything. Just show that you KNOW gfx/physics/whatever you want to do.

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