Meeting 27
Final Showcase info
Today, Aug. 10, 4–6 pm
Family & friends can attend with invites today
Everyone here is welcome to attend (no invite needed).
What our final week will look like:
- Today, Aug. 10 — continue to work and finish projects
- Thursday, Aug. 11 — publish truly finished work, and our own showcase
- Friday, Aug. 12 — play games, and bask in our own glory!
Game design careers
International Student: Careers in Game Design
Typical careers:
- Programmer/technician
- Artist/animator
- Composer
- Writer
- Business operations
- Marketing
Traditionally, this has been split into design and development categories, but as games get more advanced, the roles involved will get more sophisticated.
Developing experience:
- Higher education: getting a degree in an aspect of game design
- Self-made: developing homemade indie games
- Industry entry-level: unpaid internship at a game design company
Best practice: don't pidgeon-hole yourself! Become knowledgeable of creative processes AND programming.
General advice:
- Get a formal education, or be prepared to learn and study independently
- Develop passion projects, and build a portfolio
- Join communities
- Attend events, like game conferences
- Cultivate other passions and areas of interest—this can open new avenues for you in your approach to game design, and distinguishes you from other game designers
"Getting a job in QA [quality assurance] allowed me to get my foot in the door of the games industry. From there I was able to learn a whole range of skills such as understanding the process of making a game, how to communicate with developers and give feedback, and discovered all the crazy unexpected ways you can break a game (and believe me, there's a lot of ways!).
Having the QA role led to even more opportunities, so when I saw the vacancy to become a game developer 6 months later, I jumped at the chance. Between the programming experience I had picked up at university and the lessons I had learned within QA, I was given the chance to move into a role I had dreamed of since I was 6 years old.
Fast forward 8 years and I am now a lead developer with the responsibility of finding the next generation of game developers, using all the experience I have gained along the way to mentor them to success."
— Kevin Grantham-Murray, Jagex
Q: What to do if your work is truly done?