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[Metzhara]

You're only as good as your current demo reel. And most companies can cherry pick - you have to show them that they need you. Nobody will hire you cause you're a nice guy.

This.

That annoying quote I've read on far too many coffee mugs is the key, "Be the change you wish to see in this world."

I've seen people with all the experience in the world get skipped for someone "fresh" who had something to show. If you think you can "make games look good" then do it. Make that portfolio, open a WIX, and do mockups of content. Make it clear what you are doing that the content did not and show them you know how to self manage.

Not surprisingly, the games industry is like every other job. Prove you can do it before someone invests in you.
And don't go through QA. QA needs solid, focused, analytical people in it. Too many pass through leaving the door open and expectation becomes exactly that perception it's just to get your foot in the door. How can we respect a discipline when everyone uses it to ship games but treats them like hobos; what should be the logic and art clash of disciplines is treated like a carnie tent. (That is a topic for another thread and involves both sides making reasonable changes.)

 

[Lingitiz]

I have the same desire to break into the gaming industry, but I'm conflicted because I don't want it to ruin my favorite thing.

For now, I'm just making Indie games after my regular job. If something takes off, great, if not, it's still fun.

I work on the marketing side for a AAA publisher. It's great to be surrounded by people that love games and get it. Being part of that culture where your hobby is your work is pretty cool.

At the same time it can be a bit grueling because the hobby is your work too. For instance the last thing I want to do when I get home is play a game that I would normally play at work. We spend alot of time talking about, playing, and evaluating AAA games, not just our own, so part of that makes me associate those kind of games with work.

I wouldn't say working in gaming has ruined it for me, but it's definitely made me reevaluate the types of games that I like and how gaming fits into my lifestyle.

 

[Hoo-doo]

If there's a field I wouldn't ever want to work in, it's videogames.

And I say that as someone who spent his entire life playing games. It's cutthroat, it's unstable and it's likely to suck the fun out of a great hobby. Besides, you're never ever going to work on the games you love and instead will be cutting trailers for IAP touch fruit puzzles for iOS.

 

[MemoryHumanity]

Get into events. Staffing agencies. Network like crazy. It's not what you know, it's who you know.

 

[MXAGhost]

Besides, you're never ever going to work on the games you love and instead will be cutting trailers for IAP touch fruit puzzles for iOS.

Ugh...I've written so many reviews and press releases these iOS games. I still cringe seeing ads for them.

 

[thekiddfran]

Contact small indie devs and ask them can you do their video production for free. Then you will start gettting it on the portfolio

 

[thomasmahler]

Get into events. Staffing agencies. Network like crazy. It's not what you know, it's who you know.

Horrible advice.

If you know many people, but have 0 experience and / or don't have a good reel, you're not getting the job. And if you do, it says a lot about the company that hired you.

 

[MemoryHumanity]

Horrible advice.

If you know many people, but have 0 experience and / or don't have a good reel, you're not getting the job. And if you do, it says a lot about the company that hired you.

By get into events/Staffing agencies, I meant actually WORKING those events. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

 

[CloudStrife_ca]

For the longest time I tried to get into the gaming industry as well, with the ultimate hope of becoming a character designer as I do graphic design on the side, mainly for popculture inspired mashups, although I've done a bunch of other projects, food labels, wine labels, business cards, ect;. I wanted to start at the bottom and see how I liked it and applied as a tester, I came close a couple of times and interviewed with EA but as the original poster suggests its like a club or a secret handshake club and a very niche market to get into without knowing someone.

The payoff doesn't really seem to be there anymore as far a stability goes, you work on one project and then you're laid off, everything is just contract after contract.

Ultimately I see myself combining forces with a programmer, someone to handle sound/ music and maybe another artist to release some sort of mobile game, probably along the lines of an RPG before I ever see myself working at a large company like EA. For me it would be approached with a passion and a lifelong love of gaming and from what I've seen unless you're leading the project, you're doing as you're told under a strict budget and tight deadlines.

 

[TheSpoiler]

Wait, am I misreading the OP, or does that person have little to no experience with video?

From what I can gather, OP has:
Writing skills (editing? news? editorial? feature?)
Marketing skills (digital? traditional?)

First of all, can we get a running list of your skills and a direct line of where you'd like to be?

 

[QuantumSquid]

I have no interest in game development. Sounds like hell.

 

[eliochip]

Keep doing free coverage for games (little games that need it or upcoming games that look great). Do it because you love it and only do it for things that you have a genuine interest in.

Geting paid to do what you love is overrated. Shit, if you're really good you could just set up a patreon or something.

 

[Shifty]

A year? They broke you quick! Where abouts were you working?

Son of a, you ninja'd me before I could fix my grammar

I was at an indie studio in the UK. Not the Yacht Club sort of indie though- less 'small passionate team' and more 'mid-size publisher-independent business venture'. Licensed games.

The team was spread way too thin across multiple projects and the code-side leadership was very clearly better suited programming than managing. Tons of time got wasted on pointless early optimization and implementing features that weren't confirmed for the final release.
On top of that, actually getting confirmation on what to implement was a nightmare thanks to the months-out-of-date 30-pages-plus design doc, constantly changing design vision and oft-absent director. The project became a money hole and ended up with a really shitty culture of blame.

I could go on and on about how they screwed with my contract and lost the funding paying my wage by violating T&Cs, but long story short I gave the whole thing a justified Fuck That and went for an interview at a video production company suggested by an indie dev friend.
As it turns out a competent UE4 dev was just what they were looking for, and the rest is history.

 

[Timeaisis]

Yes it is.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

I've met tons of people who work on these that had no prior game experience, but hustle to get doors open.

Then there are the lucky ones who end up employed at an editing house that happens to have game companies as major clients. I know some who took this route.

 

[bounchfx]

Horrible advice.

If you know many people, but have 0 experience and / or don't have a good reel, you're not getting the job. And if you do, it says a lot about the company that hired you.

This should be obvious...

assuming some experience or at least practiced skillset/portfolio, someone networking at GDC has a far greater chance of getting a job than someone sitting at home cursing at their pc monitor because they can't get a call back
- - -
also, I have absolutely loved working in the industry. There's been crunch moments that suck, of course, and there's definitely some horror stories out there. but I can't really imagine doing anything else at a job. It's all going to depend where you work and who you're working with though - like any job, really. Except you get to make games. I've been at five different companies and all were much more enjoyable than they were exhausting or soul crushing.

 

[TheSpoiler]

I don't even know what the OP is aiming for. So let's say he wants to do marketing, as per his OP.

So like, traditional marketing, I assume? I mean, they are right in the sense that marketing a town hall meeting in a interesting fashion isn't comparable to a game. One of them is a product, with sales attached. Metrics and shit are obviously involved, testing, etc. Deep dives of research, and probably working with the digital team, which is more or less the majority for most games (because that's what marketing is moving towards). Maybe you should look into digital marketing, like SEO, social media, and such?

 

[ScrapBrain]

I've seen people break into video production/editing via QA, editing trailers for upcoming DLC things in their 'spare time', but it isn't something you should consider because the pay on that bottom rung sucks, and it's really difficult to do it this way because you have to put in additional time and effort making personal connections and trying to make/edit your stuff
while simultaneously working your ass off to test a work in progress.

My suggestion is to nab a game that's current and has a decent photo mode (The Last of Us: Remastered and Horizon Zero Dawn spring to mind first) and play around gathering gameplay and cinematic footage with the tools in the game and make a few fake trailers that either change the genre, or put a generally different spin on them than what their marketing campaigns were doing and include them in your resume' materials, and basically spin it as 'imagine what I could be creating for you with the dev tools at my disposal'. Be sure to specify that you didn't work on the games, but wanted to provide examples of what you are capable of. This, in addition to your prior experience, should seal the deal somewhere

 

[Z3M0G]

I can't even imagine on Steam... but just looking at how many quality looking indie games get released for PS4 on PSN each and every week is pretty mind-blowing...

I think I noticed just the past couple of weeks that PSN is doing better to showcase what new games have released... with a splash page first that shows large icons for all of them?

 

[Subpar Spatula]

just get an entry job like customer service or QA at a game place or whatever and then pitch your shit while there. works at a lot of places outside of gaming.

 

[WheelHoss1]

Try breaking into the music biz bruh

 

[Loxley]

My best friend has been trying to get into the games industry as an artist for the last 8 years with practically no real success. He's gotten to do some contract work for a couple of mobile game devs here and there, but it seems next-to-impossible to get any sort of steady, salaried position at a development studio unless you have 15+ years of industry experience.

 

[Christhor]

I just wish I had a group of friends to stream games with every week like the Super Best Friends or the Game Grumps.

Seems far less grueling and infinitely more rewarding (financially).

And you'd be stuck with no audience like thousands of other friend groups who stream together hoping to make it big. You're too late to get in on that stuff.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

Might be better off pitching your own marketing company's services to indies and helping them, to build experience and portfolio.

 

[Ahasverus]

I want to work on the corporate side of the industry. I have an industrial engineering major and an MBA and I'd love to get to any of the big publishers so I can help devs "from the inside" with project management and all that stuff.

However, the industry is very shut close.

 

[Yohane]

Start an industry related blog, connect with your peers in the industry on twitter, go to real life industry events.

 

[Hyperfludd]

People mentioning location a lot really has be wondering. Seattle and Texas are like the gaming hot beds right? LA? New York? Makes me wonder. I'd like to see if I can go into the social media kind of gig for a company but being in New York I think the only company here is....Rockstar?

 

[ThatStupidLion]

People mentioning location a lot really has be wondering. Seattle and Texas are like the gaming hot beds right? LA? New York? Makes me wonder. I'd like to see if I can go into the social media kind of gig for a company but being in New York I think the only company here is....Rockstar?

Rockstar has their mocap studio in LIC or on long island i forget. Not sure what other services they do here in nyc. I think avalanche is in Ny too. The skylanders dev is/was up in albany i think

 

[Icarus]

If anything we need more quality people to WANT to be in QA and stay in QA and see it as a career.

Big time this. Can't tell you how many "aspiring" designers, artists, programmers we've had to get out of QA. We need pros who see QA as an end-game unto itself. It's very important.

 

[PshycoNinja]

People mentioning location a lot really has be wondering. Seattle and Texas are like the gaming hot beds right? LA? New York? Makes me wonder. I'd like to see if I can go into the social media kind of gig for a company but being in New York I think the only company here is....Rockstar?

Most studios/publishers are in Seattle, SF, and LA if you're looking in North America.

just get an entry job like customer service or QA at a game place or whatever and then pitch your shit while there. works at a lot of places outside of gaming.

Big time this. Can't tell you how many "aspiring" designers, artists, programmers we've had to get out of QA. We need pros who see QA as an end-game unto itself. It's very important.

QA more desperately needs people who actually want to do it and not see it as a stepping stone. Too many people come in and don't do an antiquate job because it's not something they are passionate about or something that they put a whole lot of effort into.

 

[element]

Mate of mine started as a QA in sony Liverpool. Fast forward 15 years and he's one of the lead designers in the Far cry games.
Still that was the old days. Not sure what it is like now.

I started in QA 20 years ago. But that was also in a time where one or two people could test the entire game and the entire team size making the game was 15 or 20 people. Test shouldn't be viewed as a stepping stone job anymore. Other industries view quality assurance as a career and games should do that as well. You are always going to have people who grow out of a position, but the industry and people need to stop looking at QA as the 'get in the door' position.

 

[Dark Ninja]

In the game industry your portfolio is king of you have no industry experience. You have to wow the people hiring. They don't care if you went to school or if you have any other non-industry experience. Your portfolio is everything. It has to show them something they are in need of or match the quality of someone actually working there, they do not have time to train you up. If you have the talent you can get to a big company right away but If not try an Indy or a video editing studio many companies just outsource this work anyways. You gotta want it everything is a competition in this industry no one is gonna hand you something because you "deserve it". Knowing someone is good but your not gonna get in if your work sucks or you can't show it.

I'm on the art side and my worst experiences have been with Indy developers rather than big studios which I'm at one one of the big ones now.

 

[Putty]

Who you know rather than what you know. Worked for me 24 yrs ago, 250+ titles later i'm still here...

 

[Dark_3nergy]

but the industry and people need to stop looking at QA as the 'get in the door' position.

It does look like it is moving away from this stigma. Slowly, but surely.

 

[Dremorak]

Also, people saying "Join QA and then that'll be your foot in the door", I've seen this work about twice, once for an artist and once for a producer. They didnt last very long. I'm not sure thats the best route to take anymore.

 

[PshycoNinja]

It does look like it is moving away from this stigma. Slowly, but surely.

Too slowly. Too many good people have left due to being underpaid when a company like AT&T pays their QA double and sometimes triple what a game company will pay.

And many testers are demoralized and don't feel they need to work hard because of the thinking "if I am only going to get paid $11 an hour for this work, I am only going to put in a minimum wage amount of work."

 

[Dark_3nergy]

Too slowly. Too many good people have left due to being underpaid when a company like AT&T pays their QA double and sometimes triple what a game company will pay.

And many testers are demoralized and don't feel they need to work hard because of the thinking "if I am only going to get paid $11 an hour for this work, I am only going to put in a minimum mage amount of work."

I have been there, so I understand this 100%. Change is coming, I do pray it comes a lot sooner for other folks out there. Lot of talented people that need to be properly compensated.

 

[element]

It does look like it is moving away from this stigma. Slowly, but surely.

I think some parts of the industry are moving to that, but you still have the ideas from people outside the industry that still think that way.

QA like many other positions is a blame only position. No one gives them credit when things go right, but they commonly get more blame for a buggy game than the actual developers. I'd say 99% of the time if a user finds a bug, it was found by the QA team and it was the producer or dept lead who made the decision not to fix it.

And many testers are demoralized and don't feel they need to work hard because of the thinking "if I am only going to get paid $11 an hour for this work, I am only going to put in a minimum wage amount of work."

Sadly the industry preys on people who are willing to put up with that. They dangle the carrot of moving out of QA, "You write up some great design bugs, we have talked about adding a jr designer or two for the next project, maybe that could be you...". When honestly it should be "You are doing a great job in QA with what little you have. How can we make it more effective? Better planning? Staffing? Integration with the team? Automation?" QA dept have high turnover because it pays so poorly and has a very poor career path, which is why 'good testers' jumped ship and went to other tech companies that value QA.

 

[eatingforwork]

I got into the industry in probably the most mundane way possible - I answered a job posting on Monster.com (I'm old). It was for an online editor position at Game Informer. I was living in Minneapolis at the time and that's where GI is. Got the job somehow after some interviews and writing sample submissions. After that, my girlfriend at the time moved out to San Francisco for work and I figured if I was going to move anywhere in the country and still do what I was doing, that was the place to be.

I moved out and used some connections to get on staff at GamePro. Followed this up with a move into PR and etc. etc.

 

[RatCupcake]

I’ve been trying to break into the games industry for just over a year and a half and I agree, it’s pretty tough. I’ve been focusing more on the journalism side than the marketing side so I started off by just trying to freelance. I’ve freelanced for a number of gaming sites and a magazine but regular work is quite difficult to come by. Around freelancing I started working on my own gaming YouTube channel with a friend and started streaming just to try to build more of a base. Basically, I’ve just been trying to cover as much as possible, while also trying to earn enough money to survive. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I’m getting closer with every piece of work that I do, whether it’s paid work for a site or videos that I’m making in my own time.

A lot of people have mentioned that you should build a portfolio and I agree that that’s very important if you want companies to take you seriously. They will be interviewing a lot of people and won't have time to search for your work. Continuing to attend events and network with people will also help you to build up some contacts. Making a good impression and ensuring that people remember you may end up helping you to land a job in the future.

While rejection does wear everyone down over time, keep taking that feedback on board and keep putting yourself out there. It’s a very competitive industry but if you can prove to companies how much you want it, someone is bound to appreciate your hard work eventually.

 

[shira]

For years, I tried to break into the marketing side of gaming, specifically video (trailers, Dev diaries, etc). Unfortunately, I lacked professional experience, so I found work in TV instead (local news). I spent the past few years making ads for everything from investigations to contests in a couple of big American markets, but it's starting to take a toll on my health. The subject matter is so negative, if you don't have that journalistic drive, it becomes a real burden after a while.

Due to this, I now find myself again wanting to work in gaming, and over the past year, I've tried to make the transition. I've had a couple of close calls with huge companies -- one series of interviews spanned a month and cost me 6 hours of time for a rejection -- but whereas before the knock against me was a general lack of experience, the main knock against me now is a lack of "industry experience."

I'm frustrated because it's a chicken and the egg thing...how does one gain industry experience without working in the industry? I spent years volunteering for sites and making gaming content for free. I've covered E3 twice, both times on my own dime. And I'm as passionate as anyone about the hobby. Still, anytime I get a company's attention, the general takeaway is "you might know how to market news, but that doesn't mean you know how to market games."

Spoiler

I can make city council meetings seem interesting. Trust me, I can do it with games.

On the flip side, I wouldn't mind working as a video producer or something for a gaming news outlet, but they, too, can be just as stubborn.

Overall, I assume this is a pretty common problem, but have you wanted to work in the industry and hit a wall at every turn? Maybe you got around it and have tips to share. Or maybe you're a hiring manager and can shed some light on what makes a candidate stand out to you. Either way, maybe this thread can be of some use. Thanks for letting me vent.

It's a young industry.

You need to be right place at the right time. Who you know, not what you know. Who do you know in the industry?

Why would going to e3 on your own dime mean anything? Did you make contacts?

Get tickets to Twitchcon. Make 300 business cards and make shit happen.

 

[element]

After thinking about it more you need to make the decision OP, are you looking for a 'job' or a 'gig'?

Doing trailers, BTS, Dev Diaries aren't something that most companies afford to have someone full-time on staff to do (a job), so it is typically freelance work (a gig).

Because these are freelance they are largely built on networking and proper self-marketing. Not going to a jobs page and applying and crossing your fingers hoping you get it.

 

[wuth]

How I did it:

I was willing to work for beans and I had literally no experience in marketing. I'd worked a multitude of insane jobs (anime censor, pro-wrestling editor, blog writer, producer PA) but never in marketing or gaming. This put me at a substantial disadvantage. I never went to art school, I hadn't come from an Ivy League college, and I was barely surviving off of my savings when I moved out west. In other words, I was totally unprepared.

At some point 4 years ago, I found an opening for a job that specifically asked for basic knowledge of animation and photoshop- a production artist. The opening was at a tiny agency downtown, one I'd never heard of, so I figured I had a pretty good shot. A few days later, I got called in for an interview and lucked out- the woman interviewing me was a huge anime fan. We chatted for a while about the job, anime, and my past work experience. They weren't sure about my qualifications, but I left feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

When they rang me up to ask how salary, I asked for the absolute bare minimum and they literally hired me right on the phone. Since then, I've been hoping around, project to project, building a portfolio, and coming up as an artist.

I don't think my story is the norm, but being willing to throw everything away and start over was my only path to victory. 4 years later, I'm back to a "livable" big city wage and I'm finally getting my finances back in order. Many people don't have the luxury of being a 26 year old with nothing to lose, so taking the reckless actions would probably be ill advised.

Yet, that kind of behavior is exactly how most of my peers broke in as well. Being willing to grind away in the QA dungeon or take calls at the front desk will make all the difference in putting you in the right orbit to finally take off.

 

[RealityPales]

I gave up and landed in advertising.

 

[MC Safety]

This is disheartening because a lot of the advice here consists of "give away your work for free."

Working for free is not a panacea. It's a trap.

There are people who will gladly exploit you. They will ask you to work for free but wouldn't go two seconds without being paid. And now, people have come to expect that working for nothing (outside the boundaries of a supervised internship) is acceptable.

If you want to work on personal projects, that's absolutely fine. I got multiple jobs in the game industry by writing speculative scripts. But do not cheapen yourself or devalue the work of professionals -- many of whom have to fight to be paid a reasonable wage for their efforts -- by giving your time and effort away for nothing.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Too slowly. Too many good people have left due to being underpaid when a company like AT&T pays their QA double and sometimes triple what a game company will pay.

And many testers are demoralized and don't feel they need to work hard because of the thinking "if I am only going to get paid $11 an hour for this work, I am only going to put in a minimum wage amount of work."

Most QA positions in other tech industries are closer to software dev/engineering roles than the usual QA tester role in gaming. Positions like QA Engineer or Software Development Engineer in Test, and they have much much higher salaries. There are QA Engineers in gaming, but those typically aren't the bulk of game QA teams.

 

[TurtleSnatcher]

I feel like a bunch of people post about the downsides of the industry and how it makes you “hate” your passion for games. I’ve been in the industry for 10-11 years in a variety of marketing, PR, community, esports and biz dev roles at some large AAA developers and publishers and other companies. I don’t hate it and I’m grateful for where I’m at.

As for work that you are aiming to do, many people have roles internally for a video production or producer role and with the advent of streaming, it’s becomig more and more in demand. I will say many rely on contracting for that role so you may want to look into that with some agencies like an Aquent or something that feeds into those types of places.

Network as well. That’s probably the most important thing. I feel like i know everyone in the industry on some sort of level because of how small this industry really is from the inside.

 

[Weltall Zero]

I've thought about doing this. It could be a good way to get some experience while also helping out smaller devs.

To anyone asking, yes, I have a reel and I've also done sample projects that have been complimented by the companies in question.

I would love to see that reel, and commision prices, if you do those. Eventually I'll need a trailer for my own game, although I'm on a shoestring budget...

In general, I think dropping by the indie development thread and offering your services there might be a pretty good idea, no?

 

[ajjow]

Hire someone, open your site and create your own content. Stop trying to please others. Be the commander and create the best gaming site you can.

If thats your passion, u will prevail. Just be patient.

 

[MrCunningham]

I look at the gaming industry as two different sectors. The Triple AAA market, and the indie market. If you want to break into the Triple AAA part of the industry, I think it is going to be an uphill battle. But if you look at the indie and B-tier side of gaming, I think it is much more open to make an impact in. On the indie side, all it can take is one person with a good idea and basic knowledge of game engine like GameMaker Studio or Unity to make one good game that could end up selling a million + copies on Steam to become a success story.

But in your case OP, you want to break into the media part of the industry, which is a much harder thing to do.