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Andio posted:Anyone in here have an Associate Producer (or higher) experience? I would like to ask a few questions before the interview on Monday. I'm happy to help, I was an AP at Activision's Minneapolis studio. AIM is same as username, I'll be around tomorrow most of the day.
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Jun 22, 2011 22:35
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Splaa posted:I'm happy to help, I was an AP at Activision's Minneapolis studio. AIM is same as username, I'll be around tomorrow most of the day. I don't have AIM and the only time I'm able to jump on here is during work. Would it be possible to contact you via email? My email address is AndioUK@googlemail.com Thanks in advance!
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Jun 22, 2011 22:40
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Just applied last night to Riot Games' 2d Illustrator opening, wish me luck!
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Jun 22, 2011 22:47
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At the risk of a little blatant self-pimpage, the bundle of 5 indie games that I've been putting together came out today: http://www.buygamesnotsocks.com/ I'd appreciate re-tweetage and all that.
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Jun 22, 2011 23:10
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Jefferoo posted:Just applied last night to Riot Games' 2d Illustrator opening, wish me luck! If you don't get it, S2Games is also looking for a 2D Artist, according to the careers page; it should be very similar (although a bit less comical) work, if that's what you're interested in. http://www.s2games.com/careers.php  Good luck, though!
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Jun 22, 2011 23:39
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mutata posted:http://artsammich.blogspot.com/ This guy teaches digital painting at my uni, and he can explain all of the scientific principles that surround how light acts and reacts and why things look the way they do under certain conditions, and he'll corner science people at parties and question them about fresnel effects and such. Sam is a total art nut and more dedicated to the study of art than any person I've ever known.
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Jun 22, 2011 23:55
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Irish Taxi Driver posted:Commentary on all of us who keep posting about interviews. It's fine being nervous, they will understand. I chocked for the first couple of minutes of my 343i reel presentation but then recovered and the next eight hours of the interview went pretty well.
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Jun 23, 2011 00:24
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-A n i m 8- posted:eight hours of the interview went pretty well. What?
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Jun 23, 2011 00:32
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Mango Polo posted:What? I'm assuming they spend a full day interviewing him. Volition did the same for me - picked me up from the hotel, put me in a room with a bunch of folks for an hour, then off to the next one, with a stop for lunch. End of the day, drop me off at the airport. And then something terrible happened, but that's another story
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Jun 23, 2011 00:36
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Mango Polo posted:What? Interview loops 
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Jun 23, 2011 00:45
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Ah, new thread title. I was going to suggest "Game Jobs Megathread #3: You need a portfolio! You have one? Get rid of it!"
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Jun 23, 2011 01:08
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I just read this: http://gamecareerguide.com/features/963/porn_elves_and_other_offenses_of_.php I suggest Game Jobs Megathread #3: No porn elves or anime. EVER.
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Jun 23, 2011 02:02
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I kind of like that our thread title changes every couple days. Keeps things fresh. I'm sad, I'm packing up my PC and consoles tonight and won't see them for two months at least, assuming they don't fall off the boat/get stolen by pirates/get robbed off the flatbed in Djibouti.
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Jun 23, 2011 03:35
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devilmouse posted:Actually yes, because in the process of getting a History of Science or Art Semiotics or whatever other useless degree you might come out of a liberal arts school with, you've also gotten a presumably well-rounded education that introduced you to all manner of subjects across the spectrum. I guess I wasn't clear that I am making a distinction between trade school programs and a normal degree that happens to have a major of "game design" instead of "french literature" or whatever.
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Jun 23, 2011 06:38
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Mango Polo posted:What? That's pretty normal for a 'we flew you out' interview. 3-4 sets of 3-4 person interviews plus a lunch interview/bullshit session plus time to ask questions and get the rundown from HR. By the time they've gotten to that stage you know that they're at least pretty good, so you want to put the time in to ensure you know what their strengths and weaknesses are. I had a pretty sweet interview experience - I flew into LAX and got a rental car, and drove down to my hotel. The problem being, however, that the hotel they were putting me up in was brand new and the Google Maps directions I printed out were just horrifically wrong. I ended up at the site of a house robbery in South LA rather than at the hotel I was supposed to be at (at around midnight, mind you). Thank goodness one of the officers was kind enough to point me in the right direction rather than detaining me for questioning. Made for an interesting next day, let me tell you. Oh, one other thing. Maximum formality level for a game job interview: slacks, a button down, and an odd jacket. Full suit and tie suitable for a civvie dealing with military is not appropriate.
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Jun 23, 2011 06:49
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Just out of sheer curiosity, whats the best method for Portfolio delivery. I would assume a website and a DVD showreel would work the best.
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Jun 23, 2011 11:26
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Solus posted:Just out of sheer curiosity, whats the best method for Portfolio delivery. I would assume a website and a DVD showreel would work the best. Turning up outside the studio in a monster truck shooting fireworks all over the place.
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Jun 23, 2011 11:57
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Monster w21 Faces posted:Turning up outside the studio in a monster truck shooting fireworks all over the place. While dressed as wolverine in a tophat?, smoking a pipe
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Jun 23, 2011 12:31
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Don't be stupid. 
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Jun 23, 2011 12:55
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For art, website is the easiest way. Dvd's can get lost or misplaced. Its a lot easier for someone to bring up your website and pass it around. Just make sure to put your website on every piece of e-mail you send and on all your images on your site, put your info on them in case someone saves the images and not your site, the info is right there.
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Jun 23, 2011 14:24
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Solus posted:While dressed as wolverine in a tophat?, smoking a pipe Did I wander into the SR:TT thread? Alterian is right, for art, a website is fine. Video is really, really overrated and still pushed by schools that started their curriculum when VHS demo reels were the loving rage. It's really important to stick, at the very minimum, your website URL on every image on your site, because if someone saves it to their hard drive they're going to forget where it came from and they're not going to try to tineye/google it unless they really, really, really want you, and if they really want you that badly, make it loving easy for them before that feeling passes
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Jun 23, 2011 15:44
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Anyone ever used Balsamiq before? I'm trying it out for UI mockups and it's pretty snazzy.
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Jun 23, 2011 16:51
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Sigma-X posted:Alterian is right, for art, a website is fine. Video is really, really overrated and still pushed by schools that started their curriculum when VHS demo reels were the loving rage. Video is also critical for programmer portfolios. Do NOT assume that people are willing to download your shady exe and run it - even if they're willing to take the risk, they may simply not have the time. A FRAPS video of your game running and doing its thing embedded from youtube fixes this problem nicely. ... this is also why, on designer portfolios, Flash or Unity's a half-decent idea - instantly playable, no fuss, no muss. Mind, I don't means reels, those are kind of stupid. But a bunch of individual videos peppered over your portfolio, all with youtube-side descriptions that inlcude your page's URL, etc, this is nice. EDIT: VV The interview will be longer at studios that really care about culture. Part of why they keep you around that long, beyond getting value out of them flying you out, is to sound you out as a person. After a few hours, you loosen up, start chatting, and they can get a feel for whether or not you're a good fit as a personality. In hiring, the kind of person they are matters more than their skill. An average-but-driven student artist can be brought up to speed quickly, and will make a much better long-term team member than a self-important jackass (that is also really good, but knows it / is unwilling to flex to the needs of the studio). Never even mind what it'll do to your culture if you hire a prick of a lead and let him poison the pond. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Jun 23, 2011 |
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Jun 23, 2011 17:05
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Mango Polo posted:What? My interview for an entry level position was 8 hours. It's not atypical from what it sounds.
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Jun 23, 2011 17:07
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What should a typical phone interview typically run assuming a good conversation and some decent Q&A?
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Jun 23, 2011 17:24
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treeboy posted:What should a typical phone interview typically run assuming a good conversation and some decent Q&A? I think they can vary from 30 to an hour.
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Jun 23, 2011 17:38
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treeboy posted:What should a typical phone interview typically run assuming a good conversation and some decent Q&A? Shortest I've done is 10m (an obvious bad fit right off the bat), longest is 90m (quite a good fit and lots of chatting!).
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Jun 23, 2011 17:51
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Shalinor posted:I imagine video's still important for animation, though, no? I agree with this, but also it is important to mention, I think, that art and animation are two different things in my mind. I think it would be interesting to see how folks break down disciplines, both mentally and at a studio level. Here at Volition we're a large studio with a ton of specialization and part of that probably plays into my perception of animation being a different 'discipline' than art, which is really more just 'making models.' @ phone interviews - 30 minutes to an hour - you're usually talking to 1-3 people about workflow and role and they're kind of brief (Vicarious Visions or some other small studio, I forget which [the guys who did Dead Head Fred?] had me on a conference call with 3 folks, since they were a small studio - they were also looking for a generalist - smaller studios will usually need you to wear more hats). On-site interviews are usually with a much larger group of people (a good cross section of the folks you'll be working with - I think I talked to most of the artists at Volition when I had my interview)
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Jun 23, 2011 17:51
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Seluin posted:Anyone ever used Balsamiq before? I'm trying it out for UI mockups and it's pretty snazzy. This looks awesome for UI mockups. Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can kidnap a Scaleform/UDK wizard? 
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Jun 23, 2011 17:58
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Amrosorma posted:This looks awesome for UI mockups. Stake out your local Train2Game 
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Jun 23, 2011 19:01
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Well, this is odd. Several of my colleagues and I just got a message from an admin who's involved in recruiting QA at our former employer asking what our current titles and pay rates are! I'm torn between politely declining or asking why they're collecting this data.
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Jun 23, 2011 19:07
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Monochrome posted:I'm torn between politely declining or asking why they're collecting this data. I'd want to know what my former employees have moved on to do, so that I could identify from that qualitative data and other factors any unaddressed retention issues, and if there is positive advancement, I could promote employment at my company as a foundational career opportunity. If I were interested in offering you a job, I wouldn't tiptoe around the tulips and ask about your price in such a roundabout way, and I certainly wouldn't have an admin do that work. I don't think you have anything to worry about with regard to poaching since that doesn't appear to be the case. Poaching usually happens in a far more direct and brazen manner. If I were in your position though, I would likely decline to share that information on principle. The rationale for the question should always be included with the question. Adraeus fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jun 23, 2011 |
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Jun 23, 2011 22:38
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Especially given that the GD Mag Salary Survey is available for anyone looking simply for aggregated data.
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Jun 23, 2011 22:52
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Alterian posted:I could give you my syllabus for my intro to 3d modelling class in Blender and you can go through the projects.
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Jun 23, 2011 23:21
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http://www.theaveragegamer.com/2011/06/24/friday-feature-you-dont-want-to-work-in-the-games-industry/ I'm surprised the author does not mention Train2Game 
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Jun 24, 2011 14:52
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Giant Boy Detective posted:Though a couple pages back, and addressed to Solus and not the people at large, as a 2D-trained artist who wants to get into the gaming industry but not be limited to just social gaming companies or the rare and coveted concept artist position, I would be incredibly interested in a detailed list of assignments you had your class do in order to learn Blender, Alterian. (I mainly want to see how capable I am at transferring my experience with 2D media into modeling. And even if all that I learn is modelling doesn't agree with me for whatever reason, I'll at least have a better understanding about what goes into it, so I can illustrate ideas more clearly for modelers if I do get a concept artist job.) I'll send it to your e-mail, if you post what it is! I have to clean it up a bit to make it a little more understandable.
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Jun 24, 2011 15:45
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Alterian posted:I'll send it to your e-mail, if you post what it is! I have to clean it up a bit to make it a little more understandable. Not sure why I didn't take you up on that offer. Probably just forgot ;-; exams do that to a Uni Student. shk@hotmail.co.nz is my standard throwaway.
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Jun 24, 2011 15:51
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I did base my syllabus after my husband's intro to 3d modeling syllabus so I can't take all the credit for it. 
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Jun 24, 2011 16:04
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Amrosorma posted:http://www.theaveragegamer.com/2011/06/24/friday-feature-you-dont-want-to-work-in-the-games-industry/ Eurgh. I am not a fan of that article. Working in a big studio won't give you the time to learn, but working in an indie will? Eh? Indies have just as much pressure to perform, moreso if it's one that you set up and borrowed the money for yourself. I've never heard a single person ever say "oh sure, once I set up my company I just sat around all day doing whatever. Could barely fill an 8 hour day with things to do." But hey, I guess his HUGE amount of experience at a number of different companies gives him great perspective.
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Jun 24, 2011 16:32
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Ignition Games in Austin is apparently dead. Boo-urns.
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Jun 24, 2011 17:28
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