Game Jobs Megathread: Wear clean underwear to avoid the smellz.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Game Jobs Megathread: Wear clean underwear to avoid the smellz.

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Shalinor: Jun 10, 2002; _{Can I buy you a rootbeer?}

Solus posted:

If your web slinging isn't as awesome as Spiderman 2 then I believe we are going to have to have words good sir. It sure looks pretty in the trailer but how it handles will matter the most.

This. By claiming responsibility for that game, you have shouldered the burden of "not sucking like every single Spiderman game that is not Spiderman 2" :colbert:

Seriously though, do you guys think you can top or equal 2? Many have tried and failed so far. Curious what the feeling of your team is.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 00:41

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 18:01

Adraeus: Jan 25, 2008; by Y Kant Ozma Post

SatansBestBuddy posted:

How much research do you put into a game?

From my book: "We immerse ourselves in them and make sure we are doing everything right. In the case of Star Wars [Knights of the Old Republic II], our chief creative officer, Chris Avellone, spent every waking moment for three to four months reading everything he could get his hands on, even this pretty poor series called Teen Jedi or something like that. After such a great investment of time, he became our resident Star Wars scholar and was able to make sure everything we were doing would stay within the bounds of the license. That's how we have always treated the Dungeons & Dragons license, too." --Feargus Urquhart, cofounder of Obsidian Entertainment

Shalinor posted:

The same thing was responsible for Deus Ex: Human Revolution's one big racial boo boo. French developers making a game slightly missed the mark culturally, whether due to their own cultural differences, or because of something being lost in translation.

The critical reactions to that supposed "racial boo boo" were utter nonsense from culturally ignorant people.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 02:54

cgeq: Jun 5, 2004

Akuma posted:

Another game I'm involved in just got announced. I've done some design and writing for it, and it's using the same engine I'm writing for Naked Gun. My wife is the main writer. I'm looking forward to it!

Go go point and click! Away!

Cool, I have some friends that like that show. I should let them know about this!

# ? Oct 20, 2011 03:05

Carfax Report: May 17, 2003; Ravage the land as never before, total destruction from mountain to shore!

Monster w21 Faces posted:

Getting people interested in playing a facebook word game is loving hard. *sigh*

How are you differentiating the game from other:

1. Casual games on multiple platforms
2. Games on Facebook
3. Word games on Facebook

?

# ? Oct 20, 2011 06:51

SatansBestBuddy: Sep 26, 2010; by FactsAreUseless

Shalinor posted:

Seriously though, do you guys think you can top or equal 2? Many have tried and failed so far. Curious what the feeling of your team is.

I always thought Ultimate Spiderman was able to dethrone 2 pretty handily, what with the better story, more fun side missions, tons of cameos and outright excellent visuals.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 07:05

Leif.: Mar 27, 2005; Son of the Defender
Formerly Diplomaticus/SWATJester

devilmouse posted:

Inadvertent word choice anecdotes!

So one of the games I worked on had a tribal jungle-dwelling lizard race. They were generally a ranged class that threw spears.

Their name for a single day of development: "Spearchucker".

On another game, someone had written a line of dialog, said by a farmer character, calling the player a "chickenhead". I had to send them the urbandictionary entry when they were wondering why they had to change it.

I lol'd so drat hard.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 07:50

FreakyZoid: Nov 28, 2002

Carfax Report posted:

How are you differentiating the game from other:

This is a good question when I had a look at Word Trick it didn't seem to be sufficiently different from the monster that you'd be able to take players away.

Four players is nice for socialising, but the bonus letters seemed like it would unbalance the scoring.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 08:26

Monster w21 Faces: May 11, 2006; "What the fuck is that?"
"What the fuck is this?!"

Carfax Report posted:

How are you differentiating the game from other:

1. Casual games on multiple platforms
2. Games on Facebook
3. Word games on Facebook

?

4 player multiplayer, 21 active games at once, combo bonus chains.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 11:18

devilmouse: Mar 26, 2004; It's just like real life.

Monster w21 Faces posted:

4 player multiplayer, 21 active games at once, combo bonus chains.

The 30,000 ft view of what might be wrong (warning dirty FB speak ahead):

Your first two bullet points work against one another since no one's social graph is going to be big enough to take advantage of it. I'd posit that a 4-player game actually hinders your engagement levels in a strict turn-based game on FB (cannibalizing notifs if you're sending one for every player's turn with a weak CTA and if you're not, you've got long stretches of time in between a player's turns). 4 player might also be limiting your growth, depending on your MFS behavior. Your 4-step dialog box at the start of your game is WAY too busy and it'd be a turn-off to the regular FB user. Differentiating by adding more complexity is not the hookup for reach.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 12:47

The Kins: Oct 2, 2004

Mido posted:

Is anyone familiar with the state of the Rare company as of late? It seems like a lot of their driving creative forces are gone and they are now a husk of their former glory, crapping out wiggly waggly kinect/Wii games.

A while back there was some sort of move to contracted art instead of an internal art team and it seems to have ended up in a bunch of veterans leaving and not being paticularly willing to talk about it, so either NDAs were involved, it was a really ugly split, or both. I know the Conker lead was pretty obviously really bitter about it on Twitter for a while, and probably still is.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 12:55

BizarroAzrael: Apr 6, 2006; "That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."

New QA jobs looks to be a complete false economy. �20 to travel 1.5-2 hours each way, and I get in to be told that when I was told on Tuesday that there would be work in on Thursday and Friday, they actually meant I should expect a call about it. And apparently I was supposed to assume from not getting a call there wouldn't be work. So I've come off of Jobseekers Allowance to work a 1-2 day week with almost half my wages going on transport. It's a loving joke that this kind of idiot gets promoted to lead a project and I am STILL held down at the very bottom.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 12:56

Monster w21 Faces: May 11, 2006; "What the fuck is that?"
"What the fuck is this?!"

devilmouse posted:

The 30,000 ft view of what might be wrong (warning dirty FB speak ahead):

Your first two bullet points work against one another since no one's social graph is going to be big enough to take advantage of it. I'd posit that a 4-player game actually hinders your engagement levels in a strict turn-based game on FB (cannibalizing notifs if you're sending one for every player's turn with a weak CTA and if you're not, you've got long stretches of time in between a player's turns). 4 player might also be limiting your growth, depending on your MFS behavior. Your 4-step dialog box at the start of your game is WAY too busy and it'd be a turn-off to the regular FB user. Differentiating by adding more complexity is not the hookup for reach.

Much appreciated.

I've never worked on Facebook games before and I've never had to grow a community before without any marketing or pr spend to back it up.

BizarroAzrael posted:

New QA jobs looks to be a complete false economy. �20 to travel 1.5-2 hours each way, and I get in to be told that when I was told on Tuesday that there would be work in on Thursday and Friday, they actually meant I should expect a call about it. And apparently I was supposed to assume from not getting a call there wouldn't be work. So I've come off of Jobseekers Allowance to work a 1-2 day week with almost half my wages going on transport. It's a loving joke that this kind of idiot gets promoted to lead a project and I am STILL held down at the very bottom.

Sounds like my time at Game over Christmas. No shifts for 2 months, no JSA and then they let me go. loving bullshit.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 13:26

Fizzle: Dec 14, 2006; ZOMG, Where'd my old account go?!?

Woohoo! My persistence finally paid off and I have an interview on Monday!! It's not for the position I applied for, in fact it wasn't even on the website when I applied. What's very exciting is it almost reads like they took my resume, rattled off the things that I did in previous jobs and stuck that up as a job posting. So, I have a real good shot.

Crossing my fingers :ohdear:

# ? Oct 20, 2011 16:07

BizarroAzrael: Apr 6, 2006; "That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."

Be willing to push for more money if it seems low. Because that's me two years ago and in the end my career was destroyed having earned a pitance for my work there.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 16:59

Shalinor: Jun 10, 2002; _{Can I buy you a rootbeer?}

BizarroAzrael posted:

Be willing to push for more money if it seems low. Because that's me two years ago and in the end my career was destroyed having earned a pitance for my work there.

I'm not sure your career was destroyed. You are, however, in an awkward position in a part of the world whose game industry is presently collapsing (UK, right?).

Have you considered that it might be time to move, or look into found your own startup/etc if possible, if sticking in the industry is your goal?

# ? Oct 20, 2011 17:04

Fizzle: Dec 14, 2006; ZOMG, Where'd my old account go?!?

BizarroAzrael posted:

Be willing to push for more money if it seems low. Because that's me two years ago and in the end my career was destroyed having earned a pitance for my work there.

That's my biggest concern, I have no idea what I would even be looking for in terms of money for this position. If anyone can offer any insight, I can forward the position in a PM or email and you can give me a ballpark.

It's community oriented with management, training and PR built in. So it's not entry level..

# ? Oct 20, 2011 17:29

devilmouse: Mar 26, 2004; It's just like real life.

Fizzle posted:

That's my biggest concern, I have no idea what I would even be looking for in terms of money for this position. If anyone can offer any insight, I can forward the position in a PM or email and you can give me a ballpark.

What state, is it in the city or more rural, what's the title, what's the company, how well are they doing, how old are you, how many years of experience do you have, do you have a family or other dependents, etc etc etc etc. Salary negotiations are hilariously all over the board and can be swung on the order of 50%+ depending on the factors. Giving a ballpark estimate for a "Designer" role in the US, for example, I can put it at anywhere between 30k to 80k and not even blink.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 17:47

BizarroAzrael: Apr 6, 2006; "That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."

Shalinor posted:

I'm not sure your career was destroyed. You are, however, in an awkward position in a part of the world whose game industry is presently collapsing (UK, right?).

Have you considered that it might be time to move, or look into found your own startup/etc if possible, if sticking in the industry is your goal?

I have no money to do either of those, in fact I'm massively in debt from my worthless degree. I can't afford to leave the country, I've not even been on holiday for years, and I can't exactly feed myself with a start-up until an actual product is out, and even then only if I'm lucky.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 18:19

Fizzle: Dec 14, 2006; ZOMG, Where'd my old account go?!?

devilmouse posted:

What state, is it in the city or more rural, what's the title, what's the company, how well are they doing, how old are you, how many years of experience do you have, do you have a family or other dependents, etc etc etc etc. Salary negotiations are hilariously all over the board and can be swung on the order of 50%+ depending on the factors. Giving a ballpark estimate for a "Designer" role in the US, for example, I can put it at anywhere between 30k to 80k and not even blink.

The job is in Los Angeles. It's this job here with Riot Games: http://www.riotgames.com/careers/lan-center-program-coordinator

I'm a single 31 year old guy with no Dependents. Currently live in CT, so it'd require a cross country move away from my support network. I do, however, have everything they're looking for on that job (sans degree). Including the LAN Cafe experience. I organized and ran the World Cyber Games LAN qualifiers across the country, including training the local volunteers, so I have extensive experience in exactly what they're looking for.

# ? Oct 20, 2011 18:21

Shalinor: Jun 10, 2002; _{Can I buy you a rootbeer?}

BizarroAzrael posted:

I have no money to do either of those, in fact I'm massively in debt from my worthless degree. I can't afford to leave the country, I've not even been on holiday for years, and I can't exactly feed myself with a start-up until an actual product is out, and even then only if I'm lucky.

In which case - changing industries would seem to be your next logical step. Though I assume your degree would be no help there, either?

(I don't mean these to sound flippant, just trying to offer any kind of helpful suggestion

You're in a lovely situation, period.)

# ? Oct 21, 2011 00:13

M4rk: Oct 14, 2006; ArcheAgeSource.com

Fizzle posted:

That's my biggest concern, I have no idea what I would even be looking for in terms of money for this position. If anyone can offer any insight, I can forward the position in a PM or email and you can give me a ballpark.

It's community oriented with management, training and PR built in. So it's not entry level..

Maaan, sounds like my kind of gig. Want to share your resume? It's probably more polished than mine, and I could use the pointers.

Fizzle posted:

The job is in Los Angeles. It's this job here with Riot Games: http://www.riotgames.com/careers/lan-center-program-coordinator

I'm a single 31 year old guy with no Dependents. Currently live in CT, so it'd require a cross country move away from my support network. I do, however, have everything they're looking for on that job (sans degree). Including the LAN Cafe experience. I organized and ran the World Cyber Games LAN qualifiers across the country, including training the local volunteers, so I have extensive experience in exactly what they're looking for.

Then the spot is yours, dude. And say hi to Andrew B. when you get in! I sent in an app for the community video hybrid positions a long time ago and never got a response. Kinda worried it just got thrown into the circular file...

# ? Oct 21, 2011 01:08

Mango Polo: Aug 4, 2007

It's now official, I got the game design job at Wooga

Turns out that updating my LinkedIn profile and my website on a whim paved the way for this awesome job, so thanks to the goons who recommended doing that. Feels pretty nice to have someone say "nice profile and portfolio! I'm recruiting for a new project and you'd fit right in!"

Now my main issue is how I'll bring up the resignation thing to my bosses without having them flip their desks and try to murder me for a perceived betrayal, or at least I'm pretty sure that they'll screw me out of my bonus for having shipped a Collector game. Actually, can someone remind me who's the poster here that dispenses legal wisdom? I'd like to ask him a question or two.

e:

M4rk posted:

Maaan, sounds like my kind of gig. Want to share your resume? It's probably more polished than mine, and I could use the pointers.

From a quick glance, the section for AionSource is pretty thick and off-putting, personally I'd trim it a bit. The presentation could also be spruced up since it feels like everything just melds together.

Mango Polo fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Oct 21, 2011

# ? Oct 21, 2011 01:34

M4rk: Oct 14, 2006; ArcheAgeSource.com

Mango Polo posted:

It's now official, I got the game design job at Wooga
Turns out that updating my LinkedIn profile and my website on a whim paved the way for this awesome job, so thanks to the goons who recommended doing that. Feels pretty nice to have someone say "nice profile and portfolio! I'm recruiting for a new project and you'd fit right in!"

Now my main issue is how I'll bring up the resignation thing to my bosses without having them flip their desks and try to murder me for a perceived betrayal, or at least I'm pretty sure that they'll screw me out of my bonus for having shipped a Collector game. Actually, can someone remind me who's the poster here that dispenses legal wisdom? I'd like to ask him a question or two.

e:

From a quick glance, the section for AionSource is pretty thick and off-putting, personally I'd trim it a bit. The presentation could also be spruced up since it feels like everything just melds together.

Congrats and yeah, the AS section is a little long. I probably ought to tighten it up and expand something else.

As for spreading things out, I used a table system to align it all nice and pretty, maybe one more line break between sections will work...

# ? Oct 21, 2011 03:14

HelloPlatypus: Apr 2, 2010; GIRL
SHE'S A GIRL
OBVIOUSLY JUST LOOK AT HER

So I finally feel like I have something worthwhile to post in this thread. The first official game I've ever worked on got released the other day, and while I wasn't on the project from the very beginning, I still got to make a ton of models for it and I feel really proud just seeing some of my work in the screenshots alone.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/in-time-the-game/id470062232?mt=8

On top of that, I start my first full-time game job on Monday. It's been a pretty good few months since I graduated in June.

This thread's been a really big help to me along the way so I just wanted to say thanks a bunch, goons!

# ? Oct 21, 2011 06:48

Diaghilev: Feb 19, 2005; The final argument of kings and common men.

Holy poo poo. Loot Drop hired me. I start tomorrow! :w00t:

# ? Oct 21, 2011 07:18

Deep Thoreau: Aug 16, 2008

Diaghilev posted:

Holy poo poo. Loot Drop hired me. I start tomorrow!

Congratulations! What position did you get hired for?

Since the job market is so drat bad right now, I'm thinking about going back to school. QA really isn't going to do much for me in the long run, even if I need money really bad right now AND manage to get hired somewhere.

Santa Monica Community College is pretty cheap, and close by. I have a bit of an artistic bent, and am terrible at math. Would going there and taking some art classes, and maybe some digital art classes work, if I wanted to do something in the game industry? Like artist or something?

# ? Oct 21, 2011 07:20

Fizzle: Dec 14, 2006; ZOMG, Where'd my old account go?!?

M4rk posted:

Congrats and yeah, the AS section is a little long. I probably ought to tighten it up and expand something else.

As for spreading things out, I used a table system to align it all nice and pretty, maybe one more line break between sections will work...

Trust me, my Resume is actually garbage compared to that. I tailored it a little to the position I'm applying for, but It's honestly a hodgepodge of so many different jobs (I am currently out of the industry, so I cobbled together jobs I held that I thought would fit)

I'm honestly surprised I got a call back on the resume. Here's a link for you all to laugh at

# ? Oct 21, 2011 07:25

Shindragon: Jun 6, 2011; by Athanatos

Bash Ironfist posted:

Congratulations! What position did you get hired for?

Since the job market is so drat bad right now, I'm thinking about going back to school. QA really isn't going to do much for me in the long run, even if I need money really bad right now AND manage to get hired somewhere.

Santa Monica Community College is pretty cheap, and close by. I have a bit of an artistic bent, and am terrible at math. Would going there and taking some art classes, and maybe some digital art classes work, if I wanted to do something in the game industry? Like artist or something?

Depending, but yes do this. Go to a community college, don't go to any art schools or game design schools. The only thing you'll have is debit hanging over your head if you go to Cal Arts, Full Sail, etc..

Unfortunately my jackass went to an art school (only for a year) and I have 26k of debt hanging over my head.

# ? Oct 21, 2011 08:55

NextTime000: Feb 3, 2011; bweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
<----------------------------

Fizzle posted:

It's not for the position I applied for, in fact it wasn't even on the website when I applied.

its funny, the position(s) I have applied for at Riot have since been removed from the website! I noticed they were gone when my contact sent me a new ActionScript test, and when I went to see if the position pages had the new test too they were gone. if anything it just tells me that they don't need to look for anyone for those positions anymore because they are eventually gonna have me :madmax:

# ? Oct 21, 2011 16:24

Chainclaw: Feb 14, 2009

devilmouse posted:

Inadvertent word choice anecdotes!

So one of the games I worked on had a tribal jungle-dwelling lizard race. They were generally a ranged class that threw spears.

Their name for a single day of development: "Spearchucker".

On another game, someone had written a line of dialog, said by a farmer character, calling the player a "chickenhead". I had to send them the urbandictionary entry when they were wondering why they had to change it.

I'm always amused how often Urban Dictionary is used in game development to make sure a lot of our phrases and things are clean. We've renamed alien species after finding the names already on Urban Dictionary as slang for genitals in some country or another.

# ? Oct 21, 2011 18:29

Hughlander: May 11, 2005

Chainclaw posted:

I'm always amused how often Urban Dictionary is used in game development to make sure a lot of our phrases and things are clean. We've renamed alien species after finding the names already on Urban Dictionary as slang for genitals in some country or another.

If only EgoSoft(German dev house) talked to a native English speaker before naming their aliens the Khaak. (And who doesn't love the Khaak?)

# ? Oct 21, 2011 18:57

M4rk: Oct 14, 2006; ArcheAgeSource.com

Fizzle posted:

Trust me, my Resume is actually garbage compared to that. I tailored it a little to the position I'm applying for, but It's honestly a hodgepodge of so many different jobs (I am currently out of the industry, so I cobbled together jobs I held that I thought would fit)

I'm honestly surprised I got a call back on the resume. Here's a link for you all to laugh at

You makin' me all depressed now, dude. :l

Anyhow, good luck at Riot and I will see you at PAX next year!

# ? Oct 21, 2011 19:55

GeauxSteve: Feb 26, 2004; Nubzilla

Fizzle posted:

The job is in Los Angeles. It's this job here with Riot Games: http://www.riotgames.com/careers/lan-center-program-coordinator

I'm a single 31 year old guy with no Dependents. Currently live in CT, so it'd require a cross country move away from my support network. I do, however, have everything they're looking for on that job (sans degree). Including the LAN Cafe experience. I organized and ran the World Cyber Games LAN qualifiers across the country, including training the local volunteers, so I have extensive experience in exactly what they're looking for.

I just applied for their QA Lead spot. Anyone want to put in a good word for me?

# ? Oct 21, 2011 23:22

Chernabog: Apr 16, 2007

I sent an application to Kabam and after making the test I got rejected

Does anybody know of any 2D animation jobs? I will most likely be laid off pretty soon.

# ? Oct 22, 2011 01:19

Diaghilev: Feb 19, 2005; The final argument of kings and common men.

Bash Ironfist posted:

Congratulations! What position did you get hired for?

QA!

A month ago I was living in my parents' basement. Tonight, I deathmatched with John Romero. Truly, all things are possible. I literally keep expecting to wake up.

# ? Oct 22, 2011 09:08

Solus: May 31, 2011; Drongos.

Diaghilev posted:

QA!

A month ago I was living in my parents' basement. Tonight, I deathmatched with John Romero. Truly, all things are possible. I literally keep expecting to wake up.

Did he make you his Bitch? If so did you suck it down.

# ? Oct 22, 2011 09:14

Diaghilev: Feb 19, 2005; The final argument of kings and common men.

Solus posted:

Did he make you his Bitch? If so did you suck it down.

I managed to hold my own. :q:

Actually, what struck me most was how much FUN he was having. You'd think that of all people, this kind of thing would be old hat for him, but he was laughing and shouting along with all of us.

# ? Oct 22, 2011 09:53

Irish Taxi Driver: Sep 12, 2004; We're just gonna open our tool palette and... get some entities... how about some nice happy trees? We'll put them near this barn. Give that cow some shade... There.

What game? Also congratulations. I'd love to deathmatch with Romero.

# ? Oct 22, 2011 09:54

Chasiubao: Apr 2, 2010

Irish Taxi Driver posted:

What game? Also congratulations. I'd love to deathmatch with Romero.

BRB mining Daikatana for trash talk inspiration.

# ? Oct 22, 2011 10:18

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 18:01

Shalinor: Jun 10, 2002; _{Can I buy you a rootbeer?}

Romero is honestly pretty chill. The usual jokes were made back when we were a Gazillion studio and he stopped by a few times, but, seriously, they're old hat. He's just a cool entrepreneur dude these days, with a decent sense of style.

Do tell how he is to work with, Diaghilev - heard kinda mixed reports, but that may have just been the studio managers/culture in question.

# ? Oct 22, 2011 15:11

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Game Jobs Megathread: Wear clean underwear to avoid the smellz.

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