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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concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

BizarroAzrael posted:

Just set up a new blog for my projects, I just made my first post about using Hammer and making a Portal 2 map. Would like to know if it's too wordy, if I shouldn't be talking about aborted ideas, anything really. I'm a bit concerned about what I should and shouldn't assume a reader knows about the mechanics of Portal. I'll pick out a theme and hussy it all up in a week or so.

http://www.escapefromthewatertemple.com

That just redirects to the frontpage at the .wordpress address, so if anyone knows how to fix it that NameCheap will redirect links to subdomains please let me know, I've not seen the option that the help pages talks about.

Edit: And I still have the IRC channel on autojoin, and I've not been seeing anyone else in there for a bit, that should change.

All work aside, I love your banner. What is it? :kiddo:

# ¿ Jun 2, 2011 09:13

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 08:10

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

BizarroAzrael posted:

The generic Wordpress one I haven't replaced yet. :|

Haha that's hilarious. Really nice work on there, and great banner!

# ¿ Jun 2, 2011 13:08

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

wasabimilkshake posted:

Quick question: Is it impolite or anything to apply for a job during or shortly after E3? I've heard that about GDC, since a huge portion of the industry is there and everyone is generally drunk/tired/busy and coming back to a weeklong backlog.

They don't have to read your application until later if they don't want to. Don't worry about this kind of stuff if I were you dude!

# ¿ Jun 9, 2011 12:37

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Aliginge posted:

Environment Artist. It'd be my first post in industry. And thanks, hoping for the best

Salary for my postion I'm expecting would be around �20k if not a touch more. Leamington can be a pricy place to live, at least compared to the shithole that is Middlesbrough :p A brief search indicates that you'd be looking at around �26k for Assistant Producer.

A housemate (also a goon iirc) is going for the Level Design position too. He's into racing games, he has level design sketches all over his room and he knows a bunch of engines from UE3 to worldcraft. Mighty big goonpile if all turns out well.

I think it would be nice to be on 20k, but I wouldn't expect them to take Leam in to consideration. I started three and a half years ago on considerably less than that. It does go up quite quickly though usually.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2011 15:51

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Aliginge posted:

Meanwhile I'm paying �75 for a train journey to go down there tomorrow.

Best of luck to all of us then

Good luck dude!

# ¿ Jun 15, 2011 09:13

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Aliginge posted:

I needn't ask, most of the interview was critiquing my work.

Ah well, wasn't a wasted experience. What was particularly useful was knowing more about what they want to see in a folio and what they don't.

(Full environments and photoreal basically)

I kind of feel like that's a little harsh for a guy with literally no industry experience. You have to take a punt on people and see what you think they're capable of. I'm sure they know what they're looking for but in my opinion it's a big ask to expect finished environments from someone who hasn't worked at a studio before.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 09:09

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

I think that's a good point and you did really well to get to that standard whilst still in college. I just feel like college is there to give you a decent across-the-board grounding in art and we all did weird stuff there that we'd never do now and modelled things we don't anymore but it would be a shame not to have done them. I guess it boils down to getting a job at the end of the day. I just personally don't think employers should look for a rounded-product in someone who possibly hasn't found themselves yet. It's a pretty tough industry to get in to but I do feel that the people who I admire the most in it are the people that have experimented and tried lots of different things. It's a tough argument to make and you could just say "well fine but I'm not going to give them a job over someone who can clearly demonstrate they can do what I'm looking for" and you'd be right so I unno.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 11:14

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Yeah sorry I really don't want to pick out Playground Games at all, I guess I just like to give people a good break because I know I needed it a few years ago!

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 11:26

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

I half agree with you devilmouse. I think they should definitely have a good understanding of 3d though otherwise it would be insane trying to train someone up. What if they decide they don't like it? Some investment! And you have to pay the person training them up to do just that. However I do agree that a fundamental understanding of art is invaluable.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2011 11:50

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Aliginge posted:

Hmm. At a bit of a crossroads with 3D right now.

Up til now I was sort of sure that Environment art would be a good route for me to get into the industry but after some serious thinking after my UDK project and the recent art test I did for Playground, I'm starting to think that perhaps my heart may not be into whole environments as much as it is for Props, Objects, Weapons, hell even Vehicles, maybe? I've never done any high res vehicles but I guess it'd be like any other model.

And if I don't love being a level builder then there's no chance I'd get a job like that, right? Or last particularly long if I did.

I think I basically had it right when I mentioned in the interview "I like to model...stuff", things, big things, small things, not so much entire worlds and scenes. I get daunted by environments and the big picture overwhelms me. I knew this back when I was doing level creation back at uni and it's ringing true now as well.

Calling all industry artists ITT, what should I do from here? Re-tool the folio for props/vehicles/weapons only?

You could always just go work for a smaller studio and model everything across the board and work out what you like the most.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2011 16:43

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you the first proper animation I ever did. It is terrible. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyeMPB06pjE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyeMPB06pjE

concerned mom fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Jun 20, 2011

# ¿ Jun 20, 2011 22:04

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Aliginge posted:

Just curious but what do the 2D and sprite art professionals in the games industry actually use to produce sprites? Most of photoshop's toolset actually seems counterintuitive to pixel level production, for instance antialiasing when rotating and scaling and the inability to draw straight lines locked at the crucial 26.6 degree isometric angle.

I mean from what i can tell, Paint has the ability to easily draw straighter and cleaner non-aliased lines but you can't overlook photoshop's layer features.

You can actually change photoshop to not anti-alias. A lot of people use pro-motion and programs like that. I've been using photoshop at home and it's a bit of a ballache but manageable.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2011 09:49

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

The Games Industry where 9/10 of us make 5/10 games :unsmith:

# ¿ Jul 11, 2011 13:33

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Aliginge posted:

As of today I am now officially the sole artist at DNA Dynamics.

And no part of the job involves 3d at all. Yay for 2D iOs games i guess.

and now without further ado: My Success Story.

Did a Bachelors in Cretive Digital Media and a Masters in Computer Games Art.
Spent two years busting my arse on a portfolio while working the shittiest and most exhausting Gym-cleaning job
Recommend a programmer friend to a goon in this very thread who was looking for programmers.
Programmer friend recommended me and one week-long trial later here I am.

I have somethingawful to thank for landing me a job.

congratulations man I knew you could do it!

Keep up the 3d though.

Now, how the hell do I get myself motivated to do personal work.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2011 22:16

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Alterian posted:

Oh so they hired a model to talk BS about their school. Nice. I don't even think my friend at Blizzard makes that much money.

Edit: showed it to a friend at work and there was no Amber in the art credits for what she said she worked on.

I like her bluetooth headset, it really makes her look like a developer.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2011 15:34

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Well Its these guys again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00gAbgBu8R4

I still don't see any animation or anything past a pretty static environment?

# ¿ Aug 2, 2011 12:36

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Aliginge posted:

Now that my options have opened out a lot now that I'm finally at least in the industry, I'm going to make it a personal thing of mine to just loving learn to draw and paint better. It'll help me in my current job and with any (serious) luck art design, concept art or even just illustration outside of games could become a real ambition for me a few years down the line.

3D is great and all but funnily enough in my earlier naieve student days I wanted to do solely 2D art. Oh how the tables have le turned :v

I've been trying to find Leamington art classes or something. I found an evening group few months ago that said they meet on Wednesdays somewhere in town, but I can't find it now:(

# ¿ Aug 23, 2011 22:36

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Aliginge posted:

This just in, I am officially the office technophobe ape thanks to TortoiseSVN

The best advice I can give is to ignore the folder icons, they lie.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2011 21:31

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Chocolate Milk posted:

I don't see how. Universities are supposed to (among other things) provide the education you'll need to be a productive employee. They weren't doing that before the recession, when companies could afford to train employees themselves. Now companies can't afford to provide that training. Seems to me like maybe the universities should start improving their teaching.

Are you saying the government should step in and provide unqualified students with job opportunities? That, to me, seems much more backwards, and I'm by no means a free market zealot.

I think university is there to really give you an excellent grounding in the field but it's not necessarily there to provide the education you'll need to be productive off the bat. 3D art for instance has many intricacies and no graduate is going to be flying from the word go when starting their first job. It'll take training to get that far. I guess it's a bit of both!

# ¿ Jan 11, 2012 11:00

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

I remember when I did my course in 2004 the lecturers said that roughly only one in three of us would find work in the industry. Going on who I knew there and what they went on to do, I think it was pretty accurate. I wonder what it's like now! I feel like in a way we work at a time where its both never been easier and yet never been harder to release a game. You have IOS stuff opening up the market hugely, but that's such a gamble and you can't really employ many people off of it. Then you have what seems to be a big drop off on published work. Like the 3DS is selling amazingly at the moment but publishers seem reluctant to pick it up.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2012 11:47

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

uglynoodles posted:

Right, so, I just signed up for a college course in Foundation Game Art with the view to completing this and going on to the next course, which is obtaining a Bachelor's in Game Art.
I hope this looks good on a resum�e once I'm all done with it, it's a four year commitment and stuff.

At the very least, the time with the college will help me come up with a (hopefully) killer portfolio. It'd be nice to work in-house somewhere.

Dream big, right?

That's awesome, well done! Keep at it! Know what really helps keeping at it ;and for that matter, getting way ahead of everyone else and looking like an all-round baddass? Join a good 3d forum like Polycount or our one in CC.. and join a mod for a game you like. If you have any questions or need help don't hesitate in asking someone or consulting the forums and youtube. If you seriously work towards it you can probably swing the stuff you make as your study projects and leap ahead of everyone else.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2012 15:54

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Oh Rebellion :allears:

http://www.shacknews.com/article/72631/sniper-elite-v2-pre-order-bonus-dlc-kill-hitler

# ¿ Feb 28, 2012 16:23

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Is it just me or does extra-curricular work take ages. I find myself sitting at home spending hours on something and at the end of the night I've made two tilesets! Oh new bathroom, you will be mine, oh yes.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2012 23:51

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Akuma posted:

I got to choose my own title a few months ago but I wasn't very creative and just said Senior Programmer

Most people I meet are usually satisfied with "I make games" followed by some recognisable brand I've worked on when they inevitably ask "Yeah? Which games?"

Ever heard of The Sims?

Yeah I love The Sims!

Well I worked on a DS expansion about pets.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2012 10:27

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Soo, have you guys met Kwalee yet?

http://www.kwalee.com/

http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?/topic/258000-trolls-wreck-another-potentially-interesting-thread/

etc, etc.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2012 11:39

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Aliginge posted:

Well they're based in the same town as our studio. What's the deal? Can someone give me the skinny of it?

They're like a BBC 2 comedy does games. It's glorious.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2012 12:02

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

I love my I Intuous 3 a4 and wouldn't change it for the world. At home it doubles up as an expensive luxury table mat so it has versatility on its side.

I think using a tiny bamboo is hard work when using it professionally, so top marks there, but I think if you were to get an a4+ of anything you'd see your workflow skyrocket.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2012 23:27

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

When you get Notch, the guy who really, really needs PR to filter everything he says on twitter calling you an insane idiot for unprofessional twitter posts, you know you've done goofed.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2012 12:10

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

I guess games jobs are pretty desirable and there's always constant demand for jobs so they can just pack people away like that. I hope they all got on!

# ¿ Apr 1, 2012 21:25

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Mr Interweb posted:

Also, if any one here works at a developer/publisher that's in need of testers, I'd appreciate it if you might send a link my way, since I'm in dire need of employment. D:

Where are you from?

# ¿ Apr 2, 2012 07:23

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Shalinor posted:

This year's salary survey was released, and those are definitely some numbers. Some of them have commas and everything.

Artist and Animators average is $75k (�46k)? drat :smith:

# ¿ Apr 2, 2012 16:10

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Isn't the cost of living in the USA cheaper or similar to the UK?

Ummm any jobs going guys?

# ¿ Apr 2, 2012 16:15

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Hi guys, all this Covering Letter and Resume/C.V talk has been really interesting. My friend is a games programmer but sadly not on SA yet. Does anyone have a Covering Letter and C.V they'd be willing to send to me (so I can send it to him) to provide him with some examples. He has about 4 years experience, but it's always nice to see what other good people have come up with!

# ¿ Apr 4, 2012 21:15

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

NINbuntu 64 posted:

I'm really small scale indie. The only other person on the project is my sound designer. I'm looking for five assets. It's just going to have diffuse on it, 1000-1500 poly, ready to be rigged. I'm looking around at various sites and I guess things have changed since the last time I looked since now things that are 2000+ polygons are considered low-poly now.

I might be interested in this if you want to pm me the brief. I'm a lead/character/whatever artist at a mobile and handheld game studio.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2012 15:00

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

waffledoodle posted:

I want to see more artists as PR people.

Your game is a piece of poo poo!
Yeah you're probably right.

END OF CONVERSATION

No it's not! You're wrong! You know nothing about art!

*cries in to pillow*

# ¿ Apr 8, 2012 18:41

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Maybe I'm just oblivious to the world but I don't get why people don't like kickstarter. It almost seems like the future to me.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2012 21:55

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Heard it here first guys, Leamington is the epicenter of the games industry :smug:

# ¿ Apr 26, 2012 15:27

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

drat that sucks dude, just keep your head up, believe in yourself (you've gotten this far) and I'm sure something will come up soon. It's a really tough climate but places are hiring all the time.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2012 21:50

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Does anyone here work in New Zealand? I've noticed there's a growing number of companies; checking a few years ago there seemed to be three or four and now there's double that at least. I'm still guessing getting a job in NZ from abroad is pretty difficult?

# ¿ May 30, 2012 22:40

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 08:10

concerned mom: Apr 22, 2003; by Lowtax; Grimey Drawer

Not fat, putting that to the top of my C.V

# ¿ May 30, 2012 23:34

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

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