Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Game Industry

The industry. I'm a student so I want there. But how can I do that? During these two years in TAMK the need of trying to achieve something on my own gets stronger and stronger. I want a job, I want to prove employers that I'm a great worker and artist. Take me in!

This has nothing to do with the text! Ha!
First of all, everyone talks about networking. IGDA meetings, conferences, events.. Yeah, it's always good to know people and during the time in my school I've built up a growing network of fellow students, industry people and other specialists. Cool, now I can ask for help, tips, recommendations, feedback and company for a beer and of course giving all this back in return if someone is looking for it.
It's also good to have visibility to your work and achievements; LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. Make yourself visible to employers! Do stuff! Make games and art! 

Portfolio is really important for a game artist. This article in Gamasutra could give you some tips if you don't know where to start. Mine (linked in the right column) is still in a free server built on a template. It's easy, dirty and fast. I don't recommend to anyone but I'm just too busy and lazy to create a better one at the moment. That might just be a reason why I didn't get a summer job at the new Rovio office. On the other hand, I got an invite to another company's interview without even showing my portfolio at first. Strange!

I believe in my skills and art. If someone turns my application down, I won't be too sad about it. There are millions of chances around all the time. And one thing that I keep noticing in this field is that you have to do it again. Draw something, whatever it is, and you'll have to make it again. Something has to be changed all the time. I have an excellent example on this one to show later.
During this project I've had to accept the fact that whatever I do and am happy with might be turned down and changed into something which doesn't look good or make sense in my opinion. I just have to do that because it's not up to me to decide. The motivation might not be the highest at that point, at least after the fifth change, but I've noticed how it affects the workflow. When you recognize it, it's easier to handle.

Just some thoughts, not directly about the project but something that I've been thinking about during it.


3 comments:

  1. Damn you dragons, you lured me in... again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1) Write crap in your blog
      2) Add a cute dragon image
      3) People will accidentally check your blog
      4) ????
      5) Win.

      Delete
  2. Hey!

    I agree with the networking thing in a way, because that gives a serious advantage for people who might not be the best in the field, but know lots of people who might help them finding a job.

    The portfolio is said to be the most important thing for a artist, since that's kinda the CV for you. In most companies they don't check what degrees you have completed or anything like that as intensely as your portfolio. That's a straight link to your knowledge and skills. It's a good thing to work on companies and gain experience in the actual work life, but depending on your goals you should always try to keep getting better even if you work or not and improve your portfolio, if you want to land your "dreamjob" one day.

    Concerning the "being visible and everywhere" is one thing people talk a lot about... In my opinion it kinda depends how it's done, because an over-exposure with a bad portfolio might not be a good thing, rather than going out more silently and building a good portfolio without a fuss before applying to a job. As when you are working like crazy for smaller companies, you might not have that much time to improve your art as much as you would need to get to a bigger company. Just my thoughts about, it's a difficult question.

    Haha, definetely you need to redraw everything. :D But it's also a good practice in drawing the things you need to redraw, and you can maybe get some better idea about the stuff the company is looking for. Maybe in the future it's easier to follow the guidelines more efficiently.

    Nice post and some really good points and thoughts about the industry, cheers!

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