Indie-Resource.com

Hey guys, I've been recently checking those "career" pages on several companies that pop my interest, such as CIA, FBI, Ubisoft, Rockstar, etc.

There are requirements, and so far the only thing I got left is my degree (which I'm doing right now, currently in 2nd year out of 3). They ask for skills in some languages such as C++, C#, Java. Some understandings of the stuff that I "will" do etc etc. That's all fine by me, but the only question I have is, Do I have what it takes?

I mean, Let's focus on Ubisoft, let's focus more on their last game Far Cry 4. It's made using the Dunia Engine ok? So let's say I wanna work for Ubisoft, obviously I've never worked with Dunia Engine, I worked with Unity, very little with UDK and that's it... So how can i be confident enough to go there and say "Hey, I wanna work for you guys" if I don't really know what I'll do and if I can do it...

This drives me crazy, you can't imagine how much time I spend thinking about this issue.

What you guys think?

It is my understanding that new coders that join a large studio, do not really have to fully understand a engine at first. They end up doing tons of grunt work like writing if statements all day

Get internships at local places/summer jobs at small game dev companies tland that will help you alot.

Xaos wrote:Get internships at local places/summer jobs at small game dev companies tland that will help you alot.

Wonder if theres any in Baltimore =]

Sim wrote:It is my understanding that new coders that join a large studio, do not really have to fully understand a engine at first. They end up doing tons of grunt work like writing if statements all day

Aye.

I think you'd end up doing more 'making games' stuff if you just did it yourself (and looked into kickstarter for funds (and don't ask for thousands or even many hundreds on the first go!))

Doing that adds to your portfolio as well, proving your adeptness.

Fact is, even if you don't know engine X, you need to be able to make something. Being able to show you can make something is half that battle.

Sim wrote:It is my understanding that new coders that join a large studio, do not really have to fully understand a engine at first. They end up doing tons of grunt work like writing if statements all day

Aahaha that's a bit boring :/

Xaos wrote:Get internships at local places/summer jobs at small game dev companies tland that will help you alot.

Yeah the problem is that I live in Portugal, and here the very small industry we have is only indie, and has little funding and are not hiring most of the time. :/ God, i need to go to the US.

Callan S. wrote:

Sim wrote:It is my understanding that new coders that join a large studio, do not really have to fully understand a engine at first. They end up doing tons of grunt work like writing if statements all day

Aye.

I think you'd end up doing more 'making games' stuff if you just did it yourself (and looked into kickstarter for funds (and don't ask for thousands or even many hundreds on the first go!))

Doing that adds to your portfolio as well, proving your adeptness.

Fact is, even if you don't know engine X, you need to be able to make something. Being able to show you can make something is half that battle.

Well yeah, but if I do it myself the payback is not 100% guaranteed like in a normal company, I was looking to have financial stability
I would try my best at learning the engine X ofc, but what if they wanted immediate results?

It is most likely that if you go working for any big companies (and not only in the game industry) you will need to start with tasks which may very well be non-interesting.

In fact I'm working for a gov research institute just to have the flexibility to decide myself how and what to do

I think you should try, in the summertime when school is out, to get an unpaid internship for a few weeks. You won't be getting paid, but you're gonna get some good experience and possibly a shout-out in the credits that you can then show employers. Or get an internship in another software industry so you can point to commercial software experience. Or you can create your own independent game. I think the best plan of action is to get a summer internship (paid or unpaid) and work on your own game. So start working on your own game now (Do something that you can do and people will pay for, maybe a 2d pixel RPG or something so you can just show off your programming ability and don't need much music, art, etc. and then you can do a Kickstarter or something) and get a paid or unpaid internship this summer, and then rinse-repeat until either your game gets big and you go work on that and other games full-time or you graduate

a_bertrand wrote:It is most likely that if you go working for any big companies (and not only in the game industry) you will need to start with tasks which may very well be non-interesting.

In fact I'm working for a gov research institute just to have the flexibility to decide myself how and what to do

Yeah but those jobs are hard to get i guess..?

Xaos wrote:I think you should try, in the summertime when school is out, to get an unpaid internship for a few weeks. You won't be getting paid, but you're gonna get some good experience and possibly a shout-out in the credits that you can then show employers. Or get an internship in another software industry so you can point to commercial software experience. Or you can create your own independent game. I think the best plan of action is to get a summer internship (paid or unpaid) and work on your own game. So start working on your own game now (Do something that you can do and people will pay for, maybe a 2d pixel RPG or something so you can just show off your programming ability and don't need much music, art, etc. and then you can do a Kickstarter or something) and get a paid or unpaid internship this summer, and then rinse-repeat until either your game gets big and you go work on that and other games full-time or you graduate

Yeah very nice advise indeed, I'll see if I can do it next summer, and I'm already working on new games (I already have 3 titles on my portfolio) so I want to make both
I would even pay to get a internship in a big company, money is not the problem, it's the opportunity and my brain saying I will fail eventually.

vitinho444 wrote:Well yeah, but if I do it myself the payback is not 100% guaranteed like in a normal company, I was looking to have financial stability
I would try my best at learning the engine X ofc, but what if they wanted immediate results?

Dude, you're showing how they aren't a guaranteed income!

You could spend 10 hours learning their engine, being paid nothing, then they say you haven't learnt enough of it (we want immediate results!) were not hiring you.

You could spend 10 hours writing your own game and the kickstarter fails - upshot; you created something, atleast! Plus it adds to your portfolio, which helps you get toward proving your worth and getting a job.

Just saying don't think they are going to be your financial saviour and so you throw hours of unpaid effort at learning their flavour of the month engine in order maybe be paid. That's not a guarantee, it's just a gamble as well.