Games Game March 2011

Hi Tom,

You may be familiar with SeaNanners and such. They record, edit and upload gameplay footage – commentaries mainly. Others do comedy series and montages. Some like SeaNanners have a massive following and earn their living off of it.

I'm interested in doing that, too -- making Machinima and commentaries from popular games, but I'm hoping it could lead to a job in the game industry.  That's my question, then.  If I take the route of creating gameplays/montages uploading them on YouTube and have ‘X’ Director with a few thousand subscriptions and a Machinima contract on my CV, how much weight would that carry as a gateway into the industry? Obviously it wont get you a top job but how about an entry-level job in Quality Assurance or Customer Support to get me started on a game career?

Thanks,

James

Hi James,

In brief, there's no straight path from making Machima or narrated videos of gameplay (be they AVGN-style rants about the design of a Nintendo game, comedy sketches featuring Master Chief, or E-sports commentary on the strategic style of a champion Starcraft II player) to working in the game industry. But if that's what you want to do, you should do it, if for no other reason than the enjoyment and the learning process.

That's not to say that you couldn't make gameplay videos and work your way into the game industry. You very well could. As you mentioned, such content gets a lot of eyeballs, and some of those eyeballs work in the game industry. As long as your videos are well put together and good-natured or well-intentioned, that is to say you don't insult or otherwise antagonize the creators of the games featured in your videos, you are building good karma. I doubt any game company is jumping at the chance to hire Angry Video Game Nerd, after he's compared that company's product offerings to gross bodily functions.

I can't tell you how to parlay videos into a game job. You have to figure that out for yourself. You still need to get an appropriate college education, build a portfolio of much more than just YouTube videos, and network the same as anybody else.

Imagine you've earned fame with your YouTube videos; you've gotten your degree and built a great portfolio. You show up at GDC. People recognize your name on your badge, even if they don't know your face. People are SO gonna stop and talk to you! And that's not bad.

It's all up to you from there on. If your résumé and portfolio are good, that still isn't enough, of course. How do you handle the schmoozing and interviewing? Do people enjoy meeting you and talking with you, do you seem like you'd fit in well with their development team, do you sound like you know the process? Or are you just a guy who makes videos?

Making game entertainment videos is not going to get you into the industry, and it won't keep you out, either.