The Games Game - September 2004

Each month, industry veteran Tom Sloper provides career guidance to game biz wannabes, newbies, and junior professionals with the goal of helping them break into the industry, and stay in. Submit a question to Tom for developer-oriented advice in this column (IGDA members only).

Re-Starting From Scratch (September 2004)

Dear Tom,

I am an academic who has played games since I was knee-high... I research in the games area but unfortunately every time I try and get involved in the industry as either a tester (we have a full usability lab and 2,500 students!!) I get bogged down in the...

"What games have I designed, how many games projects have I worked on..."

Surely there must be some way to get involved without having to restart a career that is now over 20 years old???

Equally do you know any routes to get involved in the testing / reviewing / researching on the new games?

Clive Chandler

Dear Clive,

Unfortunately, no, there often isn't a way to get involved in a new career without having to start over. Some of your experience and skills are transferable, but if you don't want an entry level job, you have to have game industry experience.

To address another of your points, if game employers are asking you what games you've designed, I have to assume you're applying for game designer jobs. That's shooting too high, since you're an industry outsider. Before you can be hired as a game designer, you have to have experience working in the game industry. Without firsthand knowledge of game projects and processes you haven't earned the "props" necessary to gain entry through that door.

Your last question was actually three questions, so I'll take those one at a time.

To get hired as a tester, you have to apply for a tester position. You have to have excellent written communication skills (you should always end every sentence with a period, not an ellipsis, for example, heh), you have to demonstrate skill at using computers, and you have to be prepared to discuss the pros and cons of a number of recent popular PC and console games. Tester positions are primarily found at publishing companies, so apply at publishing companies near where you live. If there aren't any, move. You can try applying at development companies as well, but testers at those companies usually wear multiple other hats as well, so you'd need other skills besides testing skills to get hired by a developer.

You asked about reviewing games. That isn't a game industry job. You'd have to apply at game magazines for that kind of thing. You'd have to bring a hefty portfolio of reviews you'd already written. I imagine you'd want to begin by putting your reviews on your own website, or reviewing as-yet-unreviewed games for the big game websites like GameSpot, GameRankings, and MobyGames, to name a few.

Lastly, you asked about game research. Again, that isn't a game industry job. That's a scholastic thing. Since you say you are "an academic", I assume you don't need to look farther than the institution where you already work.

Tom Sloper's game biz career began over twenty years ago at Western Technologies, where he designed LCD games and the Vectrex games "Spike" and "Bedlam". There followed stints at Sega Enterprises, Rudell Design, Atari Corporation, and Activision. In 12 years at Activision, Tom produced 36 unique game titles (plus innumerable ports and localizations), designed four games, and won five awards. Tom worked for several months in Activision's Japan operation, in Tokyo. He is perhaps best known for designing, managing and producing Activision's "Shanghai" line. He is currently consulting, writing, speaking, teaching, and developing original games. Find out more at Sloperama.

© 2004 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.