Introducing the Games Game - June 2003

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).

Demonstrating Outstanding Passion (June 2003)

Dear Tom:

Currently, I am a senior in Computer Science at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon (a small farming community one-hour from Portland). The degree I am pursuing includes a business administration minor - to provide additional skills and make myself more marketable as an employee (technical skills, interpersonal communication, etc.). My question pertains to what I should be doing now, or this summer, to make myself a more desirable candidate to an employer? Through research, I have found some things - participate in beta tests, write my own software, and create demos. I don't have a huge amount of free time (I work part-time and attend school full-time). Are there any critical steps I am missing? What should be my primary focal points before I graduate in August? Thanks!

David Long

Dear David,

You can only do what's possible to do. But you can certainly do more than what's merely convenient. There are a lot of young grads like yourself who want to get into the games game. You need to stand out from the crowd. And the way you do that is by demonstrating an outstanding passion for your future career.

Go the extra mile. Be a game activist. You've scratched the surface.

Beta testing - That's great that you've found an opportunity to get involved in the testing of a professionally developed game. This sort of activity can lead to a job offer in Q.A., for the exceptional individual.

Programming your own game - If you want to be hired as a programmer, interviewers will be more interested in reading your source code than in seeing your demo, unless you've done something earthshaking. If you want to become a producer or the head of your own development company, the benefit of programming your own game is that you'll have an intimate understanding of the task.

Organizing, leading - Your biz admin minor indicates an interest in managing. You could organize game contests in your neighborhood arcade. Or lead some other talented individuals in making an indy game. If you can find sponsors to help fund these sort of activities, even more impressive. These leadership activities demonstrate that you are a dedicated individual that a game company would want to have on board.

Writing - Another thing you can do to stand out from the crowd is to have a body of written material in your portfolio. It makes a good impression to have some technical articles or game reviews that have been published in a newsletter magazine, or game site.

Playing games - Of course you're playing lots of games. Why not make a list, and write analyses on the best and worst of them? Then when an interviewer asks you about your favorites, you're prepared.

Get the idea? You're a creative, passionate, driven person - you can think of more things that will show interviewers that they should hire you.

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.

© 2003 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.