> What game company out there WOULDN'T want a guy {...}

I have met and worked with several members of the armed forces in the past. The few qualitities that do stand out from officer-level guys are: leadership in the face of chaos, team spirit, the will to "finish the job", and relentlessness to self-improve. The usual low-downs are: lack of creativity, and soft skills. All made it to team leads or department heads of one form or another. None ended up in a highly creative environment (i.e. head of art, music composer/arranger, etc).

From the little I know from you, you have the potential to get into leading positions. Maybe a Producer position might be viable; it's mostly contract and project management. But Game Design is more about creativity and soft skills than anything else. The matter is highly subjective by definition and military people tend to be comfortable with back & white and quantifiable situations.

If game design is your ultimate dream job, then honing those soft skills is going to help you a lot in that endeavor. As for creativity, ... well ... ahem ... you either have it or you don't. Creativity - especially works of art - is not something you learn in an ROTC program, unfortunately. It's something you cultivate on your own and over a long period of time.

Hope this helps.

-cb

JD,
Sounds like you're leaning towards the option that'll both give you some security and stability for the next 4-5 years, and that's probably best, given your current life situation. IMHO.
Tom

As I understand it, it's mostly the publishers that tell the studios what game to make. If that's the case then maybe instead of looking for jobs in development studios, you should be looking for a job in a publisher? Obviously you won't get taken on and told "go and make a game" but they might have junior roles where you do some of the work.

Anyone know more about this? Otherwise I suggest talking to recruitment firms about how it works.

I disagree, Dooohg. In my experience, we pitched game concepts to the publishers to see if they were interested in funding them.

A d with a bunch of zeroes and some other letters wrote:

>As I understand it, it's mostly the publishers that tell the studios what game to make.

Yes, that is the normal situation.

>If that's the case then maybe instead of looking for jobs in development studios, you should be looking for a job in a publisher?
>Anyone know more about this?

Yes, lots of people do. It's equally difficult to get a job with a developer or a publisher. Developers tend to be smaller, and a smaller company needs people who can wear multiple hats. Publishers tend to be larger, and need square pegs to fit in square niches. Not all publishers actually have internal studios where games are created from scratch internally (which is what developers do). But publishers often have jobs for testers - the universal entry-level job - and developers don't, necessarily (depending on their size). Where you should be looking for jobs depends on your specialty and your level of experience and your location, location, location.

>Otherwise I suggest talking to recruitment firms about how it works.

No, don't bother. Recruiters aren't interested in wasting their time on n00bs and entry-level folk. Read FAQs. Check out the beginners info on the IGDA site. Stuff like that. Get informed!

A nonymous poster wrote:

>I disagree, Dooohg. In my experience, we pitched game concepts to the publishers to see if they were interested in funding them.

That's done too, but most games that actually get published are initiated by publishers, not by developers. All games have to get published by publishers, and they have their own ideas about where they should risk their money.

Tom

I wonder why game companies don't hire entry level designers...most the other entry level jobs are for programmers and artists and then QA, which just want to play games and get paid. I wouldn't want to read a novel written by someone who drew the novel cover. I wouldn't want to see a movie written by a camera man. No wonder almost EVERY game on the shelves out there has horrible plot writing, horrible dialogue etc... Sierra, when they were big on adventures, were smart and hired a novelest to design the games. Remember Gabriel Knight? Brilliant.

Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
I wonder why game companies don't hire entry level designers...most the other entry level jobs are for programmers and artists and then QA, which just want to play games and get paid. I wouldn't want to read a novel written by someone who drew the novel cover. I wouldn't want to see a movie written by a camera man. No wonder almost EVERY game on the shelves out there has horrible plot writing, horrible dialogue etc... Sierra, when they were big on adventures, were smart and hired a novelest to design the games. Remember Gabriel Knight? Brilliant.

Entry level designers haven't got a glue about much in game design. They have no technical understanding about their ideas in terms of their feasibility and practicality, they have little concept of what is fun other than what they themselves might like, which could be so far detached from what most gamers like that it hurts their ability to make a profitable game. It's a business after all. Writing a story isn't the hard part of designing a game. Programmers/artists/QA can work up to designer because they have been in the industry, they know how things work, they've proven themselves. At that point the designer types among them have a much better grasp about the implications of the design decisions to the overall game.

It's not 100% impossible to get an entry level design position. I know of a few people that have. It's just pretty unlikely. Unlikely enough that I wouldn't bank on it.

What about military simulations and scenarios. Building large scale military systems can be just as interesting and exciting as game dev. There is a lot of crossover in ideas and techniques. What are you chances of getting a real technical position in the air force??? And by techincal I don't mean your typical job of...network 'engineer' -> guy who plugs cables into computers.

If you are really interested some of the first large scale simulators where done by the DOD....but you will need more schooling for that.

Anon wrote:
>I wonder why game companies don't hire entry level designers...

This question has been thoroughly answered above.

>most the other entry level jobs are for ... QA, which just want to play games and get paid.

Perhaps many who post on internet forums wanting to get hired as a tester have this misconception - but those who get hired, for the most part, do not.

>I wouldn't want to read a novel written by someone who drew the novel cover. I wouldn't want to see a movie written by a camera man.

You have no idea what the game industry is like, do you? A game designer has to be someone who understands the process, who has worked on some games before.

>No wonder almost EVERY game on the shelves out there has horrible plot writing, horrible dialogue etc...

I see now why you posted anonymously. :)

But now you've totally switched gears on us. As you noted in the following sentence, the writing must be by someone trained in writing. You have now made a fallacious connection between entry-level positions and game writing, as though "almost EVERY" game's writing was done by a former tester. And that's simply not the case.

Get more clues!
Tom

Wow, this topic took second wind....

Anywho, in answer to the idea of working on military simulations and the like, the problem has become that, much like a lot of the computer programming industry at large, all things of that nature are outsourced (obviously, there are military representatives present at every stage of development, but these are HIGH ranking military officials that are generally "battle-hardened" and know exactly what a simulation should... simulate....). But an interesting idea, and one I have indeed considered before.

This is where I currently stand (in case anyone gives a rat's *cough*). In the next 4 years, while in the Air Force, I'm going to be getting some debt paid off, learning everything I can about team management and leadership (well, more appropriately PRACTICING these things, as I've had them taught in the last 4 years...), getting at least a BA in Literature/Writing/Something Related, and probably an MBA or a masters in Information Assurance (an NSA accredited program in computer security theory and application, which includes national certification as a security specialist). And I'll get to travel the world and see the places I've long dreamed of and written about.

I'm also going to continue working on Fallen (my browser-based CRPG set in an Old Celtic world), getting it documented and expanded and developing a player base (already up to about 30 for beta...), and start documenting and building some other of the game ideas I've long had.

After that, I'm going to see where I stand. I'll apply to the gaming industry for both game design and if that fails, game production, as production is where my experience and education will be most useful, I imagine, and work my way from there.

Thanks again for all the advice and ideas -- it's truly been a blessing to see such support.

-John