Okay so heres some info, I'm trying to get an internship I'm 19 and I live in Chicago. I do environments. davidlesperance.blogspot.com is my site, please review. I took an art test at a local company and they haven't got back to me. The shot looks just like the concept art and its not prerendered. So my question is what can I do to get into a game design company. My resume shows the software that I know but I don't have the real world exp. HELP!!!! thanks again

Apply for a lot of jobs. Not hearing back from anyone is not necessarily a bad sign, it's just the usual.

Yeah.

1) apply to a TON of companies. Getting an internship is more competitive than getting an actual job: more people applying for less positions.

2) not hearing back is the typical "we're not interested" response. It's crappy but that's standard in the real world. People only call you back if they're interested.

-me

Btw, the art in your page is great.

Get an art degree.

Yeah thanks for the feedback and the comp. I've gotten a few interviews but either the internship gets cut or after I do an art test as is the case now, I get left in limbo. I'm going to college now, I end my freshmen status in 2 weeks whooh!!!, its just hard when your instructors really don't know that much about the process or the apps.

Without looking at your art test it's hard to say for sure why you haven't got a response yet, but it's fairly typical to not receive a response from a studio. The examples provided on your site are well done from an artistic perspective but do little to show your design abilities as they pertain to creating environments that are game-centered. I would suggest creating a sample environment that is using current game technologies and budgets and that appears to be laid out for a specific game situation. Other than that, just keep applying and don't get frustrated when you don't hear back from a few. When someone is really interested you’ll know. When I applied to Bungie and submitted my art test I heard back the very next day. I didn’t even get a response from about 7-8 other studios that I had applied to.

Honestly though, it's a lot harder to get your foot in the door than you would expect. Even if you're talented and a studio finds your work interesting they may still pass on you and opt for someone that they've been recommended or already know. When I worked at Liquid Development for example we would often use artists that we had worked with in the past or were already familiar with even if they weren't as talented as some unknowns who were submitting their portfolios and resumes. This was because the art managers knew what they could expect from artists that they were familiar with in terms of consistency, quality, and work ethic. It didn't matter that there were other slightly more talented artists out there because the art managers didn't know if they could be consistent with their work or had the work ethic to stay on task and meet deadlines. I'm not saying that I agree with this hiring philosophy, just letting you know how some game companies view hiring.

Also, work ethic, team cooperation, and the ability to get things done on a timeline are of great importance to any studio. You probably already know this, but it's worth reiterating since many aspiring game artists think that all you need is talent. Unfortunately, there’s no art test that really demonstrates these qualities in an artist, which is why so many studios rely on an artist’s experience.

Whoa thanks alot. The stuff thats shown as the title page is based on some stranglehold concept work, I would love to foward you some of my work to get somemore feedback. Should I hit more future based stuff? or try to hit the realistic mark a bit more. Its hard to cover everything and it seems as if its kinda hard for companies to see your work transposed to there's. Is there a coast effective way to nail this or is just casting the widest net?

Maybe they can't get back to you because your inbox is full, or your email isn't working for some other reason. Tried to email you from my gmail and yahoo accounts, both gave a "delivery to recipient failed permanently" response.

(PMed you here instead)

Just make sure that those companies are sending any replies to a working email account.

Thats a good point, I never thought of that. Here's my student email dl3318@stu.aii.edu Sorry about that, now I'm even more of a wreak lol.