Hullo everyone. I'm looking for tips on getting historical or political background research gigs from game developers. I have no prior game development experience, but I do have advanced degrees in aforementioned fields.

Right now, I have a very fulfilling communications career, so I'm not looking to join the game development community full time. But I'm just fascinated by the creativity coming from this field and would love to experience the meeting of minds -- and honestly, the fun -- that must be involved in a game dev. project. Thank you in advance for any advice, tips and info.

Quote: Original post by Salazar
I'm looking for tips on getting historical or political background research gigs from game developers. I have no prior game development experience, but I do have advanced degrees in aforementioned fields.

Most developers working on complex projects related to history etc will almost certainly have full time researchers as part of their design team. You could identify companies working on the sort of project you feel you could contribute to and contact them to offer your services but...

Quote: ...I'm not looking to join the game development community full time.

That will likely rule you out of the commercial game dev field. It may look like fun from the outside but it is a complex, high pressure industry where people work to tight/short deadlines. If a developer wants research done they are pretty much going to want it done now... which means full time commitment. You might get hired as a part-time consultant if you were an acknowledged/published expert with years of experience. Without that it is unlikely.

You could join one of the many hobby projects that are in development. Check out the Help Wanted forum and search back through old posts. There are WWII, Ancient Greece and almost certainly a host of other historically inspired projects in the works.

[Edited by - Obscure on November 2, 2010 7:39:24 PM]

Sounds good. Thank you for the tips.