since I dont have experience.

But you have experience. It might not be perfect, but you were not born yesterday. You already have a job in interactive media, you have modeled before, you know the tools.

Having a job, especially one you kept for several years means you have been exposed to work environment, soft skills, there are people you worked with.


While all of this gives you vast advantage over someone fresh out of school who did a few spare time things, none of this might apply for your desired position. Like said, internships are aimed at people with no real world on-the-job experience. The tasks and assignments are specifically tailored to getting the most out of singular specialized and fairly trivial to learn mechanical skill.

Your experience works against that. Age is indeed a factor, since you have additional life experiences which do change the way you think. Not having a different perspective would be a problem. You will be expected to be more mature, to see broader picture, to aim for more.

This is why simple tech-specific internship does suffer from age bias. You need to find someone that will give you opportunity beyond just clicking buttons. And here you'll be on your own to determine who genuinely has such opportunities and who just wants cheapest work. You should have advantage here and should be able to judge this considerably better than a fresh graduate, but it also excludes many opportunities which would require different kind of effort.

I just like to program to be able to implement my own ideas[/quote]

You won't get that. Not until you're in a senior position with proven track record. And even then, "implementing your own" is the exact opposite of how software industry works these days, where everything is metrics and user driven.

Implementing your own ideas is ok if you want to be a starving artist. But hardly anyone, especially in past 10 years, makes a living out of it.

You won't get that. Not until you're in a senior position with proven track record. And even then, "implementing your own" is the exact opposite of how software industry works these days, where everything is metrics and user driven.

Oh, yeah I know that, I know the professionals have to be very focused on what they do better and the development pipeline requires that you stick to your activity, finish it and pass the job forward, to the next step. I said I like to implement my own ideas today, hence I am just a guy that like to make his own games, so I have to create and develop it mysel =/

Anyway, thanks a lot!

[quote name='Antheus' timestamp='1326384663' post='4902036']
You won't get that. Not until you're in a senior position with proven track record. And even then, "implementing your own" is the exact opposite of how software industry works these days, where everything is metrics and user driven.

Oh, yeah I know that, I know the professionals have to be very focused on what they do better and the development pipeline requires that you stick to your activity, finish it and pass the job forward, to the next step. I said I like to implement my own ideas today, hence I am just a guy that like to make his own games, so I have to create and develop it mysel =/
[/quote]

It's not about being focused and doing what you are good at. Game ideas are passed down to you from the upper management, and though you can give out opinions, your creativity is limited. For example, you can't say "Level 5 to use the desert tileset" when the senior designer thinks that the jungle level fits better. It could get more extreme than just choosing tileset. Depending on what the company and the people you work with, somebody could be nitpicking your every single design choice. Can we put a box there? I think that pillar is weird, change that to blue. Why do enemies spawn here?

I quit the game industry because of that reason. I'm okay following advice of a senior designer whose design skill is actually superior, but when that advice is coming from an executive who doesn't play games, it gets frustrating.

My advice to you is to make your own game and try to actually release it to the market. Go indie. Even if it doesn't work, it would make your resume looks 10x better.

AGe is no barrier.

I quit the game industry because of that reason. I'm okay following advice of a senior designer whose design skill is actually superior, but when that advice is coming from an executive who doesn't play games, it gets frustrating.

My advice to you is to make your own game and try to actually release it to the market. Go indie. Even if it doesn't work, it would make your resume looks 10x better.

Did you go indie or leave the industry entirely? Or did you go into the government where the benefits are good and the managers just don't care that much?

Hello,
I think with your skills you would be a perfect fit for a small mobile or browser game developer. And if you can show a finished game you can expect to get paid right away. Or at least settle with a fixed date to decide about your future and a decent wage. Likely you will earn less money as at your current job but I can't confirm these horror stories about working overtime. I worked for over three years as an artist for a mobile game developer and I never had to do any overtime. And there was no nitpicking either. I was always thankful for critic even if it was unnerving. I noticed soon that in the end it made my work always better. It is important to be able to work in a team, especially in a creative environment. And for a future employer your age is a sign that you already developed a mature working attitude.

[quote name='alnite' timestamp='1326425366' post='4902204']
I quit the game industry because of that reason. I'm okay following advice of a senior designer whose design skill is actually superior, but when that advice is coming from an executive who doesn't play games, it gets frustrating.

My advice to you is to make your own game and try to actually release it to the market. Go indie. Even if it doesn't work, it would make your resume looks 10x better.

Did you go indie or leave the industry entirely? Or did you go into the government where the benefits are good and the managers just don't care that much?
[/quote]
I havent gone indie yet, but I will. I'm now working for other tech company where they are very strict about working 8 hours a day and no more

You posted in the Lounge. Go look in the Breaking In forum and read their faqs.


The Breaking In forum FAQs have the answers to the questions you asked. In summary: Go get the job you want, quit asking and start doing.

Whoa, what's with all the vitriol in this thread? I'm 26; I just started any serious work as an indie games writer/editor in the past year or so. My first game as lead writer/designer is set to come out this quarter--just a little indie adventure game for XBLIG, but I'm as proud of it as I can be.

I don't think 29's too late; as other people have suggested, the only barrier to overcome is just getting yourself out there and doing the work. You're (probably) not going to find a full-time job working for a games company right away, but maybe that's not what you want, anyway.