The Games Industry is really weird.
There are a variety of different companies from AAA
developers to little Indie studios and they all require a different set of
skills. Well, I say different... Slightly more/less specialised depending where
you go.
To understand why that is, you need to look at the positions
that are available within the industry and which companies require which
positions. Early on the in industry, game artists needed to be good at
everything because there were so few and far between. You needed to generalise.
Now, however, the entire industry has changed.
When looking at the jobs that AAA developers offer, you can
see a trend. For example, if we look at DICE's vacancies, we can see that the
job titles are all very specialised. Lead Character Artists, Level Artists, VFX
artists, 2D artists, not even including all the Software Engineer jobs, the Game
Engine Engineers and the Marketing. This is exactly the same when you look at
the Bioware career opportunities. The job descriptions and the responsibilities are very
specific.
One day...
Within the AAA developers, specialised jobs are key. Often,
the teams working on these games are in the 100s so there is no need for
everyone to be able to do everything. This means that the artists that work
there will be specialised in one area, whether it be character art, environment
art or visual effects. For example, the team that worked on Grand Theft Auto V was over 1000 strong and they worked for 5 years so there was no need for generalising. Because of the huge
number of people working on the team, they will be split up into various
departments that will work together on different areas of the game. One team
might have responsibility for one specific level.
In the world of Indie studios, however, it's very different.
Teams often consist of only a few people. Occasionally, like in the case of
Super Meat Boy's Team Meat, it's only two people. This means that artists in
Indie companies often have to be able to do everything, or at least a little of
everything. You don't have anyone else to rely on for your UI design so you
need to understand it. Occasionally you'll need to know how to do some basic
animations and rigging because it's cheaper to hire someone who knows a bit of
rigging rather than someone who doesn't. Applying for a job in the Indie games
industry is all about showing you can do it all.
Valve take an interesting approach
to their roles and responsibilities . In fact, the way they approach it is the
"T-shaped model employee", shown in their employee handbook, which makes for a pretty interesting read. We're taught about this in our classes and
lectures at university as well.
Be awesome at one thing, be good at everything else.
Due to the nature of the games
industry at the moment and the huge boom in Indie game development thanks to
sites like Kickstarter, the ease with which people can get hold of software to
develop their games, and the mobile market becoming a huge source of revenue
for aspiring game artists, Indie developers are quickly becoming the source of
jobs for graduates. It doesn't help that, if you look at any job description
for many AAA developers, most require you to have however many years of
experience in the industry as well as a game shipped.
As an aspiring student, this is
all incredibly important to me... Knowing the nature of the industry before I
aim to wedge my foot into the door means that I know how to tailor my
portfolio.
Maybe, one day, I'll be able to get enough experience and have shipped enough games for Bioware to want me...
Maybe, one day, I'll be able to get enough experience and have shipped enough games for Bioware to want me...
A girl can dream.
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