Tips and Advice On Getting a Game Dev Job.

Other videos:
➤Reasons to get a Game Dev Job
My character art sucked, so I fixed it.
My Game Lost it's G Rating
Indie Game Launch FAILS Badly ( My Response / Analysis )

Description: Is it worth getting a Game Dev Job? I share the main reasons I believe it is a worthwhile path to take, even if you want to exclusively make indie games. I also talk share tips and strategies on how to get a game dev job.

Subscribe for more Game Dev videos

#gamedev #indiedev

[LostRelicGames]

Drop me a comment, let me know your thoughts.

[GGFTV]

My story to being a professional game dev.

I made a very strict plan on how I was going to succeed, and I refused to deviate on factors I could control. I was very tired for 3 years to make this dream happen. I actually went to college for game design. Looking back, I would change it to software engineering because I am a technical designer now.

Anyways, I worked full time and went to school for 3 years to get my B.S with no summer breaks. I worked from 7am-4pm. Then school work from 4:30pm - 2am. Weekends were 12 hour days of school work. I graduated as valedictorian. If I didn't have school work, I would work on a project for my portfolio.

I obtained my first game dev job as a VR game designer 1 year before I graduated. The number one thing that got me that job was a really good portfolio with interesting projects. That is more important than my college experience by far I think. MAKE A GREAT PORTFOLIO WITH GREAT PROJECTS!!!

This was really hard. I had a wife and a child (only one kid at the time), and I sacrificed 3 years of our life together to get this dream. It was much harder on an emotional level than physical. But, it paid off. I now never have to work a second job again, and my wife can stay home with our now 3 children, which is what she always wanted.

These days, I work a very strict 40 hours a week for my job, but I spend about 20-25 hours a week on side projects still.

Side note: I was 24 when I started college. So I was a little late, but not by much.

[ThomasStewartDev]

Very well said. It took me a couple of years to become a full-time game dev.
I started with making the most simple games I could think of - then seeing it through to the end of production. I launch a couple mobile games, and put together a clean website portfolio that explained the skills I learned from each of my projects. Then I applied for a whole bunch of jobs, and finally landed one.
And boy let me tell you - you learn SO MUCH quicker when you are working in Unity 8 hours a day. My skill progression has skyrocketed and I feel like a professional now.

[ilijastarcevic]

My gamedev journey (so far):
Straight out of college, i knew i wanted to do game dev. But i had no experience whatsoever, so no one would have me. What i decided to do then is probably the best decision i ever made. I took a year out of my life to learn the ins and outs of unity, i bought many different courses, did some of my own projects, so by the end of the year i have built up quite a portfolio.
I then decided to start applying, but in my area there are very few studios, two AAA studios and one indie studio. I sent them my CV and some of the projects that i worked on, with very detailed descriptions of what i did in them in case they didnt have time to review the code.
All of them replied almost instantly, and said they would like to start the selection process. Some are more rigorous than others, but right now I'm very far in the process, and am quite confident.
So if you have the luxury of time, use it to get as good as possible, and start applying.
I'm still not hired, so i would have to update this post soon, but even now i feel very rewarded for my efforts, as well as feel satisfied with the skills that i have aquired along the way

[bimboi]

I have been working for 3 months at my first real 'game-dev' job as a programmer, and the path I took to get there was almost 1:1 with the guidance you gave in this video. School projects got me a job making medical 'interactive' experiences as an intern that turned into a full time job for 1.5 years. After that time I went back to finish my degree in Computer Science, participated in game jams, and finished some functionally polished vertical slices. At this point I had about 3 years of making 'games' under my belt, a handful of projects I was proud of, and even started a YouTube channel where I pushed myself to learn new skills such as editing and script writing while working on a game project.

I felt the time was right to start my career in the game industry (and money from my old job was running low...). So I prepared my GitHub with code bases I was proud of and I made a website that hosts links to personal games I had worked on. At last, four months ago I started applying for jobs at Indie game studios and it took me 3 weeks before I was working full time. In my interview I was told that I stood out massively because I had demonstrated I was self driven and creative. They explicitly called out my projects they liked and said my attempt at a YouTube channel showed I was capable of pushing myself to learn new skill sets.

I may not have massively succeeded at any point in the past 3 years but I have finally started to realize my childhood dream of becoming a bonified game developer. The advice in this video is spot on. I shared my story because it gives some context to the time and effort it can take just to get started. I wish everyone the same luck and success!

Note: I have the benefit of living near a big city with lots of small studios and I have a CS degree which I do owe some of this success to. I also think that 3 weeks was a rather short job hunting experience so I chalk that up to lucky timing.

[tylrpage]

Great points! Here's my story of getting a dev job with zero professional experience:

I had just graduated with a BS in software engineering and wanted to break into the indie dev scene. Started replying to job postings while joining game jams in the meantime. I didn't get any responses until I had a few game jams completed that I could add to my resume. I specifically wanted to have a career making multiplayer games, so all my games had online multiplayer, which caught an employer's eye. Had a really great call with the employer, got along well with the employees, and got the job!

This was almost two years ago and I've assisted in the company's hiring process for other engineers. Even the small indie companies receive a ton of replies for open positions, but very few stand out. And when you come across somebody who shows they are constantly pushing forward their knowledge and skills: it sticks out and people will notice. So do what you can to stand out: write a cover letter explaining why you are right for this specific company, maybe tweak the resume for the position, and showcase unique projects with clean code. Luck is a factor too, and sometimes things just don't work out. But keep pushing forward and good things will come.

[emeraldskelly]

I graduated with a B.S. in Game Development in May. I have a portfolio of projects I made throughout my time in school. I participated in game jams, school projects, and personal projects. I've been applying to big and small studios alike, some of which have requirments that match exactly with my skillset, but I haven't gotten any interviews yet.

[kktt]

The best advice I can give as someone who was looking for their first job only five or six months ago is to put yourself in positions where you can get lucky. I found my job at GDC, not while I was actively looking for jobs to apply for but because the panel I was at opened the floor to any studios that were hiring. I met another person that was hiring just hanging around the hostel before the conference. Obviously you should still actively looking for studios that are hiring, but also making connections with other developers and being around people who are hiring can help immensely because you never know when you'll run into someone who could use your skill set. But you can put yourself in opportunities where they're more likely to meet you.

Best of luck to all the aspiring devs out there!

[Rambolink]

I was one of the mentioned commenters of the last video, the one mentioning 200+ applicants on job offers. The reason I had such a specific number is I'm using LinkedIn (as well as Indeed and Glassdoor) to find jobs and LinkedIn provides applicant counts. Perhaps these are poor places to look for game dev jobs, but I'm not sure what else to use. I've gone directly to game developer sites and applied there too, but with no luck yet.

I appreciate you making this follow-up video. I've been pretty discouraged as of late. I definitely realize I need to adjust my mindset, but it's hard for me to work on such uninspired projects as I've been working on for my last two jobs. I want to work on games with gunfire, explosions, and chaos for PC and Console, not AR and healthcare product exploration apps for iOS.

[orangelimesky]

In all these comments all I see are folks in game dev and jobs only related to game dev. I'm curious about the ones who work at fortune 500 companies as software engineers by day, and the secret game dev by evening until early mornings. I've seen many claim they're web developers full time, in other videos. That's another option I think you could mention as well. Not everyone's near a game dev studio and working for a little studio that can go under or pays poorly may not be lucrative for those with families. It's really all about the hustle.

Great video and nice to see you're active again.

[tangyorangegames]

Downwell was another example of a solo Dev making it big. I'm 40 and Ive been hammering Gamemaker for about 10 years and the whole thing has been unproductive to be honest. It's kind of soul crushing to see so much time go to waste. This year I decided to quit my job (100k a year in IT support roles) to pursue a project and this year I'm doing a diploma in game design and animation in the hope of breaking in to the industry. Despite my desire and will I have a feeling I will face a lot of pain.

My feeling is there are real world jobs out there, but, you will need qualifications and experience to get them and you may even need to travel interstate or overseas. Freelancing art and code is a realistic way to make money also but you need talent. Unfortunately that is something 99% of devs don't have and often requires innate skill or extensive training/practice (e.g. 10+ years of drawing every day)

My biggest hurdle is getting exposure with my game. I think at the end of the day it's 50% marketing and 50% content. Sure I could sell to a publisher if the game is good enough but that would be like selling a dream. I just don't know if I could. My biggest fear is investing years of my life and looking back and being the only one to appreciate my game. That's kind of sad.

[MrNeko]

Another great video, i would only argue that you need job in game industry. As programmer you can find a lot of good jobs in other industries early on, and then slowly shift focus to game industry if you want. The amount of stuff you can learn from people programming for 20+ years is staggering, also organization structures, handling meetings, planning work and so on. It may not be directly connected to game dev, but that expirience translates. I started 6 years ago (having around 5 years of game dev experience) working for financial company, switched couple of jobs, and I have progressed rapidly in a way of structuring the code, and organizing projects.

[dexlovesgames_dlg]

This was a great video, maybe even more useful to me than the previous one. Thanks for making this man!

[shavais]

All very good points. I've been working in tech since the 90's and I've been a (non-game) developer since the early 2000's. (On the side I've been programming since the mid 80's.) At this point, I can make a 6 figure income in various market sectors outside of game dev. My impression is that most game dev jobs don't pay that well? And, in many of them, they often end up wanting you to work a lot of extra hours, and they don't necessarily treat you all that well? There is a lot of competition for those jobs, and they know that, so, they sort of have you where they want you, to some extent. Certainly not all of them are like that, but it seems like a common theme that I hear about.

There have been some times when I have dipped my toe in the pool of professional game dev and/or collaborative game dev here and there, and the experience didn't really make me want to dive in. The thing is, when I start working on a game, I care about the design decisions, and if the money isn't coming from me, I'm not necessarily going to be the one who gets to make them. At least certainly not unilaterally! So I often found myself putting effort toward goals that I was just sort of sour about. I was like "Augh! I hate this. I can't believe they want it this way!" It's really hard to make myself work in that circumstance. In my non-game-dev day job, I actually get satisfaction from doing what someone else wants me to. My users find what I'm doing to be helpful and useful for them. They thank me and cheer me on, and they're willing to wait if it takes a while. And it's all a very positive thing for me. And I don't care about the specifics of what they want all that much myself. If the particular design they want is not the way I would do it, eh, /shrug, it doesn't really matter all that much to me. So it's easy to just do what my employers want on their projects during the day, and then go home and do what I want on my projects on my own. Each person is different. Every person has to figure out how they can find meaning and satisfaction in life.

Another advantage to a non-game-dev day job is that there really aren't any non-competition issues at all. Long ago, it used to be that many employers wanted you to sign something saying that anything you invent on your own belongs to them while you're in their employ (there was even a Dilbert cartoon about it), so I read my employment contracts very carefully! But I haven't seen a contract like that in a very long time now.

[BrandonCourt]

Regardless if you're working at a game dev job or your own projects at home, as long as you're spending your waking hrs creating stuff and putting it out there to be critiqued, you will get better to point where you become undeniable. As for finding success, I believe there's no luck involved. It's just: is you hat in the ring and do you love the craft more than the rewards?

[dasthz]

My first "gamedev" job was for a playable demo of an aspiring Indie with a AAA quality mindset, I spend 2 years working there as sole programmer and because of that I learned a lot of stuff (by reading documentation) but wasn't really challenging myself because there was no one that I would compare to or even ask if I was doing anything the right way so my progress was really slow.

Then I got another job in Industry trainings (mostly VR) and got to know a lot of people with different mindsets and ways of coding and then finally I started to progress, maybe it isn't really game related but now I got certain knowledge of the engine and I can make a game by myself in a relatively short time (currently I'm making casual mobile games).

[marvinsteven]

Thumbnail: Gives up on your dreams.
Actual Video: Reasonable tips, advice, and going on details about the field.

[plamenxyzpenchev]

Jon, you are a massive inspiration! All the best in all your projects!

[thephidragon]

Thanks its only been 6 months since I stepped into game dev. It can be hard to balance school and game dev. Making prototypes for small games.And working on my dream game sometimes.

[raulsantandertirado]

I'd like to thank you for this and the previous video. I probably won't be able to make a videogame in a while but, for some reason these videos kind of suggest me that I might not be too side tracked.