I want to work making games

Many of you readers Ecéticos, we read the news every day and certainly more than once have dreamed of or at least wanted to work in the video game market. Many of us have done in our younger years we have been lucky and after a long fight it can be made that our hobby is our work, as I do. I for one am a game designer for over 4 years, one of the most visible positions within the game development, but there are hundreds of possible places that suit your skills and knowledge you can begin to find your place within this huge market.

Both Latin America and Spain have grown enormously in recent years as regards to creating video games and opportunities to work on them are increasing. For that reason I thought that with our years of experience in the field we humbly give some advice for those who still do not work within the industry but feel like one day to prepare for it. In my case, my experience as a game designer (also went tester) can help in some fields but not in others such as art, since I am not an artist but you always have to know a little about art as well as several disciplines such as film , literature, etc.. All knowledge is used when working on video games.

Let's start talking about some myths:

I can not work in video games because I can not schedule, nor know how to draw graphics or anything.

Error. I do not know a single line of programming code and I can not draw anything too well and yet managed to work in video games. There are many positions within the development of a video game that can work without being a programmer, artist or designer, such as tester , translator, writer, level designer, sound engineers, musicians, producers, etc, etc. From the growth of social games and games that have microtransactions freemium has also become very important to have economists and financial analysts. These are responsible for reading the metric (information that is available daily on microtransactions players, and various aspects of movement within the game) and based on that plan which item sells greater or less, and what the close to design and which do not serve you.

However it is always good in all cases at least know about video games, today's market or at least know the main current platforms and features. In general those working in this industry are gamers so this is not very difficult to fulfill what it costs them to enter gaming news sites (like ours) or read about the history of videogames. Unfortunately I have found people taking important decisions about a game and still not know who is Mario or Gordon Freeman, or what is a power-up. Such is life.  

The game designer game program

It may be possible but like I said one thing implies the other, in fact in medium and large studies such posts are clearly separated, although in small personal projects or independent these and other positions may be filled by the same type as in Braid . The job of a game designer is (among other things) generate lots of documents detailing the various game mechanics in detail and the various aspects that are part of the gameplay (power ups, weapons, skills, etc, etc).

All these aspects have long to be described with absolute and total depth (not just put "throws grenades as the character Duke Nukem") by which the designer can not be distracted with other things, even if I knew programming so it is reasonable that both tasks are often divided.

Never make the mistake of believing that our partners know the same games as us with the same depth, so it never hurts to describe to the minutest detail every feature we want to implement. In this sense also always be working with the most graphic details, photos, references, videos, etc.. to make our idea is understood best.

Playing video games is the most fun job in the world

Not always making games is fun, but is also clearly not carrying bags at a port under 40 degrees in summer, but the industry is really stressful moments can break even the strongest.

The games become increasingly shorter and tighter so it is not uncommon for missing a couple of weeks to deliver a game we have to stay in the office every day 12 or 14 hours to reach the deadline. This ALWAYS happens because more good forward planning there are inevitable unexpected that make a game is delayed, making our humor, Our health and our work and personal relationships are affected. It is not unusual in these times be interdictions with colleagues and discussions, and resignations of key members of a team for the pressures that means going into what is called "crunch time". There have cold head fights to spare our loved ones and friends to not make them targets of our frustrations.

On the other hand, many game companies (this happens in Argentina, I do not know how it will be elsewhere) advantage that most employees work always dreamed of making games is not so strange as to make it work plenty of unpaid overtime or appreciation for the work done, which is totally illegal but it occurs more frequently than desired. Is in one decide whether to pay the "dues" to continue working on a study, often no choice but to sacrifice a certain amount of hours of our lives after continue growing professionally.

Another important factor to consider is probably the first projects in which work will have nothing to do with our personal tastes so probably if we hate Barbie games or games for ladies 50 years, we have to bow his head and work on them because nobody in the industry starts designing a GTA, a Halo or Metroid.

That's all for now dear readers, this is an experiment to see if they are interested in this section, so if you want to give more tips and guidelines for working in video games do not hesitate to leave your questions and comments below. In future editions we will try to answer your queries in the most profound way possible.