How To Play Videogames For A Living
Forbes:
Here’s a trick to get Mom off your back: The next time she tells you to stop wasting so much time playing Madden NFL ‘07, tell her you’re just training for a career.
There are now about 500 new videogames hitting the shelves every year, according to market research company NPD Group, and all those game studios need teams of driven, highly skilled gamers who can develop and produce virtual worlds.
There are many ways to break into the videogame industry, experts say. The pathway into sought-after studios like Electronic Arts, THQ and Ubisoft Entertainment isn’t always glamorous, but the payoffs can include financial success and the chance to create something enjoyed by kids from Boston to Beijing.
The 1st thing to realize about working in the videogame industry is that playing Gears of War is a lot more fun than working to create it. The hours of a professional gamemaker can be grueling, says Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association. ‘It is a common myth that working in games means that you play games all day,’ he says. ‘In fact, that doesn’t happen. It is extremely hard work.’
When deadlines approach, expect to work around the clock, says Matt Flegel, lead artist at gaming studio Volition, which created the game Saints Row. He says that members of his team worked non-stop as the project neared completion. ‘There were times when people were working 100-hour weeks,’ he says. ‘It’s more work than people assume.’
Just as challenging, Della Rocca notes, is the fact that despite the long hours, your game might never make it onto the shelves of Wal-Mart Stores or GameStop. In fact, games are often cancelled as publishers change their minds about the marketability of the product and choose to cut off the funding. ‘Staff gets laid off,’ Della Rocca says. ‘You will jump around from studio to studio.’ Still interested? Read on…
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