Are gaming jobs just for coders?
Dan and Phil interview
Dan: I think the most exciting thing about the gaming industry right now is how it is exploding ingrowth because of mobile phones. Literally everyone is gamer! On Facebook, on their phones, on their computers, for every single object there’s probably a way to game it. You think ‘Oh I like gaming but I don’t know what I’d do’ - there’s SO many things to do.
Phil: There are so many jobs!
Dan: There’s art, there’s programming, there’s general manager and design…
Phil: Monster creator! That’s a good one.
Dan: I’d say that comes under design, and programming, and art.
Phil: You don’t even have to be a computer programmer because they have creative aspects. Like some people just draw and design the monsters; it’s about using the artistic talent rather than the computer talent.
Dan: The gaming industry has never been larger and more desperate for people to come in with ideas.
Phil: We’ve got a friend that went looking for a job and he loves computer and he’s ended up as a computer console Twitter guy who just tweets about games all day so it’s just like a dream.
Dan: Dream life!
Phil: I did a voice of an emo goose in an iPhone app…
[Phil does impression of emo goose]
Dan: Voice acting! Got an acting talent, you can be an emo goose!
[Phil does impression of emo goose]
Dan: We also have a friend who just really loved games and he started running a blog and then it turned into a review site where he reviewed Xbox games and then he got hired by official Xbox Magazine.
Phil: My advice for getting into the gaming industry, first of all is to play lots of games.
Dan: Think of the games that you love the most, look at those credits, see what all the different jobs are. Think about what your skillsets. What do you enjoy doing the most in school? Are you a computing kind of person? Are you a talking kind of person? Then think, ‘Hey, I want to do that for my favourite video game!’ Start doing it as a hobby, look up the people that have done it on the internet. And never stop dreaming!
Phil: That was a bit cheesy at the end there Dan.
