Say you want to get into game development, but you first want to study at the university for some years, what would you at Paradox recommend doing in the meantime to be more ready for a job in the game development industry - besides learning Swedish ?
(this turned out way longer than intended...hence the delay in posting)
I kind of brought it upon myself so here goes:
Shams personal thoughts on how to best make into the business based on my experiences.
So exactly what are my experiences and why does it matter?. Before I actually started working in the industry I was the partner manager for Sweden's largest game development competition; Swedish Game Awards for 2 years in a row. My primary task was to negotiate with game companies and convince them to sponsor our student run competition.
To make a long story short; what I did all day long was to talk to Human Resource managers and other people in charge of hiring, this included people from notable companies such as; DICE, Starbreeze, Avalanche Studios, Paradox Interactive, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, GRIN and a bunch of smaller companies. In addition I've been through numerous interview/hiring procedures so I feel I have a pretty good picture of what's needed to make it into a gaming industry similar to Sweden's. I myself have a technical and classical/humanist background and have worked with art, design, QA and management with varying degrees of success.
The original question called for which academic studies are most important/of greatest use to make it, in addition to answering that I'm going to add a non-academic equivalent as they are just as important.
General tips:
Academic: More and more HR people are looking for people with backgrounds in as many fields as possible regardless of position. Speak 5 languages? Studied architecture? Have a minor in Shakespearean literature? Took a course in geology? It all helps in one way or another. Game development can cover so many wide areas so that it's truly helpful if you have a wide skillset. So don't be afraid to study something that isn't directly game dev related, it might not be the thing that helps you break into the industry but it will definitely be an asset.
Non-academic: Make and play games as much as humanly possible. Pen & paper role playing is perhaps "the best" as it the most complex and closely resembles game development. But every other form of game; miniature wargames, card games, video games, online games, board games, sports etc etc, all are good. HOWEVER, make sure you do the 2 following things or non of it will help: 1: Diversity - play lots of different types of games - don't grind one or one type of game all the time. 2: Critical thought - Constantly ask yourself, what makes this good, what makes it bad and how could it be changed and what impact does that change have on the rest of the game. Don't be a passive consumer, be active! This perhaps describes what's needed for the game designer the most, but all developers regardless of title or rank need to be able to critically evaluate and judge games.
now the actual answers:
Programmer
Academic: Math & logic courses are always an asset. Pick a common coding language and stick with it until you know it. Additional languages are always a plus.
Non-academic: I'm no coder myself, but my coder friends tell me that the study of programming is worth nothing unless you actually make sure you regularly write code. Always have a small hobby coding project going on the side. There are literally thousands of mod, indie, opensource teams on the internet looking for help.
Graphics 2D/3D, Animation
Academic: Almost everything related to image composition, color theory, layout design, croquis, claywork, art history, photography, typography, cinema studies is useful
Non-academic: paint paint paint or model model model (depending if you're going 2d/3d) Again make sure you're diverse try different styles, techniques, motifs. There are again thousands of indie teams looking for artists. Regardless if you go 2 or 3d, make sure you have some experience with the other. Make sure you flex your imagination. Artists that apply for jobs at PDX often show a good level technical proficiency but instead lack a sense of imagination. Be creative! develop your own distinct style.
Game Design:
Academic: Literary studies, drama or cinema studies are useful. Logic in some sense but generally it's hard to "teach" game design, I've got mixed experience with the programmes focused on game design in sweden, although I see them improving. Game designers are perhaps the role that require the largest diversity in their background.
Non-academic: See "general" heading. I want to add two more things that I frequently hear from senior designers/game directors; learn to draw and sketch, it's extremely useful when you are conveying your design to the rest of the team. The second thing is to write design and pitches as often as you can. Push yourself to think outside the box; How would Tetris work as a first person shooter? What would Call of Duty puzzle game look like? What if the Mario games used enemy killcount instead of stars? What would a Europa Universalis card game look like? How would you play CK2 on a wii? The game designer needs to prove herself the most as anybody can come up with a half decent idea, few however come up with a great idea and even fewer actually manage to turn the idea into anything more than just words on a paper.
Level Design
Academic: Good Level designers benefit from the courses taken by game designers and artists. Architecture and logic courses are useful. In addition being proficient at scripting is must. Almost every game has it's own syntax and different scripting language, so just make you know how to get up to speed once you start.
Non-academic: There are numerous games that have level/map editors, ranging from simple ones to really advanced ones such as the Crysis Editor. Get cracking creating levels! every kind of level, how would your bedroom look built in the source engine, what would your school look like in Doom 2? Build, design and script like crazy and team up with some friends and put your skills to use.
Community management
Academic: Perhaps the newest role in game development and strictly speaking more related to publishing. One foot in every camp in other words. New and therefore few academic courses directly related to the craft. Although social media has started to crop up in universities in Sweden as a proper field of study. Otherwise any studies relating to human communication or psychology would be useful.
Non-academic: Become a moderator on the PDX forums (or any other big community) and do a great job. Prove you're trustworthy, reliable, great to work with and that you "get" the crowd, the game and what works and what doesn't. Ask the company you're moderating for if you could help out more in any way - Are there any marketing / PR efforts you can help out with? Be creative and suggest that you can run a weekly featurette on the forums during the games development.
Project management
Academic: Aaah, now this is something I hold dear. Study stuff like organisational theory, psychology, behavioral science and the like. HOWEVER.
Non-academic: My theory is that you don't become a project manager just by studying project management. First of all you need to know what you are managing, i.e. you have to have extensive knowledge about game development. Secondly you have to be a great communicator as it's the tool you're going to be using 95% of the time. A fairly common problem in Sweden is that they promote someone to the role of PM because they are the best at it. "You're a great surgeon, so why not make you the chief of medine" I've seen this time and time in the gaming industry as well. What happens is that not only does everyone lose a great programmer but they also get a PM that lacks the organisational, adminstrational and personal skills to manage a large bunch of people. So enough ranting, try to work as in many different projects as possible, in as many different roles as possible and learn how to deal with lots of different types of situations. Take more and more responsibility as time goes on and don't be afraid to listen to others. Mattias, our executive producer once said: "don't hire a 3 star general as the principal of a grade school and expect greatness" I think it's pretty descriptive about project management - the right people, at the right places.
A note on numbers: Some people just want to get into the industry no matter the position, then it's simply a numbers game. Without a doubt programmers constitute the largest percentage of development teams.
An average dev studio breaks down like this:
50% programmers
20% artists
10% level design/or similar
10% QA
5% Game designers
5% project management
This varies depending on the type and size of game. A breakdown of PDX dev team reveals:
55% coders
18% artists
18% level design/similar
9% designer/QA
Many have dual roles (coder/designer, coder/PM for instance) it pretty much matches the regular breakdown. So bear this in mind when you go looking for a job in development:
10 programmers are hired for each game designer.
I went on for much longer than I intended...but hopefully it stayed kinda on target and you found it remotely relevant.
I'm sure my colleagues have their own variations of my take on this and I'll get them to chime in if they disagree.
I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any.
/s
