See, the filter here that many employers will use is \u201cmotivation.\u201d Games are hot now, and everyone says they want to be in the industry. But given that there\u2019s no huge barriers other than time, the way to get in the industry is to just get in it. Don\u2019t be fooled by the idea that the big companies are the entirety of games. Nothing shows actual motivation and passion more than just going and doing it. When companies see a young person these days without a portfolio, they ask themselves whether he wants to be in games just because it sounds cool. For better or worse, an awful lot of candidates show up these days with a degree and a dose of entitlement \u2014 \u201cI did my four years, hire me.\u201d Having a finished game or two to plop down on the HR person\u2019s desk is proof of actual commitment to the craft and the hard work. ….<\/p>\n
You aren\u2019t like that \u2014 but you\u2019ve been doing all that MUD work \u2014 but the MUD stuff is unfortunately not easily demoable. So you need some portfolio stuff that is easily demoable. I bet your odds skyrocket. And who knows, you may find that the small team indie thing appeals to you.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t feel comfortable with the game design side, I suggest you partner up with someone who does. It\u2019ll both be a learning experience, and it\u2019ll be to your mutual benefit in terms of portfolio development. And trust me, there will be no shortage of aspiring designers knocking on your door if you tell the world \u201cI\u2019m a coder who wants to help a small indie project.\u201d Locate one of the many indie game communities out there on the \u2018Net \u2014 there are a lot, and not knowing more about you, I wouldn\u2019t presume which sort would be right. Go to a few Game Jams.<\/p>\n
Above all, don\u2019t give up. The paths to entry are wider open than ever, but that also means that a far larger percentage of those who try don\u2019t end up making money or finding a career. Persistence is key.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
See, the filter here that many employers will use is \u201cmotivation.\u201d Games are hot now, and everyone says they want to be in the industry. But given that there\u2019s no huge barriers other than time, the way to get in the industry is to just get in it. Don\u2019t be fooled by the idea that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-4Em","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}