Tim certainly has some good thoughts. Let me throw a penny onto the pile. Best piece of advice I would give these days...don't be a CG artist. I know...given this list...but I have been in games for 16+ years in the art field and the single most important role in a studio is a software developer and then maybe creative. I hear it all the time, its easier to outsource the art than it is to outsource the development and its mostly true. Talking with recruiter friends of mine, its pretty scary out there for art. You have tons of seasoned top notch guys getting laid off and these for profit schools (Full Sail, DigiPen, AI, and the like) turning out brand new artists at high volume and no one can get a steady job. You need to have serious art chops. I really don't see this getting better.
Even if you are not in games, a software developer for the most part will be in demand. I as noted to a friend recently, there really isn't much of a plan B for a character artist\animator\rigger\lighter. Heck, I don't know a single artist that has "retired" from the CG industry. But there are a ton more options for a decent dev. I know of a number of really good game devs that just left all together and have completely different careers. One friend was a lead graphics dev and after the last layoff he went to Nokia working on NavTeq stuff. Happily employed and taking care of his family. My Plan B is to grow parsnips. _______________________________________________________________________________ Marc Brinkley GO GO GO Microsoft Studios [Fun]ction Studio marc.brinkley [at] microsoft.com From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Tim Thorburn Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 5:44 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: OT: (sort-of) getting in to game dev As others have said, he should decide what about games he really wants to do first. I'd suggest you point him to some free/open source tools - Blender, Unity3D, etc. These programs will often have a vast amount of tutorials or user forums available to assist in the learning curve. Have him start with those and see what he can come up with - no, he won't be making Final Fantasy his first try, but he might at least get a basic matching game working first. If that makes his brain melt, maybe get him to try some game editors, or join a modding community. Games like Torchlight II, The WItcher 2, etc are under $20 I believe and come with the same tools the game makers used to build the levels. After he builds a few, and assuming his brain hasn't melted, have him put a few of his levels out for the larger community to play with and critique. If the critique makes him roll up into a ball sobbing, this is a good sign he should re-think his career options. After a month or so of trying each he's come up with absolutely nothing, again, time to re-think his career options. Don't expect a fully working game in this time, unless its purely been copied from a tutorial; but it will at least open his eyes to see how much work is really involved, and how little glamor there is. I too would caution against a too narrowly focused school. I've had friends attend Full Sail, and while almost all raved about how amazing the program was, it seems that most studios would bring them on board as an unpaid intern to complete one small aspect of a game and then move on to the next years batch. If he likes coding, suggest a computer science program where his skills can be used for any number of tasks, not just games. If it's the art work he likes, then I'm sure you can offer him a variety of suggestions on where to go next. If there are any game studios in your area, it might be an idea for him to contact one and see if he can arrange a tour or speak with someone there. It was definitely an eye opener for me while attending University in Toronto to be able to go see two completely different animation studios. The first we saw looked like the animation studio on every single behind the scenes DVD you've ever seen; the second had about 30ppl crammed into a tiny attic apartment converted to studio complete with render farms to make it 40 degrees inside in the dead of winter. Today he also has the option to self publish any games he creates. For a one-time fee of $25 he can begin selling Android games almost immediately, or for $99/yr he can sell games on iOS (though be prepared for many, many arbitrary rejections from Apple). I'm not sure how things are on the Xbox side of the world, but Sony has been making a number of pushes to get Indie game developers on PSN. Nintendo and Sony have both made commitments to bring Unity support to their consoles - can't say for sure, but I imagine Microsoft would have something similar as well. Again, none of this will make him rich or have typical 8hr days, unless he's incredibly talented and incredibly lucky. As long as he understands that clearly and still has passion for it - let him loose and see what he comes up with. On 6/17/2013 7:42 AM, Paul Griswold wrote: Hi guys, My daughter's boyfriend has expressed an interest in getting into game development. He's just a teenager, so he really doesn't have much of a focus yet other than "I want to get into games". But I told my daughter I'd get some recommendations on things like what he should study, good colleges for careers in games, different job descriptions, good entry-level positions, etc. So, I'd love to hear what you guys have to say. Any advice at all would be great. Thanks, Paul
