An introduction to the Game Industry

The games industry is being pushed further and further into the spotlight, as it becomes a high grossing media. It’s evolution throughout the years has changed the public view of the gaming world. Stigmas of nerds and geeks locked away in their rooms coding basic games using simple technology, are but a distant memory, blown out of the water by an industry driven by a mass of huge projects featuring cutting edge technologies with big name actors and veteran voice actors such as Troy Baker. It’s becoming a glitzy and glamorous world with acknowledgment from a wide range of areas. Many games of recent are rival ling high budget films, with their ever more intricate story telling with innovative play and stunning graphics.

All this work and intricacy needs a big team, full of creative, business minded, dedicated people to make these projects what they are. Sure this is rivaled by small developers such as indie game creators. But on the whole more specialist roles are required which make games. A build-up of many small cogs working toward the final goal. With a smaller team, the individual will feel more ownership then a huge triple A title, with a team of hundreds. This is where differences in games are seen. As a majority, big flashy games tend to have the visually stunning content but lack the ability to resonate with the player with lasting fond memories.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-13-so-you-want-to-work-in-games - This page offers employment advice from a game designer working for Arkadium. It seems to state that no matter what higher education you had, it’s all about the work you produce, portfolio is key and it seems the more skills you can show you have, the more employable you are; despite an increase in more specialist jobs. For a first job, you won’t get to pick and choose it seems, you’re most likely to end up working for a smaller company, where you’re expected to handle a large workload which varies in the type of work you’d be doing. This is purely for cost effective reasons, getting as much as they can from one individual. However, proving your skills, especially when they are specialised, employers of bigger companies would want to take you on. You’d be a small part of a huge team spanning across the country, and in some cases even the world. If you’re excellent at one skill and that job is available, you have a good chance at nailing it.

The employee structure varies from company to company. Generally, the different roles for any games company would include:

- Producer

- Publisher

- Development Team

- Designer

- Artist

- Programmer

- Level Designer

- Sound Engineer

- Tester

Each of these would be made up of several people, with each section having a team leader that passes on their progress to the producer.

To run smoothly, games companies need structure and a work flow that all members of all teams can adhere to. More than ever, companies are looking for talented, creative individuals who work well as a team and are a keen people person. Unfortunately, these are things that no fancy degree can teach or show, the industry of today, asks a lot from its many thousands of hopefuls, desperate to ‘make it.’