I am about to finally graduate with a degree in industrial engineering. It has taken me 5 years because I have been doing co-operative work assignments to gain real world experience for my resume. Here is my problem: I am not sure I want to work for a manufacturing company; I am not passionate about any of that.
I picked industrial engineering because it is supposed to be versatile industry-wise. Now, you're going to call me retarded, but I have always wanted to do something with video games. Specifically, design the concept and the story behind them. I was thinking my "in" to this would be to take on a project manager position since I have experience with that and worm my way into concept meetings.
I just couldn't stand it today at my internship working while knowing I was missing E3. I feel like I will be miserable if I just settle for a manufacturing job. Am I fucked?
>>341348064
Fuck off and go work at McDonnalds.
Most game companies don't hire freshers.
>>341349313
But I have experience managing projects. Surely that has to count for something.
hey guys i majored in nuclear science but you know, i'm just not feeling it. please tell me how to get into the video game industry so i can be an ideas guy where my magical thinking has convinced me i'll make high 6 figures a year but in reality i really want to work 18 hour days at an ubisoft slave camp in china making ass creed games for 18k a year.
Do what I'm in the process of doing: work a non-games but high-paying engineering job for a while, and then use those savings to make your own indie game. From what I've heard, you don't want to be in the actual "games industry" proper
>>341348064
>design the concept and the story behind them
Yea, you and thousands of others.
There is no such thing as pure "game designer". You need to have some skills that are useful in development process if you want to work on games. Any retard can write a wall of text and call it a design document. Not many people can draw decent concept art to show their ideas.
You need to have either artistic or programming skills, mate. If you are an industrial engineer, you have probably used CAD or similar programs. Expand your skillset and learn to make 3d models optimized for games, for instance.
Otherwise you have no use in a development studio. Even managers need to have understanding of what their subordinates do.
>>341348064
>>341350385
Please heed this advice, anon. If you're even remotely serious, there's no reason not not to use all the information readily available to learn how to take the steps to make your own game.
I work in the industry as a developer, and I can tell you genuinely from the bottom of my heart, I fucking hate it and regret chasing this. I knew it'd be politics, what job isn't, right? But I didn't know i'd be this unhappy doing what I thought I loved.
This is not the route you take if you actually love making games, getting onto a dev team that actually has the freedom to do what they want is next to impossible. I've been bossed around and told what to do by people that don't have the slightest fucking clue as to what they're doing, or give a fuck.
>>341350997
What game development company are you with?
>>341350997
Well, it really depends on where you work. My previous job was pretty much like you described - zero freedom, politics, clueless bosses. Still, I had fun coworkers and generally enjoyed the work.
Now I work remotely from home as a contractor and it's pretty cool. My boss actually asks if it is possible to do the ridiculous thing he though of, and what would be the best way to do it. Pay is great as well.
>>341351210
EA pacific umbrella, worked at visceral for a bit. Was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. I tell my friends I started working at safeway when I was like 16, and working at EA feels like the same fucking thing.
granted i'm extremely disgruntled and jaded at this point, so a good part of it is self induced asshurt that I can't get over.
>>341351995
sorry, meant unenjoyable.
>>341351995
I'm not surprised that a EA development team is unenjoyable.
Did you work on any of the dead space games?
Perhaps you'll build your skill-set and experience working there for awhile and you can someday enjoy a nice comfy indie dev team where you can really make the game you've wanted to make and have a voice.
As a outsider looking in on dev teams, it's always the Indie devs that seem to be enjoying themselves. Corporate dev's and corporate jobs in general are always gonna be unenjoyable in my experience.
>>341353016
Not that anon, but my old roommate did dev work for EA on a Madden game. To quote him, "I put in about 1000 hours on that dev team, and I have no idea what part of the game I worked on." With huge million-dollar-budget titles, most people end up working on random software libraries and engine type stuff without knowing what it eventually gets used for. Plus, EA usually lays off a ton of devs when a project is completed.
>>341350997
Thanks I'll take it to heart. Would learning a coding language help as well?
>>341349927
That's a little unfair, I'm not looking to make a lot of money. I just want to enjoy whatever it is I do 9 to 5 . I don't think that's too much to ask for. I do understand this question gets asked a lot though.
