[MUD-Dev] JOB: How to get into Game Design / Game content

[Greg Underwood]

At 12:11 PM 5/24/01 -0700, Trump wrote:
> Taylor wrote:

>> Any advice on how to get my foot in the door? Are there any skills
>> that I should be trying to get a crash course in? Any advice for a
>> wannabe game creator?

> Lots of people will tell you to learn C, 3DS Max etc, and make a
> demo.  This is good advice, but I think the most important thing is
> to have lots of showable work.  Even if it is just making maps with
> a senario editor in your favortie RTS or Quake.  They should be
> thought out, well documented and interesting.  If they are it should
> be very clear to everyone that you can handle a design job.  Lots of
> people start such projects, many more think about doing them, very
> few actually get them done.

I agree.  Everyone I know at work that is a designer got in the door
by having work they could show and talk about at the interview.  Those
that didn't either didn't get called back, or they managed to get in
the door as QA.  I don't have any data on how many manage to use the
QA position as a way into content creation/design.  That would be an
interesting piece of info to dig up...

Anyway, creating levels for popular games is a good place to start.
You'll quickly know if it's good (people will start talking about it),
and that gives you something high profile.  It never hurts to have
people ask "Oh, YOU did that level?" at the interview.  Even if the
level is not hugely successful, you can tell people where to get it,
so they can DL it and try it out.

Trump said it, I'll say it again.  Wannabe game designers are a dime a
dozen.  Wannabe game designers that have actually started something
are rare.  Wannabe game designers that have actually /finished/
something are worth looking at.

-Greg


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