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

[Kroh]

Playing lots of games, as mentioned, is important.  But more than just
play,

Study how the games you play work, how they accomplish their goals.
It's important to be able to comment on and discuss other game
products during an interview--particularly games that might be similar
to what your prospective employer will produce.  Be able to talk about
what you liked and disliked about a game, the systems the game used,
what worked well and what didn't work well.  I've been asked during
interviews questions like, "What games do you currently play?" and
then with those games as a reference, asked questions that related to
the job I was applying for: "What is an example of a quest in the game
that you liked?  What worked in that quest?  Where do you think that
quest system failed?  How would you improve it?"
 
If you're coming to the game design field as a writer, prepare for the
break-in to be very difficult.  However, one of your advantages, by
virtue of the profession, is a usually varied collection of
experiences.  Whether you're a journalist, fiction writer, poet, or
technical writer, if you've done it long enough to have honed your
skill to a professional level, you've likely written on several
different topics and have diverse knowledge floating in your head.

On Fri 5/25/2001 1:19 AM, Brian Green wrote:
 
> ...a designer has to know quite a bit about quite a few areas.  It's
> been said many times before that designers have to be Renaissance
> people.  You have to know enough about programming, art, writing,
> music, etc to be able to talk to the myriad of people that make
> today's games.  You don't have to be an expert, just at least
> conversant in the field.
 
Designers I've talked with have echoed this, and embodied it in their
own mixtures of backgrounds (psychology is another field that can be
brought to bear to great effect in game design).  I vacillated between
majors before ending up in the Writing track (which was the very LAST
one I considered, for some strange reason).  The years I spent
studying astrophysics, then computer science, then (briefly) business,
and finally theater arts felt like a chunk of horribly misspent time
and money.  But, I was dedicated enough to each to pick up a decent
base before realizing it wasn't quite what I was looking for.  Now, I
can see how this time wasn't a waste.  And, in fact, the experiences
have been selling points.

 
--Clayton Kroh

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