Soulgirl

So... my Son is fast approaching 14... deciding on his options for the final years of his school life to enable him to enter the big wide slap in the face world.

His heart is set on the gaming world... and we (my husband and I) feel his forte lies in the story, proffessions, classes, races, ideas etc...

Being young he has the ability to be fresh fodder in the make believe and he is tinkering with coding but is not that interested.

Where can he start if he wants to make this his ambition? Would it be stupid to contact a few UK gaming companies?

Mogsi

The problem with the UK game industry is they are losing out to the US and Jap developers and what was once a large industry is now much smaller. Up until July last year I worked for a large game developer and worked there for 4years, over those years the UK developers took a massive hit and lost several large companies; Acclaim, Psygnosis, Rage, Infogrames the list goes on and on...

I know of several talented game designers/programmers who left this country and went to the States/Canada... that seems to be where the money is at the moment

What field would he wish to get into, programming, character design, level design, QA !!

Soulgirl

I think definately character and level design - I have tried to interest him in programing but it's not there for him really. What's QA? Quest? I think he's a bit young to be sending to America for some work experience

Rob Walker

I wouldn't recommend the games industry these days.. I've been in or around it for about 15 years and it gets worse and worse every year. Not unless he likes putting in long hours with no overtime payments usually.. be better off working at Mcdonalds if you work out our hourly rate

Mogsi

QA - Quality Assurance, or in other words the 'Test Dept' Sit there and play a game to death testing it.....

Iain Young

I wouldn't recommend it either. I know people in the industry who say exactly the same as you Rob, especially in the UK. It wouldn't surprise me if the majority of game developement was limited to the USA and Japan within the next few years.

p.s. from what I've seen, QA in the games industry is very boring and very poorly paid, although historically it has sometimes been a good foot in the door for getting into development houses...

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

From what I've read Eidos is struggling now as well

Edcase

I started in QA 12 years ago and now run my own very successful company, having worked my way through QA, QA Manager, Producer, Game Designer, Head of Game Design and Business Development Director.

Yhe UK industry has had a terrible five years, but much of that has been because too many of the companies were run by developers and not business people, and they made too many personal decisions / were not able to adapt quickly enough etc.

Things are stabilising now and we are left with mostly strong companies.

However there is still a certain amount of consolidation to happen.

In terms of the workforce required, it is only going to grow, and although it can be incredibly long and hard work, few things are as rewarding as seeing your game get good reviews, watching people buying it in shops and talking about it in forums.

It is not a job to do if you are not passionate. I have nearly killed myself twice getting where I am, and given myself incurable RSI, but I have loved every minute of it, and the real innovation in games is only just about to happen, trust me.

A few years back now I contributed to a site specifically about getting into the game sector for the IGDA (international game developers association.)

http://www.igda.org/breakingin/

The IGDA has a huge focus on helping people to break-in. have your son look through this section and the site in general.

my section is now embarrassingly out of date

http://www.igda.org/breakingin/profile_ed_bartlett.htm

I have also just finishing contributing to a book about game development that will be used for curriculum teaching, which again would be perfect for your son:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...938535-2063843

The main industry news sites are:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz (which includes jobs and a directory of games industry companies)

and

http://www.mcvuk.com (which is the trade magazine)

Another fantastic source of industry information is Edge, available from all good newsagents.

Anything else you would like to know, please let me know, it frustrates me seeing all the negative responses on here. the government is about to start putting its weight behind games because they are the only entertainment sector that actually makes them any money...film and music both made losses last year.

In fact, between 1998 and 2004 the game market has grown by over 100%, compared with cinema growth of 30%, rental growth of 14% and music which fell by 4.5%.

the industry as a whole now values over $20bn, and is growing at over 9% a year!!!

Edcase

I also forgot to mention there are now a number of universities in the UK which have specific game development courses, and many of them have deals with major developers and publishers for work experience placements.

it is now a genuine career choice, which it never was when I first started.

messiah

Was going to suggest Edge but Edcase beat me to it. They normally have a vacancies section - the job descriptions should give a good indication of what is expected for each area.

Edcase

Relevant piece on BBC today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4355913.stm

Rob Walker

Absolutely! couldn't agree more!

So you're doing well.. well done, good for you. For every one person doing well theres probably 100 developers having a crap time of it. Yes my post was negative but with good reason. I guess i'm so cynical because i've been shafted by so many so called professional companies.. I know plenty of folk who have had to leave the industry because they just can't get a job, folk with 10+ years experience and plenty of published titles. Especially up this end of the country. The NW used to be the centre of games development in the UK, its now a barren wasteland.

I wish it was better and I hope it does get better in the coming years. Can't see it somehow though

Mogsi

Rob, I notice your in Stockport ! Where did you work ! I worked at Warthog Cheadle ( now Gizmondo ) for 4years...

Rob Walker

Hi Mogsi.. was at Ocean and Software Creations for years...

Know loads of folk from warthog/gizmondo... are you still there?

Mogsi

No, I got made redudant last July when they chopped about 1/2 the workforce down....

Rob Walker

Like most the folk I know there I'm working with a few of the ex-ZedTwo lot just now..

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

**** I remember Ocean!!
They were massive at the time of the Amiga

Rob Walker

Yeah Ocean was a fantastic place to work.. check out http://theoceanexperience.co.uk/

messiah

Ocean were responsible for some classic games...

<goes off to find his spectrum emulator>

Edcase

Rob, believe me, I've been screwed more times than I care to remember, that hasn't stopped me getting up, dusting myself down, adapting to the market and doing it all over again.

Rob Walker

Indeed..me too... but wouldn't you prefer that was the exception rather than the norm!

Edcase

yes, but a)there were too many companies making games b)there were too many companies making bad games (games they want to make not games consumers want to buy c)there were too many politics / badly run studios d) the market has just gone through an incredible transition period, more so than many other industries ever experience (in terms of technology, consumer demographic shift, game design, marketing, team sizes, costs etc etc.) I could go on and on.

Things are settling now, most of the people left are pretty strong, although a few more are on the edge still, technology is reaching the law of diminishing returns (although the next big innovation will be content on demand / episodic content), valuable new revenue streams such as in game advertising are appearing and government and the world's media are starting to take games seriously.

there is also an incredible new range of platforms such as PSP (and even what I'm currently seeing of 3G phone games) for people unable to handle next-generation development to work on.

my opinion is its only up from here.

Edcase

some more recent figures:

http://www.mcvuk.com/html/news/story.jsp?newsId=1930478

Rob Walker

Not sure I totally agree there.. I don't think theres ENOUGH companies making games they want to make. Everything is very derivitave these days.. the latest Fifa.. the latest WW2 fps.. the latest GTA rip off.. the latest sequel to the latest derivitive game... the latest film licence.. Too much focus on the latest technology and not enough on gameplay.. unfortunately they seem to be the only things that make any money these days. There's not a lot of the originality we saw back in the 8/16 bit days. The EA's, Take two's and what not get bigger and make more money and the rest are scrabbling around for the chicken feed thats left over. With the marketplace only accepting the biggest games theres no room for smaller companies to invest in original games.

Edcase

innovation will return with episodic content, where you buy the game engine and the first x hours of gameplay.

its simply too risky now to invest many millions in 30+hours of linear game on a disc, when many will try the first hour and take it back, and even the hardcore rarely complete everything they play.

also, you simply cannot soundbite the 8/16bit days anymore I'm afraid.

yes, they were halcyon days, but the audience is now mass-market. the average gamer does not read edge, he goes to virgin on a saturday morning and picks a familiar title from the top 10.

almost every 'innovative' game publishers have released in the past few years simply haven't sold well, and not all of those cases have been simply due to bad / mis-marketing.

Rob Walker

But who can afford to commit to writing episodec games.. Only the biggest companies..
What are the top 10 charts full off? Games from the biggest companies. (i'm assuming here, I don't pay much attention to the charts these days)

The games industry is fantastic for about 10% of companies.. and pretty crap for the rest. Its turning into the film industry. Consumers are force fed big budget, glizty content but ultimately shallow derivitive crap underneath.

Edcase

rob, in a handful of years, *all* there will be is episodic games.

publishers are desperate to switch to this model, and desperate to ditch retailers, who take 40% of the price for little real work, and who mostly seem to sell preowned games for which the industry sees not a penny.

All they need is the hardware.

So along comes xbox 2 and ps3.

It won't change overnight, but trust me, its happening.

Rob Walker

I don't doubt it will happen.. I just hope the money gets spread about a bit more. At the moment all the power/money is with the publishers. I actually think the Phantom (if we ever see it) looks like quite a decent/interesting distribution method.

Saying that HalfLife 2 wasn't exactly a success (as a distribution method for a lot of punters) but done right it has the potention to revolutionize the industry.

Edcase

yeah it wont really take off until its automated, and via console (like xbox live) because it will just be too much to think about for joe consumer.

Phantom is dead I believe.

Soulgirl

Wow.. what a superb input - thank you! I have given my son the URL to this thread so he can have a read. He's so NOT negative about the gaming industry - and starting at QA would be his dream whether he got paid or not LOL.

I will let you know how he gets on with find stuff out.