Getting Your Foot in the Door

Hello. This is my first blog post since I finally became an environment artist within the games industry! One thing I get asked a lot by people I meet or from random strangers online is "how did you get into the industry?" "Do you have any tips on how I can get my foot in the door?"

I am relatively new to the games industry so keep that in mind when reading this post, I graduated in 2013 and got my first job in a QA department during my final year and have been working in the industry ever since. It's quite a long post, so.. hold on to your pants.

For all those people out there trying to get a foot in the door; I know how frustrating and difficult it can be but anybody can do it if they try hard enough, believe me! I thought I would write about my experiences, as everyone's will be different and maybe somebody can learn something from mine, who knows? These are a few points I will be going over:

• University

• Networking

• Finding Work With No Experience

• Reality vs. Expectation

• Taking Initiative

• Environment Art

UNIVERSITY

One step to take that I feel really helped me was going to University. Not just for the qualification but for the many other opportunities it opens up for you. I nearly didn't go because I had such a bad time in college but I'm soooo glad I changed my mind! It's the best decision I've ever made and is nothing like college. I've heard it's not necessary to have a degree but to be honest I haven't met anybody in the industry who didn't study a games related subject in some way (although I'm sure they are out there).

Not only does University give you a qualification, it opens the door to so many things such as meeting and networking with people with similar ambitions/interests, access to events and talks with industry professionals and personal improvement.

I don't think I would be the person I am today if I did not go through University. There was a time when I would be too scared to talk to people and when I didn't believe in myself but uni changed all that. Now I am confident and have a drive to get the most out of my experiences and to succeed. In my final year, I met a lot of new students through a video games society that me and a good friend of mine set up and they also seemed shy and reserved but by the end they had come out of their shell and changed for the better. I feel this is really important when working as a games developer. You will be meeting new people and communicating with them all the time. Having the confidence to speak to your team to discuss your idea, get feedback and talk about the project is important!

During my final year I felt I should start looking for work as I would be graduating soon and I was impatient to get in there and to see if anyone would actually take me on! At first, I applied for any internships I could find in 3D art but all I got was rejection after rejection. There is A LOT of competition out there. Graduation was approaching and I was getting worried.. my friend who co-founded the video games society had a brilliant idea to approach local games developers and indie studios and offer them some free games testing so that we could have at least some experience of being within a studio. However, emailing them wasn't enough, they would just reply that they were too busy or they didn't offer placements. We felt that we needed to get our faces out there and meet these developers in person and so we created business cards and attended a few networking events.

NETWORKING

The video game industry community is surprisingly small and you will find yourself bumping into each other at the same events. There are a mass amount of events you can attend to keep yourself up to date with news and to meet like minded people! These are just a few I've listed below:

• Ga-Ma-Yo: Game Makers Yorkshire - http://ga-ma-yo.com/welcome - These guys do a tonne of networking events and interesting meet-ups where you can get your name about and have some hands - on demos of some projects that people or small teams are developing.

• Eurogamer: http://www.eurogamer.net/ - A massive event in London where if you look on their website you can stick your name down to volunteer. I did it once and loved it! You get to speak to everyone working there and also get a free ticket to attend the next event! You get paid as well but it's not that much - enough to go out for a cheeky pint with the other volunteers after closing :).

• BAF: Bradford Animation Festival - http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/bradfordanimationfestival - Industry talks and lots and lots of networking opportunities! I attending one year and managed to get interviewed for an online Edge article :D.

• Event Brite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/ - There are a tonne more events that are too many to list but here is a handy website where you can search and see what's going on around you.

If you're interested, I posted a few photos of some events I've been to so you can see what you've been missing!

Business cards are such a good idea! Mine said 'aspiring environment artist' and had my contact details on there. I also sneakily made a vector image of myself so people would remember who's card it was (hopefully). I was unbelievably nervous at my first networking event. It's so daunting going into a place without knowing anybody. One thing you can do to make your life easier is find the event online where you booked your ticket, there is usually a list of people that will be in attendance. Research who is going and make a note of who you would like to speak to. Look into their work so you have something to talk about with them, show an interest in what they do. This is a great way to get a conversation going, and then you can mention that you are trying to get into the industry too and people appreciate that you're trying and will be more than happy to give you some advice. Make sure to take a tablet or device/laptop that has some examples of your work on and ask for some crit and feedback, they will appreciate that you are trying to improve your work.

This is exactly what my friend and I did and now we are both working in the jobs that we want in games studios, it really works! We got talking to some developers and we told them about the society and that we were offering free testing in order to get some experience. And with that we had a placement in their QA department! This experience was vital into getting a paid job in the industry, a lot people have mixed opinions about working for free in the industry but we didn't care at the time as we just wanted to get that experience. Looking back, I don't think it was a good idea to work for free. I feel that some studios will take advantage of your passion and it sets a lower standard for positions such as QA. If you do manage to get experience anyway make sure to ask the developers if they would mind being one of your references when applying for other work. Also, add everyone you meet onto Linked In, it is a great tool for networking and a nice formal platform for keeping in touch with people that you meet. You can list your work history on your profile and then get people to endorse your skills and even leave you a public reference to back up any work that you have done for them. Great for prospective employers looking at your profile. Whilst in your placement make sure you try to speak to everyone - I was pretty bad at this because I was so in awe and pretty nervous! But I wished I had done this more. Also game developers love cake. Bake cake and you will win.

FINDING WORK WITH NO EXPERIENCE

Networking will really boost your chances on gaining experience but if you cant get any there are a few companies that will hire you without any experience at all. These companies are mainly QA publishing houses like Sony Liverpool or Rockstar Lincoln. Learn a bit about how to write an effective bug as you will mostly likely be asked to find and write up a bug in a QA interview. Also, make sure you subscribe to studio websites for any vacancy updates and continue to work on your portfolio in your spare time.

REALITY vs. EXPECTATION

Now that I am in the games industry, I have learned that working in this field is nothing like how I expected it to be! You might be a lot more clued up on it than I was but make sure you do a lot of research before trying to get into it. After completing my couple of month's worth of QA testing and after graduating I applied absolutely EVERYWHERE, I must have sent off 100's of applications to every QA job going. I mostly got rejected even with my few months experience but one day I got lucky! I got a phone call from London and they wanted me to come for an interview the next day for a 1 months contract in QA for a mobile games company. I had to contemplate whether it was worth moving to London for 1 month or whether it was even possible! London is EXPENSIVE but it is very easy to find a flat in short notice. What isn't easy is finding one that will rent to you just for 1 month.. I was kind of stupid actually. I was so blinded by getting an offer for an interview that I took off without finding a place first. Then I contacted everyone I had met from London when I arrived to see if I could kip on their sofa. Luckily, someone I was great friends with in college said I could stay at hers! I stayed in a hostel for the first night in some dodgy area of London but it was super cheap. Not a great idea long term as you usually have to share a bunk bed in a room full of about 8 strangers..

You might get lucky and find a permanent position from the get go, but if you don't you will be mostly doing contracted work to get your experience up before finding something permanent. Be prepared to move. A lot. After my month was over I had to find somewhere else to work and ended up moving to Liverpool to work in first party QA at Sony, I was tres excite! Think I took a selfie in front of the building on my first day or something hipster like that. Again, finding a flat to live in was difficult but if you stick to student-y areas there are usually some short term lets. www.spareroom.co.uk is a great website for finding any .. spare rooms. Sony is great for people looking to work in QA who have no experience, there were a lot of people there who were working in their summer break from uni who had never tested before. They also offered a day or night shift so you could still study during the day which was what a few people were doing. I was offered a 3 month rolling contract which happens a lot in games studios. You get given a base amount of months and then you are kept on or let go depending on the needs of the company. This can be quite bad as you never know when you are going to be let go after your initial months are up but that is the kind of risk you sometimes have to take. Just make sure you have somewhere to go or something to fall back on when that inevitably happens. When your initial months are approaching, keep looking for more work - the studio will understand you need to look out for yourself, they have most probably been in your position before.

TAKING INITIATIVE

Most people I have met in QA are actually trying to get into another department in the studio. Make the most out of your time at the studio, contact producers/developers and try to speak to as many of them you can about getting some experience in the area you want to end up in. I didn't do this at Sony but a friend of mine did and she ended up having one on one conversations with some designers and producers which is great! She really took initiative and inspired me to do the same.

As the end of my contract was approaching I received a message from an ex-coworker about some possible QA work at Rocksteady, this was within a development studio which is a whole new world compared to working in QA for a publisher. Fast forward and I'm working at Rocksteady. Again this was a temporary 6 month contract and so I had to find another flat in London. London deposits are SO MUCH MONEY. They want agency fees, 1 months rent, 6 week deposit. You will need at least a couple of grand to get going. A lot of studios do offer relocation packages to help you so it's always worth asking if they offer anything. Luckily Rocksteady do offer help so the transition was a lot easier than it should have been.

This time I was going to talk to other developers and that is what got me the position in the art department! I offered to help the art team in my overtime hours and eventually an opening came up for trainee environment artist which I went for.

ENVIRONMENT ART

Working in environment art was not what I expected at all. Here are a few points that I've learnt whilst working in environment art that you may find useful:

• There comes a point in the project when you won't be making any more assets for the game world but will be mainly focused on working inside the game engine fixing bugs and tweaking objects and textures now and again. In some studios, artists won't make props at all but will just be tweaking assets that have been outsourced.

• You have to know how to keep clean and well named files whilst sticking to structure and naming conventions as your work will be worked on eventually by other members of the team. It's very annoying having to work with a Photoshop file with 50 layers and none of them are named and you just have to removed that one little decal...

• There are different types of 3D artists that I have come across; props, interior, exterior, vehicle, character. I used think there was only one, every studio probably has a different structure but these are the ones I have come across in my time in the industry.

• Having another skill set is always useful - more often than not, a different department may be struggling with deadlines and will borrow any extra hands they can get from a different department. A games studio is a TEAM, everyone helps each other out, it's not "I'll do my work and go home", in a games studio it's a different vibe. Everyone wants to work together and help each other out. I really love this about game studios! Keep this in mind when you get into the industry, if you have finished your high priority work, ask around and see if there is anything you can do to help someone else out - it will be greatly appreciated.

• Working in a games studio can be very rewarding! You will get discounts on stuff and they throw awesome parties! Also upon reaching an important deadline, games studios tend to celebrate in style!

• Always work on improving your skills, watch tutorials on new techniques or new software. Being up to date in the field you want to work in is so important as it is a fast moving industry. Developers love it when you can teach a member of your team something new, write some tutorials to show that you are capable of doing this. Writing tutorials are also a good way to research a specific technique or subject too as you will need to understand it to be able to explain it.

To conclude, I hope my experiences I have written about has had some useful information or tips for you to take away and apply in your own journey! Work hard and you will get there. BELIEVE IT! (Sorry not sorry).