Lecture for Level 10 of The Los Angeles Film School's Survey of the Videogame Industry course.

1. Lecture 10
David Mullich
Survey of the Videogame Industry
The Los Angeles Film School

2. READ
DAILY
Current events will impact your work one way or another.
Know what they are. Strive to understand the world and use
that understanding to make your games more interesting,
accurate, insightful or challenging. A myopic world view limits
creativity.

3. Networking
Most games jobs are filled based on
recommendations through friends or friends of
friends.
The more people you know in the game industry, the
better chances you have about hearing about job
opportunities.

4. Professional Groups
 IGDA/LA
 http://legacy.igda.org/la
 https://www.facebook.com/groups/231368329464/
 Student Membership: $30
 Blacks in Gaming
 http://blacksingaming.org
 https://www.facebook.com/groups/blacksingaming/
 Women in Gaming International (WIGI)
 http://www.womeningamesinternational.org

5. Additional Networking
 LAFS Game Production Facebook group
 LAFS Alumni Association
 LinkedIn.com
 Meetup.com
 Eventbrite.com

6. Go to IndieCade!
 October 22-25, 2015
 Culver City
 http://www.indiecade.com

7. Go to GDC!
 March 14 - March 18,
2016
 Moscone Center, San
Francisco
 http://www.gdconf.com

8. Your First GDC
 You will be overwhelmed
 You will be awkward
 You will feel left out
 Enjoy the company of the people you’re with
 Take it slow
 Realize that GDC is a temporary high

9. Networking at GDC
How to Network at a Conference - Rated E
(5:43)

10. Go to E3!
 June 14-16, 2015
 Los Angeles
Convention Center
 http://www.e3expo.com

11. Electronic Entertainment Expo
G4 Icons Episode #27: History of E3
(20:59)

12. Other Conferences
 LA Games Conference (Los Angeles)
 ComicCon (San Diego)
 Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) (San Antonio)
 Serious Play Conference (Los Angeles)
 ACM SIGgraph Conference on Motion In
Games (Los Angeles)
 SXSW Gaming Expo (Austin)

13. Volunteer!
 Great networking opportunities
 Looks great on your resume

14. Advice From An Intern
 It’s a small world, after all
 Don’t go for a big splash
 Fixers, not moaners
 Cultivate mentorships
 Don’t watch TV during working hours
 Open yourself to opportunities
 There’s more to life than videogames

15. Global Game Jam
Global Game Jam 2013 Keynote (11:43)

16. Social Media Presence
 LinkedIn
 Face Book
 Google Plus
 Twitter
 Newsletters
 Blogging
 About.Me
 Pinterest
 YouTube
 Instagram

17. Manage Your Public Profile
Prospective employers will Google you. What will they find?
While it is not possible to completely control your Google
results, you can help yourself by keeping your personal and
professional life separate. Use privacy settings on your
Facebook pages and picture tags by friends, and keep your
Twitter trail professional or make it anonymous.
Never use your personal social network profile as a portfolio:
No‐one wants to trawl through embarrassing nightclub photos of
you while searching for your work.

18. How To Get A Job In The Game
Industry
How to Get a Job in Video Games -
Gaming Jobs - Tips from the Game
Industry (10:34)

19. Read Job Listings Regularly
 Who’s hiring
 What qualifications are needed
 What portfolio pieces / software is
desired

20. Job boards
 You can find many jobs through
specialty job search sites.
 http://jobs.gamejobs.com
 http://creativeheads.net/
 http://www.gamasutra.com/jobs/
 http://www.indeed.com/
 http://www.wiredtalent.com
 And, yes, Craigs List

21. Basic Terminology
You really should know this:
Q&A:
Questions and answers
QA:
Quality Assurance

22. Quality Assurance
A completely viable way to get your foot in the
door in a games company.
But be aware that not all companies have a
path to dev from QA.
Ask first.

23. Look Beyond Indie and AAA
 AdvertGames
 Educational Games
 Serious Games
 Kid’s Games
 Gambling Games

24. Be Open Minded
All games are valid games to work on. You can
learn just as much working on an advergame for
cats as you can on the latest bazillion $ mega‐title.
Each title shipped is one step closer to your
ultimate goal of dream‐game awesomeness.
If an advergame for cats is your dream‐game, then congratulations, you’re going
to achieve your dreams much quicker than most. Also think of the LOLcat
opportunities during user testing! People get PAID for doing this!

25. Recruiters
 Digital Artist Management
 Premiere Search
 Prime Candidate
 GameRecruiter.com
 Individual agents

26. Recruiters Don’t Get YOU Jobs
 They’re paid by companies to fill
open positions
 They’re paid by those companies
based on a percentage of your
starting salary
 They often hear of job openings that
aren’t listed on job sites

27. When Are Recruiters Useful?
 > $55,000 / year
 (Producers, but not APs)
 When you have specific skills
 Code Languages
 Art Specialties
 Animation Specialties

28. Resume Disclaimer
*The following material is the opinion of the instructor based
on his years of experience as a hiring manager and resume
reader. These opinions may not reflect the stated policy of
LAFS or its professional career counselors.

29. Resume DOs
 Permanent e-mail address (Hotmail,
Gmail, Yahoo, etc.)
 Reverse chronological order
 Describe accomplishments
 List skills (software tools,
programming languages, etc.)
 Link to your portfolio site
 Keep to one page (early career)

30. Gameography
 List of every game you’ve worked on
 Reverse order (newest first)
 List platform(s)
 Update always

31. Proofread Your Resume!
Everyone loves creativity by
typo.
“You can customise your
character with scaring.”
“To scare your character, press
DELETE! Trololol!” laugh the
developers at your job
application.

32. Resume DON’Ts
 List your hobbies
 Include a picture of yourself
 Include a career objective (unless
tailored for the job you are applying for)
 Include so much detail that you lose the
story

33. Resume Sites
 Gamasutra.com
 Monster.com
 Dice.com
 CreativeHeads.net (newsletter)

34. Reference List
 Minimum of three people who know
you professionally and who will
vouch for you
 Bosses better than co-workers
 Co-workers are fine
 Internship supervisors
 Instructors
 Keep this list up to date throughout
your career

35. Create a Portfolio Site!
 Art
 Programming
 Design
 Gameography w/ pictures / screenshots
.

36. Portfolios
Share your content with potential employers.
That’s how communities work.
Trust me: No‐one is going to steal content from your
mailed portfolio, and good practice belongs to
everyone. Stealing the work of others is the mark of
an amateur. No professional would ever stoop that
low. For shame!

37. Portfolios
Know where you’re aiming your efforts at any
given time. Ideally it should be here.

38. Portfolios
But you should aim here if you are nearing the job interview stage.
Especially as your interviewer may not have a degree.
Some of us are waaaaaay older than game degrees, or didn’t want or need a degree to get
where we are today. And that’s OK!

39. Portfolios
If you’re aiming here, that means you don’t know
enough about the industry to get a job later. And
you’re probably just trying to pass.

40. Portfolios
Your portfolio is only as good as the worst piece of
work in it.
If in doubt, leave it out.
If an applicant’s portfolio is bad enough,
developers will save the work to a GALLERIE
ABOMINATI*.
When they need cheering up they will gather
round to look at it and laugh.
Do NOT be that applicant.

41. Portfolios
Be inclusive: Don’t assume the developer reviewing your portfolio is
male.
Or white.
Or straight.
Avoid: Porn elves. Undressed or under‐dressed women. Unfeasibly large or gravity defying
breasts (on anyone).Brutalized or dehumanized women with sexual overtones. Any and all
over‐used, limiting and frankly borderline racist stereotypes of criminal men from non- white
racial backgrounds including triads, yakuza, mafia, bloods or crips (especially if they are
also rappers), insurgents and/or terrorists, middle‐class British villains as voiced by Alan
Rickman, working class British villains as voiced by Jason Statham, French mimes as
voiced by no‐one, impoverished Mexican villagers with strong regional accents and
apparent limited access to grooming products, education or any kind of empowerment.
All of the above still applies if the characters are in zombie form.

42. Portfolios
A good rule of thumb for selecting work for
your portfolio is this:
“If someone who didn’t know me saw this
work, would they think I was a serial
killer?”

43. Portfolios
Donot
makethe
viewerdo
thiswhen
lookingat
yourwork
online.Create a portfolio website to showcase
your work!
But…

44. Portfolios
If your demo reel uses an obscure codec
and can’t be viewed by a developer, do
NOT reply the following:
 It works fine on my PC
 I thought a cutting edge technology
company would have been able to
overcome a minor issue like that
 What's a codec?

45. Portfolios
If your work takes
longer to load than it
does to view, you’re
wasting everyone’s
time.
Including your own.

46. Most developers work in shared spaces and
use headphones.
Even Leads & Managers.
Keep the volume on your demoreel
consistent.
And try not to assume that everyone <3s
Skrillex.
Portfolios

47. Contacting An Employer
To: Recruitment @ A Games Studio
CC: Every games studio in the nation
Subject: I love what your company does, and am
a perfect fit for your studio.
ORLY? I feel *so special*

48. Contacting An Employer
mailto:ilikeboobies@email.com
Do you really want this as your identifier for
job applications?
Get a professional-looking email address!

49. Cover Letters
“Dear Sir or Madam,
I’m a recent graduate and am very keen on getting a job
in the games, animation, visual effects, pre‐visualization
or web industries...”
Signed by reject #732
Target each application to that job only:
 Cover letter
 CV / resume
 Showreel

50. Cover Letters
“...im willing to provide my services to improve the animation
industry level”
You do realize this implies you think you’re better with 0 years of
experience than they are with ∞ years?
That’s not just ignorant. It’s downright insulting.
And grammatically wrong, too.
The above remains true even if you were “kidding” and was posted on your
social network site. Because prospective employers can see that too unless
you’ve set your privacy settings accordingly. Well? Have you?

51. Job Interviews
At a job interview, remember that you’re being
interviewed by a professional <insert discipline here>,
not a professional interviewer.
You can distract them from any awkward moments
with shiny work!*
* This does work. “I’ve brought my sketchbooks,
would you like to see them?” is like baubles to
kittens.

52. Interview Questions
“What is your greatest weakness??”
Bad answers:
 “I haven’t got any”
 “I am a perfectionist”
 “You are!”
 “Chocolate” *
Good answer:
 “From your perspective, I guess it’s the fact that I don’t
have much work experience. But let me tell you about the
projects I have worked on in and outside of college...”

53. Don’t Badmouth Anyone
There is only about 1 degree of separation
between pretty much all game developers,
world wide.
It will come back to bite you. Even **years**
down the line.

54. Interview The Company
You should be interviewing the employer as much as
they are interviewing you.
Learn to tell a good employer from a bad one.
All games companies have good times and bad
times. The trick is to work out the differences
between “Bad times” and “Bad employer”.
This is easier with hindsight.

55. More Interview Tips
 Learn about the company first
 Dress appropriately
 Don’t arrive late or too early. If you are late, call.
 Talk about things of interest to the interviewer
 Use questions to talk about your strengths and past
accomplishments
 Don’t lie
 Find out what’s the next step
 Write a “thank you” letter (or email) afterwards

56. Mock Interview
Watch a Job Seeker Interview with Game-
Maker Turbine (14:03)

58. Employee
 Work-for-hire
 Social Security & other taxes (“withholding”) paid by employer
 Some level of benefits:
○ Health Insurance
○ Retirement Plan
 401k
 ESOP
○ Profit Sharing
○ Paid Holidays
○ Vacation Days
○ Sick Leave
○ Employee Discounts / Free Games
○ Parking

59. Temporary Employee
 Company contracts with Temp
Agency
 You are employee of Temp Agency
 Temp Agency pays your SS & taxes
 Generally no benefits until
assignment becomes long-term
 http://www.wiredtalent.com/
 http://www.volt.com/

60. Independent Contractor (Vendor)
 All terms negotiated up front
 Less micromanagement
 You must pay your own SS & taxes
There is no shame in freelancing.
As long as you’re working on games, you’re a game
developer. Even if you’re an impoverished freelance,
outsource or indie dev who isn’t exactly living the dream
right now. You’re still one of us and we <3 you.

61. Now What?
 Always be thinking about your next
job
 Always have your resume up to date
 Always have some money saved up

62. Tokenism
The practice or policy of making no more than a token effort
or gesture.
 Token effort.
 Token changes.
 Token comments.
 Token QA practice.
 Token documentation.
Does NOT belong in game development practice ANY kind.
Do not aim to do the minimal required. Aim to exceed
expectations.

63. Personal Hygiene
Is not a “lifestyle choice” when working in
teams.
Body odor is NOT a viable way of keeping
managers away from your desk*.
* No matter how tempting that can be during crunch.

64. Always
Be
Creating

65. Course Evaluation
 Go to this URL and answer information
about this course:
http://goo.gl/forms/lB03gi987i

66. Gaming Is Miraculous
Modern Gaming is Miraculous (4:36)