When I had my first interview in game development, I didn’t think it was going that well. It was the doom 3 team, and they needed more 3D experience than I had at the time. So it’s coming to the interview’s close, and we get to “do you have any questions for me?”. Fortunately, I had done my research, and I knew the guy had been a designer for one of my favorite games years ago. So I asked him, “What’s up with the zombies on level two? I couldn’t tell when they could see me. Why do they act that way?” We had an additional 20-30 minute conversation on how the AI was implemented. So not only did I do my research, I critiqued my interviewer’s past work. I respectfully proved that I can think critically about user experience.
I took the job on Madagascar for Game Boy Advance team the next week. For people trying to break into the industry, do your research before your interview! LinkedIn makes this so incredibly easy as most game developers have a profile.
Be Brave during the interview
I work with a lot of students learning how to interact with others professionally and overall you need to be brave and ask the questions you want, have the opinions you want, and be yourself. I KNOW this is hard for a lot of people they feel completely shocked and unable to communicate during networking events. When I go into networking events, I tell myself “By contributing to the conversation, I can prove to future teammates that I will be a good colleague. Someone who can celebrate the good ideas and respectfully disagree with the bad ones” Communication is a mandatory skill in the game industry, put yourself out there and you will get more interviews. If you’re interested in game development striking up a conversation is easier than you might think. That’s what EVERYONE is there for, to talk about games.
Connecticut Game Dev
Check out my video if you want some deeper thoughts about how to network, especially in the New England area.