Monthly Archives: March 2009

Welcome to 2K Marin

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Big welcome to 2K Marin, who posted 3 new job ads today!  They’re looking for help on Bioshock 2.  You can’t ask to be working on something much more high profile than that.  As an aside, I think my wife is still upset with me for harvesting too many little sisters.

They definitely have some of the most creative job ad copy that I’ve seen.  Here’s a snippet:

“We’re looking for a sorcerer to wield elemental powers: explode with fire, rain down from the heavens, spew blood and ooze toxic vapors. As an FX Artist on Bioshock 2, you will be responsible for creating a kaleidoscopic collage of FX that will add texture, vitality and spark to the dystopia of our game world.”

How could you not want that job?  :)

Twitter and 2 New Companies

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First off, we, like just about everyone else in the free world, have joined Twitter.  You can follow our feed here:  http://twitter.com/gamejobhunter.  Look for updates whenever we’ve got a new job ad posted, or whenever we’ve got an interesting tidbit to share.

We also want to welcome two new companies who have posted ads – The Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, and Aeria Games!  RMCAD is located in Lakewood, CO, and offers a variety of graphic design and gaming courses.  Aeria Games is in Santa Clara, CA, and publishes a variety of interesting free-to-play MMO titles.  Check out their job ads!

Local Video Game Companies – Orlando

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Orlando was once primarily known for being home to EA Tiburon, but that reality has changed over the last few years.  Several new developers have set up shop in Central Florida, and those studios benefit from a study influx of talent thanks to game development programs at schools like Full Sail and FIEA.

COMPANYNOTABLE PROJECTSFOCUSSTUDIO SIZE
360EdSiTi, Conspiracy CodeEducational11-50
Bad PilcrowVanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix and Her NightmareMobile, Downloadable?
Dot Matrix InteractiveDominion, KIL.A.TONMobile1-10
EA TiburonMadden NFL, NCAA Football, Tiger WoodsConsoles, Handheld, PC200+
Firebrand Games (Merritt Island)NASCAR Unleashed, Cars 2Consoles, Handheld?
Frontline Studios (Ormond Beach)Chicken Jumper, Duke Nukem: Critical MassHandheld, Web?
n-SpaceTron, Call of Duty, GoldeneyeConsoles, Handheld, Nintendo Development51-200
ootiiRelic BallSocial1-10
Row Sham BowWoodland HeroesSocial11-50
Sky Parlor StudiosFire and Dice, FORTUNEITMobile11-50
Werd! InteractiveTiles Extreme, I Am SodukuWeb, Social Causes11-50
ZeeGee GamesMy Tiny Planets, ZeeGee ReaderMobile, Web11-50

Game Development Schools

Other Organizations

  • IGDA - the local chapter meets about once a month.  It’s a fun group, with people from all over the industry

 

New Site, New Jobs, a Couple of Kinks

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As I mentioned yesterday, the new site is live.  Thanks to everyone who has checked it out and provided feedback!  We will continue to work on getting improvements implemented and new ads posted on the site.  We actually had several new ads go up to coincide with the launch.  Make sure and check out the jobs from Frozen Codebase, Double Fine, Epic Games and more.

We also discovered a couple of kinks, and unfortunately I’m not talking about Ray and Dave Davies.  I’m referring to some slight bugs – nothing major, and we’ve got them in the queue to be fixed already.  As some of you might have noticed, the search widget isn’t recognizing phrases over 1 word.  Shouldn’t take too long to get that taken care of.  If you happen to notice any other bugs (or if you have suggestions!), please let us know at support @ gamejobhunter (dot) com.  Thanks!

New site design is live!

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We finally got the new design of the site up this weekend – check out www.gamejobhunter.com to see what it looks like.  We think it’s much easier to use, both for employers and job hunters.  It’s still free to post your job ads, we’ve just removed a lot of the complication from the process.  Now, you just need to have your e-mail address validated once, and then you can post ads without having to log in, manage profiles, etc.  We’ve also overhauled the design – we think it’s much cleaner and easier to see what you’re doing.

It’s pretty self-explanatory, but if you need help, check out our Getting Started guide.  We hope you like it, let us know what you think!

6 Things to Consider When Looking for Video Game Jobs

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If you’re looking for a job in the video game industry, it’s crucial to realize that no two video game companies are alike – that should be obvious.  Even studios owned by the same parent company (Tiburon and EA Canada within EA, for example) can have dramatically different cultures, management styles, quality of life and more.  If you’re in one of those best-case scenarios where you can be a little picky with the offer you accept, there are several things that you should keep in mind before selecting a company to work for.  This list is going to be a WIP – I was going to try and get to a nice even number, but I’ll just add more as they are suggested or I think of them.

  1. Quality of life – this one might be one of the most talked about issues in the gaming industry.  Since the EA Spouse incident of 2004, video game companies have started taking quality of life/crunch issues very seriously.  At least, they say the do.  It’s important to find out how much of that is lip service and how much is sincere.  You won’t find a company that says, “we run our employees through the grinder, and we’re not planning on changing.”  They all say it’s an important issue (and I believe most of them are sincere), but it would be wise to talk to current and former employees to see how good a job they do at living up to the talk.
  2. Company size – Working at a studio with 20 people is an entirely different experience than working at one with 500.  There can be perks at both – do you enjoy more responsibility and less layers of management, or working on blockbuster titles with 20 million dollar budgets?  This is a personal preference issue, so it’s important to ask how large they currently are and how large they might grow.
  3. Location – if you’re in a city with only one gaming company, are you prepared to move if it doesn’t work out for some reason?  I’ve written a bit about knowing where companies are located here and here.
  4. Prestige – Do you care what you’re working on?  If you absolutely want to work on a blockbuster title like GTA or Resident Evil, this is going to limit your options.  Some people want just want to work in the industry, and are happy working on smaller scale games, kids titles, etc. if their other critera are met.  Again, personal preference.
  5. Money – How well does the company pay?  If they pay more, is the cost of living higher in that area?  Is there a state income tax?  Do they offer relocation expenses/signing bonus?  This could be the topic of an entire list… ;)
  6. Stability of the company – how safe would your job be if the company has a “miss?”  Can they afford to keep the doors open if a game doesn’t do well?

Get to Know Your Local Game Industry

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My partner Andy forwarded me a great blog post recently about gettting to know your local video game industry – read it here.  I’ve written a bit about this in the past, specifically in regards to job searching after layoffs, attending your local IGDA chapter and tracking where all the video game companies are.  The author of this article, Ms. Lesa Wilcox, is running with the same ideas.  She recommends identifying 3 specfic areas in your local game community – education facilities, networking opportunities, and a list of local companies.

For Ms. Wilcox, the target area is Baltimore, and she does an impressive job of laying out what the local scene looks like.  I think putting together a list like this is a great step in starting your job search, and I really like seeing a list like this laid out for a city like Baltimore.  You don’t necessarily think of Baltimore as being a game development hub, but it has a solid roster of developers and educational facilities.

I’m thinking about putting together lists like these for a variety of cities, and I’d like to start with cities that fall outside the realm of the “superstar” development cities (San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle, etc.).  I’ll probably start with Orlando, because that’s where I live.  ;)