Have you ever taken a game related job?

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
1

I was offered a commission today, basically all the characters and props for a doom 3 style game, but I don’t really have the time right now and something seemed a little lacking in the pitch. I didn’t take the commission.

Anyway, it made me think about job offers.

The video games industry is worth $93bn (£59bn) worldwide, compared to $15bn for the music industry, and the $88.3bn worldwide film industry. ~ from BBC news this week

Have any of you guys done or been offered work related to Blender, either game assets or full or partial games?
I think Agoose77 has done some commercial stuff… Video games world wide are now making more money more than movies and 6 times more than the music industry! There’s got to be some money out there for those who are prepared to put in a bit of hard work.

The thing is, I don’t know how to sniff out a genuine offer, and if I did get one I’m not sure what my rates should be. I was offered a job once but it would have meant relocating to America and I couldn’t find out enough about the company to know whether it was the real deal.

I had a friend who was offered a job in a telemarketing company and when he turned up for work on the first day the company had disappeared over night, the building was just cleared out. Can you imagine moving to another country to start your dream job making computer games and have the same thing happen? It’d be a nightmare.

I’ve had other friends who work as artists who tell me their woes about patrons who order art work and then change their mind, or request endless reworking of the subject, or refuse to pay or try to renegotiate fees halfway through a job, or even just disappear completely.

So let’s discuss:

  • Is it worth the trouble?
  • How to find out if a commission is genuine.
  • How to avoid time wasters.
  • Rates and example fees.
  • bad experiences.
  • Good experiences.
  • Selling assets on sites like turbo squid.
2

I never worked in game industry, but i work in IT as full time employee.

You need to decide if you want to be an employee, or a freelancer. Both ways have benefits and drawbacks. Regardless what you are aiming for, your contract partner should be serious. It does not matter if it is gaming industry or anything else. I’m sure in gaming the situation is much harder than in other IT branches (less money to earn, more time pressure, higher risk of a failing company …).

You also need to consider your situation.
If they want you to relocate … do you want that? Who is paying for the move? Are you allowed to work there? Do they help to get a work permission? Do you want to be bounded to this single company? What carrier can you expect with that company.

Is it an option to work remote from other location (via phone, telecommuting) with a few travels to the office. Who is paying for that? How long is the duration of the job? What happens after the job/project?

Finally it is “just” a job. If you do not really need to take it, or your really want it, there is the option to say - no.

Just some thoughts.

3

A soft rule of thumb for detecting scams.
Look for solid and definitive lines and do they tell you everything you want to hear whenever you balk at the pitch. The more amorphous their pitch is, the more likely it is something that only exists in someones mind. And well…If every time you say “I don’t know” and you get a “But wait we can offer this too” …then most likely it is someone trying to sweet talk you into a scam.

As a rule every job has unpleasant parts and a hiring manager should be seeking to see if you are someone who will stick with it because of those. My advice and this goes even if you have a job, Just put out applications and the like and do some interviews even if you do not want the job. Get a feel for what a real interview is.

4

I was paid to build a few prototypes with the BGE (mostly by people that I also tutored at the time). As far as I know, neither was expanded into anything that resembles a decent game, and I haven’t heard from those people since.

I also worked on a Unity project, as a supporting programmer, but that fell apart when they ran out of funding … allegedly -> Personally, I think the lead didn’t really understand how difficult it is to deliver a viable product to market, and he basically decided (wisely, in my opinion) to cut his loses.

There’s a lot of money in the game industry, yes, but most of it is made by AAA companies that push out blockbuster releases. There are some small studios that do well, and even some independent games that become wildly popular, but most people are just breaking even, and are lucky if they can even manage that.

That, in my limited experience, is the reality of this industry -> A few big winners, in a never-ending sea of losers (financially speaking).

The only way to make a comfortable living, as a game developer, is to push out something significant that will:

A) Become a hit, and provide you with the financial stability to deliver a new one.

Or

B) Sufficiently impress someone in a well established company, who would then offer you a real job.

The freelance world is grimy: you may be able to secure a few good opportunities here and there, but for the most part, you’ll find unreliable, or unrealistic clients, who will demand “world class work” on a “shoe string budget”.

About the US: It’s a land of risk and risk takers. Some of that is good, for some people, but it creates an environment that is generally damaging - There is no safety, ever: A “company” can be formed, exist, and dissolve within a few months, and everyone is dropped back into the market, scrambling to find their place, once again.

Unless you have a sure thing lined up, with a well established company, the trip will probably turn out to be a net negative.

5

I have coded for an artist, so he could have a portfolio for school, I have also coded a few other little things for money, but I am bound to a non disclosure, so I cant say what it was. Also, I did some paid work and got ripped off once…

I can prototype stuff fast and easy, however I think I am just good enough to do little jobs, I think Smoking mirror, Monster, and Goran could all become paid developers, however we need to iron out a few minor kinks in the engine first,

After the Viewport FX patch, we will all be more valuble, Also getting a game representing the engine on steam, and in the blender market would be nice.

We all are proficient with a software, that is on the cusp of economic viability.

6

I currently work for a company who use Blender to deliver real-time software to clients. If you’ve not already noted the ambiguity in this statement; I cannot disclose much about what I do, so it’s easier to be vague.

It’s hard to discern a good offer from a bad one, within reason. It’s easy to be misled with freelance, given how informal it can be managed, if you are unfortunate enough.

Most of the time, you have to guess at what might be appropriate, and network with existing professionals to determine how much is reasonable. You should factor in a number of aspects, such as your proficiency, financial requirements etc. This is often something you can somewhat negotiate, depending upon the size of the organisation.

You don’t really want to undertake long term contracts in relatively large projects without charging hourly rates; the reason being that most often in programming aspects, unexpected delays within a project can cause problems, such as a change in requirements, performance targets and a large host of other issues which can, and do occur.

Ensure that you’re paid regularly, rather than at the very end of a project, unless you have experience with a company such that you trust them.

Time wasters are inevitable, but you can leverage your common sense to discern if someone is misguided.

Avoid physically relocating unless it’s a very good opportunity and you’re informed on their veritableness.

My experience of the process has been fantastic. I’ve had offers from companies based in LA to fill a temporarily unfilled position, with very reasonable terms. It was, in fact, the issue of obtaining a work permit in such haste that was the most significant roadblock. The company that I work for are understanding of my own requirements from the position, and my time constraints.

7

I’ve been using BGE in the games industry for just over 11 years now. That period was split over two different companies (the latter I’m still with) and both were/are paid hourly. The current project I’m working on has been released to the market for 7 years and still getting stronger. Like Agoose, I can’t tell you what it is.

I can say that it was well worth becoming a games developer. I found the job like any other normal job, have a contract, have a boss I see daily, have employee rights, etc. I would suggest going for being paid regularly.

8

Gotta love those “can’t talk about it” stories. :smiley:

9

First rule about freelance club :wink:

10

To find a genuine employer is as equal as finding a suitable employee. A company should have: their own (at least) portfolio/profile and company registration documentation, some financial/ownership/shares information. A company, will surely distribute these as one of their main business/marketing plan.

11

I don’t want a game related job. It’s my hobby.

12
  • Is it worth the trouble?
  • How to find out if a commission is genuine.
  • How to avoid time wasters.
  • Rates and example fees.
  • bad experiences.
  • Good experiences.
  • Selling assets on sites like turbo squid.

check out in www.glassdoor.com , search for the game company and look for yourself :slight_smile: there you can find plenty of bad and good experiences/comments/opinions

But if not listed in glassdoor, then you might want to look at linkedIn and see what’s about your contact (professional experience, recommendations, published games, etc)

I worked for a game art company (2007-2011) and I can say that it was worth, I learn a lot, I meet very interesting and talented people. The salary was OK, not the best but enough fair for the cost of living of the city (I moved from my hometown) and the good thing was that I didn’t have to pay for rent and services, because the company paid for that while I was working there. It was a plus for the company.

About the time, personal time… it comes to my mind this “I foresee you having no life”, very common I think, the industry is very demanding, you have to work under pressure and the crunch time is very common.

The industry is very very volatile, It happened to me that I was working on a game project and from a day to another, after weeks of work, the project was shut down, no explanations, just like that. And if you are working for a X game of X game company and something similar happens, you might end up looking for a job that evening. But in the other and if you work in a outsourcing company, maybe if lucky, you just get moved to another project.

In my oppinion there was no bad or good experiences, but only “experiences” just like any other job. At the end I decided to left my job, it was great to have the opportunity but I wanted to do some more things, and “me working for a game company” was already marked down in my bucket list

A couple of years ago I had an offer to work in a game company for mobile devices, and after doing my research about it, I decided to decline the offer, and now I prefer doing my 3D stuff just for passion.

And I have nothing to say regarding selling assets online, because I haven’t tried yet.

13

Well, the graphics industry is a multi million dollar show. But that doesn’t mean that forces are rare. The market is supersaturated with projects, and supersaturated with graphics artists too. And it is still usual to hire unpaid trainiees for the boring and easy tasks to save money. The industry is a shark bassin.

Still worth a read:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=372592
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=2&t=1122167