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How to get into gamdev without experience: from training to career advancement

Mosteller Reginald

Is it worth going into gamdev
Before you buy a developer course or sign up for an internship with a company, it’s worth analyzing your skills and talents and understanding in which digital area you have the most knowledge. For example, if you lead a blog, write scripts, know how to write applications or have experience in graphic design, it is worth continuing in the same direction and looking for interesting courses to acquire additional skills. If your main profession is not in any way connected with game design and programming, you should think about it.

We advise you to ask yourself these questions:

  • Do I really want to work in gamedev or I just like playing computer games?
  • Am I an assiduous person?
  • How do I want to work: in an office with a team, remotely for one company, combine several projects on a freelance basis?
  • Do I have the ability to combine training in courses with my main job and family affairs?
  • What am I: a humanitarian, an artist, a person with a mathematical way of thinking, a manager, a man who likes to look for errors and “polish” products to perfect quality?
  • What specialties are in demand in gamedev? How much do they pay for specialists with no experience in a field I like?
  • Do I want to finish an express course and quickly go to work at a company, or am I willing to study a year or longer to be able to apply for an interesting position right away?

Why does it seem that gamdev is for the select few?
The digital sphere looks mysterious to newcomers and all those who are far from computers. That’s why there are a lot of speculations, which are invented by not very experienced people. The gamedev environment is no exception.

Gamedev is complicated and misunderstood. Any profession is complicated and incomprehensible to someone who tries to understand the conversations of professionals without the basics, and to those who work in a fundamentally different field.

At gamedev, they look for specialists among “their own” – the rest of us can’t get close. It is partly true: it is really easier to get a job in the company if the person is a member of closed chats for professionals or just is friends with the programmers in real life. But you can get access to closed chats if you take an online course for developers, designers, or screenwriters. You can subscribe to thematic Telegram Channels and sit on forums for free and without any training. Both Telegram and forums often post jobs for people in the gamedev sphere and discuss online schools.

To go into gamedev, you need to be an experienced programmer. In the sphere of game development there is something to do for a person with any mindset and any professional background. For example, a humanities graduate can write a blog, scripts and cases, a mathematician can master a programming language and write games, a graphic designer can master animation and level design and begin to draw the game universe. To realize your talents in gamedev, it’s important to choose the right course.

No higher education is not allowed in gamedev. University education is desirable, but not necessary for programmers who need system knowledge. For writers, artists, designers, project managers and testers, it is enough to take a good online course lasting 4-6 months. Developers, too, can finish courses – for example, to learn the programming language Java or C++. The minimum duration of remote training for a programmer – 10 months, a beginner should take this into account when choosing a specialty.

When a company interviews a newcomer, it is important for HR-specialists to “catch” the confirmed knowledge and skills. Electronic certificates and diplomas are useful to confirm knowledge – they are issued at the end of training courses. You can prove your skills with the help of portfolios and competently described cases. Links to documents and examples of work are given in the cover letter.

Computer game development is not the youngest field. Video games have been around since the 80s, and specialists with years of experience in this field are in demand both in the CIS and the United States. Young programmers, testers and designers create some teams, older people work in companies with a different focus or lead teams of young specialists. Many people work as freelancers and don’t think about how old they are at all. The gender of a game developer or a candidate for the position of a level designer also doesn’t interest HR-managers when applying for a job in game industry.

If you don’t concentrate on speculations and preconceptions about game industry and agree with yourself to try your hand in a new profession, you can get an interesting and well-paid job this year.