work for a youngin'

If you want to get into games field, the best bet would be to get some kind of training. You could just work hard and develop a folio by yourself but you have to keep yourself motivated. Most training institutes will help you develop a folio you could use to try and get work.

Check out what learning institutes there are about you can apply for Computer graphcs college, Academy of Interactive Entertainment, Holmesglen Tafe, etc etc.

If your after some job placement then go to Centrelink and see if there are traineeship positions that you could apply for. There are possibly a good deal out there could...well suck.

ok....first of all what would i search for on the centrelink site?? im not into the programming part of it all....just purely modeling and animation....which could still work in the games field but yeah....thanks!

In every role I've had, in every interview I've been involved in (both interviewer and interviewee), and every potential employee or colleague I've been involved in assessing, the order of priority is always the same.



Personality/work ethic > Ability > experiance.



Age doesn't come into it unless it directly affects those things. For example it's expected that a 9 year old isn't going to posess a personality to mesh with the rest of the team, nor would they have the ability to fulfill a demanding role, let alone having previous experiance to bring along knowledge from past roles.



So, to put it bluntly, your age is not the issue, your abilities and life experiances are. Doing a comic and a spinning logo does not make you employable - Having a comprehensive portfolio proving your ability to fulfill job requirements does. Look at job posts and ask yourself can you fulfill those tasks, and can you SHOW you can fulfill them with a portfolio to back it up.

thanks for the reply :D ehehe, ohh...coolios, good to know that agea int everything! I prob should have said that those two things were my only "expiereince" "in the industry" but i am not a n00b at 3D/2D...lol..my folio is not too shabby and yeah, my knowledge is quite...well...i am very knowledgable about the software which i use and yeha, lol...lalalla

I suggest you also don?t write any cover letters in your "cool leet speak" It wouldn?t come across as very professional.

if you have some knowledge (or can quickly learn up) with some/all of these programs: MS Word, Powerpoint, Pagemaker, Indesign, Xpress, Publisher. You might have a chance of nabbing some DTP (desktop publishing) work... maybe. DTP is sort of the bridge between word processing and 2d graphic design. Most of the work would be mind numbing, but you might luck out and get a nice newsletter or digital persentation here and there.

These types of jobs don't lead to the computer game industy in any way, shape, or form though (just incase that is you longer term plan)

well, ud have to be pretty stupid to write up a cv like that, and i for one and am not. I am a very skilled person with very good marks. The only reason i write like that in these sort of forums is beacause it is much quiker and everyone seems to understand eh? so BLEH! and John, ill keep that in mind :DM5752006-10-13 02:48:06

If I were you I'd put in a resume for a job as a game tester then work your way towards an art position. From there you can talk to artists face to face, and get a feel for what the company requires of an artist and develop your portfolio to match.

Otherwise, take a game and make a mod, there are plenty of options out there. If you want to go straight in as an artist you'll need to be able to show something the company is interested in and convince them you're dedicated enough to do a good job 100% of the time.

Oh and, risking being flamed, I'd drop the leet speak as a general rule, unless you're talking in MSN or via SMS. It doesn't make you sound very intelligent, regardless of your good marks. Kinda makes you sound like a net hill billy.

no more lol's , cummons and dis's...what is this world comming too?! Okay, so I'll try and be propper. When ever I read about game testing they say things like "expierence needed with this program" and certain things which I have no idea about, like debugging. I know that in terms of Flash or VB or something, but I have never made a game using C++ or anything, and like I said, I don't plan to. So if I could get into game testing, that'd be great, but yeah. Also, wouldn't you have to be a pretty good gamer for that? I mean, I play games, except I usualy muck around, which doesn't help my skill level rise :D

Becoming a tester is one of the easiest ways into the indsutry. It may not be the best way into the other areas of game development, but at least it would give you some insight into the process of how a game is created and the professionalism that is required.

You don't need to be a great gamer to be a good tester, or know anything about debugging. You do have to be patient, methodical, conscientious, and write well. It helps to have a passion for games, because it can be a very demoralising job. However, a good tester is worth their weight in gold.

Testing is good work, if you can get it, and one of the best avenues into the industry. It is mostly accepted that someone starting as a tester is doing it to move into a development position, and it's quite accepted to mention this in your interview, but bear in mind that someone else who says 'I only ever want to be a tester', will probably be picked over you.

Anyone that plays games has enough experience to be a tester, (and you don't even need that) but not everyone will make a good tester, or get through the interview successfully. One of the big mistakes, would-be testers say is "I'd love to be a tester because I would get to play games all day" - WRONG! You TEST games, you go through the one game over and over and over and over, and did i mention... over. A good tester has good verbal and written communication skills, and has a mature, logical and structured approach to finding bugs in a game.

If you want to get in as a tester send your resume to every games company you'd be comfortable travelling to, with a cover letter stating how much you LOVE games, possibly adding what your favorite genre is, and game, what you're playing now, why you're playing it, what they could improve, and what you think testing a game involves - finding bugs, documenting bugs, varifying fixes, being very throrough, being the guardian of quality, fighting mediocrity.

You might not get in straight away, but don't be discouraged, keep bugging every company you can with resumes (unless they tell you to stop). And follow up with phonecalls, ask if you can talk to the manager of the testing department about a position, convince them you'd be a great tester. If you're dead keen, and you can show this, then you should be successful.

I don't want to discourage you, but your age might initially deter some companies, but if you can convey that you're going to approach the job with a mature and hard-working attitude then you might just get through.

Best of luck!

lol..."and write well"...well I am quite a good writer, just a moderatley poor speller. I'll see what I can do, thanks your advice!

There was some really great advice there - thanks Chameleon.

I can personally say that it has aided me in some more in-depth ideas. I'm currently looking to get a foot in the door in the industry, and while my dream is to get into writing/design etc, and I'd love to get straight into level design, I'm realistic enough to understand that an entry level QA position is far more attainable.

I've done a lot of unofficial modification work with strong community backings and run and administrate a popular MUSH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSH), which I'm hoping will demonstrate an appropriate amount of writing/design ability. I'm currently finishing up my Portfolio, and you have given me some excellent starting ideas for some things to add into my cover-letter.

Because let's face it.. Darkstar One could use a lot of gameplay variety, and Pirates: Caribbean Tales is so buggy it almost seems unlikely they even had a QA team. ;)

Thank you for the words of advice.

As a fellow designer that's been at this job obtainment thing for almost a year now. I believe I can give some advice.

Promote your work as much as you can and often. Over the months and months that you post your work [like say in the design section of sumea *hint hint*] People will see how quickly you are improving. And more so just how passionate you are about getting a place in this industry.

The placements are competitive though. And because you're classed as a junior at best companies have even more doubts about you.

My advice. Through my experiences with trying to get jobs and going to a few unsuccessful interviews is this:

As a junior in any position. You must convince these studios that you are totally capable of handling the job. To this end; when you go for an interview. Your mission will be to leave with the studio having as little doubts about you and your skills. Even if they are under pair.

Because for these studios.. Under average skill is far more appealing then skills not shown.

Also...truely..where ever you are be prepared for unfair outcomes. I've gone to a QA interview and was told sincerely that I did quite well for the interview. It's 2 months on now and still no word. But I?m currently chasing a higher up position so if I wasn't. I would be ringing up the QA manager of that studio and ask politely why I didn't get the job.

That brings us to another point. If you go for an interview but don't get the job [and chances are this WILL happen 1-4 times.] Be sure to RING up the studio. Get hold of those who interviewed you and POLITELY ask what you need improvement on. Some times you'll get helpful advice. other times..well..this industry is a little dodgy when it comes to employment.

The main point. Don't give in and keep trying. This industry is very very hard to get into. If you live in Brisbane you'll have a slightly easer time then if your in anywhere else. Melbourne from my experience only takes the best of the best of the best juniors for any position.

So keep at it mates. Wether you start in QA or Level Design. Find out what you need to learn and simply learn it.

My advice would be to a) look into games testing, and b) experiment with 3D, art, animation, mods, mapping...or whatever it is you wish to get into (or try them all and you'll find a favourite). 16yrs is young, you could easily spare a few years gaining experience (maybe even a degree) and putting together a solid portfolio. Research, plan and set some long term goals.nexx2006-10-18 09:08:19

Okay, so if I have'nt already mentioned (I haven't checked here for a while because AS MUCH AS I WANT IT TO IT DOES NOT SEND EMAIL NOTIFACATIONS :@ )I have had quite a bit of expierence and summed up, know what I'm doing. And yes, I have an A3 display book which is filled with my work (all 40 pages) and not one person who has looked at it has said anything negative - only wow's! and oooOOOoo's- so im pretty dandy there. I am also doing a year ahead in Media and skipping Units 1+2 so I will next year I will concentrate on making a short animation and it will be school work! yay! Does anyone know of any GOOD game studios in melbourne? The only one i know of is Atari...but i heard that they've had issues for the past little while and i mean, their website still says "Transformers:Relase date 2004" or whatever...so yeah. now i have to use this emotion night!

I think Sumea has a section with, as far as I know, a more or less complete list of Victorian developers that you could check out... a second list here:
http://www.mmv.vic.gov.au/CompaniesinVictoria

As for 'good' companies, check their sites to see if they have recent commercially successful games, but maybe more importantly if you like their games you should add them to the list of companies to approach.

There are plenty of GOOD games companies in Melbourne. The ones that instantly spring to my mind are IR Gurus, BlueTongue, Tantalus and Torus. But if you're serious you'd check the developer section of sumea and visit every developer website and find out for yourself.

Yeah don't worry about the age thing, in fact don't include it on your resume. One of my closest friends is still only in his early twenties and pretty much holds total dominance over his field in the local industry. In fact I'm having trouble thinking of an Aus company which he has not worked with in some way, and he'd be only about 5 years older than you. He started around your age in fact, so yeah, no danger man, go for it.