So, I received a messaged on LinkedIn asking what it was like to work in the game industry. I am by no means an expert on it, since I've only done a single, short internship. I also remember what it was like to have no clue where to even begin learning about game dev.
I would like to think that my time at DigiPen has given me a little bit of experience to speak from as well though. I took some time to write out a decent length reply, which I will copy here in hopes that someone else may also find valuable information to take away.
Hello Chris. My name is Billy Bob-Joe (not his real name) and I currently study at Westwood College and major in Game Art. I have always have been interested in video games ever since I was a kid. If you would take the time to answer these questions, I would greatly appreciate it.
1. What is it like to be apart of the game industry?
I am still a student currently, however I did have an internship at Blizzard over the summer. It was definitely an enriching experience and not nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be.
Being in the game industry was not dissimilar to being in school. If you spend most of your time in school developing games, then you will deal with a lot of the same stuff. Depending on your discipline, your day-to-day will definitely vary.
As a designer, I have to stick to production schedules and burn through various tasks that others need done to progress on their own work. I also make sure that I am working toward bringing everything together as a cohesive and polished final project.
On my game teams, I spend most of my time doing level and mechanics design. I do these both on paper and in-engine. I split my time between paper design and actual implementation (building geometry, writing code, testing, iterating, polishing).
Sometimes I work on solo projects a well, but depending on the type of project, the workload and types of work change dramatically. I can spend time doing art asset production, audio, programming, level design in varying amounts. I actually spend a lot of my time trying to figure out and reassesing what I want the end result to be so that I can at least attempt to keep my scope manageable. This is easier said than done and you only get better at it the more you time/freedom you have to fail at it.
2. Knowing that there is a ton of competition out there, how do you set yourself apart from everyone else in the industry?
Holy cow, this is a tough one and I am not really sure how to answer. I guess, the best thing I could say is to figure out what you really like doing and showcase the hell out of that.
In order to have "complete" projects to showcase your talents, you usually have to also do stuff that you are weaker at. Figure out clever ways to hide the things that you suck at and don't spend too much time getting yourself into complicated problems.
If you are good at level design, save most of your bandwidth for making some really badass levels with some supporting code, audio, art, whatever to help them be a little bit more than just a set of generic levels.
I guess if you really can hone in on and polish some really good looking stuff that oozes with your passion other people will tend to pick up on it a bit. Don't get discouraged if you can't figure this out right away, or if you are not really sure where your strengths are.
Hell - I struggle with this every day dude! Honestly, try not to worry about this one so much, it will drive you crazy. Expend that energy on just trying to make cool stuff instead. Also, try to show it off as much as possible! Doing the social media thing helps with that, but it can also be a seriously anxiety inducing minefield.
Keep in mind that you don't have to be the best at something in order to do good work, you just have to have some perseverance.
3. What is the best project that you have worked on so far?
This is sort of a tough one to answer, since every project has had its ups and downs. Each one has been kind of special and they have all provided some pretty valuable lessons.
The crazy thing is, up until just a couple years ago - I really had no idea where to even begin when it came to game development. I did some pen and paper stuff, but nothing to the level that I've had to rise to once I started school.
Firewall/Antivirus are the first two games I made with a team:
http://www.chrismade.it/firewall-2011/
http://www.chrismade.it/antivirus-2011/
FILE_ERROR was my first project that I had to code entirely on my own (using an existing engine and brand new (to me) language):
http://www.chrismade.it/file-error-2012/
War of the Currents was a really awesome idea (and one I will revisit some day), with a lot of cool stuff happening, but was also a huge lesson in proper scoping:
http://www.chrismade.it/wotc-2013/
Infernus was built once Unity really started to click with me and I discovered my love for 3D level design (and apparently walking simulators). It was also an interesting project, because it was borne out of sheer frustration and creative burnout:
http://www.chrismade.it/infernus-2014/
T.REX IS MY CAB DRIVER, RAAWWWR! was one of my first board games and probably one of my favorites as well. I really enjoy doing paper game design:
http://www.chrismade.it/trex-2012/
Finally, my time working on World of Warcraft was probably the highlight of my game design career so far. This was literally a dream come true for me:
http://www.chrismade.it/wod-2014/
I hope this helps at least a little bit man and sorry it took me such a long time to get back to you. Feel free to follow up via email!
Cheers!