When I started game-ism.com, I decided that I wasn’t going to talk about “how to break into the industry,” because I’ve already gone on at length in other venues (i.e. not here) about the topic. The information is out there if you know where to look (Google is your friend), and I’d just be repeating myself. Plus, lately, I wonder how valid the information is now that thousands of people are losing their jobs on a weekly basis within the industry and fighting for what positions are left.
But what I do want to talk about for a minute is what often precedes that first job: college. My problem lately is that I don’t think that the vast majority of the educational systems available to people which promise “video game education” be it design, art, or programming, are living up to any kind of educational standard. Let alone a video game education standard.
I’ve been courted more than once to teach at university programs, and even taught a class or two at one point, and what I’ve learned about the system is disgusting to me as a professional and as a college graduate (BFA, thanks for asking). One school’s department director told me, point blank, that the point of their 4 year program was not to get a student a job after 4 years, but to make sure that they enroll in Graduate School. This wasn’t Westwood; it was an accredited university program. I politely told him I wasn’t interested in being part of a program that isn’t designed around placing 85% of their graduates or better in a job related to their degree.
The problem with this whole system and relationship between the school and the student is that it’s built off of assumptions, and conflicted interest. Individuals (students) expect the University or College to provide them with something (training, a diploma, a portfolio, experience) that will get them a job when they graduate. The vast majority of Universities or Colleges pretty much want your money, and they’re willing to provide you with a service in exchange for that money.
Did you see the disconnect there? The student expects training that will get them a job or carreer. The School expects money and will provide a service. These two things often do not arrive at the same conclusion. Nothing I can say here is going to change that. And to be fair, there are a few schools whose programs are designed around getting you the experience they know will put you in position to be hired. I’m not going to endorse or condemn any schools by name here. But what I am going to do is attempt to outline what you need to look out for, at least insofar as art, animation, or design disciplines are concerned, if you’re thinking about giving a school your money in the hopes that you work in the gaming industry later.
First, Ask About Placement Rates.
Do this right off the bat. Don’t be sheepishly polite. Be blunt and to the point. You’re about to give this school anywhere between $40,000-100,000 (or more) of yours or your parents’ money. If you’re getting student loans you’re going to be paying them off for as long as you’d pay off a house. Get your money’s worth. Don’t just accept a number. Ask to see names of the companies they work and place with. Ask if you can contact any alumni they’ve recently placed regarding the program. Ask about intern programs they have with local game companies. This might seem like you’re out of line being a Freshman and all, but if you were buying a $100,000 house, you’d get a home inspection. It’s time to do a school inspection, and it starts with how successful the school is.
Who Teaches There?
I’m not about to pull out the “Those who can, do, those who can’t…” bullshit mantra, but if the school doesn’t employ anyone in your program who’s currently working in the industry of your choice, you might want to look elsewhere. Videogame technology (and therefore the techniques) advances at a redonkulous rate. Normal Maps were unheard of 8 years ago. The memory allocation in the total RAM footprint for things like textures for current gen systems exceeds the total RAM for an entire game system from just two generations ago. If your professor is not steeped in what the industry is doing today, how can they hope to teach you what you need to know to get hired tomorrow? If they haven’t worked in the industry for the past five years, they can’t possibly be able to tell you how the industry operates today. It’s not enough to have someone who was an expert or dabbled in the industry awhile ago. You need someone who’s an expert now.
101 Comes Before 201.
I didn’t even think I’d need to say this before writing up this piece, but there are actually schools out there who feel that prerequisites are for the student to decide. This is patently absurd. If the school allows you to take a 400 level class when you’re a Freshman (or even a Sophmore), there is no way they deserve your money. Just walk away. Imagine going to high school and having someone teach you Calculus before you learned Algebra. How about taking French Literature classes before you even take your first French 101 lesson. If it sounds rediculous, that’s because it is. Now imagine being given the priveledge to throw away your money because you didn’t know better, and the School wasn’t willing to tell you otherwise. Isn’t it their job to teach you?
Focused Disciplines and Portfolios.
One of the things that I have to tell every student porfolio I see is that once they graduate, they need to throw away their student reel and re-package their material into a focused, job specific professional reel. Universities seem to have this impression that students need to be well rounded in order to get a job. On the surface, this seems somewhat logical: use the shotgun approach so that the student has a broad range of abilities they can do competently, so that if any job pops up they can hopefully fill it. Contrast that with what most game teams/companies need: focused snipers who can hone their skillset like a laser on a designated task or series of tasks. We don’t hire artists. We hire character artists. We hire texture artists. We hire environment artists. We don’t hire programmers. We hire AI Programmers or Tools Programmers or System Programmers. We don’t hire animators who work with sand or puppets. We hire character animators who work with 3D aps and/or motion capture. We don’t hire designers. We hire level designers. Technical designers. Combat designers.
The idea when framed in a traditional university setting is downright comical. Imagine if you decided to major in English, but they wanted to make sure you spoke some French, or some Japanese, y’know, just in case there was an opening somewhere you could apply for it! Nevermind that they’d hire a French major or a Japanese major for those positions. There isn’t a Pharma corp on the planet who would be willing to hire someone who majored in “Science” over a candidate who majored in Chemistry, specifically with a Biochemical emphasis.
Why, then, do these video-game schools have kids show up with demo reels that have animation, rotating character models, and environment models on them? (Hint, they failed the second category above). But it’s not just art; I see it in the design programs, too. I have no doubt that programming sees its fair share of this “generalist” attitude as well. To be fair, you do need to do some dabbling in a bunch of different areas of your program before settling down on the path you know you want (I changed my major twice when I was in school), but you need to make sure your program (and therefore your portfolio) is focused like a laser on the specific job position you seek when you graduate.
Sophomore Portfolio/Progress Reviews.
I recently attended a Senior Portfolio Review as an industry guest reviewer, and I was a bit appalled. Out of 30 or so candidates who were going to be graduating that year, only two of them were hire-able based off of their current reels (and really, a projection of what their current reels would look like in a few months). I got the overwhelming feeling that 28 people in that room had just wasted an inordinate amount of money and the last four years of their life. As a professional, I can easily identify where their program is lacking, and what needs to be done to fix it, but as an incoming Freshman, chances are you can’t. However, here’s how you tell if they’re serious about giving you a good education: Ask if they do a Sophomore Portfolio Review. My University did. I had no idea at the time why this was important, but time and experience has shown me the light. Schools that are willing to evaluate their students at the end of their 2nd year, and kick them out of the program if they’re not cutting it are more concerned about their reputation as a school than they are about taking your money. And that is a school you want to go to, because they want you to be a successful representative of their program, or they want you out of their program before you waste anymore of their time (and reputation). In the end, that is the most successful way they can attract more students; by being the school that doesn’t just hand out diplomas. They release successful professionals into the wilds of the real world.
What you don’t want to do is wind up attending a school that is only interested in taking your money for the next four years, and won’t do anything to get in the way of that happening. You want a school that’s going to care for your education as if you’re an ambassador for their product. If you get the feeling like you’re just a cash cow, walk away.
The bottom line here is that if you’re not satisfied with any of these school criteria, please go somewhere else. Even if it means going out of state and spending a bit more money. The worst thing you can do is go into debt and get a worthless degree from a school because it’s conveniently located. The gaming job market just got a lot more competitive in the past three months for entry and low level positions (and even the senior and top level positions). The least you can do is make sure you’re attending the right school. Ask about all of the criteria on this list, and then see how flabbergasted they are.
If they don’t rebuff your questions, give them a shot.