A Future Job at TellTale?
YES. YOU READ RIGHT.
Seeing how the team at TTG performs, it seems like a lot of fun to work at TellTale.
So, if anyone knows...
How old do you have to be to get a job at TTG?
I'm 16, and I LOVE to write. I honestly think I might do good at making plotlines and such. And I never praise myself. Ever.
What kind of skills do all TTG workers need?
Basically, Does anyone have any good info on getting a job at TellTale? I would LOVE to work here.
And where is it located? office location-wise
/lives in AZ oTL
Seeing how the team at TTG performs, it seems like a lot of fun to work at TellTale.
So, if anyone knows...
How old do you have to be to get a job at TTG?
I'm 16, and I LOVE to write. I honestly think I might do good at making plotlines and such. And I never praise myself. Ever.
What kind of skills do all TTG workers need?
Basically, Does anyone have any good info on getting a job at TellTale? I would LOVE to work here.
And where is it located? office location-wise
/lives in AZ oTL
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Comments
That's what I hear.
Keep an eye out!
We're in San Rafael, a bit north of San Francisco, and from what I've gathered, you should have a bit of college experience under your belt, then try for an internship or introductory position, like a tester.
Skills: Wear a lot of hats and be epic.
Mind you, it's not all as the blog posts say. We do have fun and I love my job VERY much, but it's also a job where you get what you put in. I've seen people work for 30 hours straight, I've seen people give up weekends. I am blessed to work with talented and dedicated people, and the extent of their love for their work should not be brushed off- it will be hard.
Check out that jobs page and good luck to you!
It doesn't really matter if it doesn't look great, so long as your concept and/or story comes across. For instance, look up Narbacular Drop on youtube. A team of students made that for their senior project, Valve saw it and immediately hired them to make Portal. Admittedly, that was a full team of kids and they got their game in front of the right people, but it's a good example of a game developer seeing a diamond in the rough.
In other words, longevity seems to be what the industry looks for more than anything else. A lot of people get their "dream" job designing, writing, etc., realize that it's actual (grueling, at times) work as opposed to playing games all day, and leave.
Obviously quality matters, but you'll have better luck filling your portfolio with ten good examples than one fantastic one. (Of course, ten fantastic examples is even better, but you know what I mean.) People like the Counterstrike and Narbacular Drop teams are very much exceptions to the rule.
Also, hats. Doesn't do much good for us writers, but never underestimate the power of a delightful top hat.
Also, avoid any colleges or majors that focus in video game specific stuff. Go to a normal school, get a normal degree, and make sure to work on game projects in your free time so you can build a portfolio.
Oh god, this. Those things aren't just scams, they are downright insulting. I'll never forget one that tried to butter up the deal by offering game demos. The same demos that can be nabbed anywhere for free. :rolleyes:
I can't even begin to express my hatred for "game design courses". Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Use that in your resume, and even McDonald's will laugh at you.
If you're determined to work as a writer (and this is coming from someone who works as a game journalist and has done writing for commercial game development), my advice is this: Get published. As much as possible and in the best publications.
That's the most important thing. Have your work out there, write for magazines, websites, etc. Have a long list of impressive credits. Your writing samples alone will not sell you. You need to have a proven track record of being able to work and meet deadlines, and produce superior work under pressure. It takes time to build yourself up to where you can get a really good gig. Start freelancing while you're still in school to get a head start on it, too.
A lot of writers think they're going to start off writing the story for a game or writing an epic novel or a feature-length screenplay and they don't understand that you have to start small. Short stories, articles, whatever. Make a name for yourself and people will give you the chance to do something more.
I had repressed those ads.
I still can't figure out how one could "tighten up graphics on level 3". Now, maybe it's because I understand what "engines" are, and I understand what "drawing" is, so I can't put myself in a non-gamer's shoes. But the leap in logic is just inconceivable. Even the magical button that inserts sound effects seems less fantastical.
Do they leap into the computer and tighten a few screws with a wrench? Is it another "magic button" scenario? Maybe they slowly rotate a half-finished model of a centaur around like in other graphic design ads. Whatever it is, I hope they pull it off before a cold-yet-sexy female voice uses outdated gaming puns like "game over". Oh god! I have to know! To Westwood, stat!
This is an actual representation of some publishers I think
Avoid them. You can learn enough to get into the game industry with a normal CS degree from any college, as long as you work on side projects. With a normal CS degree you also will have the "plan B" option of being a regular software engineer at a non-game company. It may not sound as fun or exciting, but it pays well.
There are an awful lot of kids out there right now with $100k in college loans, making $24k a year because they picked a degree that didn't match what the job market actually wants or has room for. Whatever you do, don't limit your career options by becoming super-focused.
I would agree that moving up in a big testing farm is hard to do. Working for EA or Sony or something, you don't get a lot of room for advancement. That said...
In our company the CEO, 3 producers, Monkey's lead content programmer, at least one of the writer/designer/directors, myself (sometime writer/designer on monkey) and probably quite a few others that I'm forgetting all started as testers.
Now most of those people started at Lucas in the in-house testing department and worked their way up through Lucas. But I think at just about any in-house dev studio, working up from testing is a very valid way to move up in the industry.
But what do you need to become a tester, what sort of schooling and or training do you need, I can play video games, and spot frame rate drops all day, but I know I need some sort of education to do it.
Also, I question the "get published to show you can make deadlines" approach, at least as regards fiction. First off, writing for games is absolutely nothing like writing prose fiction, and second off you very rarely have deadlines with fiction. The obvious exceptions are when you have book contracts with a publisher, but very few rookies are so lucky right off the bat. If you want to get started with fiction you write your short story, find a market and send out your manuscript. And to be frank, the hardest part nowadays is finding a market.
For every Dan or Will, there are a thousand guys still sitting in a cube farm somewhere who will never transfer out of QA.
That said, if you don't have the contacts or the programming/art chops to jump ahead in the industry, then QA is a decent backup plan. For people that are interested in QA, I'd say the best thing you can work on is communication skills. You need to be able to express your ideas clearly and concisely to explain exactly what is wrong. And you may be expected to talk to everyone in the company, including programmers, producers, and even CEOs.
I always fancied a career in the video game industry, having found a nack for some aspects of modding, but after discovering I was rubbish at programming and coding at A-level, I came to the conclusion it probably wouldn't work out...
I'm curious, does a masters in history cover much mythology?
I'm not at masters level yet though - still an undergraduate - that's just what I intend to leave with.
There's a relatively (by the scale of the planet) nearby school near Santa Barbara called the Pacifica Graduate Institute that has an advanced degree program in Comparative Mythology. The school has the Joseph Campbell Archives and Library, so that should give you a clue about its quality. I've looked into the place myself; I have a passion for mythologies from all over the world (but I remain strictly amateur so far).
Most everyone I've really enjoyed working with has come from QA. QA gives you much more insight into how games are made than anything else. I've worked with PhD's, folks from great CS schools, folks from game schools, etc and they range from really great to really really bad. But the folks who rise from the QA department have all be A+ people in my book. QA just gives you a really strong understanding of development. Armed with some passion and a brain, QA is a great way to get in.
As far as game schools go, I'd only endorse DigiPen for engineering. Their engineering grads always get scooped up by good companies (EA, etc) as soon as they graduate. Our own Andy Vella is a DigiPen grad, and he rocks!
I love you guys.
I'm trying to figure out the basics of the art of game making since I was 12 (I was working with Game Maker programme, and still I can't say that I know any main programming language but thanks to that programme I figured out the logic behind algorithms so it's not a hard thing for me to understand how programming works), and now I'm 18 and started to learn computer science and engineering in university, also working on my art skills. Reading this made me feel even more comfortable and dedicated. Just in the right time I was thinking of a possible game project of mine, and drawing some conceptual artworks for characters...
I just love you all.
DigiPen's degree programs meet the minimum accreditation requirements necessary for its students to receive education loans. However, most institutions refuse to give credit for courses taken at DigiPen and they generally do not count DigiPen's degrees as meeting the requirements for graduate programs.
Like Kevin said, though: DigiPen's engineering grads have no trouble finding jobs in the game industry.
And Yare, mythology would be a literature degree. Ancient history might have some connections to legends, but it would be study used to try to better understand a dig site kind of thing. Although there is of course the new wave in archaeology that is calling for more interdisciplinary study, but again, that doesn't necessarily apply to someone who's expertise is in the Napoleonic wars or feuding era Japan.
Not really. Mythology is something closer to "religioznawstwo" [that's how it's called in my language, direct translation: "religions-knowing"]. It's a study of religions - antient, like Greek or Babilonian mythology and modern ones.
"Beowulf" (and Arthurian legends, and some other old English legends) are closer to literature than religion - people of those days probably knew, that's it's a kind of fiction and metaphore while antient Greeks or Babilonians worshiped their gods.
I did my CS and GE units at another (fully accredited) school before I went to DigiPen. They will only accept basic computer programming, math, and physics units for transfer. You can't apply other units you have toward elective units at DigiPen (even CS units for CS electives). They charge you half of the unit cost of the class to apply the units. You can knock out maybe 20-30 units this way (math classes &c. are 4 units each), but the entire degree is something like 160 units. You'll also be paying for 4 years of housing regardless since there are 4 year-long game project courses required to graduate.
Contrast with my wife, who transferred 90 units to the University of Washington for free. Their counselor worked with her to map her units to as many UW courses and electives as possible, and were pretty flexible and helpful about it.
Jumping into the other topic, I don't know how the games industry generally works, but judging from the comments above it's pretty much the same as anything else - you need to be able to sell yourself. Of course you need to have the necessary programming skills and such, but just as important is that you've got the confidence, determination and ability to actually deploy all of the skills you've picked up in life. One thing that there's a whole lot of demand in the IT industry I've found is project management skills. While there's relatively many programmers available, people who understand the way of the code PLUS know how to run projects from start to finish are few a far between.
I know this post might seem a bit stupid or superficial, but I've found that while it's obviously essential to know your craft, this whole world revolves much more around personality, behavior and confidence. I can't stress it enough to anyone who's thinking about how to achieve something: you need to really set your mind to it and do everything in your power to achieve it. If I'd have to guess, all the people at TellTale have been pretty damn determined to get somewhere in the industry for a long time before ending up here.
Anyone with more experience can correct me if I'm wrong.
Oh, in America you'll find it in the "language arts" department of schools. The mythologies of the Greeks or Babylonians are not really considered from a "religious" standpoint, but more from an understanding of how they affected later literary traditions so they aren't usually used in comparative religion/philosophy courses. It's all rather Victorian. Of course things could be totally different now, I'm speaking from my experience of looking at schools and majors 10 years ago.
Here (and my country is almost all catholic) we have both Theology (which you have to study if you want to be a priest or teach religion at school - yes, here we have religion classes at school) and this "religioznawstwo" (with lots of philosophy, religion psychology and studies of different religions including antient ones like those mentioned above). If people took some mythology seriously, it's considered as religion.
BTW., Graham Masterton shows how antient religions can be used for books plot.
Yes, you do learn a lot of neat stories that would be cool in games (darn near every course I took I had game/film related notes somewhere in a margin), especially if you take a lot of mythology and/or religious studies classes as I was fortunate enough to, but, like my coworkers have said, writing/designing for games is very difficult to get into so keeping perspective is very important.
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