My current skillset is that of a generalist. I am able to perform beginner to intermediate tasks across a variety of skills and software, but I am not specialised in any and need further development before being able to handle expert tasks. I can use Unity and Autodesk Maya comfortably, however software such as Unreal or Blender are a mystery to me, and so I feel I need to develop my skills into these software and others that may be used throughout the industry.
I originally got into the VR course because I was interested in the potential future technologies it would use, particularly using brain-computer interfaces. A lack of physical computing within the course, though, has left me without any skillset to pursue a career to do with the development of VR hardware, so that will have to be something I learn about in my spare time over the years as I pursue a career in the gaming industry.
I’m not quite sure what I want to do exactly within a game development career, so I have had a little look. With my current skillset, and with future improvements, I have found a few job roles that I could potentially fit: game designer, level designer, game programmer, AI programmer, gameplay engineer and QA game tester. AI programmer is not an entry-level position, however, so it would take a few years of experience before I could move into that position. They all earn a decent wage too, with entry-level game designers earning approximately $40,000 annually. I have had a little experience with QA game testing when I did a week of work experience when I was 16 at nDreams, one of the first VR game developer and publishers in the UK. I enjoyed that experience a lot and it’s been in the back of my mind as a potential career path ever since. To boost the chances of that career being successful I can get a ISTQB certification, but that costs around $2000 for a two-week course, so I’d rather get the job without needing to spend that amount of money.
Some companies I have interest in working for include: Larian Studios, Ubisoft, EA, Activision, Blizzard, Square Enix, Firaxis, TT Games, and Glowmade. Larian Studios developed the game Divinity: Original Sin 2 of which I am a huge fan, and they are currently in the process of developing Baldur’s Gate 3, which I am also really looking forward to having played the early access version. TT Games developed the LEGO Star Wars Games and others which I really enjoyed as a kid, and now, and I even found an entry-level job listing with them last year. Unfortunately, when I found the listing it had already been filled, but I got in contact with one of their hiring managers and am able to ask them for any future roles that may be coming up if I want to. Glowmade is a small studio compared to the others I have listed, but I already have a connection as an old friend’s sister works there as a 3D artist.
Currently, I don’t feel comfortable with my skills to go into the workplace for a specialised role so I would like to spend time developing existing and new skills. An apprenticeship or internship would make the experience easier as I could develop my skills whilst getting paid, but that is not a requirement as I will take time to develop them myself in my free time. I would like to strengthen my coding knowledge as I have used multiple languages (C#, Java, Python, HTML, CSS, SQL) in the past but it has been some time since I have used most of them. I would also like to develop my knowledge of different Unity packages. Shadergraph and VFXGraph are some I already know about but don’t understand all that well, and there are many other packages that I just haven’t used and don’t know about. Developing and publishing a few small games would also be ideal as they would grow my skills as I purposefully use them. Finally, learning physical computing and developing prototypes of haptics and other devices would enable me to pursue my alternative career path, even if only as a hobby.