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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Caleb Parrish, Video Game Environment Artist

Caleb Parrish, Video Game Environment Artist
“Be prolific. Draw every day. And play beautiful games before the fun ugly ones.”

Caleb has been creating gorgeous interactive environments for over 15 years. He’s shipped 10 games as a key art team member, and contributed to many more as a consultant and technical art resource. Caleb’s work includes titles from blockbuster franchises like Spiderman, Assassin’s Creed, and Spore, and he specializes in making art look amazing even on resource-limited mobile devices.

Although his credited work is largely as an Environment Artist, Caleb is also a talented digital painter. (There’s a link to his breathtaking online portfolio at the bottom of this article.) He accomplishes all this by living his own advice about drawing every day and being prolific in your work.Read more »

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

If you’re passionate about video games, you’ve probably wondered what it would be like to design your own. But what is it really like to become a game designer? What does a game designer do all day? What skills and talents does it require, and how can you get started?

To answer these questions and more, we asked professional game designers including: senior game designer Kelly Toyama (Riot Games, Monolith, Wizards of the Coast), multi-talented game designer/artist/programmer Mandi Burley (Glu Mobile, Disney Playdom), senior game designer Kim McAuliffe (Project Spark, SOCOM4), and design director Hal Milton (Marvel: Avengers Alliance, D&D Online, Ultima Online).

Below you’ll find their their unfiltered thoughts on how you can prepare yourself for a game design education. Follow their advice, and one day you just might follow in their footsteps.

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Jaclyn Shumate, Video Game Sound Designer

Jaclyn Shumate, Video Game Sound Designer
Put a face to the audio: Chances are good that you’ve already played some of Jaclyn’s games.

Jaclyn is no video game audio rookie. In fact, chances are good that you’ve personally enjoyed her work: since becoming a Sound Designer in 2006, she’s done audio for major game series including Peggle 2, Plants vs Zombies, Fable Journey, and Kinect Star Wars and many others.

If you thought that creating game audio is an easy job? Well, think again. Jaclyn says that in addition to having audio engineering talent, you must also be willing to put in the time to master your technical chops. But if you’ve got a knack for creating emotion through sound, this might be just the job for you.Read more »

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This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Tamara Knoss, UI/UX Artist

Tamara Knoss, Video Game UI/UX Artist
This is Tamara, and she hopes you don’t notice her work.

Tamara has been active in the game industry for well over a decade – her early work was on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance as a 2D animator. More recently, she’s been a key user interaction (UI) artist and user experience (UX) designer on a number of titles including Battle Nations, Deer Hunter Reloaded, Samurai vs Zombies Defense 2, and Shinobi 3DS.

Tamara talks with us today about why it takes a thick skin and collaborative mind to work in UI/UX, and why doing interface design can be supremely rewarding for somebody with the right kind of personality. Could it be a good job for you? Read more »

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By Posted in Careers 63 Comments
This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.
Mandi Grant, Video Game Level Designer
“Playing games is the best education, if you’re thinking critically as you play.”

Meet Mandi Grant, Level Designer

Mandi has been in the game industry for a long time, and has played many roles in the design as well as the art departments. Today we’re talking with her about her job as a video game level designer.

Pay special attention to her advice on how artistic talent plays a critical role in the level design process. Read more »

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By Posted in Careers 12 Comments
This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Tyler Finney, Concept Artist

Tyler Finney, Video Game Concept Artist
“Insist on developing a range of skills that make you a multi-threat.”

Tyler has worked on numerous games for mobile, PC and consoles, including Forza Motorsports 5 by Microsoft Studios. Learn why he thinks that being a strong communicator is just as important as being a strong artist. Read more »

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By Posted in Careers 2 Comments
This is one of more than 30 interviews with professional game developers. For more, visit Which game job is right for you?.

Meet Frank Rogan, Senior Producer

Frank Rogan, Video Game Senior Producer
“You want to get into games? Go make something. Anything!”

Today we’re speaking with Frank Rogan, a veteran video game producer and senior producer. Frank has worked on many game titles including Enter the Matrix, Gears & Guts, and the Total Annihilation series.

Pay special attention to Frank’s advice on how to break into the game industry. It might just jump-start your career in games.Read more »

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With dozens of game careers to choose from, which job is right for you?

There are dozens of careers to choose from in the video game industry. But which one is right for you? Which job is the best fit your own unique interests and personality?

To find out if you’d make a good game artist, designer, programmer, or tester, there’s no better way than to find someone who’s already doing the job, and ask them to tell you all about it. Unfortunately, if you’re like most people, you probably don’t know any professional game developers who you could ask.

That’s why I did it for you! I interviewed over 30 professional game developers to find out all about their daily jobs. I asked them what they do, how they got started, and what they like (and don’t like) about their jobs making games. And, most importantly, I asked for their very best advice on how a new person (someone like YOU) can get started in the career.

So read these interviews with professional game developers to find out what each job is, what it takes to succeed, and how you can start preparing for your own game career today.Read more »

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If you love video games, it’s natural to be interested in video game careers. But if you’ve done even a little bit of research, you’ve probably noticed there are dozens of different job types in the video game industry. That can make your career research a bit overwhelming.

I have good news for you: Even though there are dozens of different game jobs, most of them fall into just six high-level job “families.” Simplify your research by reading about the job families below, then follow the links to dive deeper into the areas that seem to catch your interest. Learn about the top video game careers, explore what they do, and discover which ones you should consider for your future career.
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QA Testers find game bugs, then hand them over to the dev team to be fixed.

Of all the jobs in the game industry, Video Game Tester inspires the most excitement, curiosity, and passion. Maybe it’s the appeal of “getting paid to play games” (spoiler alert: testers don’t just play games all day). Or maybe it’s the dream of trading your soul-crushing job for a new career you’ll truly love.

Being a QA tester isn’t a top-paying job, but it’s not a bad way to earn a living. And it’s a common starting point for newbies to break into the game industry — in fact, I started my own career as a game tester, and used it as a foundation to build a successful (and, frankly, highly-paid) career making games.

But there’s a lot of bad information out there, including scammy websites that prey on the passion of young people. It’s hard to know what’s true, and what’s hype. That’s why I compiled this in-depth Q&A, based on my own career as a game tester, plus advice and insights from many other testers I’ve worked with over the years.

After reading it, if you still have questions about a career testing games, just ask me in the comments section below.

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