Studio Tours and how to go about it.

BrianShray · Feb 2018

Hi,

I will be visiting the US in about a months time from now.
Im curious to know. Are studio tours a thing ?
I know places like Blizzard offer em and I've tried my luck and signed up for it.
But do other studios have such things or do you have to know someone on the inside to bring you around.

Its my first time in the US and ill be in SF for week and then followed by LA for over a week.
I'd love to be able to visit some studios, if possible, for the experience as well as to meet people.
If anyone has some insight on this I'd super appreciate it !

Thanks !

slosh · Feb 2018

I think most studios will not have this sort of thing unless you know someone. Blizzard and maybe RIOT might have it but I doubt most other studios will. You could always try to reach out to the HR or recruiting dept to ask but if they don't have an organized tour, you're probably not going to be able to see the studio. If you know people on social media that might work at those companies, you could try contacting them but if you don't know them well, it's always a bit awkward. It wouldn't be surprising if they weren't comfortable with it.

JordanN · Feb 2018

IMO, unless you're going to a really big studio, you're not missing much.

I went on 3 tours before. 2 were apart of a school trip, 1 for an actual job interview. It was just being lead around a big room full of computers sitting on desks and seeing one tiny office where the art director lived. On top of that, they take security VERY seriously. Plenty of restricted areas with self locking doors. So if you're not following someone who has a key, you're going to have some explaining to do if you go somewhere you're not suppose to be!

radiancef0rge · Feb 2018

sacboi · Feb 2018

I recall a while back of EA offering tours at their Redwood City headquaters, San Mateo Cal.

Gaurav Mathur · Feb 2018

I've done this before, but mostly through a personal connection or with a good reason:

I didn't know it at the time, but when I visited Remedy in Finland they apparently took all their Max Payne concept art off the walls. My friend at the studio told me after the fact!
I was introduced to one of the Leads on the original Eve Online team through a mutual friend. I was able to visit CCP when I was in Reykjavik and briefly met their art team.
I "cold-called" a programmer at DICE Gothenburg years ago when I was there, and made some plans that fell through at the last moment... I think they may have had an approaching deadline at the time.
The CEO of Lakshya Digital gave me a tour the last time I was in New Delhi, but as an outsourcing house, they were probably motivated to make an impression with me.

These visits were all a long time ago. As you can imagine from the Remedy and CCP examples, it takes some effort and time to bring visitors into your studio. And it's potentially disruptive to others on the team. I can't imagine studios welcoming someone their leadership or core team doesn't have a prior personal relationship with, unless a studio has a particular policy to give studio tours as a form of community outreach. Double Fine Productions gives a studio tour to GDC Scholars. Outside of games, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena has studio tours for one day out of the entire year. These events are planned for in advance.

I love the concept of studio culture, learning about how other people make games, and meeting people from other parts of the world. When you think about game development in terms of terroir (a viticultural term), things get even more interesting. That's partially why I started gamedevmap. Browsing studio websites and social media is a way to look in on studio culture without being disruptive. It's not the same as meeting face to face, but it's better than nothing!

Brian "Panda" Choi · Feb 2018

You coming to LA?

I am down to hang out so hard.

Also might be able to throw in a InXile tour, but we're literally just a room with computers: nothing fancy.

Might be a stretch, but I can maybe get a buddy or two to vouch for us at Blizzard to do a quick floor one walkaround.

Lemme know.

BrianShray · Feb 2018

@slosh >> Yeah. Im not one to message artists im unfamiliar with out of the blue and the few times I had done it, I find it quite uncomfortable/awkward aswell. I'll take your advice and perhaps try reaching out to HR to get more information. Thanks !

@JordanN >> Yeah I understand. It's pretty much the same here where I work currently aswell. We have visitors/artists over atleast a couple times a month who drop in to say hi and visit our habitat.

@radiancef0rge >> Gotcha

@sacboi >> Oh ? Didn't know about that. I'll have to look into it. Thanks.

@Gaurav Mathur >> Thanks also for the work you're doing with the site, we visit it quite often. I share the same sentiment aswell, I love the varying studio cultures, as well as meeting and learning from different artists.

@Brian "Panda" Choi >> Sure am ! Will be just visiting and doing touristy stuff for the most part. If you'd be down to hang out for abit just in general around LA, I'd sure love to take you up on that offer.

Brian "Panda" Choi · Feb 2018

Email me and we can org something

Meloncov · Feb 2018

JordanN said:

IMO, unless you're going to a really big studio, you're not missing much.

I went on 3 tours before. 2 were apart of a school trip, 1 for an actual job interview. It was just being lead around a big room full of computers sitting on desks and seeing one tiny office where the art director lived. On top of that, they take security VERY seriously. Plenty of restricted areas with self locking doors. So if you're not following someone who has a key, you're going to have some explaining to do if you go somewhere you're not suppose to be!

The really big studios might have a couple cool statues up front, and maybe a cafeteria, gym, and fancy break room, but once you get passed that they're also big rooms full of computers with a couple tiny offices for higher-ups.

Studio Tours and how to go about it.

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