What website, resource, or school was responsible for you first getting into games?

Jon Jones

Hi all! I started a Facebook thread asking all my dev friends what website, resource, or school was responsible for first getting them into games, and the discussion ended up being *really* interesting. There are ways of breaking into games that I'd never imagined, and it opened my eyes. I wanted to share that link, and also to ask everyone here!

Link to thread: https://www.facebook.com/thejonjones/posts/10152276061365709?stream_ref=5

So two questions:

1) What website, resource, or school was responsible for you first getting into games?
2) Do you think the way you got in would be repeatable for anyone else, or have things changed too much?

Really curious to see what peoples' responses are. If this gets enough interest here, I'll post my answers as well. Let's hear your stories!

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skylebones

Great thread idea! I would love to hear how people got where they are and why.

1. For me it was Wings3d tutorials and a bit of the old eatpoo.com art forum. In high school I landed an internship at a local animation studio just by teaching myself how to model assets. Back then that was enough.

Also, the producer at my first studio was this guy.


2. Things have changed a ton. Back then if you could model something with half decent topology you could get a job. After a couple years in tv animation I transferred to games. And the same thing applied at the time. But as schools started teaching 3d, programs became more available, and lots of people got interested the requirements became much steeper. I worked as a modeler for a good five years before I had to learn to texture.

Justin Meisse

1) Many elements came together over time. '94 I convinced my parents to buy me RSD Game-Maker, it gave me a taste of game development. Then the Doom Hacker's Guide got me in even deeper. The Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale & Polycount helped me get in the game industry and keep going.

2) Things are better now, if I was 14 now, by the time I was 18 I'd probably have published a few indie games already instead of just a box full of floppy discs where only one game, Caves, survived corruption. The world will never know the greatness that was Cyborg Empire and Justoman.

Drav

Quake2 and polycount taught me that modelling and texturing were really hard, been playing catch up ever since!

Richard Kain

I got into games when I was four years old, and my father brought home his Apple IIc for the first time.

As far as editing games, I would have to say right here on Polycount (Q2PMP at the time) was my first exposure to game development/art. Before that games were something that I was very enthusiastic about, but had never really considered the possibility of making them myself. I often lament the fact that I wasn't able to get into this hobby sooner. There's so much I could have learned and achieved with the free time I had in my youth. But that's just the consequences of growing up in the middle of all this chaos.

I'm going to make sure that my young nephew has every chance to learn as much of this stuff as he wants to.

Lazerus Reborn

Loved games in my early years always wanted to make one.

Picked up "TheGameMaker" at a young age. Disappointed at how limited it was.

Fastforward a few years, went on "The game creators" website and got Fps creator. Saw some of JFletcher's work that he posted on there time to time. Pretty darn inspirational.

Started modeling soon after at the age of 12ish in milkshape3d & AC3D. Self taught and carried on in my spare time. Age 16 started linking it over to my artsy stuff and went from there to here on/off over the years.

Mostly hobby based practice for the joy of it and slowly built a skillset over the years joined Polycount in 09 i think and learnt the joys of being a small fish in a really big pond. Graphic design fell into place during that time along with all the other practical skills needed.

Now 21 & busting my nuts learning a decent pipeline building a new asset library for some projects to build a decent portfolio in between work.

Add3r

Got a tour of Blizzard through a friend I went to elementary school with, and wasnt even a tour, was more of just a lets go to the cafeteria and call it a tour of the campus. We sat and just asked some of the teams questions, but just being on the campus back then was just the absolute ultimate experience. I grew up playing Blizzard games (Warcraft series, and Starcraft 1), and so being able to be in the same buildings as the developers who created those worlds for me... Something magical. I went into the main lobby and grabbed one of the business cards that had the Blizzard logo on it. I taped to the wall above my monitor ever since, in plain sight and used it as inspiration and a reminder of what got me started and my career goal of possibly working there one day. It is still above my monitors at home to this day.

Have wanted to be a dev since that day, knew it was my calling, and then started dabbling with drawing, scripting small programs, anything I could do to learn the skills needed. In High school i found 3D modeling through a 2D/3D intro animation class, through a super old version of 3D studio max. Spent every waking moment thinking about and practicing my 3D and self teaching myself the game art workflows for 3D. Went to Ai- Orange County for almost 2 years, dropped out for freelance work at the age of 19, and now 20yrs old working for High Moon Studio, Activision Blizzard. Super humbled by the opportunity of my current position here, and looking back wouldnt change a thing.

Zack Maxwell

I started around... 2001? I got the game Neverwinter Nights, and found out you could mod it. I first started out using the in-game editor to make levels and items, then quickly graduated into making my own 3D models and textures for it by following online tutorials.
I went on modding games for like the next 10-11 years all through my 'teens, then when I started looking for a real career I realized I'd enjoy making my own games rather than just messing with existing ones.

Arkana

Partway through highschool I was wondering what I want to do as a career. I always wanted to do something in the game industry, but I wasn't too sure what. I decided to check out the Bioware site, as it's the only big game company in Edmonton. I saw a posting for "Environment Artist" and it really seemed interesting to me. Since then I taught myself Maya until I finished highschool and went to a small college for half a year.

I recently was able to apply for that position at Bioware, I doubt my skills are quite good enough to get in just yet. I'm going to keep trying though!