What made you want to work on games?

chriszuko

I've seen threads started that were all about how people got in the industry and what made you happy today which are really fun and interesting to read. However, I've never really seen anyone ask what was the thing that made you want to start working in the game industry in the first place. What lit your fire? What ignited your passion for games? I made a video explaining my story and I am really curious as to how you got interested in doing your thing for video games! Everyone's story is welcome!

For those who don't wanna watch the video.

Basically, I started as a little kid with mega man X and when I finally beat the damn spider boss ( after fighting it for weeks ) I shouted "I wanna make games" ( I like that memory because its the furthest back I can remember ever thinking about wanting to make video games ) Eventually in high school, I stumbled across Halo Custom Edition and the BLACK ART OF HALO MODS book that taught me the very basics of just about anything I wanted to do to modify in Halo CE. My first ever map is still existent here. From then on I was hooked and dead set on going to college for video game art. I shopped around for schools and landed on fullsai's Game Art Degree and the rest is history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Kmm1YS8ac

Have a great day!

Zuko

Olenka

As long as I remember, I was creating worlds, imagining them and drawing them, i liked to build things with everything and invent stories stuffed with dragons and dinosaurs. My dad has room with is pc and I used to look at him playing ( I remember him playing wolfestein : return to castle , I was so afraid xD ). I imediately loved this, I mean he was playing a character in another world !! He didn't let me play because it was too violent for me at this age. But fortunately, my best friend had everything he wanted so he got game consoles and we were playing together, him shooting stuff and me resolving puzzles, "you died, my turn" etc. At that time I was thinking " I also want to do this and create my worlds ! " but for an obscure reason, I didn't knew that it was actually a job to make video games. 

Life passed, I entered a art school, followed a fine art course and then a graphic design course without knowing where I was going. And then a guy arrived and said " hey, i'm following a game art course, come and see ! " and it EXPLODED LIKE A BOMB in my head , it was a revelation " omg I actually CAN create video games ?!? " and I directly applied. It was hard, but now I'm graduated and i'm slowly doing what I wanted first : creating worlds and creatures, sharing this passion with others, and I couldn't be more happy !

I Also was a big fan of Halo. I remember that I was inventing games for us to play in the Forge mode. I also liked to build map for my friends to play on it whenever there was a creative mode on a game, I was so happy when they liked it  

Thank you for speaking about this ! I like to hear about people stories.

RyanB

I was working as an electronics tech and I started using a program called POV-Ray in my spare time.  I made some Quake mods which I never released.  Then I took a part-time 3DS Max course.  I enjoyed that course so I took a one-year 3D art course.  When I finished that course I applied all over the world (literally) and the first place that hired me was a game company.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

garcellano

I grew up playing console games, portable games, then slowly PC and mobile. I think like many, you just follow teams and franchises over the years, you see what's big and what's not. And then, like mobile games, you see some become popular, and lead to bigger platforms, and so on. Same goes for PC games, you see some on Steam, and then goes on to consoles, etc. 

Something about that I like. Aside from the popular console games out there, seeing the games that come and gets kind of interesting, because the developers behind it may move on to some other team, making a kickass title, or the studio before can be some well-known place, etc. Game development is insane and fun at the same time. I relate it a bit with the Comic-Book industry, mixed with the Film industry. We're at that point now that some games are treated as titles to name-drop like they're the best. We just naturally say it, like AAA titles or any franchise we all know. Then, there's the indie side, where some just never see the light of day, and other that get noticed around, without the need of any well-known AAA publisher, or whatever. I don't know what else to say, I'm just rambling lol.

Alex_J

I don't wanna grow up!

chriszuko

I was gone for the week folks, so sorry for the late reply but its awesome to see the stories here! 

@Olenka
I totally forgot about halo forge! I spent a lot of time in that as well. That mode was awesome. Its cool to me that the simple stuff really made your head explode, because for me it was very similar. The constant thought of "Wait.. I can actually be the one who makes that part of a game?"

@RyanB
Hahaha! So you really had no idea that you wanted to get into games until a company reached out to you interested? 

@garcellano
lol thanks for the rambling  

@BIGTIMEMASTER
ME EITHER

Thanks for your stories peeps, these are super fun to read! 

Neox

i had no idea what to do, no plan, didnt really know one can make a living in games. i dabbled with modding and had the chance during school to playtest at a local company. applied for an internship and got in. i sorta stumbled into it hehe

RyanB

chriszuko said:

@RyanB
Hahaha! So you really had no idea that you wanted to get into games until a company reached out to you interested? 

I only applied to two game companies and one hired me.  The other places I applied were doing CG TV shows and movies.  I just took the first thing that was offered to me. 

chriszuko

@Neox
This seems to be the case for alot of people. Not really sure what to do and end up stumbling into the game industry. 

@RyanB
Oh neat, well thats pretty cool then

Ryusaki

Movie industry is too difficult to get in and my skill is not up to snuff. Also in general the movies here are shit and boring.

I did work in advertising for a while. Had to deal with shitty customers, choleric Bosses and superficial and obnoxious colleagues.

The general obsession with excessive materialism and mindfucking and manipulating people got really on my nerve after a short period of time. I can't deal with THESE kind of people without getting choleric and angry myself. I absolutely HATE advertising.

Also health issues, this shit made me depressive and burnt out.

Did also a little bit of architecture and product visualization but it bored me to death.

I figured realtime graphics and VR will be an important thing in the near future so i switched gears, started completely new from scratch and focused on that.

Also a gamer at heart, but i haven't touched a gamepad since years.

Ashervisalis

Liked video games, but this kid in high school told me that you needed to be programming since you were like... 10. If you weren't, you wouldn't be good enough to get into the industry. So I gave up.

Fast forward to when I was 28, working in insurance, a coworker asked me what I'd be doing if I could be doing anything. Told him making video games. He asked me why I wasn't and I actually had no response.

chriszuko

@Ryusaki
"The general obsession with excessive materialism and mindfucking and manipulating people got really on my nerve after a short period of time. "

Sounds like that really did a number on your world view.

Arch Vis is a very common route i've found when talking to colleges, there is something to be said of the skillset for those folks who get into the industry after being in the arch vis realm.

To be clear.. did you end up working somewhere in games?

@Ashervisalis

I've heard this one too before. I honestly was really lucky that my family was super supportive of the fact that I wanted to make games. It was .. actually really odd thinking about it now considering alot of other people I know had similar teachings that there is no way you could have a career doing that. Maybe its an age thing?? Idk. Did you end up switching routes then?

Ryusaki

No not yet, i am still working on my portfolio. I am doing an SciFI environment at the moment, planning to do some nature environment later. Going on a job-hunt next year for an environment artist position.

chriszuko

@Ryusaki

Well awesome, Good luck!

Eric Chadwick

Never even considered games. Fell into it by chance.

CG company I was working at  started making games. Boom, I got hooked.

25 years later... now using those skills elsewhere, much less instability, much nicer live/work balance.

chriszuko

@Eric Chadwick

I can't imagine myself ever really stopping to create video games of some point. Do you do anything on the side with it still in your "free" time?

Eric Chadwick

Nope. I keep a sketchbook tho. And this job is heavy on real-time 3d work. So that satisfies.

For me it was never about games specifically. It was always about the art: what's the highest quality I can do, given the current limitations. Love that shit!

And what's the best for the player (or customer, same thing). Focus on whats best for the goal.

chriszuko

@Eric Chadwick Ok im following now. Thanks for sharing your story

Ashervisalis

Nah dude, still in insurance lol. Trying to break in though

BrandonBerryCG

This cutscene right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJNvjAKjJI

My first system was a NES and I mainly stuck to platformers. But I got a playstation for chirstmas and rented Final Fantasy 8. I lived on a tiny farm in the middle of nowhere so it was very easy to myself getting severely entranced by the setting and story. As soon as this cutscene ended and blended straight into gameplay, I declared it my life goal to make video games (and to get a job at what was then Squaresoft). If only to create a world for others to experience more than their current situation can provide them.

Close to twenty years later, I'm still working towards it, and I'm more determined than I've ever been. I sometimes wonder if I'd be there by now if I hadn't lost my steam when my small town community college didn't know where to put "the guy that wanted to make video games". Not having a direct focus really wasted some years, but I don't try to dwell on it and continue to push forward. I look forward to working along side fellow polycounters soon 

chriszuko

@Ashervisalis Yea it can be tough for sure   Check out the link below.

@BrandonBerryCG Oh neat, The FF genre was something i never really got into. But that was because I was too busy playing Rollercoaster Tycoon and Halo XD. " but I don't try to dwell on it and continue to push forward" < --- that is great and you shouldn't dwell on it. The passion is what got me to keep going and I hope it is the same for you . I don't wanna stray too far off topic in this thread so Ill defer to this last thing.

If you want to break into the industry then definitely give that thread a read. Its pretty good and offers a ton of insight as to why you might not have made it in yet. Be true to yourself and your goals and practice your craft. It is art afterall

https://polycount.com/discussion/178125/struggling-to-break-into-the-industry-is-your-folio-helping-you

Lastly thanks for sharing your story. Its really fun to read all of these so far!

Ashervisalis

Thanks @chriszuko that's a pretty cool read! I think one thing Stuart pointed out, saying you need both quality and content for a junior role, is easy for a professional to judge. Someone just starting out is striving for both art content and technical quality, but it can be difficult to judge yourself on either of these if you don't have superior artists picking apart your work frequently.

Sick 3D portfolio btw! When I checked it out last time I mainly listened to your tunes.

chriszuko

@Ashervisalis Much appreciated! And yea exactly, its a great thread and gives you insight of just the mind of the person who would potentially hire you. And of course it is definitely helpful to have the mentors to guide you in your way but there definitely still needs to be alot of self motivation to either find that guidance if you need it or to just keep praciticing your craft! 

Also thanks for the kinda remarks Much appreciated.

BrandonBerryCG

@chriszuko I still remember having obscenely long CTF matches playing Halo during late-night LAN parties .  Thanks for the link! That thread has quite a good bit of useful information. I even went back and read his AMA!

chriszuko

@BrandonBerryCG Yea those were some good freakin days! Mountain Due Halo Gamers Edition <- Something like that. Glad you could find that link useful!

Gustavo_Elliott

           When I was four years old, my mother gave me her Nintendo entertainment system.  That is how my quest first began, through the years of playing Super Mario and other various side-scrolling platformers I had grown such a love for video games.  Through the years not a time has gone by where I did not have some sort of game system and when I was about 14 I thought briefly about a career in games but those around me told me it was not a viable option and it was a child's dream and I wish I would have known how wrong they were. Now, I am 23 and I have been a self-employed locksmith for the past 4 years and it has gotten quite dry... like the money is sometimes good but I don't find any sense of reward in the work I currently do.  So, 2 1/2 years ago after hitting rock-bottom and doing stupid stuff with life, I set out to actually chase what I wanted to do and rebuilt myself completely, I did terrible in high school, so I vowed to get good grades in college.  I started at my local community college by enrolling in an Associate's degree program for Game and simulation development which has successfully provided me with a foundation to build on to become a technical artist by providing me with the tools to learn Object-oriented programming.  The college has done a good job at teaching me programming skills and such but I want to be an environment artist and the two 3d classes we actually did were not technical and did not even explain the workflow for making game assets(mainly making high poly renders in blender and Maya). 

I am graduating from the community college in less than a month, I would love to connect with anyone else who is working toward or are currently making games. Please follow me on Twitter or check out my Artstation or send me a message here, I like to communicate with others.  

      I could really use advice as well if anyone can provide insight into some good Bachelor's programs for 3d art?  I have been thinking about applying to Scad, I'm just confused about whether I should stay on the self-teaching path after this degree or pursue a Bachelor's... 

chriszuko

@Gustavo_Elliott Interesting story I have met quite a few people who didn't get started until later for many reasons. I heavily believe that following your passion will get you to your end goal. There is an age limit, but that is only because of the 10,000 hours theory and the age limit is pretty high lol. Also, locksmithing immediately made me think of bank robbery. (Too much Red Dead) XD

You might also benefit from this link that I posted above as well.

https://polycount.com/discussion/178125/struggling-to-break-into-the-industry-is-your-folio-helping-you

"I could really use advice as well if anyone can provide insight into some good Bachelor's programs for 3d art?  I have been thinking about applying to Scad, I'm just confused about whether I should stay on the self-teaching path after this degree or pursue a Bachelor's... "

I would highly recommend that you post a new thread with your questions as a separate thing.  I don't want to stray this topic too far off here in this thread.

Lastly, Thanks for sharing your story!

Gustavo_Elliott

Thanks for the reply @chriszuko That article seems like a good, informative read upon which I will indulge later.  The number of hours I have put into Red dead..... Gracious...  I'll make another topic the Scad question, sorry for straying from the topic. But In the end, I am very confident that I will get to make amazing games with amazing people sometime soon in my life. have a good one! 

Kwramm

I always had a vivid imagination - I think what got me into video games was the idea that I could explore and create entire worlds. Being an old fart, the first glimpse on that were text adventures, where you could enter simple commands like "GO NORTH". But where else could you go? What could you experience? What dangerous would be out there? Of course, there were also games like Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, Monkey Island, Space Quest, Ultima VI that really wanted me to make games. Games that are fun, that tell a story, and that let you explore - break out of the daily routine and experience places, people (NPCs or other players) and adventures. Needless to say, I'm still a big fan of open world games and MMOs, and anything that has a good story. I also love to travel and see the world, and when I don't have time for that, I'll just explore every niche in Skyrim or another game like it.

Ozz14

I was always interested in the art aspect of games although it was more intuitive when I was a kid obviously. I remember playing Smash Bros and always wanting to go outside the actual platform level and explore around in the backgrounds when I was a kid . I was also completely blown away when I read somewhere online when I was a teenager that the actual map of WOW in real life was only about 3 square miles long IIRC. I think its amazing how really well made environments distort your perception of distance and scale because they just intrinsically feel like there is more to them than what you see with your eye. I think the story behind the world is just as important as the visual aspect, which is why I'm studying to get a bachelors in History from a 4 year university right now and doing environment art stuff after class, it gives me a good depth of resources to pull inspiration from.

Biomag

I've been playing video games since the 80s and liked drawing as kid, but I never thought about it being an option for me. Then this trailer came along -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K39UWxdm0U and for the first time I looked up where it was made and I realized that the industry wasn't that far away from where I've lived as I've always thought... It took me a couple of years to even think about switching to CG, but it made me realize how much I hated being a lawyer.

chriszuko

Good stuff guys! This type of stuff I love reading!

@Kwramm Oh man, see I never got to experience the old text adventure stuff. I was playing on a super early windows version (95 or before 95) a game that was an archer that shot balloons going up and down. If anyone can find that thing I'd love to know so i can always go back and remember the name of that game!

@Ozz14
The scale of levels is something that I like playing with alot. Placing a "Mountain" in a level and making it not nearly as big as a mountain in real life but having the perception that it is bigger than what it really was is super fun! A bachelors in history? So wait..games inspired you to go and become a history buff? Fun!

@Biomag

 That is awesome! Screw being a lawyer! XD I could never do that. Well i think i would never be happy doing that at least!

Thanks for the stories guys! This stuff is really fun to read

Zi0

Gaming is a big hobby of mine so eventually I wondered how games were made, after doing some research I decided that I wanted to work in the games industry. A school nearby where I lived had a new game design course, the course itself was really bad in retrospect but its where I discovered my love for creating models.

chriszuko

@Zi0 Thanks for sharing your story