Yeah, of course the programming experience and having a nice portfolio is important but as you said the team experience is too because in that respect people in H.R in companies look for 2 things (at least that's what I believe): That you take initiative and do stuff by yourself (looks like you have that one covered) and that you can properly communicate your work to the other members all the time (e.g. constantly reporting advances, keeping work transparent, helping and accepting help from team members, etc.).
But what Tom mentions maybe most important, don't be worrying too much about "what if's", just focus on your main activities (studies) and have fun and be inquisitive doing them, and opportunities will present themselves for you to take.
Asking If Companies Need Free Work?
Some universities have a co-op work placement program which allows companies to hire on students for partial government funding (at least up here in Canada) as an incentive to hire interns. If you can enroll in such a program I highly recommend it. Then the next step is to actually make the internship with a game company happen, typically this is best done when you live in the same area as a few studios (as these universities are more likely to have some kind of understanding with local studios.)
I went this route, and was very lucky to get a recommendation from a former alumni of my university who worked at EA and wanted to do a talk at our school (which I set up for him.) This basically helped get that vital first bit of work experience and I'm currently working in the industry.
I went this route, and was very lucky to get a recommendation from a former alumni of my university who worked at EA and wanted to do a talk at our school (which I set up for him.) This basically helped get that vital first bit of work experience and I'm currently working in the industry.
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Thanks for the responses, guys. My university has a co-op but it requires that I take a year off to do it! I don't want to put off graduation a whole year.
I'll try to stop worrying about the future so much, but I just really want to start programming games.
M2tm, that's an awesome situation. Do you feel like it's really important to get a recommendation from someone inside the industry already?
I'll try to stop worrying about the future so much, but I just really want to start programming games.
M2tm, that's an awesome situation. Do you feel like it's really important to get a recommendation from someone inside the industry already?
Offering to work for free is a bad idea
Applying for an internship as part of a formal degree is a good idea.
How you present yourself is important. If your key selling point is that you are free then you probably aren't worth having. If you are an intern as part of a degree course they know you are serious and a potential future employee. Also, offering to work for free shows an ignorance of business because there is always a cost. You need to be managed and probably provided with space and equipment - these things all cost money.
Then how were you planning to gain experience by working for free? If you are working on their project they will want you to work on it now... full time. Not a couple of hours in the evening and at weekends. You also won't get any meaningful experience unless you spend a reasonable amount of time.
Doing a year long internship is an excellent way of boosting your employment chances. I know of several student who did internships with independent developers in the UK who then go hired by those companies after they qualified.
Applying for an internship as part of a formal degree is a good idea.
How you present yourself is important. If your key selling point is that you are free then you probably aren't worth having. If you are an intern as part of a degree course they know you are serious and a potential future employee. Also, offering to work for free shows an ignorance of business because there is always a cost. You need to be managed and probably provided with space and equipment - these things all cost money.
My university has a co-op but it requires that I take a year off to do it! I don't want to put off graduation a whole year.
Then how were you planning to gain experience by working for free? If you are working on their project they will want you to work on it now... full time. Not a couple of hours in the evening and at weekends. You also won't get any meaningful experience unless you spend a reasonable amount of time.
Doing a year long internship is an excellent way of boosting your employment chances. I know of several student who did internships with independent developers in the UK who then go hired by those companies after they qualified.
Hey guys, I was wondering if it would be dumb to ask some companies if they would like some unpaid help? There are some SMALL companies near me that I know are pretty poor, and I think it would be a good place to start in game development. I've been programming >2 years, been programming games ~2 months(finished Pong clone, working on Pacman clone). Does this sound like a good idea? Any tips on how I should ask when I contact them?
I'd say go for it - it doesn't hurt to show them some examples either, and show them what you're capable of.
I know I sometimes ask game owners if I can help them out with SEO
You should know that, for a lot of companies, you're not part of "free" in any way. Traditionally, interns don't provide much value and generally cost more than they're worth. When you take up a few minutes of your boss' time every day, you're costing the company money.
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