Hello,

I hope I will manage to explain what I want to say and that this is the right place to post this question.

As in many other professions there are some small jobs that you can do as a hobby to practice one profession.

I.e. If you want to practice carpenter you can do some bricolage at home or do it paid for the others. If you want to become a chef you can make some cake at home and try to sell it.

Do the same exists for game industry? I have some programming and management skills and I could try to use them to make some small tasks for some game firm or for some indie team and to earn some pocket money from these things. Since I'm a web developer I know that there could be some chances of such small jobs in testing. Maybe there could be such small jobs also as a help desk service to receive bug records?

Thank you for your responses!

M3rlino

This is the right place. The type of work you're talking about might fit into the category of freelance work. Some very small companies might have occasional short-term or part-time (or even short-term part-time) mini-jobs. You would need to network a lot and make yourself known to local developers.

I would also try looking around for small indie or hobby projects to work on so you can meet others and be known to them and others. Its easier to get jobs in "the industry" at an indie level; very few people hop straight into a massive triple-A studio job without busting their buns first.

Now, with these smaller jobs, there might not be pay for all of them, but taking some time to build up a portfolio of games you've worked on will always help in the pursuit of either more projects or a studio job. Worst case, keep (or get) a day job to pay the bills and keep a roof over your head and spend some of your free-time working on games. Don't spend all of that free-time though since being a well rounded individual with hobbies and social skills will definitely help.