Creative Development Week18: Mark Davies, How to Get a Job in Game Design

In my previous blogposts i mentioned a series of five blogposts in which Mark Davies who is a games designer at Naughty Dog and additional experience under the role of designer working for Ninja Theory and Climax as well as having two publications where in these blogposts went through the areas that are needed for a portfolio and coming from someon with so much experience really stood and was well received information. Once that was read i started to go further into is blog and found a more detailed description of getting into the game design part of the games industry and Mark Davies states that without these essential skills you wouldn't be able to get a job in the industry.

So i read further on and the first section that is essential to getting into games design is

• Communication which Mark Davies states that ideas are worthless unless you can communicate the ideas across to others - Communication wasn't really my strong point but as i developed my skills in college my confidence started to grow as well the people around me giving me confidence to which it showed in the exhibition we had held at the start of the year when i really got talking to multiple people,
• A Lack of Preciousness in which collaborating with others and compromising ideas are essential - Once again this is an area in which i never really collaborated with anyone and that was not because i didn't want to but rather because i wasn't sure if anyone wanted my skills but i learned recently how beneficial collaborating is and this to me show through the two team briefs i took on,
• Passion for Games which is simple enough that enjoying what you do is essential as does the types of games you play which can narrow down your mindset on the design process, so eenjoying and expanding what you do is essential - I really enjoy creating ideas and designs for characters and environments and really bringing them to life but this is an area which i feel i really need to find that passion as i believe that the result of taking on multiple briefs has really drained me and taking a breather and really playing games which i never got to really do with the multiple briefs going on to find that spark again,
• Passion for Information which is stated that every knowledge from Math, Science, English and more is essential and that research is an essential part in developing a good game - This is an area which at first i started to overlook and go right to the design stage but as of now i have grasped the research part much more to where i spend enough time to research as much as i can on certain areas of my design,

Mark Davies went on to the advantages of qualifications as far going to say that those that study games design aren't always the ones that get the job but some other subjects such as Computer Science Graduates to which are some courses backgrounds of people within the industry. Academic qualifications are stated by Mark Davies as extremely useful but not essential as they show employer that you have the ability to work at a certain level and that you have applied yourself to an area and mastered it along with the thirst for knowledge. He goes on to state that doing courses in Engineering, Computer Science, Product Design or Architecture are areas of which teach skills that will be learnt on a daily basis and aren't as narrowly focused as games design courses and to also have a fall back plan if you don't get into the industry. Games Modding is mentioned as the best way to get into the games industry as it provess a passion for games, creating things and self motivation to do your own work as well as building up your portfolio, also to do extra curricular stuff as this shows your well rounded and not just playing or making games and that this is something important to an employer.

Blogpost can be found at: http://lifeofadesignmonkey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/how-to-get-job-in-game-design-revisited.html