Want to work in a rapidly growing industry that’s fun, challenging and creative? The gaming industry might be for you! To give you a helping hand, we’ve created an ultimate guide to getting a job in gaming with insight from industry experts.
Getting a job in the gaming industry as a game designer, developer or artist is a dream for gamers across the world and as an industry that is forecast to be worth £7.5bn in the UK in 2023, it's one of the most-valuable creative sectors to work in - as well as one of the most fun!
However, most young people who want to know how to get into the gaming industry don’t know where to start. Should you study a gaming degree, like our Game Development: Programming and Game Art programmes? Can you get a job in gaming without a formal education? How do you create a gaming portfolio and network with the right people? If you want to get a job in the gaming industry, these are some of the questions you might be asking yourself.
To help you unlock your dream career, we have spoken to professionals working in the industry to get their advice on how to get into the industry from start to finish.
Gaming degrees are just one route into the gaming industry that can give you the skills, competency and theoretical knowledge to set you on a path to employment. But are they worth it? Although many people who work in the industry didn’t study dedicated game programming or game art degrees, the specificity of these higher education programmes can help you learn the skills required and how the sector operates. Here, we cover just some of the benefits of studying a game-related degree programme.
Building a portfolio is one of, if not the, most important steps when trying to secure a job in the gaming industry. As d3t’s Louise Andrew - who spoke at one of our recent game industry panel events - says, “It's all about the portfolio. We always look at the quality of the portfolio.”
Quality portfolios can take months, or even years, to build from scratch and should exhibit a range of skills, techniques and disciplines that are related to the type of job you’re applying to. While studying game development, design or art at university, learning the skills required for an impressive portfolio are weaved into the course programme.
You’ll work on a range of collaborative projects with other students and may even have a chance to work within the industry while you study. This is all excellent material to include in your professional portfolio, allowing you to prepare for a role in the industry while you learn your trade.
As a game development or art degree student, you can slowly build your portfolio with the help and guidance of your tutors and lecturers. Without that support structure in place, it can be much more challenging.
Meeting like-minded people who also want to work in the industry, as well as experts who have been there and done it, is a great way to make important connections. Networking doesn’t need to be cringey, it’s simply the process of making friends within the industry, learning from your peers and being closer to others who have real-world experience.
As well as honing your technical skills, at uni you will meet other people who are interested in the gaming industry and can pass on their knowledge to you. Think of it as a melting pot where you have the chance to collaborate with others, learn together and discover exclusive work opportunities that others may not have.
“One of the key things that you can do as a student is just start networking,” says Daniel Ledger, Lead Producer at FORMAT. “Start building up your network, get to know people and figure out from other developers' portfolios what the standard of work is in the industry. That can be a really good tool to set goals for yourself.”
Learning your craft on the type of equipment that you will find when working in the industry is a core tenant of the ethos at dBs. It’s something that you simply cannot get from learning at home.
Across all of our degree programmes, we ensure that the facilities we provide for our students are state-of-the-art and reflect an industry-standard environment. We believe that this structure sets up our students to be the very best practitioners of their discipline and ensures that they will be able to apply for roles in the industry with the confidence that they already know what they're doing.
We’ve invested in high-end ASUS computers and laptops and decked them all out with the software you’ll need to hone your skills and learn the techniques required to find a job when you graduate.
“You need to know the software, you need to know about game engines and you need to know about how to make game-efficient artwork,” says Louise. When studying a game degree at dBs, you’ll gain an in-depth knowledge of all the software and hardware which is standard within the gaming industry.
One of the most obvious benefits of studying a degree is that… you get a degree! Game development degrees are niche, but they are also highly respected in the industry. Degrees help to prove that you have a certain level of competency, skill and knowledge of a subject and can think critically and work independently. As such, most game development jobs will require you to have degree-level education or a serious amount of work experience, apprenticeships, internships or re-training from a similar industry. Studying a game development or art degree allows you to hone your practical skills, learn industry knowledge and you’ll have a qualification to prove it.
“Most of the people we get joining us have done a degree,” says Louise, “probably at least 90% have done a degree in game. A few have done apprenticeships, or a few did a postgraduate course later on in life.”
In the unlikely case you change your mind after graduating, your time, money and experience will not have been wasted. Studying a gaming degree gives you a range of excellent transferable skills for other technology-related industries.
If you studied on our Game Development: Programming course, for example, you will have mastered creative computing, coding, programming, project management, problem-solving, decision-making and engineering skills that are all transferrable to other industries in the technology sector and beyond. If you studied our Game Art degree course, you will have developed many of these skills as well as honing your art and design disciplines.
It's no secret that the gaming industry is fiercely competitive, so it's important that the skills you learn at university can be transferred to other roles in the event that you change your mind about your ambitions post-uni.
If you want to break into the gaming industry, it’s vital that you curate all of the game development or design work you’ve done into a coherent, impressive and comprehensive portfolio.
You need to ensure that your portfolio reflects your style and skill set as a game artist or game developer. Your portfolio is how employers will see you as a potential employee in their game studio - if you can impress them with it, you’re already half way to landing your dream job.
Lukas Genever: No matter what kind of discipline you go down, you want to show off your best work. When you're building your portfolio, whether you use ArtStation, or you make your own site, make it as easy as possible to navigate. Hiring managers don't always have the time to find the best piece of work, or find the video they want to watch of the programmes you've made or some of the game design work you've done. Try to think, ‘How can I share my best work as quickly as possible, but also show everything I can do.’ It is difficult, but just try to make it as easy as possible - link things, have videos, and have images easily accessible.
LG: If you've done a group project, talk about what you worked on in that group so people know straight away what you did on that particular project. We know universities like to do group projects, which is great because you get to work on more things, but if we don't know what you specifically worked on, it can be hard.
Louise Andrew: I tend to advise people to have two portfolios. You have one which is what you apply for a job with. In that main one, put four to six pieces of art - your absolute favourite things, the things you're most proud of that show what you're most passionate about, what you're most confident in and what you’re really happy to talk about. Then have a second portfolio which has all of the other things you've worked on that maybe show a bit more diversity or show some of the other things you're interested in. As an initial portfolio, don't put the whole kitchen sink in it. As a recruiter, you don't want to be wading through tonnes and tonnes and tonnes to try and find the best bits. I think it's best if an artist says, ‘These are my best bits. This is the stuff I really want to show you.’
LA: We probably wouldn't want someone who thought they could do VFX, UI, characters and animation. That's just going to be too much. It's good if people can decide what their favourite kind of art is. So deciding, ‘I love making environments’, for example. Do that and get really, really good at that… Don’t try to be a bit of everything to everyone in terms of the skills you’ve learnt and want to show.
LA: I work for d3t. We're a co-development studio, so we work with lots of other game developers around the world. At the moment, I've got artists on six different projects with different clients all over the place. We work with really, really amazing clients and on lots of different projects. It does mean that with the different kinds of projects, there's a huge variety. So at d3t, we definitely look for people who are adaptable. People who don't have one particular art style and they can only do that. Sometimes we work on very stylized artwork, sometimes it can be very realistic, sometimes very hyperreal. Having adaptability within your art styles is really good.
LG: It's difficult to do, but tailoring your portfolio to certain studios, if you really want to work somewhere specific, can be great. It's not realistic to do that for every studio you apply for. That's just not feasible. But if there are certain places you really want to work, that could be an option for you.
LG: Write a good cover letter. We definitely read the cover letters. For us, it's really important. We want to understand what your passion is, what your enthusiasm is and why you want to work at our studio. Make sure you put the right studio name! You'd be surprised how often that happens. That's a really key point.
Are you thinking about enrolling in a gaming course, already studying a game design, development or art degree, or about to finish your degree in gaming and getting the real-world jitters about landing a job with a game studio following graduation?
If so, success in the gaming industry isn’t all about your qualifications and portfolio, although those are vital aspects, it’s also important to understand the soft skills required. Here, we take you through some of the personality traits and values that are important to foster to get into gaming.
Did you know that 800,000 graduates leave UK university or college settings every year? That’s a lot of competition, especially in the digital and tech space where the quality of talent is particularly high. In addition, creative companies are hiring less since the pandemic, so it's no surprise then that finding your first role after graduation can take anything from three to 18 months. This is why the skill of perseverance can really be valuable.
We spoke to a dBs guest speaker Bjørn Jacobson, who recommended researching how to write a good cover letter, as it’s your first introduction to your potential employer and first impressions really do count. Bjørn also explained that the first person reading your application is often a member of HR and sometimes getting past them onto a shortlist of candidates can be about playing the long game.
He recommends writing confidently and not being afraid to showcase your achievements, then pairing it back if needed. Showcasing your experience, skills and knowledge is the only thing that’s going to open doors for you. Don’t ever talk down your experiences or skills; no one else is going to be your hype person - it’s all on you.
There’s nothing wrong with dreaming big and showing ambition. It shows potential employers a lot about your passion, motivation, determination and your long-term aspirations. Within applications, or even better during the interview stage, we recommend briefly explaining to the team what you enjoy creating, what your ideal role would be or a project/team you’d love to be a part of.
Hearing a graduate’s enthusiasm and where they see their career heading is as useful as the grade you were awarded. It lets them see how you would fit logistically and culturally into the company as well as understand how they can help you smash those ambitious goals you set at the outset.
Multi-tasking is an important skill to master and one that takes practice if you’re not naturally blessed with the skill. This is especially true for the gaming industry. Whether you’re an intern or the CEO, you need to be able to spin multiple plates without missing deadlines or project deliverables. In a way, your time studying is great practice for building up your multi-tasking skills as you'll need to keep track of multiple projects with overlapping deadlines. If you’re struggling, try to implement processes that will help you. Multi-tasking is a skill, and like any other, it can be learned, practised and improved.
To make it easy for you, we’ve put together some quick tips on making multi-tasking less daunting.
We mentioned prioritising your tasks earlier and although it may sound super simple, writing down all tasks and then using a system to prioritise them is the most effective way to schedule what needs doing when. That's the same during your time as a student as well as once you’re working in a gaming studio. We suggest getting familiar with Eisenhowers Principle. It can help you better manage your tasks, work through them more effectively and even prioritise them in order of importance and urgency, rather than haphazardly doing what you fancy at any given time.
Employers are looking to hire well-rounded, T-shaped people. Let us explain what this means. A person with T-shaped skills has a deep knowledge and understanding in one specialist area, but also has skills in complementary areas. For example, you might be an expert in gaming art where you’re more focused on the artistic, creative side of designing gaming apps, but you may also have some knowledge of gaming tech and can support the team in basic programming or developing UX. Make sense? As a gaming student, you should strive to be a T-shaped talent, as this will help you stand head and shoulders above the rest and land a job in the industry quickly.
Whatever course you choose to embark on is going to instil certain qualities which will give you a competitive advantage post-graduation. And being a great communicator is one of those qualities that will help you excel when you finish up your degree.
When we asked dBs guest speaker Bjørn Jacobson what set him apart from other entry-level people on his team, he said he simply tried to be friendly and ask plenty of questions. Senior staff always remember who asks thoughtful questions, as it demonstrates a genuine interest and thirst for learning. He also encouraged students and graduates to have opinions and not be afraid to voice them respectfully. The key is to know where you can add the greatest value and when to let others with specialist skills take the lead.
Adam Boyne, one of the co-founders and technical lead at Betajester, also recommends looking into communications platforms that studios could use to communicate internally and manage projects efficiently, such as Trello, Slack and Discord. If you level up your skills by using these platforms and adding them to your CV, it could very well give you the edge over a candidate who hasn’t taken that initiative.
More than ever, businesses need to be flexible and agile in how they operate, and they need staff who can also function this way. According to the graduate advisory board Prospects, it can be beneficial to show your adaptability in your job applications (and interviews) by giving an example of a time when you had to learn a new skill or perhaps adapt to a challenging situation. This example could be from other studying you may have done in your younger years, or even from a part-time job or internship you’ve completed. A real-world example of how you overcame difficult situations is a great insight into your personality and how adaptable you are in those situations.
Being new to the industry, you won’t always be doing the most fun or glamourous tasks and that may feel disheartening at times. But just by physically being in these creative environments, you will absorb so much information about processes, platforms, managing a mixture of personalities and seeing where you need to develop, that it ends up being an immensely valuable experience in your career. If you’re asked to work on something that you don’t think is in your remit or doesn’t directly match your skill set, the best advice we can give is to just give it a go. Be fearless; try something new and you might find that you enjoy it and are even good at it. Early in your career, it’s good to roll with the punches as much as possible. You never know, you might find a niche you love and had never considered.
Whatever background you come from, getting into the gaming industry - like many creative industries - can be challenging. With the number of jobs rocketing alongside the economic growth in the industry, it’s never been a better time to get involved. That growth, however, does mean there is additional competition that can be challenging to overcome.
We asked Adele Cutting - founder and director of Soundcuts Ltd - for her advice on how those wishing to get into the industry can achieve their goals.
“If you're not passionate about it [gaming], you're not going to work in it. We recently had some positions open and we had over 200 CVs and there were only two jobs. You've got to really want it. Especially for people just starting out, you can't have a regular CV like everybody else. You've got to have gone that extra mile and be able to demonstrate your love for sound outside of your education. For a start, you've got to be able to talk about games. I'm always very surprised in interviews when I’ve asked people, 'What are you playing at the moment?' And they can't really answer it. Or you ask, 'Tell me a game you think has amazing audio,' and they can’t answer that question either. I understand in an interview you don’t want to give the wrong answer, but it doesn't matter if I love it. I'm interested in why you love it. As long as you can express why you love it, it shows that you're listening. That's really important.”
“Especially within our team, we want to work with people who have the same attitude; super hard-working, deep love of audio but also really lovely to work with and fun. It creates a nice environment. There are no egos, no, 'I'm better than you,' I can't be doing with all that, I want a team that supports each other, so to me, it's people's personalities that are as important as their showreel.”
“What I would say to women, in particular, from the experience I've had, is just put yourself forward for more positions. Generally, I’ve had women enquire about positions, but don’t submit their CV unless they’ve got all the experience we’re looking for but a man will just send the CV in any way, even if he doesn’t have all the experience on the job description. That's a very stereotypical statement. I'm not saying every woman or man is like this. But, if you're a woman, just go for it. Just get your head down and don't worry about what everybody else is saying. If you've got a path, stick to it and go for it. Don't worry about all the noise”
“I remember my National Film & Television School interview and I went in and I felt sure I hadn't got it. Literally, everything they asked for, I hadn't done. They asked, ‘Have you done soldiering before?’ and I said ‘No, but I'd be really interested to find out how to’. They replied saying, ‘No, that's great because we can teach you that.’ When we're hiring people at Soundcuts, I can teach them the technical stuff because that's just rules, methods and ideologies of how we're meant to approach sound and integrate it. But if you haven't got the skills to design great sound, that's harder. You’ve got to have good ears. It's harder to teach people listening skills. But it's easier to teach people technical skills.”
“Go and get a great showreel, that goes without saying. I'm very interested in their showreel and their personality when they talk to us. To me, it's all about the showreel. So whatever skills they learn, as long as they come to us with a kickass showreel and some basic knowledge and understanding about interactivity, random containers, sequences and branching sequences, that’s really important.”
“I think internships are invaluable because when you have an internship, you learn loads about the industry and the job. The other positive is, if you do really well, they may want to hire you next time a position comes up. Either way, you've learnt skills that will help further your career. I think the real world is so different from university in a lot of ways. Working as part of a company is very different to university life."
“There are lots of things like indie game jams, run by little micro studios, indie companies or enthusiast groups, that are really good to get involved in. You can meet like-minded people and make connections, they may be in a position to recommend someone and, they might call on you. Networking is super important. I don't mean just going to a conference and thrusting your business card at anybody you see. People are interested in people who've had a conversation and a connection with. You're more likely to succeed if you've shown an interest and asked what they’re currently working on. If you're interested in what somebody's doing, they're more likely to remember you than just having a business card thrust in your face.”
Networking can sometimes feel forced or disingenuous. In reality, it’s all about connecting with people in your industry to make friends, find opportunities and develop your knowledge.
In an industry that is so tight-knit and collaborative, meeting the right people can open up a new world of opportunities. To give you a hand, we asked some of our own friends in the industry to find out how they do it!
Daniel Ledger: “There are plenty of networking opportunities for people at FORMAT. There are no barriers between developers and gamers and students that you would have at a gaming expo or something like that… If you want to chat to developers, you can just approach them. One of the key things that you can do as a student is start networking, get to know people, figure out from other developers' portfolios what the standard of work is in the industry. That can be a really good tool to set goals for yourself.”
Louise Andrew: “There are social and physical events that people can go to. Women in Games have quite a lot of events. There are some in Manchester and Liverpool that take place for women in games as well, which involve meeting in cafes on weekends. They are specifically for girls who are trying to get into the gaming industry… If you go to any events, like the Develop Conference, or Women in Games Conference, or any of these kinds of things, they quite often have networking events at those as well. They're really good opportunities to meet other like-minded people with similar ideas and interests.”
Lukas Genever: “Going to events is really, really important. I think if you are actively looking for a job, but you don't want to be too active [online], they can be a way of having conversations with people. I always want people to feel comfortable about reaching out and having informal chats if you want to find out a bit more about the studio before committing to applying. I think most studios would operate in that way as well.”
LA: “There are quite a lot of platforms, like Discord channels, where you can get feedback on your work and on your portfolio. People will chat to you and give you feedback. You can do that on ArtStation as well. If you have a portfolio, you can reach out to people and say, ‘Would you mind giving me feedback?’ That will help you network with people. Reach out to people on LinkedIn, and just see if people who are applying to roles will chat to you.”
LG: “LinkedIn is really important. It's not everything, but I think it's important to have a profile at the very least because it just means you're easy to find… It doesn't mean you can connect with anyone and they will just instantly respond, but if you want to be found, that's a great place to be. Being on Twitter and on different social platforms is really helpful as well, because that's where we do a lot of our marketing for the roles that we do have available… I would also highlight Discord. I think I'm part of about 10 or 12 different servers. In the games industry, people are very inclusive and always want to help out. You can just sit in those servers and read what people are talking about before committing to anything if you are a bit nervous about writing or getting involved. You will see how friendly people are. You'll learn a lot just by being part of those groups as well.”
DL: “If you’re looking for channels to make friends in the industry, search for local events online. The Meetup app is a good way to do that. There are also workshops available for whatever your skill set is. I would also say look for groups on Facebook. There are regional game developer groups that might include meetups and things like that. They’re also a good place for posting your work and getting feedback. There are plenty of developer groups on Discord. I would also recommend Slack as well. There's the UK Games Industry group on Slack. If you can’t afford to fly out and actually visit a game developer conference, they upload a lot of talks to YouTube. So that's a really good way of seeing what the games industry is up to and how your skill set fits into it.”
LA: “Game jams are probably one of the other big things you can do. Look out for those because they give you a really good environment for working alongside other people. A game jam, for those who don't know, is working with other developers and artists in really short period of time, usually around 24 or 48 hours, to create a game. It's crazy and bonkers but they're really good fun. They’re a really good bonding experience and a really interesting way of learning what game development is like. They’re a really good networking thing as well for meeting other people.”
Stephen Hey: “Game jams now are often remote. It used to be you were in a room and now you can go and do them internationally so there are no barriers. I think if you're going into a game jam, you're going into a group of people who are like you, who are likely the same age. It still takes some courage to do one even if it’s online because you’re exposing yourself, but they’re great to do.”
DL: “Attending game jams gives you a chance to chat with developers. It's very a fast-paced way of building up your skill set as well as tiring yourself out!”
LG: “Going to things like Develop or Women in Games, any kind of event like that, people will be more than happy to speak to you. It's easy to say, ‘Don't feel nervous about doing it,’ but I think as soon as you cross that threshold of speaking to someone, you'll see how like friendly people are and you'll get introduced to more people and it will slowly blossom from there.”
If you've secured an interview with a game studio you’re interested in working for, well done! The hardest part is over. When applying to a role, you need your application and portfolio to stand out from the crowd. Once you’ve secured an interview, that competition shrinks. However, it can still be a hugely daunting experience and impressing at an interview can make or break your chances of employment.
We spoke to four game industry employers and experts to get their insight into the interview process and their advice for impressing the recruitment manager.
Stephen Hey: “One of the greatest things that I saw [as a recruiter] was when I was interviewing a young woman for a job in marketing. I said, ‘Tell me what you’ve found interesting in marketing in the past year or so,’ and she dived into a handbag and pulled out a load of really good, really clever direct mail. She'd just come prepared with examples and she'd given me that feeling that she just didn't want a job in marketing, she wanted this job.”
Daniel Ledger: “Always do your research. If you've tailored your portfolio towards that company, great. That's a box you can tick, but that's not for everyone. People like to cast a wide net and that's okay, too. Definitely do your research on the company, what games they've done and things like that.”
Lukas Genever: “Doing the research is really, really important. You'd be surprised how many people don't and it really shows. It feels like you're not that interested or intrigued by the company, or you might be looking for something else and you're just doing this to fill the time.”
LG: Showing interest is really, really important. Enthusiasm is really key as well as trying to get in as much of your knowledge into the conversation, trying to show some of that experience that you have gained and how that could be applied to the role that you're applying to. Show them examples that they might not have looked at from an art perspective, or something you think would be great to highlight from a game design point of view. Show them some features that you've worked on that might be similar to the game that you're applying to programme. You could showcase some of the work you've done that might be similar. We're always looking for people doing multi-threaded programming. It'd be great to show off any of that.
LG: Read the job descriptions and make sure that you know what you're potentially working on. Try to highlight some of the things that you've done in your portfolio or at university that could relate to the position that you've applied for.
LG: Try to stay calm. We know it's stressful, but everyone I've ever worked with in the games industry is really nice and really helpful. They just want to know what you've done and give you the best opportunity.
Louise Andrew: Generally, people in the game industry are lovely. It's a very fun, creative, people-focused industry. It's not hard-nosed and it's not very business-ey in some ways, either. It is quite relaxed. Approach the interview with that mindset… We just want to find out about you and whether you will fit in with our team and what you're like as a person. Our interviews are definitely not about trying to trip people up or trying to ask really hard questions. It's more about trying to get to know your personality, your passions and your interests.
DL: Share your passions. If you're a game developer, but you've also got certain hobbies, like painting minifigures or something like that, that's a really good thing to share. Always be enthusiastic and share your passions.
LA: We have hundreds and hundreds or thousands of applications all the time. Obviously, the artwork is the most important thing for us, but also you remember people if they’ve had an interesting experience or an interesting hobby. It makes people stand out. Same with an interview, you think, ‘Oh, they're the one that is really passionate about making cakes!’ Whatever things make that person more three-dimensional. We want to understand what your interests are and how you would fit in with the team.
We hope you’ve found our ultimate guide to getting into the gaming industry useful. To conclude, here are some final thoughts on the key points we’ve raised.
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