Met a guy at the GDC. He studied gamedesign at Digipen then got an internship at Arenanet then a AAA job. That’s awesome and I’m really happy of those opportunities even existing. But when I contrast it with the opportunities in my region it’s discouraging. #gamedev /Thread
I met several people with similar stories: internships at big studios while studying, then AAA jobs. Again: that’s awesome and how it’s supposed to be. But I want to do this thread in part to show everyone with those privileges how unique those opportunities are.
I’m from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Our industry here is growing, but it’s still small. Game Design / Development education is scarce and low quality overall. We tend to work in mobile games for years, then maybe with a bit of luck a console/pc game here and there.
As a first job you’ll get a shitty position in a small to medium mobile gaming company learn a few things then move to another one, and repeat. There’s a lot to learn and we have tons of incredible talent, the point here is that our scenario makes us go really slow in comparison
Going to my personal xp, after almost 8 years of designing and producing games
(mobile, pc, boardgames) in small, medium and big teams, both for other companies and independently I got rejected from several AAA job opportunities. The reason? No AAA experience.
(mobile, pc, boardgames) in small, medium and big teams, both for other companies and independently I got rejected from several AAA job opportunities. The reason? No AAA experience.
The problem? It’s almost impossible to get AAA xp here. Chicken or the egg. There are few to none places to work in that kind of developments and to be honest, the amount of significative xp they bring is low.
Other difficulties: Our native language isn’t English. We can’t apply to any of the jobs that requires you to be already eligible to work at the US (and getting a visa? lol). We have to spend an estimate of 3 to 5 salaries to go to events like the GDC
More difficulties: our games and companies have to pay way more taxes. The exposure we get is usually poor as we have lots of hardships to get in touch with journalists and media in general
More difficulties: our currency is heavily devalued and our countries suffer constant variations in their economical policies what makes strategic planification almost impossible in every order of life.
I don’t really know what the solutions may be. Maybe away from growing our local industry there is nothing else to do and the rest is way beyond our reach, but this is just an analysis. Also, I even think this reality also gives some privileges to us as well!
Our advantages: because we need to know english, we will probably be speaking 2 languages from scratch, that opens a lot of doors. We tend to be great problem solvers. We become incredibly resilient.
More advantages: we have a good price/quality relation for outsourcing and work for hire, so it isn’t that hard to make a living from that. We are community focused and tend to make strong bonds between ourselves.
Again, not a rant, but definitely something to think or talk about. I think there are some mechanisms that could change here and there to lower some barriers, other things we can do here to leverage our position.
What is this experience like in other regions? Are you doing something to change it? I’m really interested in talking about this.
Note: I say all this being a white and male person, thing that sadly gives me TONS of privileges from scratch.
Note: I say all this being a white and male person, thing that sadly gives me TONS of privileges from scratch.
After saying that there’s little to no things to do I remembered @tha_rami initiatives (1reason to be’ panel at GDC, gamedev.world, presskit, etc)
Would love to see more of these, hopefully coming from ourselves. Now I’m thinking hard in what else can we do.
Any ideas?
Would love to see more of these, hopefully coming from ourselves. Now I’m thinking hard in what else can we do.
Any ideas?
