Hey guys,
I started this mini-series a while back but haven’t continued it in a while so let’s continue where I left off.
My last post ended with university and how to find the right one. I briefly touched on about doing personal work. This is something I strongly believe in, we are in a great industry where we are surrounded by such passionate people who are constantly trying to improve.
We can only do so much of this at work. Sometimes this means we have to do some more outside. I’m not telling you that you must as I know people who don’t and are still amazing at their jobs, but if you are trying to break into the industry this we’ll help you a lot.
I have improved a lot from working on levels in my spare time and on Chest Quest. It doesn’t always have to be levels it could be writing a review on a game. This way you can see what you agree with and disagree with. Helps you see what makes good and bad games.
Or studying certain camera angles from films and how can we bring these over to games? Architecture how buildings are made so you can translate this into your levels.
I know if you are student you will think this is a big ask as you most likely have a fair amount of work. However if you don’t you run the risk of having an identical portfolio like most of your peers.
This not me saying you should or shouldn’t do it. I’m just telling you what helped me break into the industry and help me improve. At the end of the day we make video games we have the tools to do this from home and most of us love what we do and want to improve.
I hope this help and encourages people.
Thank you and let’s continue.