Tips on Breaking into the Game Industry with Naughty Dog Devs
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welcome extra special thing to lamp our
today’s so for the first time we’ve been
one of these for a long time for the
first time a long time making we have
for the guys from Naughty Dog that
developed last of us as well as going
back into previous titles as well tons
of you guys especially the younger guys
out there in the audience all are
looking at like they want you always
want to do game development you guys
want to know how to get to the games
industry you want to hunt it up do you
think game tester is the best job in the
industry yeah you got a you got a lot of
learning to do about your future career
that you’re looking at so a lot of these
guys to introduce themselves so you guys
if you guys are tell them a bit about
what you guys do what you’re supposed to
roll with it is and then what you’d
recommend for people wanting to get into
it now
so I’m the videographer editor at
Naughty Dog I make the trailers and
behind the scenes videos and stuff yeah
I think a great way I mean really I
think it’s just about finding what
you’re good at and kind of finding the
one route for it that lets you do what
you feel like you’re really good at
because there’s a tons of there’s tons
of roles in the game there’s so many
different directions so many different
directions you can go in did you
personally go to school for it I didn’t
go to school for games went to school
for film and then ended up actually it
was a tester at Naughty Dog it was the
best job ever right it was the best job
ever what is game testing exactly just
just to get out of me uh well game
testing is actually a lot of writing the
most important thing you do as a game
tester is report bugs right so you’re
gonna play the game if you’re not gonna
play it like you play it at home you’re
gonna play it to flying bugs
once you find those bugs you need to
write them up in a way that other people
can understand them so your writing
skills are like the most important thing
[Laughter]
everybody that’s thinking like I just
wish I didn’t have to go to school I
could just play video games all day
Yeah right like writing papers and would
you say there’s a lot of is there a lot
of upward mobility in game testing it’s
it’s an apartment just like just like
everything just like the rest of the
departments and
you know like it you shouldn’t think of
it like it’s the entry job you should
think of it like it’s ansel I don’t even
want to say ancillary it’s certainly a
part of the like you know it’s cord for
convenience of course but at the end of
the day it is its own apartment what do
you what do you do Rob I’m Robert Ryan
I’m a game designer at Naughty Dog I
work primarily on multiplayer stuff what
else to do some single-player things it
was well mostly related to weight
weapons work and things like that it
actually did go to school for it for a
little bit also learn the tools but most
of your work is done on your own outside
of school building a portfolio on the
skills that you learn in school and that
stuff when I was in film school I
constantly was encounter people over and
over again waste like they they they
went to high school didn’t really do
anything with film they just they want
to do they probably watch movies and
they wanted to do it and then he got to
film school and they were doing the
class working like oh let’s let’s dump
some of the weekend they’re like oh I do
that I do that all we guys like the last
thing I wanna do that because like
you’re the wrong industry the wrong like
that I’m Eric I’m a community strategist
at Naughty Dog for me and and if I say I
always give to people’s like you need to
network like crazy like figure out what
your you’re into and figure out what you
want to do learning a lot about the
outside world cuz game making a game
you’re like shaping a world right you
need to know have all these skills from
outside the world that you can put into
this fantasy world you’ve created
there’s a lot of actual resources out
that I don’t think people take advantage
of for that at the the IG da
International Game Developers
Association has chapters all over the
country and they run meetings where game
developers from studios will get
together and talk and anyone’s welcome
so it’s completely possible as a student
to go in and talk to these guys and meet
them and ask them questions
alright my name is Quinn Cobb I’m a game
designer at Naughty Dog I worked on
to play n single-player still working on
multiplayer that DLC right now I got
into the industry starting as a tester I
wouldn’t recommend doing that if you
have the choice to go to school if you
have the option to go to school for
design or art or animation that’s
definitely the way to go
go to school work on side projects and
then build out your portfolio and a real
or whatever it is that you do coming in
as the testers is as possible but it’s
tough it’s definitely a lot of hard work
most people are applied they have you
know specific jobs but there’s a larger
population people when I asked what you
wanted what you want to do if you’re in
the games industry ever it’s like I
wanna be the designer I wanna be the
idea guy to go physical if you want to
be that guy you need to learn everything
I know what you’re saying you’re saying
oh but I don’t want to do that I want to
be the guy to tell 0 2 you need to learn
everything else is jump I mean the pure
high level designers that are just ideas
someone else doesn’t they’re just dying
off you need a sellable skill nowadays
every company has different things they
want their designers to do and we do a
lot of level design and scripting and
everything that relates to that as well
as creating ideas behind the game but
there isn’t a single high level guy even
our game director you know gets his
hands dirty every once in a while so
guys is the first time we were kind of
set and I’m talking to developers
let us know what if some ways you like
what you won’t learn more about what you
know there’s something with on do more
in the future and we’re gonna be let’s
get the plane right now I think that’s
me a separate episode for you guys but
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