How to get a job in the games industry when you don’t have any
programming skills
Hi all,
Let me introduce myself: I’m
a Dutch guy in his thirties who’s been working for a famous Japanese games company
for 3 years now. Before that, I have worked for a mobile games company, which
brings my total experience in the industry to 5 years.
I apologize in advance for
my bad English. I’ll try to make an effort, though!
Without further ado, let’s
see how you can get a job in the games industry.
Have you got any programming
skills? Can you draw cool characters? No? That’s no problem. You can still
start a career in the games industry and move up the ladder. Who knows, maybe
one day you’ll create your own game?
GAME TESTING: THE GOLDEN
PATH
Becoming a games tester can
be fun, and a good way to move up the ladder in your company to become a
coordinator or a language editor/translator. Game testing can basically be
divided in two subcategories:
-Pure game testing of
the game mechanics. You check
if the game plays OK, if it doesn’t freeze, if it’s not too easy, too hard etc.
You spend the whole day playing games and sending bugs when you spot an issue. With
this type of job, you can become a testing coordinator later on.
-Game localization
testing. You check if the in-game
texts and dialogs are OK in your language, whether it is English, French,
Italian etc. With this type of job, you can become a localization coordinator
or a language editor/translator.
It’s not very difficult to
land a job as a tester checking game mechanics if you love video games. The
best training for the job is to basically play as much as you can at home, so
that you learn to spot every little detail, every little fault that can make or
break a game. The pay will not be amazing at first, but with this type of job,
you will enter the industry and meet people who can help you later.
Becoming a language tester
is a bit more complicated, as you need to have a good level in English (or your
language), to be able to spot misspelled texts and grammar issues. Maybe you
will have to check texts translated from another language (Japanese, Chinese,
or English for other European languages). If you’re still a student, make an
extra effort in language classes. I know it sounds hard, but it’s not as difficult
as becoming a programmer, believe me. Your language skills must be above
average in any case!
If you finished school and English
is your first language, why not consider learning Japanese or Chinese? Video
game companies are desperately looking for translators who can localize games
from Asian languages to their mother tongue. Chinese or Japanese speaking
translators make more money than anybody else ! If your native language isn’t
English, watch lots of films in English and travel to America, England, Canada
etc. to get a good grasp of that language and learn about these countries,
their culture etc. With a good level in English, you’ll be a better tester, and
you will be able to become a translator later (better pay).
