For those of you that have/are successful game designers, what exactly do you need to do to break into the business? Unemployment compensation is surprisingly kind to me right now, so instead of trying to find another wage-slave job, I thought I'd try and do something I like. Yeah, I missed the boat with RPG Superstar (stupid me for not seeing it in time), but aside from that what do I need? Schooling? Playtest-type knowledge? Dumb luck? Any and all thoughts, suggestions, and/or et cetera will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
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Stories I've heard sound a lot like dumb luck.
Everyone seems to pretty much agree on two things...
1) You need to know how to write.
2) You need to know the rules.
Think of it this way. If they have to do a lot of editing, they could just do whatever it is themselves, so why pay you.
I would suggest checking out Kobold Quarterly as a possibility to get published. It doesn't pay, but it's an opportunity to get noticed.
I heard it's ritual requires a live yak, six gallons of tequilla, a picture of David Hasselhoff framed in fresh-cut pine, and sacrificing all your mini's to Asmodeus.
All I need to do is find a yak now...
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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I heard it's ritual requires a live yak, six gallons of tequilla, a picture of David Hasselhoff framed in fresh-cut pine, and sacrificing all your mini's to Asmodeus.All I need to do is find a yak now...
I'm never able to keep my clothes on after drinking tequilla. Would other forms of alcohol work?
Pokes out his mind's eye.
Contributor
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For those of you that have/are successful game designers, what exactly do you need to do to break into the business? Unemployment compensation is surprisingly kind to me right now, so instead of trying to find another wage-slave job, I thought I'd try and do something I like. Yeah, I missed the boat with RPG Superstar (stupid me for not seeing it in time), but aside from that what do I need? Schooling? Playtest-type knowledge? Dumb luck? Any and all thoughts, suggestions, and/or et cetera will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
I'd say it's probably 90% dumb luck, 5% perseverance, 4% knowing the rules and how to write, and 1% sucking up. ;)
I heard it's ritual requires a live yak, six gallons of tequilla, a picture of David Hasselhoff framed in fresh-cut pine, and sacrificing all your mini's to Asmodeus.All I need to do is find a yak now...
A thought it was David Hasselhoof, after he drank six gallons of tequila, and a picture of a yak . . . . .
my bad.
Contributor
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Here's my 2 cents. Pay attention to what publishers want, and how they want it. Learn from what they say, and learn from your mistakes. Get people to read your stuff and critique it. And make sure it's someone who won't pull punches. Pay attention to editorial comments, and learn from your mistakes. Pay attention to what grabs people and what doesn't, and learn from your mistakes.
There's more to it than that. Certainly luck, certainly perseverance. It takes perseverance to keep writing and push your stuff. It takes luck for your ideas to get the right target at the right time. But these two things are kind of connected too. If you keep rolling to hit, eventually you're going to get a crit.
But as much as luck and perseverance will get you your shot, if the quality isn't there it won't matter. To get that quality, you need practice and learn from your mistakes
One more thing. Everything you write for a game, should be useful in a game. Good writing can be entertaining on its own, for sure, and a lot of stuff that is essentially just good writing gets published. But what gets remembered is the stuff that people read and say "I want to play this RIGHT NOW!" A classic example is adventures with tons of background material that's really cool that the players will never learn compared to an encounter that is vivid or challenging in a new way or somehow enhances the game. Lots of people want to write the cool background, but all the players want to play the cool encounter.
And Good Luck!
I'd say it's probably 90% dumb luck, 5% perseverance, 4% knowing the rules and how to write, and 1% sucking up. ;)For those of you that have/are successful game designers, what exactly do you need to do to break into the business? Unemployment compensation is surprisingly kind to me right now, so instead of trying to find another wage-slave job, I thought I'd try and do something I like. Yeah, I missed the boat with RPG Superstar (stupid me for not seeing it in time), but aside from that what do I need? Schooling? Playtest-type knowledge? Dumb luck? Any and all thoughts, suggestions, and/or et cetera will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Whatever dude... just spill it on what the hell I do with the Yak already.
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Contributor
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Whatever dude... just spill it on what the hell I do with the Yak already.
I'd say it's probably 90% dumb luck, 5% perseverance, 4% knowing the rules and how to write, and 1% sucking up. ;)
First you milk it, so you can make yummy yak butter*, and then you shave it so you can make comfy yak sweaters**, and then you drop it off a no-kill exotic animal shelter and donate $100 for its care. That oughta do it.
* I have no idea if yak butter is yummy.
** I hate sweaters.
Whatever dude... just spill it on what the hell I do with the Yak already.
I'd say it's probably 90% dumb luck, 5% perseverance, 4% knowing the rules and how to write, and 1% sucking up. ;)First you milk it, so you can make yummy yak butter*, and then you shave it so you can make comfy yak sweaters**, and then you drop it off a no-kill exotic animal shelter and donate $100 for its care. That oughta do it.
* I have no idea if yak butter is yummy.
** I hate sweaters.
So this is what Paizo employees think about in their off time.
Disturbing.
Creative Director
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For those of you that have/are successful game designers, what exactly do you need to do to break into the business? Unemployment compensation is surprisingly kind to me right now, so instead of trying to find another wage-slave job, I thought I'd try and do something I like. Yeah, I missed the boat with RPG Superstar (stupid me for not seeing it in time), but aside from that what do I need? Schooling? Playtest-type knowledge? Dumb luck? Any and all thoughts, suggestions, and/or et cetera will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
For what it's worth... here's how I got into the industry.
The way I got in: I answered a "I'm starting up a D&D game in Seattle; who wants to play" ad I saw on a usenet group. The ad was placed by Jim Butler, and I ended up in his D&D game that played every Saturday at WotC. There were a few other WotC folk in the game, and eventually, I figured out what temp agency Wizards used and interviewed at that agency. I started doing temp work at WotC, and was working in sales as an order entry data entry guy when Pokemon hit and suddenly WotC went from a company of about 800 employees up to like 3,000. I was one of those hires (I believe I was employee #1825). I worked there for several years, during which time I did a lot of work for the magazines and eventually got noticed by R&D; Mike Selinker asked me to help write the D&D World of Warcraft book. I did, and even though the book was canceled (it eventually got published by another publisher under other authors), they liked the work I'd done and I got more and more freelance opportunities.
Once you get to that point, doing good work and hitting your deadlines makes you popular with the editors and developers. This part of the equation is Very Important, no matter HOW you get into the position of writing material for ANY game company!
Eventually I was laid off from work at WotC as part of a headcount reducing thing. I got re-hired 3 months later as a contractor (50 cent raise but no benefits anymore) to do the same job I was doing before I was laid off (and actually picked up pretty much EXACTLY where I was at during the layoff, but now I was 3 months behind schedule...heh). After a while, I switched over to working for he web team for a few months.
All this time, I was applying for editor and designer positions. I always got to the final round of interviews, it seemed, but always got passed over for someone else (usually a good friend, so that was kind of awkward). Finally, Jesse Decker got a R&D job I was hoping to get, and a week later Johnny Wilson called me up to hire me to work at Paizo to help shore up the vacancy left after Chris Thomasson moved over to take Jesse's place, leaving a gap in the Dungeon department.
And that was pretty much the point at which I officially became a part of a game design/editing team. Kind of a convoluted route... but it can be distilled down to this:
1: Live locally to the game company for which you want to work.
2: Get to know folk who work at a game company, and let them get to know you. Don't freak them out.
3: Start doing any design work you can get your hands on. Hit your deadlines. Be responsible and easy to work with. When the editor and developer change what you've written, or when what you wrote gets canceled or rejected, accept the changes with grace and understanding.
4: Keep watching the job openings for all game companies in your area. Apply to them all the time.
5: Get lucky. Get hired. I hope you're in the job for love of the game and not to get rich. Don't get me wrong. You CAN get rich working in the R&D company... but that's a fluke when it does happen. It's a small industry, and you can certainly earn enough to live a comfortable life working in the industry. But having a love for the game is important.
You Paizo guys don't sleep at all do you?
Isn't Nick Logue running some kind of design contest over at his new site? Sorry I don't have a linky.
You Paizo guys don't sleep at all do you?
Isn't Nick Logue running some kind of design contest over at his new site? Sorry I don't have a linky.
He is and I'm already wracking my balding head trying to come up with shark-god-spawn and interesting pirate booty.
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He is and I'm already wracking my balding head trying to come up with shark-god-spawn and interesting pirate booty.You Paizo guys don't sleep at all do you?
Isn't Nick Logue running some kind of design contest over at his new site? Sorry I don't have a linky.
You ain't the only one racking your brain over that one, buddy. ;)
What's his site?