NO WAY you actually worked on Amateur Surgeon! I used to play the original browser versions a LOT as a kid! Anyways, I'm currently one year in the industry as a generalist designer in a really small studio that focuses on Roblox and UEFN maps. I got the job right after I finished my studies in a local game developement school, and basically a former student asked a teacher in there (which was a former student of the same year) if there were any soon-to-graduate designers they could hire, and they went for me! I already was basically done with making my portfolio and CV with all the experiences and jams I worked on during those 3 years, which also helped making me look good compared to others in the course. I'm currently doing A LOT of different projects on Fortnite, covering mainly UX, level and system design. I also got to write a document for a (hopefully) soon-to-be-released map, which was a very interesting and fun experience in which I learned a ton from!
Ah that's all exciting to hear. The Roblox/Fortnite jobs might not initially seem interesting to a hardcore gamer but I personally really like those platforms. It's interesting to puzzle through what "works" for the audience and what's untapped potential. There are so many "hits" on RB and FN where it's really just come down to being the first on platform to do a thing (usually a thing that's been done successfully somewhere before)
@@IndieGameClinic I agree with what you're saying about being the first to do something, but, at least on my experience on UEFN, that isn't enough. Sometimes you either need to be veeery lucky to have your game pushed by the algorythm multiple times or you need to find a way to market your game elsewhere (which we found it to be probably the biggest task at hand) Either way, I'm still having a lot of fun, and funnily enough, I was recently asked to take a pseudo-project manager role xD
Leaving a comment so people thinking about building a carrier in game design stumble upon this video rather than some fantastical youtube fortune cookie selling an unrealistic, idealized AAA fantasy :')
My boyfriend is currently getting a degree in game design, and I'm so excited to watch him grow as a game designer! I really appreciate your channel because I think we approach the way we view games in a similar manner. I love analyzing the different elements that go into game design, level design being my favorite, and helping other indie game devs in their journies. Anyways, just thought I'd give a shout! Hope we can become friends as both our channels grow :D
Ah amazing. When I joined the team we didn't have a lot of the files for AS1-3, so my first job was to play through all of them and transcribe all of the old dialogue... although I think we had RUclips videos for a few to go by too.
@@sinelacico Yeah. I'm not really a "lore" person, so it's funny that this ended up being the franchise where I ended up with 95% of the lore stored in my head.
Yeah, that channel is an absolute gem. We are really spoiled at the moment, and it also kinda makes me mad/sad that so many good stories are behind pointless paranoid NDAs.
Fancy seeing you here, good job on your aussie game expo! Shutterbug looks like a good example of two tried and tested games mashed together (and still working in this case).
Another great, uh I mean pretty mid video. That Amateur Surgeon footage stirred up some vague memories where I'm pretty sure I haven't played it that much or at all it but I have definitely seen it before. Maybe it was on Armor Games, Miniclip or Kongregate at some point, or someone else had it on their phone. I know for a fact I wouldn't have played it much because a surgeon/medical themed game was never my jam at any point in time 😅 Looking at it now I can appreciate the strangeness of the characters and operations though. On another note I love how a k-pop Roblox advergame(?) turned into an incremental. That was not on my bingo card for sure. Incremental games are one of my favorite genres so I love to see the genre being used in such a unique way. To comment on the actual subject of the video. I think it's really useful for aspiring game devs to see what a realistic carreer path is. You never know when you might stumble upon a job, and it's important not to scoff at projects/openings that don't meet your exact expectations of the sort of game you'd like to make. In the meantime it's definitely important to keep creating to find your feet. And by creating I mean building small projects that you can finish, both alone and collaborative with other people. If you don't know how to connect to other game devs, join itch io game jams. They have discords where finding a team is extremely easy, and most people will be friendly and forthcoming regardless of your skill level. One mistake I made when going indie was expecting that I could take a project/idea into production right away because I wanted to make money. That is definitely not the way to go, it's much better to keep creating small projects so you can evolve your workflow and figure out the whole process from start to finish. And when you've made a bunch of projects like that it gives you multiple options to choose from when you are better positioned to actually go into production, like after a jam where you met some other people who have time for that. Making a ton of small projects is also important to practice game conceptualisation, specifically figuring out which concepts are viable and how you go from a top level description to actual gameplay. Sorry this turned out as a bit of a meandering post, just sharing my thoughts.
@@1000_Gibibit not at all, there are some really helpful reflections in there. I think we all want to make a living doing what we love but the fact is that those of us who aren’t prioritising making money are probably going to end up making things of higher quality. It’s just finding the happy middle ground where something is viable and sustainable as well as being what you’re able to maintain passion and interest in.
Awesome work and an interesting video! How do you get into game development initially? I feel I have the talent and personal experience to work on projects like these and have a degree in Games Design and Production but it seems like the hardest thing is getting into a job in the first place. I have a portfolio and a range of games I've worked on, both solo and with others but I'm still struggling.
I think I mentioned it around 02:00 but for me it came down to two things. One was writing my learning experiences up in a blog, and the other was going to meet-ups (not just developer meet ups but general tech and creative meetups). Before that, my first teaching job (a semester teaching Game Design 101 at Berklee Online) was happenstance via Twitter. So much stuff is about being in the right place at the right time, to take opportunities, and that often comes down to just being in the right places socially, e.g. being where employers are.
Very informative video, as always ( ´ ▽ ` ) It's actually quite reassuring realizing that game designers don't need to be THAT good at "pure" game design, and studios do use them to fill other creative gaps.
Yeah, it varies so much from place to place. Sometimes someone higher up makes some big calls about game design and even thought you're the "game designer" you don't really get a say. Alternatively I've seen studios where the game designer was treated more like a general creative director and expected to weigh in a lot on art and worldbuilding.
![Can an Idea be TOO Unique? [I Review Your Games]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/M25SZmZEZJQ/mqdefault.jpg)
NO WAY you actually worked on Amateur Surgeon! I used to play the original browser versions a LOT as a kid!
Anyways, I'm currently one year in the industry as a generalist designer in a really small studio that focuses on Roblox and UEFN maps. I got the job right after I finished my studies in a local game developement school, and basically a former student asked a teacher in there (which was a former student of the same year) if there were any soon-to-graduate designers they could hire, and they went for me!
I already was basically done with making my portfolio and CV with all the experiences and jams I worked on during those 3 years, which also helped making me look good compared to others in the course.
I'm currently doing A LOT of different projects on Fortnite, covering mainly UX, level and system design. I also got to write a document for a (hopefully) soon-to-be-released map, which was a very interesting and fun experience in which I learned a ton from!
Ah that's all exciting to hear. The Roblox/Fortnite jobs might not initially seem interesting to a hardcore gamer but I personally really like those platforms. It's interesting to puzzle through what "works" for the audience and what's untapped potential. There are so many "hits" on RB and FN where it's really just come down to being the first on platform to do a thing (usually a thing that's been done successfully somewhere before)
@@IndieGameClinic I agree with what you're saying about being the first to do something, but, at least on my experience on UEFN, that isn't enough. Sometimes you either need to be veeery lucky to have your game pushed by the algorythm multiple times or you need to find a way to market your game elsewhere (which we found it to be probably the biggest task at hand)
Either way, I'm still having a lot of fun, and funnily enough, I was recently asked to take a pseudo-project manager role xD
Leaving a comment so people thinking about building a carrier in game design stumble upon this video rather than some fantastical youtube fortune cookie selling an unrealistic, idealized AAA fantasy :')
My boyfriend is currently getting a degree in game design, and I'm so excited to watch him grow as a game designer! I really appreciate your channel because I think we approach the way we view games in a similar manner. I love analyzing the different elements that go into game design, level design being my favorite, and helping other indie game devs in their journies.
Anyways, just thought I'd give a shout! Hope we can become friends as both our channels grow :D
As a kid I used to play the original amateur surgeon games a lot, what a nice little callback.
Ah amazing. When I joined the team we didn't have a lot of the files for AS1-3, so my first job was to play through all of them and transcribe all of the old dialogue... although I think we had RUclips videos for a few to go by too.
@@IndieGameClinic Wow that sounds like it would've been a nightmare, I'm sure it was worth the tedium in the end though
@@sinelacico Yeah. I'm not really a "lore" person, so it's funny that this ended up being the franchise where I ended up with 95% of the lore stored in my head.
1:00 Talk Tuah
YT really hit me with the "Translate to English" button under that one.
Love the Sakurai content, what a guy!
Yeah, that channel is an absolute gem. We are really spoiled at the moment, and it also kinda makes me mad/sad that so many good stories are behind pointless paranoid NDAs.
indeed, the spice must flow
I only realised about a month ago that many new gamedev jobs are being made purely around roblox & fortnite. Is this the future of gamedev?
Definitely a few of them popping up!
Shutterbug looks so fun! That’s not a concept I’ve seen before, either
Fancy seeing you here, good job on your aussie game expo!
Shutterbug looks like a good example of two tried and tested games mashed together (and still working in this case).
Another great, uh I mean pretty mid video. That Amateur Surgeon footage stirred up some vague memories where I'm pretty sure I haven't played it that much or at all it but I have definitely seen it before. Maybe it was on Armor Games, Miniclip or Kongregate at some point, or someone else had it on their phone. I know for a fact I wouldn't have played it much because a surgeon/medical themed game was never my jam at any point in time 😅 Looking at it now I can appreciate the strangeness of the characters and operations though.
On another note I love how a k-pop Roblox advergame(?) turned into an incremental. That was not on my bingo card for sure. Incremental games are one of my favorite genres so I love to see the genre being used in such a unique way.
To comment on the actual subject of the video. I think it's really useful for aspiring game devs to see what a realistic carreer path is. You never know when you might stumble upon a job, and it's important not to scoff at projects/openings that don't meet your exact expectations of the sort of game you'd like to make. In the meantime it's definitely important to keep creating to find your feet. And by creating I mean building small projects that you can finish, both alone and collaborative with other people. If you don't know how to connect to other game devs, join itch io game jams. They have discords where finding a team is extremely easy, and most people will be friendly and forthcoming regardless of your skill level.
One mistake I made when going indie was expecting that I could take a project/idea into production right away because I wanted to make money. That is definitely not the way to go, it's much better to keep creating small projects so you can evolve your workflow and figure out the whole process from start to finish. And when you've made a bunch of projects like that it gives you multiple options to choose from when you are better positioned to actually go into production, like after a jam where you met some other people who have time for that. Making a ton of small projects is also important to practice game conceptualisation, specifically figuring out which concepts are viable and how you go from a top level description to actual gameplay.
Sorry this turned out as a bit of a meandering post, just sharing my thoughts.
@@1000_Gibibit not at all, there are some really helpful reflections in there. I think we all want to make a living doing what we love but the fact is that those of us who aren’t prioritising making money are probably going to end up making things of higher quality. It’s just finding the happy middle ground where something is viable and sustainable as well as being what you’re able to maintain passion and interest in.
Awesome work and an interesting video! How do you get into game development initially? I feel I have the talent and personal experience to work on projects like these and have a degree in Games Design and Production but it seems like the hardest thing is getting into a job in the first place. I have a portfolio and a range of games I've worked on, both solo and with others but I'm still struggling.
I think I mentioned it around 02:00 but for me it came down to two things. One was writing my learning experiences up in a blog, and the other was going to meet-ups (not just developer meet ups but general tech and creative meetups). Before that, my first teaching job (a semester teaching Game Design 101 at Berklee Online) was happenstance via Twitter. So much stuff is about being in the right place at the right time, to take opportunities, and that often comes down to just being in the right places socially, e.g. being where employers are.
life's too short to be mid
Your games zooming out on pixel are is proabaly going to trigger some perfectionists.
Very informative video, as always ( ´ ▽ ` )
It's actually quite reassuring realizing that game designers don't need to be THAT good at "pure" game design, and studios do use them to fill other creative gaps.
Yeah, it varies so much from place to place.
Sometimes someone higher up makes some big calls about game design and even thought you're the "game designer" you don't really get a say. Alternatively I've seen studios where the game designer was treated more like a general creative director and expected to weigh in a lot on art and worldbuilding.