Planning My Career Path

Setting Expectations

Multiple speakers gave advice that has helped me have realistic expectations for my career path. Mark Rands warned that it is likely I will hear ‘no’ from potential employers more than yes, and emphasised that I should –and I will– consider and learn from why I was rejected.

Alex Johansson encouraged me to separate the success of my career from the success of my games: one successful game does not make your career successful, and failed projects don’t define your entire career either. He also prepared me for the likelihood that success will not be a linear path. Finally, he warned that sometimes financial stability takes time to achieve when getting into the games industry.

Joel Beardshaw reassured me that one’s start does not define you: as his career began with making first-person shooters, but he later worked on racing games, puzzle games, and tactical games. I should not worry too much about where my career starts, and won’t let myself mistakenly feel ‘stuck’ in a specific genre.

Experience: Challenges & Building It

Dan explained that there is significant demand in the industry, but that demand is for those with experience.

A university careers advisor said that developing transferring skills is one way to help overcome this issue, so I will be considering what skills this applies to and developing them (such as team communication skills). Multiple speakers mentioned that connections in the industry can also help give me doorways in. Whilst I am not employed, I can also participate in Game Jams to improve my games-industry specific skills and showcase them in my portfolio to communicate that experience. Self-publishing personal projects that highlight and train my strengths may also help, showing experience in creating complete gameplay experiences.

Time Management

Mark Rand emphasised the importance of using my time wisely. If something I am doing is not working to further my goals and is costly (in time or money) then I should –and from now, will– reflect on whether I should cease to work on it and instead focus on other things. This may apply to using a particular social media site and getting significantly less out of it relative to other sites, or to booking a space at a convention and finding it doesn’t help me receive customers.

Career Support

The University of Southampton career’s advisor informed me that I can receive aid from them for up to 5 years by either registering as a graduate through MyCareer, or by becoming an alumni. This means I can continue to get their help for writing my CV, covering letters, and similar hurdles in employment.

5-Year Goal

Dan Bernardo said that it is good to have a ‘5-year goal’ that you’d like to achieve in 5 years. This question can come up in interviews, but it also helps you to plan what you will do now to work towards that.

For myself, in 5 years I want to be a lead narrative designer for a game. So, my plan for this is as follows:

• From now until July of 2023, I will develop my LinkedIn profile, my CV making skills, and my portfolio (including participation in game jams).

• From July 2023 – October 2023, I will be living with family and work part-time in my local area whilst I seek work-from-home freelance work on games with narrative focus. I believe one good company for attempting this would be Onyx Path Publishing, who work on TTRPGs in both mechanics and narrative elements and hire freelancers frequently. Whether them or another company, this freelance work will give me some industry experience to builds my skills and portfolio. The payment from the freelance and part-time work together should help me build savings to rent a house if I apply for a job that is too far to commute to from my family’s residence.

• I am currently a designer for cards in a small card game undergoing development, that currently is lacking worldbuilding and narrative elements; and lacking people to write them. I can talk with the project leader about potentially being the writer for narrative and worldbuilding elements of the game. This will help me gain experience I can show to potential employers on the official release of the card game.

• I have connections with an Epic Games employee, who can keep me informed of junior narrative design job opportunities from November 2023 onwards, a period by which I should have more experience and enough financial stability to rent a house if necessary for the job.

• One company that particularly appeals to me is Larian Studios, as they are well respected, and look for applicants with a passion for making roleplaying games, a genre frequently having a focus on narrative. Larian’s games emphasise interactive narrative –such as Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Baldurs Gate 3– and so will be an excellent company to improve my skills if they accept my application. They list positions available at their different studios on their website. Their studio in Guildford would not require me to leave the UK: avoiding language barrier and visa concerns.

• Once employed with a stable position, I can improve my skills until I am promoted to a senior narrative designer, or can find opportunities to become one in other companies that might have turned me down in the past. And this process will eventually repeat itself for surpassing senior narrative designer, to lead narrative designer.