Game designer
At the beginning of this school year I was determined to go to Japan to work as a Game Designer as part of my internship. This seemed very reasonable for me as it would the biggest experience in my life. I quickly found out that going to Japan was going to be something I wouldn’t be good enough for: You need an outstanding portfolio, a level 2 japanese language diploma and huge motivation, and I needed to get all this in no more than 6 months. This was not possible for me since I had other things on my mind than just Japan, leave the fact that I still had to go to school every day!
When that idea faded, I still wanted to go to a foreign counrty. At that time I was reading alot in the Edge, an independent gaming magazine in the UK, and people who have also read the Edge will have noticed that it’s constantly promoting the UK game industry. My interest in the UK’s game industry grew and in January I decided to select a few companies I would love to get the chance to work.
I quickly fell in love with one of them: Media Molecule, the maker of LittleBigPlanet. I made my portfolio ( http://www.adriaandejongh.nl/ ) with a good friend of mine and added works to it that were specifically created for Media Molecule. I wrote a covering letter and my CV and sent the email… Believe it or not, but they responded in 31 minutes. Not good. I got a standard email back saying they didn’t have a spot for me, so I decided to send them another email highlighting the facts they don’t have to pay me, I don’t need much assistance and that my course at the Utrecht School of the Arts is of University degree. About 3 days later I got a personal email back explaining that they did not have the time and resources to hire me as a trainee.
Now, let me compare the Dutch game industry and the game industry in the UK. In the Netherlands, most small and medium game companies always take internships, they are a big part of the industry in the Netherlands. In the UK, most game companies, wether they are small, medium or large, don’t take internships. I wonder why that is. The current recession, the financial global crisis? Or is it the aiming for higher quality? I don’t know.
After Media Molecule declined me, my search went on and I sent at least 9 more covering letters to different game companies such as Frontier Developments, Lionhead Studios and Splash Damage. All of them weren’t as fast as Media Molecule, it took at least a week before I even got 1 message back. Now, 5 weeks later, I still haven’t had any response from 4 of them. It’s a shame how most of UK’s game companies deal with students and the outside world. They can take they example out of Media Molecule… 31 minutes, that’s a world record!
Now, It’s probably not going to be the UK. The game industry in the UK isn’t doing so good. As I am writing this, I have found 3 Dutch game companies where I could possibly go. I contacted one last night and got a response early this morning. Yeah, I still have to get used to the difference… Lets see how this goes. Crossing fingers!