Game designer
What you hear is correct! I got an internship at W!games, a company at the heart of Amsterdam (awesome links huh?). So far, they have released 1 game (My Horse & Me), but they are up for more good! (and better!) Anyway, how did I eventually end up there?
It all started with the idea of going to Japan and the UK, but when I found out I would not be able to go there, I looked here, back home, for companies I could go. The first one I found was Ronimo, a small company in Utrecht that has recently published their first Wii game Swords & Soldiers. I came in contact with a designer there thanks to a former teacher which got me his email adres. After sending my cover letter and resume, I had a intake with two of Ronimo’s designers. The conversation did not go that well; I said a lot of things that were not appropriate and they did not see any potential in me. I did not now exactly where companies were looking for and how to sell myself, how to communicate my skills. So… The next day they declined me. Bummer… Next!
The second company I tried to apply for was Guerrilla Games, possibly one of the biggest dutch development studios. They worked on several big titles such as Killzone and Killzone 2 and are a pool of experience. I heard from a lot of classmates that they sent emails months ago without any response so I had to figure out a way to get in. I contacted a teacher who also happened to be a former Guerrilla employee and he gave me an email address from a senior designer there. I sent my cover letter and resume and I was invited for a chat with the guy. When I got at the building the company residents in, I had to go though all kinds of security measures before I could enter, it was almost a bunker! The chat with that designer went really good and he gave me an assignment, making a FC2 map in 3 days. You can find the result here. I turned the map in and waited 2 whole weeks for the response: the map was excellent and it showed some good thinking and design process. But 3 days later he still declined me by saying that “It’s a time pressure issue. With my increasing workload I won’t have the time to devote to you.” and nothing more than that. Dammit.
And that lead me to W!games. I forgot that I signed up months ago at W!games to be a playtester and it surprised me that I got an email from them asking me to come by. The testing was really fun and afterwards I asked the designer who was leading the test how they thought of internships. They were up for it and I had to send my covering letter and resume to him. Yes!!! They looked into it and by some miscommunication I got an email back from the lead artist that there was no spot for me in the designers team. Argh! The day after I went there for my 3rd playtest session and told this to the designers there, who were surprised because that’s not what they talked about in their team meeting. After a few days and an apology they invited me for a chat. The chat went really good and… I got accepted the week after. W!games, here I come! And hell yeah, I’m excited!
During this journey I learned a lot about myself, what I want to become, how I communicate my skills, how the game industry works and that networking is king. I can’t stop saying that last thing, it’s full of awesomeness.