How to Break Into the Games Industry: A PAX West Preview
ModSquad is well regarded for the work we do for gaming industry powerhouses, 15 years and counting. Our Mods are enthusiasts who live and breathe games. Because they speak gaming lingo fluently, they’re experts at providing high quality player support, knowledgeable moderation, and insightful engagement for ModSquad’s many game industry clients.
For more than a decade, ModSquad CXO Rich Weil has brought together senior game industry veterans to give their insights on this topic to would-be games professionals at conferences and expos around the world. Rich will be presenting a panel of experts to speak at next month’s PAX West expo in Seattle. If you’re attending, don’t miss The New (and Old) Realities: Getting Into the Game Industry, Saturday, September 3, 2022 at 3:30 p.m. Here’s a preview of some of the good advice he’ll be sharing with the crowd.
Learn by doing. If your dream is to create games, you don’t need to wait to be employed by a games studio to do it. Use one of the many tool sets available on the market and get cracking. Nothing will show off your skills like your own creation. It will set you apart from the competition.
Your love of games is appreciated, but it’s not enough. There’s a reason the industry is projected to bring in more than $200 billion next year. Games are incredibly popular. That means there are a whole lot of people just like you who enjoy them and can see themselves as part of their creation. That passion is a good place to start, but you have to educate yourself about the industry and how it operates, whether you’re looking to be a designer or a marketer or finance person for a games company.
Have realistic expectations of what the job is like. Many of us grew up thinking of how cool it would be to play games for a living. But the reality of it all is that it’s a business. It’s less pizza parties and all-night gaming sessions and more quarterly results, sales, and profitability.
The rise of remote working has changed the rules. The game industry can be very regionally focused, but that’s changing. Acceptance of remote work has taken off over the last couple of years, as we’ve seen across many industries. Smart applicants are figuring out how to use this to their advantage.
If you’ll be attending this year’s PAX West, be sure to catch Rich’s panel for many other valuable tips on breaking into the industry. It’s always a popular discussion among both industry veterans and starry eyed aspirants, and a great opportunity for the two groups to mingle. With the show and Rich’s panels drawing many people who are committed to bringing their skills and passion to the industry, who knows — there may even be a few future Mods in attendance.
If you’d like to meet up with Rich at PAX West, feel free to get in touch with him.