What are game employers looking for when hiring in today's market? Square Enix LA studio head Fumiaki Shiraishi discusses what he believes development studios are seeking in applicants. For more from Shiraishi, check out this Gamasutra Q&A about the studio from earlier in 2009.

Hiring Tips

Below are some tips for applying to companies such as the Square Enix LA development studio. At our studio, we are looking for candidates who can hit the ground running. Even from college graduates, we are primarily looking for employees who can start contributing on day one.

This means that the resume and portfolio must show that the candidate knows what it takes to make games. Previous experiences at a game company, or making games for a class, are both ways to show experience. Ideally, we would like to see candidates who have spent lots of time and effort making their own games on their own time.

Also, at our studio, the dev team will actually go through the resumes. I don't know what HR looks for in candidates, but I imagine their standards are not the same as what we look for. We are looking for candidates that we would like to work together with, rely on, and not mind butting heads with. In that sense we are looking for candidates that we share values with as game developers.
In General

Most general tips regarding job application apply. We look for nice, personable people. We look for people who are smart and have good attention to detail. Nerdy is good, but we also like to see the balance in candidates. There are, however, a few points where we differ from "normal" companies.

To be honest, I would suggest not writing a cover letter. A good cover letter can set the tone, but for most candidates we see, cover letters do more harm than good. We get cover letters every day where the applicant did not bother to change the company name, or talks about a great game they played that wasn't made by us. When candidates simply talk about how much they liked a game, that doesn't help either. That tells me their enthusiasm for playing games -- but says nothing about their enthusiasm for making games.

On the other hand, every candidate should have a game they've worked on. This can be for school, or something they did on the side. There is nothing better than a good game to see what the candidate can do. Many students, however, are often part of projects involving five, 10, or even 30 students. We find any project above five or six students to be not very useful for us. With that many people, we have a hard time discerning what contributions the candidate made to that game. We prefer to see games made by one to three students, where each member had to shoulder huge parts of the game.

Software Engineer

Even from a software engineer candidate we like to see an online portfolio of games they've made. I do realize that students are busy, but I also think that a good game developer is one who makes games with their spare time.

We actually do receive a fair number of candidates with completed games, and those are the candidates we spend the most time on. We do download games whenever we find them, and we do judge based on how good those games are. With all the resources available today, there really is no excuse not to make a game if that is something you want to do for your career.

If the candidate writes a game from scratch, the language that is used is not too important, as long as the candidate can show their C++ skills somewhere else. Using C# might be a good option for some students, since that will provide a jump start in development. Basing a game on an existing engine is also an option, but in that case we will expect a much more polished product as a result. We will also ask for specific engineering tasks that were required to make the game. Ironically, we've often found that games candidates built from scratch were more complete and polished than games based on engines.

A good game will usually lead to a phone interview, which might then lead to an on-site interview. We like to ask C and C++ questions to make sure they're up to speed on that. We will also grill them on specifics on something they wrote to make sure they actually did the engineering.

Do's

• Make a web site with links to games or relevant tech demos.
• Make your own game; don't be part of a 20 student team.
• Know C++. If you can use C++, we assume you can use anything else.
• Pay attention in software engineering classes. Good engineering matters. Don't just hack stuff.

Don'ts

• Don't talk about business solution software experience, please.

3D Artist

Because we are still a small team with a lot of different needs, we try to look for candidates with a breadth of skills. The challenge is in finding an artist who is very good at one thing, but can do a little bit of a lot of other things. If a candidate is completely a jack of all trades, then that's probably not going to work. If a candidate is completely focused in modeling, or texturing, or lighting, then that's probably not going to work for us either.

We do glance at the resume, but the portfolio is what we'll look at to decide whether we want to go ahead with the interview or not. We like to see a variety of pieces in the portfolio: soft surfaces, hard surfaces, characters, etc. We also do like to see the mesh and the unwrap. We also insist on seeing 2D sketches even from 3D artists. The artists with good 2D skills are the ones that most often continue to grow as 3D artists.

Some candidates send us disks or paper copies, but I wish they didn't. Web links are much more compact and easier to pass around. If the links don't work, or the web site is broken, there usually isn't a second chance. As a side note, we've found that good candidates always have good web sites. I think that has something to do with attention to detail.

Do's

• Make a web site with links to games or portfolio pieces.
• Practice 3D and 2D. Repetition and iteration will lead to improved methods and refined skills.
• Practice making a lot of different pieces: hard surfaces and soft surfaces. Try to start from scratch each time. This will build speed and efficiency as well as keep you from getting bogged down in old work.
• Make sure you have a focus when applying. Is your strength in characters or environments?

Don'ts

• Don't use models that came with some software or engine, even if you modify it. We go through a lot of portfolios, and there are several models that we see again and again.
• Don't just create one genre of models. Keep a good variety of works to show flexibility as a professional artist.

Level Designer

The Level Designer position is a difficult position both to hire and to apply for, because it is a moving target. The skills necessary for the position change depending on the development phase as well as the genre of the game.

Organization and communications skills are a must. Game design is the central hub of the team; they have to communicate constantly with engineering and art and bring it all together. Designers must be able to describe their ideas with detail as well as passion. That being said, no one person has all the right ideas, and everyone on the team must keep an open mind and work together and bring out the best in each other.

At the resume level, we mainly look for initiative and the ability to get things done. Good grades and a good school is one indication of that. Significant work in modding games or making games is also a good indication of initiative and execution. Finally, even from level designers, we like to see significant training either in programming or in 3D art.

Like every other position, a level design candidate should also have a portfolio of levels or games to show. In this aspect, I'd like to discourage using nice graphics. We often get levels created in Unreal Engine or some other engine, using assets that came with the engine package. The problem is that they often look the same, and the objective of the level design often gets lost. Learning and using existing tools is great, but can you show us something new? Can you take an existing game and improve on it? What would you do for the sequel? Design a new mechanics, show us forward progression.

Do's

• Make a web page with screenshots, docs, custom maps/levels of a released title we can play, or an executable of the game you worked on.
• Have a solid background in either art or programming.
• Be able to talk intelligently about lots of different games. Know what makes them good and what makes them bad.
• Make levels that are fun with the bare minimum graphics and software support.
• Show us where you get your inspiration. Do you play card games or board games? Do you read? Watch movies?
• Show us something new.

SOURCE: gamecareerguide.com

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