Thoughts on the Games Industry

Seeing as I will be moving into the games industry it is important that I try to understand how the industry is structured, what roles it contains and how I would function within it. The games industry is a multi-million pound media that is (thankfully) growing. From humbled begins of part-time singular bedroom coders to the multi-million pound studios that exists now. The games industry has evolved and contains both small and large studios churning out a varied assortment of games for various consoles and devices. It has almost gone back to its beginnings in some respects with small groups making fortunes with the development of so called “indie games”. However both groups are equally as proficient at making titles suited to their capabilities. The large developers create highly polished titles with big budgets and the small groups create titles that are simple and innovative with relatively low costs. With such a growth in desire for games some developers send of work to “outsourcers” who produce skilled work for a developer when they require either lower costs or a bigger workforce for deadlines.

With the development of the games that are produced, more complex tasks and skills are needed to keep up with the innovation the games industry has seen. As such job roles have developed for specific tasks within the games industry and it is these that I will explore. I have joined the industry at a great time, with recent tax breaks sure to bring in large amounts of revenue. As a game artist my role within games is to produce visual aspects of the game, my job is key in aesthetics, design and style. My job will entail producing visual artwork and physical assets to populate environments and worlds in games. I will have to work with various other designers, planners, writers, artists, producers and engineers. This ability to work with others will help to produce work at a fast pace and keep communication running throughout a project.

Within the field of artist bound positions, there are two main routes you can take. These would either involve 2d art, 3d assets or a culmination of both, I hope to continue to develop my skills in both of these but tend to lead towards the actual production of assets and environments with 3d. Currently I have every ambition to be either an environment artist or try to develop my skillset and become a vehicle artist. Being in the middle of my degree however it is obvious that I can still develop other attributes that could be helpful in breaking into the industry. I would quite like to look at VFX art as this could be a great way to penetrate the jobs market and make myself stand out a little. I have already taken a great step to make myself employable. I am taking a specialist degree and the only game art degree in the country accredited by skillset (composed of industry professionals). The industry is already specialised and so am I to some degree, I am learning specifically to become a game artist and as such have given myself a massive boost to try to conquer this jobs market.

Even with this bonus, I am well aware that I will be starting from the bottom. I will be given little freedom and for the meantime I am perfectly happy with this. It will allow me to develop my skills and get my some hopefully great references for the future. My overall goal is to work my way up the ladder to a lead artist and then hopefully a director of art, although this prospect might seem large at the moment I couldn’t be more dedicated to be the one at the top.