I want to Job shadow a Game developer
My name is Huzaifa Valli and I am a grade 10 student at Islamia College (Cape Town), I have been
given a task by my school to "job shadow" someone who works in the field that I am interested in, in this case game development, I contacted Lars Espeter, who is the head of the game course at friends of design based in Cape Town and he referred me to this forum. As part of of my task I need to interview a Game developer. I am very interested in this field or line of work, please contact me at huzaifavalli@gmail.com, I would really appreciate the opportunity.
given a task by my school to "job shadow" someone who works in the field that I am interested in, in this case game development, I contacted Lars Espeter, who is the head of the game course at friends of design based in Cape Town and he referred me to this forum. As part of of my task I need to interview a Game developer. I am very interested in this field or line of work, please contact me at huzaifavalli@gmail.com, I would really appreciate the opportunity.
Comments
Boy are you in for a treat :) I don't know if you've seen, but the Freelives SA Game Jam is happening this weekend, with things kicking off on Friday! There are going to be so many games made this weekend it's going to make your head spin (in a good way).
If you want to learn about what goes into the creation of a video games, and gain some insight into how game designer think, iterate and incorporate feedback, then lurk in the forums over the course of the weekend. Read all the forum posts, play the prototypes that people post, look at what feedback is given and how the designer incorporate that feedback back into their games.
It will be better than sitting in just one developer's office, you will be "sitting" in 15 developer's offices. You will see how they create a game from start to finish. You'll see the highs and lows, the frustrations and victories, but throughout you'll see really passionate people working really hard doing what they love.
I'm sure if you respectfully go through the trouble of finding and contacting some of the many studios here in Cape Town, they'd be happy to give you an hour or so of their time. But you're going to have to make the effort to contact them (they're all really busy watching cat videos and drinking too much coffee). Consider this part of your test to becoming a game designer :)
But if you reeeeally want to know what it's like being a game designer, then make a game with us this weekend. And I'm not saying you have to take part in the Game Jam (since I think you're to young to be eligible for the prizes), what I mean is just make something. It can be a PC game made in anything you like (Constuct 2, GameMaker, Unity or whatever tool you find most comfortable with) or you could make a card or board game like Yugioh or Monopoly. And when you're done and would like to share you're creation, by all means do! We'd love to see it!
But this is what we do, we make something where once there was nothing. You already have the nothing part, now go make the something :D
Also, I've noticed that one of my recommendations seemed to not be that clear, I apologise and I state it here again for emphasis:
Game Studios will NOT contact you, YOU have to contact THEM.
You could also benefit from reading through this well written article by @dammit on Job Shadowing. It is way more thorough on the subject than I have been.
Good luck, and all the best.