A while back I operated a blog called Breakout! which contained articles with a slant toward helping people get into the industry. Since then I’ve put Breakout! on hold due to my work at RDS, my day job, and school, but I still enjoy helping people when I can and tend to hang around the GameCareerGuide.com forums answering questions in which I feel I might be able to dispense decent advice. Most of this comes from my own experiences, a lot of it is based on research I’ve done in my quest to break into the industry.

Nowadays there are quite a few resources for game industry hopefuls including the aforementioned website, the IGDA forums, and Tom Sloper’s site. But I still wanted to share some of the information I’ve posted elsewhere in hopes of reaching even one more person who needs the advice. Most of these will be geared toward people who aspire to be game writers, but there are some which are more general. Like this first one, which comes courtesy of the GCG forums from a poster whose handle is DerFool:

Will a specialized diploma increase my chances of getting into the industry?

I’ve paraphrased the original poster’s questions for easier consumption in a blog format. These questions are quite common, and questions I myself had (and still do at times). My original answer follows, with new comments I thought of after-the-fact in red:

Is a 46,750 Canadian dollars’ loan a rational thing to take for one year’s study?

That’s quite a lot, but probably not terribly far off for that kind of school. The unfortunate thing about these specialized schools is that they take advantage of the fact that they can charge high for tuition and get away with it. I’m not saying they don’t have a right to do it, but as a student with tens of thousands in student loans accrued, I feel your pain. You’ll want to get a definite quote for [school]’s financial aid department before you go messing with loans, though.

The author of this post is, to my understanding, currently living in Israel so I assume this cost includes the significant cost of moving to Canada, but then again, perhaps not. He later describes the degree as being a one-year program, something of which I am highly suspicious and believe an interviewer would be as well. If you’re considering a program that’s this accelerated you need to make sure there’s a good reason behind it and that you’re going to get what you need out of it. There are a lot of ‘Complete our 12 week course and become a certified game developer!’ scams out there that take your money and at the end of some bogus courses give you a certificate. I’m not saying this particular school is one of them – in fact, the school to which he’s referring is well-known for the quality of its program. But the fact remains.

Looking into it further, it would seem the potential student might be just interested in taking the ‘game-related’ courses from the degree program for a year and then calling it good, which is something I really can’t condone. It’s somewhat of a glaring blip on a resume that screams: ‘Look, I can’t finish what I start!’ Even if that’s not the intention of the student. In short, if you’re going to pay this much for school, get the degree.

What do others do in this situation? Does everyone have to take this risk or marry a rich, old, dying person?

Unless you just happen to have money to burn, you’re going to have to take the ‘risk’ of student loans. I really, really (did I mention really?) wouldn’t go into bank loans at your age. It’s not worth the hassle and you’re not going to get the same leniencies. (And honestly unless you’ve been building credit for the last four years, you’re probably not going to have a chance) I don’t know what kind of student loan programs are available to you in Canada or if you have an equivalent of the FAFSA, a federally sponsored loan and grant program, but start there. Start with scholarships and grants, then look to loans. And absolutely positively make sure your loans are deferrable until you get out of school. When you get out of school, pay more than the minimum each month to keep yourself out of trouble.

I ended up getting some from FAFSA and some from Stafford loans. As an aside, I wouldn’t have gotten the Stafford loans as a freshman without a cosigner, so if you have a parent or guardian or someone willing to put their neck on the line for you to use their credit rating, use them.

In retrospect, I should have worked harder to get scholarships and grants. I know I could have gotten them if I tried, but the lure of loans kept me from worrying about it. A few financial scares later and I’m sufficiently worried about it.

One thing about the US is that its a nation of instant gratification. This is generally a bad thing, but when you need money for an education, it means you can usually get it because there are a lot of places out their looking to capitalize on the naivety of students. It’s very easy to get burned by loans of any kind, and if you ask most people in their late 20’s and beyond, most of them are paying off student loans.

There are two big patterns people fall into. The first is that they’re not paying attention to where their loan money is going and how it’s getting used. Demand that your school’s financial aid department send you a hard copy of the expenses every time they take money out of your loan account. Make sure they’re using scholarships and grants first before they even touch your loans. Don’t assume the person handling your accounts is going to do it for you!

The second big mistake is just paying off the minimum balance each month once the loans are out of deferment. Pay off whatever you can afford. Specifically budget money toward it. Minimum payments are always shockingly low, making you think ‘Oh, well if this is all I have to pay then I can spend more money on other things!’. Realize this: lenders are running a business like any other and they prefer to stay in business. Student loans tend to have ridiculously high interest rates, and every month you’re blissfully paying off that minuscule minimum they’re tacking on the interest to the end of your bill.

Make the smart choice. Pay off your loans as quickly as you can. Yes you may be able to get that new game in November because you only have to pay the minimum, but ten years down the line you’re not going to be able to buy that new car or new house because you’re paying off interest on top of interest.

Is [school]’s diploma worth this much?

I’ve only heard great things about [school], but one thing really stands out: come prepared to work. Seriously. These schools are like having a 40hr/week job plus overtime where you’re paying your employer.

Is it worth it? That’s not something I can answer for you, nor can any [school] alumni. Because every story is individual, and you have to decide if it’s worth it for you. The best thing you can do is educate yourself and know yourself.

The hard fact of this industry is that you don’t need a degree to get in. That may change, but I can tell you this: If it comes down to hiring someone with a mod and/or game demo under their belt over someone with no experience but a four year degree, the former is always going to get hired.

A degree for you has to be worth the experience. Let me briefly share with you my story, and maybe you can better appreciate what I mean.

When I first found the college I’m at now I was at the end of my rope. I was just looking for an IT vocational degree when I had no interest in IT. Then I found the Game Art and Design degree at Westwood and it was the first thing to truly inspire me. The only thing I actually wanted to do, after two years of screwing around in general college.

The financial barrier was huge. But I pursued loans, and I got them. Over the course of nearly two years now I’ve kept up a 3.9 GPA, something I haven’t done since… well, grade school, to be honest. I barely graduated high school thanks to lack of motivation and other things. It’s shown me what I can do when I have the passion and drive to do it, and that’s something I wouldn’t have believed without seeing it. It’s given me a well-rounded skillset that I can develop to make me more desirable to employers. It’s showing that I can finish what I start and manage a busy life.

In terms of number-crunching, is it the best thing I’ve done to get into the industry? No. That would be joining a high-profile mod team last October. But if I hadn’t enrolled in Westwood and learned what I mentioned above, I wouldn’t have applied to said mod team. And if I did, it would have been just like everything else in my life: something I put hard work into for a while, then quit.

So it all comes down to you. Like I said, educate yourself. Find out everything you can about [school]. Pop over to the IGDA boards and make a post in the appropriate forum asking if there are any students currently attending [school] or alumni from there. Search for blogs written by those involved with [school]. Don’t just go off of what admissions is telling you. Ultimately, they’re trying to sell you a service. But most importantly, you need to know yourself and what you feel you need to get you what you want.

Tom Sloper wrote a great article about passion versus feelings and how you should follow your passions and not your feelings. What this means, in a nutshell, is that if you follow your interests they will lead you down a career path that will be ultimately fulfilling. And I very firmly believe that passion counts for a lot in a world where so many people are stuck in dead-end jobs because it’s what they felt they should be doing rather than what they actually want to be doing. It’s true that not everyone has that opportunity, but if you do, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not seizing it.

And in the end, can anyone advise me of possible scholarships?

Sign up at Fastweb. I’m fairly certain they handle Canadian scholarships too. Also, apply for this scholarship; the deadline is coming up soon:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/scholarship/index.php

Also, I hate to say this, but… take advantage of your race and nationality. Look for scholarships specific to your situation. The more of a niche you carve into, the better chance you’ll have of getting the money for school.

There are a lot of scholarships out there, and though I recommend you look for niche scholarships specific to your school, intended career, race, gender, etc, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still apply for the general ones. Use the passion you have and channel it into a well-written essay. At worst you’ve just got a well-written essay you can include in a blog. At best you’ve got a few thousand dollars to put toward the pursuit of your passions.