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How would a teenager start a video game career?

Hello, I’m a 16 year old highschool student and is very interested in a career in the “gaming” industry. More specifically, I am interested in (but not limited to) video Game Design, storyboarding, and script writing (the creative aspects). The problem is I don’t know where to start pre-college. I want to gain some experience but I really don’t know where to start. I want to set myself apart from the dime-a-dozen person who wants to be a “video Game Tester who plays video games all day. So basically I want to know where to start. With summer aproaching, I was hoping to get an job or even an internship at a company and work my way up. I live in central New Jersey and there are no big name companies around me as far as I know so if anyone could help with finding a summer program, an internship, or even tell me WHERE to begin, I would greatly appreciate that.

It sounds like the video game industry would be very appealing for you.

The first thing you need to do is decide what area you want to specialize in. Think about your strengths/weaknesses and decide whether you would be a good game programmer, artist, producer, designer, quality assurance manager, executive, etc. If you like designing or talking about games than a game designer or as a marketing executive would fit your strengths and be the most interesting for you. I wouldn’t go to a “video game college”, because they are really expensive and if you decide to do something outside of the video game industry the degree doesn’t look nearly as good. Go to a state school to save money and consider majoring in marketing or business for game design. For art you should get an art degree and to be a programmer you should get a computer science degree. All of these degrees are helpful in other industries if you decide to work in a different industry someday.

A college degree is a great first step. Unfortunately a lot of people can get degrees and there is fierce competition for jobs in the game industry. So while you are going to college try to get an internship (Hopefully a paying one, but one for experience is a great start). Even if you can’t get an internship at a game developer or publisher working as a programming intern at a bank or other large company is still great experience. That type of experience will really help your resume stand out once you graduate. Remember that a lot of people want to work in the game industry so you need to always be striving to be better than most.

You then need to do some research into your desired field, come up with a portfolio, create a great 1 page resume, and start looking for local game developers to apply to. You may need to go to college if you want to be an artist (Art degree) or game programmer (computer science degree) and you haven’t picked up those skills already you may want to get one of those degrees. If you want to be an executive a business degree is a good idea. If you want to make a career in the video game industry as a tester try to work at a game developer instead of a publisher as you’ll learn a lot more. When you apply talk about your reporting strengths, experience playing/analyzing games, and your career goals and what you’re doing to accomplish them. I just started a blog where I’ve been sharing what I’ve learned from working in the game industry:
http://www.makevideogamesforaliving.com/bradsblog

Once you’ve done that search the websites of your favorite game developers who are local to you and see if they are hiring. Check their websites, etc. Even if they are not you can still call/email and try to convince them to hire you. The biggest issue you are going to have is living in a small town. Relocating to a city such as LA, San Diego, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, etc. will present you with many more opportunities. Whether you go to college or not go ahead and look for internship, because in the long run that experience will get you a job more than a college degree will.

Feel free to contact me through my website with additional questions.

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