“The glory road is filled with rocks.”
Robert Heinlein was an amazing science fiction writer who wrote a book called
Glory Road. It was a wonderful novel about a reluctant hero, and I
highly suggest every one read it. I don’t want to say be careful about what
you wish for, but this hobby gaming business, like other efforts I suppose, is
a difficult one to become a success in during the best of times. The road of
"hobby glory" can be both smooth and rocky all at the same time.
Of all the questions I get asked by
gamers and others, the one I get asked the most is about the best way to break
into the gaming business. I wish to go on record as advising all of you to not
get into this business. The hours are long, the pay rates at every level are
usually lower than in other business sectors, you get brutal criticisms by
people who have never designed a game in their life, and most of your favorite
projects will sell way below expectations. Okay, I know that the above factual
assessment of "the Biz" won’t scare any of you off, so let’s proceed into the
secrets of getting hired in the game arena.
Are You Gamer
Material?
You have to ask yourself the below questions to know if you are game hobby
material, and if the answer is no to any of them consider another field of
endeavor.
#1 Do you own more than ten games, right
now?
#2 Have you ever looked at a game and
said I could do better than this design?
#3 Do you have your own in-house versions
of rules for games you play?
#4 Do you play games at least once a
month and think about game rules at other times?
#5 Would you rather play a game than do
a sports activity?
#6 Do you read a lot?
#7 Can you easily use a computer?
#8 Have you tried role-playing games,
collectible card games, and mass market board games?
#9 Do you have more than one computer
game?
#10 Is the group of friends you have to
play games with larger than 3?
Okay, that was me trying to convince you
once more that you shouldn’t do this. If you answered "no" to any of those
questions you shouldn’t even think of trying to get into this business.
Here are some other very important things to consider as well:
KEEP YOUR DAY JOB: You need
to have a regular job that pays the bills before you think about getting a
game industry job. Trust me on this one.
KNOW YOUR TARGETS OF JOB
OPPORTUNITY: You have to look at the entire business of hobby gaming.
There are only a few large companies, that should tell you something right
there. Wizards of the Coast, WizKids, and Decipher all have websites. You have
to know what is on those sites and know what type of products these companies
put out. It would be worth your time to get their catalogs, every year.
KNOW THE INDUSTRY MAGAZINES:
Look at DRAGON, DUNGEON, and my magazines CAMPAIGN, and GAMES UNPLUGGED. Buy
at least two issues of each and subscribe to all of them to learn what they
write about. Get their writer’s guidelines and submit material to each of
them.
DIVE INTO THE COLD, COLD WATER: You need to write a finished product that you think would be something one
of the companies you have selected to try and work for would take as a
product. You should make it as finished as you can, including inserting
artwork and mocking up a cover. Does this sound like too much work to you? If
it does maybe you don’t have enough heart to really get into this business.
GO TO HOBBY GAME CONVENTIONS: Origins, Dragon Con, and Gen Con are large conventions filled with
designer want-to-bees. They have websites, check them out. These are shows
where you can look at what the various companies are doing. Don’t go looking
for work there, go to meet and get to know the company people at these shows.
You are there to be friendly and praising of their efforts. It’s a great place
to get business cards and people’s names.
WRITE YOUR RESUME AND OWN BUSINESS
CARDS: I’m sure many of you out there think you are too young for
business cards. First let me tell you that they cost about $40.00 for 5,000.
They are easy to order and your chances of success go way up when you have
them. Many of you are probably also saying that you haven’t done enough to
write up a resume. Again, you could be 16 and any type of resume will help
your cause, as it is further proof that you are a writer. I’ve emailed back to
over a hundred people wanting to do work for Fast Forward. The first thing I
always ask for is a resume.
DON’T JUST KNOW ONE GAME/SYSTEM
REALLY WELL: When I worked at TSR I purposely bought, read, and played
all the competitions games from board games and role-playing games to
collectible card games. If you are going to work at any level of the hobby
gaming business you have to know what is out there and the concepts in those
games. I have two great game designer friends, Mike Gray and Rich Borg. Each
of these men have huge game collections. Each of these men knows about all
kinds of games. If you are only role-playing or only doing collectible card
games you will hardly ever make it in this business.
NEVER SAY NEVER: I’m always
looking to increase my percentage chance of success. The notes I’ve given here
will do just that for you. Naturally, you could only be a role-player and
still have a slim chance of designing the next great game. On the other hand
if you have done all the other things I’ve mentioned here, you will certainly
have a better chance of doing well.
DO IT YOURSELF: Let me just
add one more thing at the risk of going way over my 900 words. If you really
want to get into this business, you should seriously consider doing a product
from start to finish and actually produce 1,000 of them. Those of you who can
get this done will totally realize if they have what it takes to do this work
or you will realize you don’t.