Game Career Guide: A Website for the Game Industry Hopeful

I originally found Game Career Guide from a link in the magazine of the same name, an industry review released annually. I had picked up the 2006 edition at a bookstore in Ocala, and I remember wanting to check out the online content. I'm glad I did, as it led me to what I consider the single most useful resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the game industry, including how to get a job there.

If you've ever visited Gamasutra, the format of Game Career Guide will look rather familiar. As a sister site of Gamasutra, Game Career Guide has many similarities, including the quality of content. But despite these commonalities, there's one key difference between the two. Whereas Gamasutra is mostly targeted to game industry professionals, Game Career Guide is specifically for those who have not yet broken into the industry, with a nod to students in particular.

What will you find at Game Career Guide? As a very general outline: game education news, feature articles on everything from how to make a better portfolio to the pros and cons of developing mobile games, book reviews, gaming study theses (no, seriously!), student post-mortems, and a budding community. This site is teeming with information all directly targeted to you. Not a few bones thrown your way, but a whole stockpile of premium beef carcass. Just... without the flies.

A common downside to content sites targeting a niche is that they are not updated very often, or they're stuffed with filler news sandwiched between quality articles. Fortunately that's not the case with Game Career Guide. It's rare to see more than a few days pass without an article, and this generally only occurs over the weekend, which is understandable. Even editors need to sleep, contrary to popular belief.

The features make up the bulk of the content on Game Career Guide, and with good reason: They are insightful resources for the site's target audience. While a few of the articles are specifically geared toward students, they are just as enjoyable even if you are not enrolled in a game development program.

And these aren't just fluff articles written to fill a particular quota. These are quality features written by industry veterans, educators, recruiters, and even students. Many different views and many different aspects of the industry are already represented on this site, and it's still in a relatively early stage of its existence.

The features aren't all this site has to offer, however. Along with education and industry news, Game Career Guide has a community forum set up for its readers. While it's still going through some growing pains, including fighting off the inevitable spam posts, there is a great deal of promise in these forums. And currently Marc Mencher, successful industry recruiter and author of Get in the Game: Careers in the Game Industry, has his own thread in which he answers any and all questions posed by community members. As a registered poster who has taken advantage of this one-of-a-kind offer, I was very satisfied with not only the answers to my questions, but the pages and pages of answers throughout the massive thread.

But my favorite aspect by far of Game Career Guide is the student post-mortems. A replica of the developer post-mortems in Game Developer Magazine, Game Career Guide's post-mortems are written by students for students. In case you're unfamiliar with the term in the game development world, a post-mortem is an analytical article - usually written by one of the leads on the project - meant to dissect a game once it has launched.

The writer takes a critical look at what went right with the development as well as what went wrong, and reflects on the process in general. Student post-mortems are set up in exactly the same manner, the only difference being the nature of the game being analyzed. Most student post-mortems dissect games that were made for capstone projects or as contest entries.

At this point I'd like to present a challenge to my readers. I challenge you to find a site that provides as much specific content for industry hopefuls as GameCareerGuide.com. Because in my experience, there are none. So when the question is asked, "What's unique about this site?", my answer is "Everything!" At least, everything as a whole, in one convenient, travel-sized package. (Now with orange slice RSS flavor!)

It's true that if you look hard enough you can probably find similar articles on other sites, with maybe a few targeted to those not yet in the game industry. And you might come across some good interviews such as those at DPerry.com, which are again meant to reach those passionate about the thought of game development as a career. There might even be a good community or two out there. But does it have Marc Mencher? Well, does it? That's what I thought.

The truth is that Game Career Guide is what originally inspired me to create my blog. After witnessing my own excitement at the discovery of a site that actually catered to my needs, I knew there was a void of information online and off, and while it is my goal to help fill that void, I will never match the sheer quality and usefulness that Game Career Guide offers.