Link to slides
Links to Careers in Games handout
Link to Katie Stone Perez
Wow - who knew there were so many cool games in games! Katie did a great job of explaining how literally there is a job for almost everyone in Games! She asked the students what types of things they were interested in and then was able to match their ideas to jobs in games. So if you want to be an economist - you could be an economist that advises on economies and patterns in a virtual environment with virtual currency. If you want to be a lawyer - there's lots of contracts in game design and licensing. If you want to be an artist - there's lots of opportunities for artists from product design, to designing environments, and people. If you like culture and languages - there's a need to understand how different countries and cultures interpret behaviors, signs and environments. For example who knew that in Germany red blood was considered very offensive in games and so game designers had to make the blood green, or in China they can't show bones or have undead Zombie like characters as that would be upsetting to the culture.
Katie also highlighted that women make up 50-60% of online game players and yet games product groups consist of about 10% of the employees.
Katie provided an excellent handout that briefly describes the primary jobs found in game production, and it also lists some great camps and internships, and coding programs to get started.
Katie had no intention of working in technology when she was in high school nor when she was in college. She was studying child psychology at the University of Washington when she got the opportunity to complete an internship at Microsoft. She worked as a tester, which is someone who tests the code to find bugs. At the end of her internship the recruiter asked her to become a full-time tester. She had enjoyed the work and the people (loves that she get's to ride on scooters at work, play with nerf guns, and play games!). She was very surprised when they offered her the job as she didn't know the typical things she had thought she would need to know for the job.
Soon after she got to MS she talked with her boss as she was concerned she didn't know the coding stuff, he told her, "If knowing this was a requirement for the job we wouldn't have hired you. You have a different perspective that we value.". This helped her a lot. Whenever she encountered something she didn't know, she would say, "I don't know it YET!". She found people on teams that would let her ask questions and provide her with answers. She took a night class in computer science class, this helped her understand the basics of programming and helped her know how the developers around her were thinking, or what they cared about. She found good mentors that would give her 'hard' feedback. She would ask her mentors to tell her what challenges they faced, what books they'd been reading, what technology was popular and were they using.
She enjoyed her work as a tester but had discovered the job of 'producer' that she wanted. As a producer you are responsible for more of the creation and ideas of the games, and the coordination of all the pieces to make it happen including: schedules, technologies, business plans, relationships with partners, and marketing.
Some of her projects include Xbox Live Arcade which is a market place for digital games on Xbox, Gears of War, she created the Avatar creation process. She is also responsible for a lot of the creative thinking that went into Kinect and Halo Lens. She holds 99 patents!
She loves her work (it showed in her enthusiasm for the work). Her favorite aspects of her work are connecting and building teams and solving hard problems. She says she loves waking up in the morning knowing there's a problem they don't have the solution for, and knowing by the end of the day they will have figured it out.
She has 8 tips for getting the career you dream of:
1) Go to college- and take computer programming!!!
2) Be passionate
3) Get an internship- and don’t pick one for the $$$
4) Find a mentor - and listen to feedback
5) Pick your dream job & company and work towards it!
6) Find something you love! The money and success will hopefully follow!
7) Don’t be afraid of what makes you different!
8) Remember you just don’t know it yet!
Links to Careers in Games handout
Link to Katie Stone Perez
Wow - who knew there were so many cool games in games! Katie did a great job of explaining how literally there is a job for almost everyone in Games! She asked the students what types of things they were interested in and then was able to match their ideas to jobs in games. So if you want to be an economist - you could be an economist that advises on economies and patterns in a virtual environment with virtual currency. If you want to be a lawyer - there's lots of contracts in game design and licensing. If you want to be an artist - there's lots of opportunities for artists from product design, to designing environments, and people. If you like culture and languages - there's a need to understand how different countries and cultures interpret behaviors, signs and environments. For example who knew that in Germany red blood was considered very offensive in games and so game designers had to make the blood green, or in China they can't show bones or have undead Zombie like characters as that would be upsetting to the culture.
Katie also highlighted that women make up 50-60% of online game players and yet games product groups consist of about 10% of the employees.
Katie provided an excellent handout that briefly describes the primary jobs found in game production, and it also lists some great camps and internships, and coding programs to get started.
Katie had no intention of working in technology when she was in high school nor when she was in college. She was studying child psychology at the University of Washington when she got the opportunity to complete an internship at Microsoft. She worked as a tester, which is someone who tests the code to find bugs. At the end of her internship the recruiter asked her to become a full-time tester. She had enjoyed the work and the people (loves that she get's to ride on scooters at work, play with nerf guns, and play games!). She was very surprised when they offered her the job as she didn't know the typical things she had thought she would need to know for the job.
Soon after she got to MS she talked with her boss as she was concerned she didn't know the coding stuff, he told her, "If knowing this was a requirement for the job we wouldn't have hired you. You have a different perspective that we value.". This helped her a lot. Whenever she encountered something she didn't know, she would say, "I don't know it YET!". She found people on teams that would let her ask questions and provide her with answers. She took a night class in computer science class, this helped her understand the basics of programming and helped her know how the developers around her were thinking, or what they cared about. She found good mentors that would give her 'hard' feedback. She would ask her mentors to tell her what challenges they faced, what books they'd been reading, what technology was popular and were they using.
She enjoyed her work as a tester but had discovered the job of 'producer' that she wanted. As a producer you are responsible for more of the creation and ideas of the games, and the coordination of all the pieces to make it happen including: schedules, technologies, business plans, relationships with partners, and marketing.
Some of her projects include Xbox Live Arcade which is a market place for digital games on Xbox, Gears of War, she created the Avatar creation process. She is also responsible for a lot of the creative thinking that went into Kinect and Halo Lens. She holds 99 patents!
She loves her work (it showed in her enthusiasm for the work). Her favorite aspects of her work are connecting and building teams and solving hard problems. She says she loves waking up in the morning knowing there's a problem they don't have the solution for, and knowing by the end of the day they will have figured it out.
She has 8 tips for getting the career you dream of:
1) Go to college- and take computer programming!!!
2) Be passionate
3) Get an internship- and don’t pick one for the $$$
4) Find a mentor - and listen to feedback
5) Pick your dream job & company and work towards it!
6) Find something you love! The money and success will hopefully follow!
7) Don’t be afraid of what makes you different!
8) Remember you just don’t know it yet!