Seattle Wind Storm of ‘06

The wind storm in Seattle has knocked out my power. Thankfully no trees hit the house (although there were a few close calls) and we have a wood stove for heat. Just recently the roads were cleared of toppled trees and I’ve been able to get a tiny bit of Internet access. I’ll be out of touch for at least another week. Apologies if you’ve sent me email; I’ll be unable to reply.

In the meantime, I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Outlines (Part 2)

Creating a marketing outline can be tricky.

This isn’t like a working outline that is meant only for you—it’s an outline that you show agents and editors to entice them into representation and publication.

You have to use different skills to create one than you do for writing fiction. You have to be part campfire storyteller and part sales-and-marketing guru.

Like crafting a good story, there are many ways to write a good marketing outline, but there are two major guidelines. 1) It should be commercial. 2) It must grab the reader’s attention and hang onto it like a rabid pit bull.

I’ve posted a partial (first three of twenty chapters) and somewhat simplified version of the marketing outline for Signal to Noise. There should be enough there for you to see the form and format of one of these things. Hopefully it will help you market your own work.

Next time: I’ll finish talking about outlines by discussing its more important cousin, THE PITCH.

Jobs in Video Games

Getting a job in this industry is hard. Entry-level positions are about as fleeting as super-heavy transuranium elements in particle accelerators.

So here are seven pointers (in no particular order) that might help.

1) Know your games...and not just the ones from last year, either. Know the classics from the last few decades, and know what makes them great.

2) Have work to show. For example, writers have scripts and character bios; artists have a portfolio; programmers have some kicking code. There are some great (and cheap) editing tools out there so you can even make your own sample game!

3) Go to college or not? On the one hand this will greatly increase your lifelong salary potential regardless. On the other hand, very few schools can teach you how to make a game. Unless you...

4) Go to a school that teaches how to make video games. There are good ones with specific video game curricula. There are some bad ones, too. CAUTION is the operative word. Check placement rates and that the companies they place into are legit and successful. Going to one of these schools never guarantees a job, however.

5) Take the tester route. This is the most accessible entry-level job. Many who have started as a tester go on to become designers, producers, and test leads. College helps here: computer science degrees are common, but I’ve seen literature, history–anything that shows you have a keen analytic mind.

6) Start at the bottom. Most well-established game developers want experience, so check out the smaller companies with a just a few titles produced. Most have websites where they post job offerings (make sure you play their games before you contact them).

7) Don’t be a psycho/stalker/weirdo. People in this industry have an ultra-low tolerance for these behaviors. Be cool and professional. Always.

NOTE: if you like to work alone this business is not for you. You and anywhere from 5 to 50 other creative guys and gals will all have ideas and must work cooperatively to make a good game. Do you work and play well with others? If not, what you think is a dream job in games isn’t going to be so dreamy.

Check out EPIC GAMES’s Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski’s take on how to get hired as well.

Good Luck!