Rebeccah Bassell, Producer @ Bethesda Game Studios

 www.linkedin.com/rbassell  |  rebeccahbassell.com

🎮 GAME DEV RESOURCE COLLECTION

The purpose of this doc is to provide useful links for those interested in a career in game development. This guide was originally made for undergrad students at my alma mater who, like myself,  weren’t enrolled in any formal games education program. This document served as an introduction to what a career in the industry could look like for that class and how to fill those knowledge gaps. Use this context when reviewing this doc.

This document is by no means exhaustive and is built upon the individual efforts of many many people, collated here. Full credit and ownership belongs to the individuals listed and linked in the resources. This is a living document and will be updated over time.

For any questions, suggestions, or feedback,  please reach out to me on my website.  Happy game job hunting!

👶 STARTING OUT - WHAT DO I WANT TO DO IN GAMES?

  • Riot’s Art Education Series - An awesome initiative from Riot Games that aims to make knowledge around game art roles more accessible to the public. A great answer to the often heard question “but what does a ____ in the games industry even do? How do I become one?” To learn more about the initiative, check their about page! The video series includes:
  • Concept Art
  • Character Art
  • Environment Art
  • Tech Art
  • Game Design
  • Sound Design
  • And a lot of other things but I’ve already got quite a few bullets here 😅 Go see for yourself!

🔗 USEFUL LINKS

Note: In the sections below, I have specific links for folks who have specific needs. As I myself am a nerd who loves learning and has job hunted frequently, I feel comfortable providing the best recommendations that worked for me.

For the other sections I’d like to cover, I either do not have that lived experience (transitioning from another industry) or it’s been a long time since I’ve needed this specific advice (students). As such, I’ve brought in the experts - folks with that lived and current experience. Special thanks to those who have agreed to contribute to this doc.

FOR JOB HUNTERS

  • Games job websites (global, remote, regional, discipline specific)
  • Salary resources
  • Job hunt guides
  • Slack and Discord communities to join (general and discipline Specific)
  • Mentorship and underrepresented groups
  • Industry associations to know
  • Industry reports
  • Game Dev Map - A map that shows (most but not all) game dev studios around the world and their websites. Great resource if you’re looking to see what studios are near you.
  • Getting a Job in Game or Narrative Design - Katie Chironis (Riot Games) created this free guide to help new designers navigate the interview process, resume building, etc. for design roles. I’ve found this incredibly helpful for general games job advice.
  • Game Dev LFW Resources - Javiera Cordero (Meta/ Oculus VR) has compiled this rad notion site that outlines a bunch of tools when you’re LFW (looking for work). This site includes game dev discord communities to join and network in,  job search engines specific to games, helpful tools while you’re job hunting,  and even a rad tool for tracking jobs you've applied to!

FOR KNOWLEDGE SEEKERS

  • Game Dev Resource Mega List - Hazel Kennedy (UC Davis) has created one of my favorite mega guides I’ve seen to date. You’ll probably see quite a bit of crossover from the resources listed in this section, but the list includes:
  • Tutorial links for disciplines
  • Job hunt guides and job sites
  • Advice from working devs
  • SO SO MUCH MORE!
  • Game Design
  • Game Art
  • Programming
  • Marketing
  • Game Audio/SFX
  • Video Game Production Resources - A collection of resources for producers, categorized by purpose. Targets soft skills such as entrepreneurship, management, and marketing.

FOR STUDENTS

Curated by TBD

FOR THOSE TRANSITIONING INTO GAME DEV FROM OTHER ROLES

Curated by Leyla Mamedova, Cinematic Pipeline Manager at Zenimax Online Studios

(Hello, please bear with me as I flesh out this section! — your esteemed guest contributor, Leyla Mamedova, Cinematic Pipeline Manager at Zenimax Online Studios)

When transitioning into games from other industries, the name of the game (ha!) is identifying and marketing your transferable skills, and then filling any manageable skill and vocabulary gaps. This section will highlight resources to help you accomplish these two critical tasks.

📚 BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Books! Books! Books! Come and get ‘em! Here are some my favorite production, design, and leadership books that have had an impact on me in my career thus far:

🗣️ GDC TALK RECOMMENDATIONS

The Game Developers’ Conference (GDC) is the largest professional gaming conference in North America. Games and teams of all sizes and backgrounds come together to share their lessons learned in development over the past few years. If you have the means to go (either through a scholarship, your school, your work, or volunteering) I’d count it as  an essential event for networking. I’ve made all of my best connections from volunteering at GDC as a conference associate (CA)

While a lot of the talks are behind a paywall, there are loads of free talks that are wonderful tools to learn more about development. Here’s a selection of some of my favorite free talks (they range from informative to just plain entertaining):

There are a lot more amazing talks behind the paywall, which you can get all for free if you volunteer as a conference associate! Again, I highly recommend attending GDC at some point if you can. When I was just starting out (and even today, honestly), I couldn’t afford to go on my own dollar. The CA Program gives you an all access pass and a community of some of the kindest, dedicated devs in the industry in exchange for working 25 hours of the event (you also get paid!)

🔨 MISC. RECOMMENDATIONS

Below is a random assortment of some of my favorite media, organizations, and misc recommendations for folks interested in games:

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

DOCUMENTARIES

  • Double Fine PsychOdyssey by 2 Player Productions and Double Fine - Is this technically youtube videos and could have gone in the section above? Well, YES, scrupulous document reader, but hear me out: The PsychOdyssey deserves this stand-out. If you want to know what the ups and downs of making a game looks like (the creative struggles, the iteration, finding the fun, meaning well and failing sometimes), this is invaluable.  In my book, this is essential viewing.
  • Hades: Developing Hell by NoClip Productions and SuperGiant - Again, another collection of YouTube videos (please don’t send me your pitchforks), and AGAIN this is worth it. What’s it like to make a game, get live feedback on it for two years, and continuing to iterate? When is a game “enough” to launch? What happens when you continue work amid a pandemic? All of these questions and more are answered by the amazing folks at NoClip and SuperGiant.

❤️ A REMINDER

Hello, document reader. Thank you for reading this far (or at least Sonic-scrolling to the bottom for a lil’ skim). I wanted to leave you with a note about all of this as you either begin or continue your games journey; a little something I wish someone in the industry had said to me when I was figuring out what to do next with my life in 2013:

Your curiosity, your resourcefulness, and your kindness will carry you a very long way in game development or any profession you choose to enter.  Failure is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be permanent; it is a reflection point. Stay true to your ideals, show yourself and others grace and respect,, ask for help when you need it, and you can do anything. I and all of my colleagues cannot wait to see all of the magic you make, and when you do, please don’t forget to pay it forward.