career-chat

[woeful iron]

powerpoint?

[round radish]

I was thinking the video was your presentation.

[woeful iron]

you're gonna need a lot of matrial to convince someone to make + publish your game

[floral island]

I know, but this game is REALLY good

[round radish]

(according to you)

[woeful iron]

that's what every 11 year old thinks

[floral island]

😂

serious, it will touch you soul

[woeful iron]

send me the vid

I will destroy your soul

[floral island]

lol

I will send you in private

[woeful iron]

why the friend request lol, my dms are open

[floral island]

I'm not able to send the message

[round radish]

Here I was thinking you were being quiet because his game idea had literally blown you away.

[floral island]

how can I send you the message?

[woeful iron]

jesus I'll accept you and remove

[round radish]

Lmao

[woeful iron]

It's a horror fetch quest

[round radish]

A brilliant game then?

[floral island]

Oh yeah my friend Vivi

[pure kettle]

Nah, Vivi has more toddler/doll appearance than classic black mage

[floral island]

You prefer to be Vivi or just a generic black mage?

[orchid sierra]

Hey all, Been lurking for a bit...
Been a software dev for a long time (17 years) Have been developing / tinkering in Unreal since 2016. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJg3LIMiQQ8)

Thinking about my next career move, always liked working on tech related to games.

Is the industry going to crush my soul and have me working 16 hrs a day?
Are there places that offer work life balance?

[mint grove]

The document is specifically for the school project. Also please refer to my resume to find out to e kind of things I used and learned for each project. Thank you for your feedback. I’m specifically looking for feedback related to my qualifications for a level design internship.

Thank you. I will.

The two lines on the left is a menu tab.

If you are willing to donate that much a month for me. That would be great. Otherwise don’t recommend for people to spend money they don’t have when you don’t even know their current living situation. Thank you.

I’ll definitely work on this. Thank you. Specifically, what pet is hard to understand. There’s a title per project followed by bullet points.

I can’t change it unfortunately.

[round radish]

Defensive much?

[mint grove]

Not at all. Just being real.

[mint grove]

I’m not offended. Just letting you know how it is.

[round radish]

Defensive. For no reason. It's not like you were berated or we were being pushy about it.

[mint grove]

You were kind of being pushy with the whole spend money to get a proper site. To be honest.

[plucky hatch]

Well there is a lot to do. The biggest 'no-no' is that you call yourself a designer but this is the first page of your website, In the day and age of free templates and sites its a giant turn off, its almost harder to have a bad looking website than a good one.

From a design point of view almost everything that can be wrong is wrong, colour, layout, font, formatting, presentation etc

[mint grove]

What would you recommend for a homepage? And what do you mean by call myself a designer? How is that an issue to call myself that?

[plucky hatch]

Because your website is terribly designed, why would I hire you to design a game if you can not even design a simple homepage, or for that matter not even know what is wrong with it in the first place 🤔

[mint grove]

Recommendations?

[plucky hatch]

Literally any professional designer, and if you dont want to use your own site, then play it safe with art station, bechance, wix, free wordpress templates etc .

[pure kettle]

Honestly, your website is crap, not even working on mobile

Also that mouthful URL

[mint grove]

Where is your website portfolio? I would like to learn from example. I was told by an industry pro that using an art station is highly unprofessional.

[round radish]

You could change the url just by signing up again surely?

[mint grove]

Unfortunately not.

[plucky hatch]

Well good for them but thats not the case, I use art station and it works fine for me (15+ year industry Pro).

[mint grove]

Who should I believe? One pro or another?

[plucky hatch]

I dont care really 🤷‍♂️ I only speak from my own experience

[round radish]

Art station is gonna be better than your current website, unprofessional or not.

[pure kettle]

Who you shouldn't believe is the one saying ArtStation is unprofessional, I hope he doesn't confuse it with DeviantArt

[plucky hatch]

Art Station allows you to customise it yourself, mine looks a lot better than yours

https://liamkeating.artstation.com/

And it took about 15 mins to configure

But at the end of the day, any website will do

just fill it with good work

[pure kettle]

Wasn't AS's custom site thing paid?

[plucky hatch]

Yes, but even my free AS is better than his site 🤣

[pure kettle]

That I can agree with

[plucky hatch]

I only responded as i was called out 'Where is your website portfolio? I would like to learn from example. I was told by an industry pro that using an art station is highly unprofessional.' 😬

[mint grove]

I don’t see any info on your AS in regards to your postmortem on each project. Just a bunch of cool pics. I don’t understand.

[plucky hatch]

From the second page of the site https://liamkeating.artstation.com/resume

[round radish]

I like how they've capitalised the v. Like it's an initial 😂

[plucky hatch]

They've = I've 🤣

[round radish]

😛

But not in discord!

[mint grove]

I guess they expect more out of us these days. If I turned in a portfolio into my school like yours I would get an F. My instructors would definitely tell me that it would be lacking a lot of info.

[plucky hatch]

Damn you

[plucky hatch]

Well good luck in school, I didnt go myself but ill see you in 15 years time when you catch up to me 😬

[pure kettle]

Are you hiring to your school?

[mint grove]

Likewise. I’m personally not a fan of 98% of the companies you worked for so that’s ok with me. Best of luck on doing you! Thank you for your time and feedback!

[plucky hatch]

Happy Now 🤣

[mint grove]

I don’t understand?

[pure kettle]

I mean, if you make portfolio based on what your school said (which might not have higher standards), you might as well applying to work at your school.

But I digress. Point is improve your website.

[plucky hatch]

Asks for portoflio advice, is told portfolio is bad, gets sulky, classic Discord

[round radish]

And be less defensive when asking for help.

[round radish]

To be fair, it's not bad advice to include useful information about your projects.

[mint grove]

Thank you everyone. Sorry for coming across a bit bitter. My intention is to learn and improve when feedback is presented. I’ve taken in consideration all of your feedback and will work on improving where needed.

[mint grove]

Thank you. I just feel a lot of pressure from school and finding ways to slowly immerse myself into this fast paced industry.

[plucky hatch]

Just take some time to improve your portfolio, once you leave school it wont matter but the portfolio will.

[mint grove]

Thank you! Coincidentally one of my classes this month is portfolio design. So I’m going to get going and start grinding on the design. Just one last question; in regards to the content itself, do you feel like the pics and vid’s I added have any flaws in them?

[plucky hatch]

No but presentation needs a boost. The issue is the images are so small

[mint grove]

Are those setting in the screenshot; settings I should change mine to; to fix?

[plucky hatch]

No idea, I opened your images in a new tab and they max out at between 750-1000px

no excuse not to have 2-4k since its free

[mint grove]

That’s interesting. I look into it right away. Thank you.

[brave forge]

Absolutely not the case. Artstation is perfectly fine and reliable. I'm hiring an artist, not a web developer.

[mint grove]

How did you get each project to have a thumbnail that lead to its page?

For AS?

Wordpress is honestly too complicated.

[plucky hatch]

I dont understand the question ?

[mint grove]

You have a tab called “my works”. That page has a bunch of thumbnails for each project. When you click one; it’ll take you to a new page. How did you set up the the initial my works page?

With all the clickable thumbnails.

[plucky hatch]

By default all projects on Art Station need a thumbnail to lead to that specific project

By default it uses the first image in the gallery but then you can upload or crop any other image as a cover

Then you manage each project

[mint grove]

Thank you!

[mint grove]

Anyone know how to add a background image to your website homepage on ArtStation?

[plucky hatch]

sometimes I feel frightened because I don't have experience and a degree but I want to go to another country. I see ppl who moved and they had a degree and years of experience. The only thing that keeps me doing my env art project is the hope that I'm doing it for something good.

[pure kettle]

Well, you're going to need a degree to get the necessary visa and documents the easy way. Without it it's near impossible.

Not to mention junior positions have very slim chance of getting provided relocation service, if not impossible.

I'm all for ambitions, but you may find it not worth the hassle if you're going nowhere locally.

Some developing countries makes it outright impossible, it better off giving up.

[modern relic]

I don't know the situations but giving up might be a bit harsh. A year or 2 freelancing could be a better idea. Let's you grow your skills and connections and might help prepare you for working in a team and meeting deadlines. Could also fund a few months of moving and living in another country which could be enough time to make new connections and continue freelancing or get employed. This is a sort of best case though and is just a suggestion and not based off any sort of data

[modern relic]

It sounds like you are trying to get people to pity you enough and give you money to pay for it

[pure kettle]

Which is not going to happen

[mint grove]

I’ll most likely pay one day. Until then I can only hope that my future employer doesn’t judge me on my lack of income and instead on the quality of my work.

[mint grove]

TBH I wouldn’t take your money even if you offered. I don’t appreciate being seen as a charity case. Thank you.

[green oyster]

I just send over my artstation profile, I don't think it's that big an issue

[royal lintel]

They didn't offer, you've just continued to complain about a lack of money. And been pretty rude to people giving suggestions because of some percieved slight against you for not being able to pay, despite multiple people telling you that free options are fine (and you not believing them for some reason). If you can't pay and the free options aren't good enough for you, then it sounds like nothing will do what you ask.

Except that the free options are fine - ArtStation looks plenty professional as long as you have the appropriate things to show on it. It's pretty widely used in the games industry. If you want more proof than randos on a discord then just go to the front page of ArtStation and click literally any recognizable game that appears - you'll see artists from the studios that created them posting their art, and not always on paid plans either.

[mint grove]

It’s kind of rude to make assumptions about people. I may have been a little bitter earlier but I made amends and understood my place in all of it. I don’t appreciate people like you making harsh assumptions about my character when you don’t even know me. Words on discord can’t reliably express ones true feeling. So instead you assume I’m rude. That’s fine. Good luck buddy.

[royal lintel]

I'm not making assumptions, I'm telling you how I view your responses. And you're absolutely right - text is not a great way of conveying feelings. Which is all the more reason to be aware of how it reads.

[plucky hatch]

how about wix as an alternative for online portfolio? I've heard wordpress is too difficult and I don't know much of scripting a website

[mint grove]

Wix is good. Just costly. Wordpress is a bit complex.

[pastel estuary]

leads who need to go over many portfolio's prefer art-station.
I linked some videos about it on this channel iirc.
killer portfolio or portfolio killers videos

[plucky hatch]

yep, I also got job offers from Artstation last year, but for a few months recently, it's not accessible in where I live anymore.

[pastel estuary]

ouch

[plucky hatch]

it hurts tho, especially when I need to refresh my AS portfolio with new stuff

[round radish]

VPN can't help?

[plucky hatch]

I've heard changing VPN via an app might helps, but it can be sloppy sometimes.

TBH, my PC is also used for work if necessary, so I'm not likely to use any kind of "crooked" app like that

they might as well leak personal info or work project

[round radish]

VPNs aren't inherently crooked. A browser plugin, sure, those are pretty sketchy, but there are totally legal paid services which aren't sketchy.

(which aren't browser plugins)

[pure kettle]

Out of curiosity, where do you live?

Because few months ago, Indonesia (my region) issued a nation wide internet block which includes Epic Games domains, and subsequently crippled ArtStation. This lasted for a couple week, and it's fully accessible now.

[plucky hatch]

I'm from Vietnam, and yes some ppl here say AS is supposedly blocked by the nationwide internet providers, but the reason is still unknown.

[plucky hatch]

yep, for most trustworthy paid services, they don't use browser plugins; I'll consider a good one to get my AS back.

[pure kettle]

ProtonVPN is a decent option for free one, though the free tier is limited to one device (and some free servers often flagged by Google for Meris botnet)

[plucky hatch]

thanks a lots @pure kettle

[plucky hatch]

It's in the top right

[plucky hatch]

to pity is really not a good idea to present yourself, it almost feels as you have malicious intent because bad people with malicious intent do that to deceive.

[chilly sundial]

You can make free sites with wix you know right?

I'm glad I'm not alone as seeing this conversation as someone asking for feedback, getting it, and then getting offended at the feedback

Just... Chill out. You got genuine feedback. It was good feedback. No ones tryina attack you, you can drop the defense a bit yknow?

[mint grove]

Thxs bro. I’m chill I think everyone else got a bit defensive and wanted to make a lot of assumptions about me over some discord text. It was good feedback!

[mint grove]

My bad I should have been more descriptive. The background pic for your website homepage. Not the AS profile page.

[plucky hatch]

You need to use Art Station Pro for that (paid for)

[mint grove]

This is the best I could do so far. For free.

https://luxdaemonis.artstation.com

I feel like it still looks bad.

[plucky hatch]

Yep, certainly can do with improvement

[mint grove]

Your right. The homepage is the eye catcher and my homepage is bad lol

[plucky hatch]

Random bullet point and no text

Listing 3D modelling as a skill but not listing any 3D modelling software 🤷‍♂️

[mint grove]

Oh snap. You’re right lol. I can’t believe I missed that. Thank you!

[plucky hatch]

Also need to make the project opening images more exciting

If you can use Photoshop as you have listed im sure you can knock something up

Have all your images full width or the same size it looks untidy when scrolling if they are different sizes

[mint grove]

I’m not sure what you mean by making the “opening” images more exciting. Like rounded corners?

[plucky hatch]

Either way its magnitudes better than your original site

[plucky hatch]

These images are very unexciting

[mint grove]

What would you recommend? I’m still a little lost?

[plucky hatch]

Make the images more exciting, do some grading on them probably. Composition is everything.

If I saw those projects on the Art Station wall I would not click on them, the first one is the best.

[mint grove]

Grading? I’m sorry. I’m not familiar with that concept.

Do you mean like fixing the flow of the composition?

[plucky hatch]

How can you have 15 years of experience as a designer and not know what colour grading is.

https://www.creativebloq.com/features/colour-grading

[mint grove]

Yes I know what you speak of. Sorry the wording caught me off guard.

[green oyster]

Why aren't you showing any 2D stuff if you have 15 years of experience? I'd expect some concept art or sketches or something for levels (then the finished products)

[mint grove]

That’s a wonderful idea. I do have some 2D level design work. I’m just afraid it’s not to par with what the industry wants.

[plucky hatch]

It doesn't have to be level design work, you just need to show you are a good designer.

[mint grove]

Word!

[mint grove]

Would this look good on my portfolio?

[plucky hatch]

Your portflio only needs to be 4-6 projects, just choose your best work.

[mint grove]

Thank you!

[green oyster]

But what job are you aiming for?

[mint grove]

Level Design

[pure kettle]

Level Design ≠ Environment Art

You're leaning on the latter.

If you're familiar with the term "mapping" from the modding community, that's what the industry would refer to as level design.

[mint grove]

I am not familiar with this term. Would you say it would be more appropriate to have videos of gameplay through each level?

[green oyster]

I also feel they're showcasing enviro art "scenes" not so much level design. I'd like to see not necessarily gameplay videos but maybe small clips that showcase parts of the level, screenshots carefully chosen to show something cool. Also I'd want to clearly get that this is a boss combat arena, this area splits off into two ways for the player, here they can climb, this is a scary tunnel, this path is blocked, etc

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8eBYwO swamp level with fog example

[pearl bolt]

i might be game programmar or software enginner (junior level) but im not gonna be taking CS classes. is that okay?

ill major in game design though in college

[woeful iron]

why would you do game design for a programming role

[pearl bolt]

isnt game design an equivalent expereince to CS?

[woeful iron]

no lol

[pearl bolt]

game development then?

[woeful iron]

depends how you define game development

[pearl bolt]

what game development degrees are equivalent to CS

[woeful iron]

none are really equivalent

but if you do something programming focused you can do some software engineering

[pearl bolt]

i am not going to major in CS

[woeful iron]

ok

[pearl bolt]

what else could i major in

[woeful iron]

depends what you wanna do lol

[pearl bolt]

game program perferbily or software dev

[woeful iron]

ok so what is wrong with CS in that case, cause that's the most common path there

[pearl bolt]

i just want to major something game dev related

[solid igloo]

Hello There, My name is Murphy Buck. I have been working in Unreal for many years. I have a Bachelors in Video Game Design Narrative with an emphasis in Level Design. I was the Creative director and Lead Level and Narrative Designer for The Lodge. I am looking for Portfolio work and to expand my shipped titles list. If anyone is looking for a Narrative Designer or Level Designer I am a cheap date. Free. Lol. Feel free to DM me if you're interested. I hope you all have a wonderful day.

[woeful iron]

read #instructions

[solid igloo]

ty

[woeful iron]

well idk what is available in your area so

[gilded helm]

Hi guys, what is the best course plus certification for Unreal Engine 5 in 2023? Does Epic Games themselves offer something like that themselves?

[pure kettle]

Doubt those kind of certification matters for actually working in game dev 🤔

[gilded helm]

They don't?

[spice dagger]

No

If you want certification, you are better off getting a degree of some kind.

But even those arent necessarily a requirement.

There are plenty of self taught professionals, present company included.

[gilded helm]

Well honestly I want to get a job in the industry, as I have worked as a software engineer for 5 years prior the company folding.

I am sick of working on inhouse ERP systems and other soul sucking horrors of the kind

So I became fascinated with unreal engine and game development

[plucky hatch]

Well sounds like last thing you want is to go back into education since you have 5 years experience maybe best to just get stuck in.

[gilded helm]

I mean I can go back to education it'd be just frustrating a bit

[spice dagger]

Then familiarize yourself with the sub-field you want to work in on UE/gamedev.

Produce some material you can use as evidence you are working towards your understanding of that sub-field within the industry.

[gilded helm]

Honestly, I don't even know what I'd enjoy the most in development

[pure kettle]

The thing is that game dev isn't that formal

[spice dagger]

Then it sounds like you are very early on your journey. Use this time to try different things.

Find what you like.

Then worry about getting a job.

Nothing worse than taking a job thinking you will like it and then it sucks.

[gilded helm]

Yeah

Been there

Maintained and developed an ERP system on my own

For a company

[spice dagger]

Take 12 months to build out your skillset within gamedev. Given that time, you will likely find what you like and what you dont.

Try building your own games, covering as many aspects as you can.

Seems likely that you would prefer to be a programmer of some kind.

[gilded helm]

I always considered myself more of a designer than anything

[spice dagger]

But that itself has very many different types of programming you can focus on.

🤷

[gilded helm]

Yeah

[spice dagger]

A designer with a coding background is very useful.

[gilded helm]

I have done small projects in sdl and opengl

[spice dagger]

However you likely wont just slot into that position

[gilded helm]

Raycasters and what not

[spice dagger]

You may have to start somewhere like QA first.

[gilded helm]

I had a project manager with no coding background

[spice dagger]

Designing games is very different to designing traditional programs

[gilded helm]

Guess how many deadlines we fucked up

All of them

[gilded helm]

How so?

Requirements Gathering would be the same

And the development pipeline too

It's basic software engineering

[spice dagger]

Are you talking about being a Game Designer or remaining a Software Engineer that designs the code infrastructure?

Because those are very different positions.

[gilded helm]

Oh

What is a game designer then?

[spice dagger]

I assumed by this comment you meant you wanted to be a Game Designer.

[gilded helm]

Well think of it like this

Similar to Mike kirkbride I have vivid and weird ideas for video games and I have a clear idea on how to get them done

I know how to document them

I know how to code them to a prototype

Not in unreal though as I have no experience in it so far

[spice dagger]

The unfortunate reality of this industry is that EVERYONE has vivid and weird ideas for games, unless you go and make them yourself, you will likely just be told what to build, you just figure out how to build it.

My advice.

Take some time (6 months) to get in and dirty playing around with the Engine.

[gilded helm]

6 months full time?

[spice dagger]

No, just free time.

You have to pay bills no doubt lol

[gilded helm]

I am unemployed right and my wife covers me

[spice dagger]

Find out what parts of making a game you like and dont like

[gilded helm]

So if I do it full time

[spice dagger]

Ahh right.

[gilded helm]

How long would I really need

[plucky hatch]

6 months minimum really.

Especially since you dont know what direction to go in yet.

[gilded helm]

Yeah

[spice dagger]

Probably 6 months minimum

You need to find out what you really want to be doing.

Network Engineer.

Gameplay Engineer.

Engine Engineer

🙂

So many.

[gilded helm]

What is that?

And engine engineer

Tool tooler

[spice dagger]

Perhaps its useful for you to start with doing some research on our industry

[gilded helm]

I got into programming because I like video games but I fricking detest soulless software engineering jobbing

What has the most variety and the most well means of expression

In terms of creativity and art

[spice dagger]

They all have their own expression.

Just depends on what expression you like lol

Programming in gamedev tends to be a thankless role, especially from the players perspective.

[gilded helm]

I have done network engineering before and virtual sockets and piping jsnt that expressive lol

[gilded helm]

Yeah

Always thought so myself

I bought a zx spectrum next and optimising in assembly is kind of overkill for me

I can do it just not very well

Anyway what realistically could I focus on that would result in me getting a job

After all I am checking unreal development as I feel myself I am on the march to the next thankless underpaid software engineering jobbing

[plucky hatch]

Well you have listed so many things, like others have said, maybe have a deeper dive and see what you actually like doing. Everything seems good on paper until you actually try it out for size.

[gilded helm]

Lol producer sounds nice as a job how would I get such a job lol

With no experience mind

[plucky hatch]

Aint going to happen without experience in one field or another

Senior, Producer, Lead, Director etc, all take a certain amount of graft.

[gilded helm]

Graft?

[plucky hatch]

Hard work

[gilded helm]

I'm sorry English isn't my first language

Oh right

That's fair

[plucky hatch]

It can be 10 years to be Senior designer nevrmind Lead

[gilded helm]

In general is it difficult to get a job in this industry?

[pure kettle]

Kind of, yeah.

[plucky hatch]

Yes its very competitive, more so these days post-Covid

[gilded helm]

Yeah

Any programing job is tbh

[plucky hatch]

I was not talking about programming but design, but its the same all over.

[pure kettle]

Also depends on where you live, your country may have the game dev industry sucks

[gilded helm]

Employers learn that they can get cheap labor from the east

[pure kettle]

Meanwhile remote jobs also have local applicants competing for the position

[gilded helm]

My wife got a really lucrative job offer in Saudi Arabia and we moved here

[plucky hatch]

Not only that, doesnt matter about cheap, but you can now get quality from everywhere. I have empoyed people post covid from Syria, Iraq, Vietnam, East, Western, Northern Europe, UK, US, Canada 🤷‍♂️

[gilded helm]

I can't find a programming job here to save my life

[gilded helm]

Seriously? Even India?

[pure kettle]

I heard so much bad things about living in Saudi (I say that despite me being a Muslim myself lol)

[plucky hatch]

Yes

[gilded helm]

No offense to indians but I had to work hard after their stuff in my previous job

[gilded helm]

I am non Muslim neither is my wife

[plucky hatch]

Well i think that would be offensive really, I know and work with many Indians no issues there.

[gilded helm]

Saudi is fine just the saudisation of the country is giving me woes I guess

[gilded helm]

My previous statement was the offensive one

[pure kettle]

Maybe he refers to working conditions in India? Seems like it's just awful with bosses giving irrational company decisions and no protection to workers

[gilded helm]

And of course I was generalizing whole nation based on several people's work I had to fix

[plucky hatch]

No, he was saying he has to redo the work because it was not up to scratch. As he said in his own words, generalising the whole nation based on just several peoples work.

[gilded helm]

Yeah just few bad experiences on my behalf

I had the same experience with laosians and such

And mind I consider myself to be a bad programmer on the whole

[pure kettle]

Ouch, yeah, I'm not going to generalize a whole country based on that

That do be racist tho ngl

[gilded helm]

All my work so far in life has been nothing but rushed hack jobs or fixing somebody else's rushed hack job

I guess I came off as racist I'm sorry

Anyway

I don't know what to fricking do with my career

Nothing gives me joy and all is just droll

[pure kettle]

Are you in a financial crisis yourself as of now?

[gilded helm]

No I have savings

My wife works

But I feel useless and unhappy

Professionally

[pure kettle]

Enough to take your time learning about inside out of game development? It's not going to be instant.

[gilded helm]

Yeah

At least I hope so

As pretty much any person I have thousands upon thousands of started but unfinished projects

[gilded helm]

Will it be worth it is my worry

[pure kettle]

Well, do you ask the same when studying general software engineering?

[gilded helm]

If I knew I'd be in the same situation i am right now and could talk to my past self

Id tell him not to do it

2 years ago I had job offers left and right but now I have to go around and literally beg for a job

By now I know all codility test questions for java and c

[modern relic]

You seem like you have a solid background in programming, which means that game programming would make sense, but you said you wanted to be a designer instead. What kind og design do you want to do? Theres game design, level design, audio, graphics, etc. Theres also some good sample projects include unreal tournament itself which you can start with and find what works for you. Like everyone said here it's not an overnight thing, it's going to take months of studying projects and watching cringy YouTube videos. There's tons of fields in gamedev and you don't have to pick just one of them

[gilded helm]

Bah solid background

I make newb mistakes everyday

[pure kettle]

Surely everyone does

[gilded helm]

Honestly I think it's best for me to get a job and learn unreal on the go. Will be hard but with time I'll be a wizard

But no one will hire just the eager

[modern relic]

Everyone makes mistakes, even the most senior/lead people. You said you have 5 years software engineering experience so you should be quite familiar

[pure kettle]

It depends on whether you're willing to take the path or not. I'd say game dev is going to require creativity more than generic software design.

And yeah, you could take different job in the meantime to survive

[gilded helm]

In 5 years the most senior person I worked with was myself tbf

[modern relic]

So? Did you make mistakes?

[gilded helm]

All the time

[modern relic]

Then you will keep making them. It's how you learn and get better

You won't learn or get better complaining on discord

[gilded helm]

I got better at complaining the last year that's for sure

I'm just down

[modern relic]

Get stuck into unreal. You won't get any kind of pity party from here

[gilded helm]

Will do

[plucky hatch]

the next time I make some portfolio piece I'm not going to choose out of randomness. I read in many places that companies want people who understand their art and if you resonate with that the chances are much higher

more or less the same thing I heard about ppl who play magic and dream about working making magic. They want players who understand their game, not someone who is a professional in some unrelated game.

[modern relic]

Why would you chose randomly in the first place instead of choosing projects that best represent your skills?

[plucky hatch]

I was more familiar with art than level mechanics. Out of Max Payne I decided that my first project would be a residential building, env art. That's what I meant "randomness". I wasn't thinking "I want to work at Remedy, let's build a level similar to REmedy's games"

[tacit basin]

you should build some thing you love and are interested in, if you try and do something in the style of some other people you probably wont do it as well. Show of your style and skills.

course, I dont work in game asset development

[deep mural]

Can anyone making games for a small team in unity give any advice?

[woeful iron]

that's a very vague question, especially to ask on an unreal server

[pure kettle]

Why not ask directly in the Unity Discord server? You're already there but not asking it there.

[round radish]

He does ask questions.

[deep mural]

It's dead, and I did

[round radish]

Apparently everyone on that server is either retarded or a troll, though. Or both.

[woeful iron]

so not much different from here then /s

[round radish]

Pretty much

[pure kettle]

Last time I spied there prior to just now, I saw someone being hostile and the mods taking no action on it

[woeful iron]

this is why you need 9 mods online at all times

[round radish]

That's Unity's problem, you see. Doesn't support mods.

The above is not fact checked

[pure kettle]

Oh snap, found another hostility as I speak

otw #lounge

[shut token]

Really? When?

The server is not definitely not dead.

[woeful iron]

did you check the messages of march 2019 though 🤔

[shut token]

And literally all of your questions except the one in their code-general channel were answered.

[deep mural]

Wrong one

Why are you trying to prove me wrong btw why would I lie

[shut token]

The "Official Unity Discord" is the wrong one?

[deep mural]

The fact you even typed that in is just weird imo but ydy

I asked in unity hub or whatever

[deep mural]

Unity developer community

Since we are just gonna be weird about it

[green oyster]

You have to give it time

[deep mural]

I am giving it time, there's nothing wrong with asking the same question here though

[woeful iron]

except again, that this is an unreal server tbh

[deep mural]

Which a LOT of people here have (and have cleary shown since I'm being digitally footprinted) used unity

[shut token]

Sure - some random unofficial one might be dead. But use the official one...that is actually active.

[woeful iron]

then ask in #lounge though

[deep mural]

And then people will get mad because I'm asking career questions in lounge, there really is no winning situation unless this unintended bias is removed from me

[woeful iron]

this is not a bias at you here

I regularly report messages that don't belong in #career-chat

[pure kettle]

No, it's just the matter of asking it in the wrong place

People in here might use Unreal full time and has no idea about specific stuff in Unity, compare that to better chance of asking it in the official Unity Discord server where people there use Unity on daily basis

[shut token]

With an emphasis on the official Unity Discord.

[wary idol]

This is an unreal engine server

[pearl bolt]

what are equilavlnt degrees to CS?

[pearl bolt]

Georgia State University has a degree in game development and I think I could major in that if I want to be a Game Engineer.

[steady pewter]

What means Game Engineer?

Game developers are the least engineers I know.

[pearl bolt]

i think its like programmar

https://steel-wool-studios.breezy.hr/p/2743b36759d4-gameplay-engineer kind of like this

[steady pewter]

Ah, a programmer. Or just Software Engineer working in the Game industry.

If you like programming, just sub to Software engineering. Without looking at that particular Uni program it is hard to say whether it will be relevant.

A willingness to work with other disciplines...

[pearl bolt]

i wanna do more bp than cpp

if i was a game programmar a huge chunk of the work would likely be in bp

there is also verse coming out but i may choose to learn c++ and not verse idk yet

[steady pewter]

Programmer in UE would most likely use C++ and whatever is the system (C# for tools e.g.)
If you want to do Blueprints, maybe you want to be a gameplay designer instead?

[pearl bolt]

i was going to learn to be one but i don't know any junior level ones making the income i want to make in the future

[steady pewter]

Well, games ain't particularly generous with payment to begin with.

[pearl bolt]

i would like to make 6 figures like 3 years after i start working

i mean for the career not in general

i will be doing part time stuff too like in college maybe

[steady pewter]

Nice.
Have you sorted by High -> Low in Salary for the game industry jobs in your area then?

[pearl bolt]

could i become upper middle class as a entry level game designer within like 3-5 years of working or that position?

like if i work remote in a california based compnay

[steady pewter]

I'm not familiar with that area, but you can investigate as I mentioned above.
For 3-5 years, it is not unheard of to climb up, but it will be definitely hard and I cast my doubt. But as I said, not familiar with that area so take it with grain of salt.

[pearl bolt]

i mean in the same entry position

not like becoming a senior

[steady pewter]

Doubt++

[pearl bolt]

maybe i can learn verse or c++ and major in game dsign in college

so im preapred for both

[shut token]

If your goal is to use UE - learn C++. Verse isn't even going to be a thing in UE main for at least another year most likely. And many people aren't even convinced it'll be worth it to use. But C++ is here to stay, for better or worse.

[pearl bolt]

do i need to take physics or is conceptual physics fine

[shut token]

Depends on what you end up doing. Having a general understanding should be sufficient enough in most cases.

[pearl bolt]

conceptua physics wont go in mathematical depth

also i mean if i code for ue5

[proud spear]

you'll want to know geometry, trigonometry. Knowing matrix multiplication will help you too. Basically knowing how to manipulate vectors and geometry

like all gameplay/graphics programmers worth their salt should know what the dot product is and how to use it.

[spice dagger]

@exotic crest That is not a topic for #career-chat . Please reask your question in #lounge or perhaps #industry-chat

[pearl bolt]

i will be taking gemoetry

if i get an intermediate level of knowledge for C++ and major in game design, will I be able to work either one full time?

[spice dagger]

After you get your degree? I would hope so. Otherwise it was a waste of time.

[pearl bolt]

Me too

[deep mural]

How do you take care of a job if you have a burnout?

Do you just shake it off?

[pure kettle]

If the deadline is fixed, then take shortcuts to get it done.
At least that's what I do, and not get fired from it.

[deep mural]

Shortcuts sounds like bad code/modeling or whatever which results in a mad boss though?

Or not nessasarily

[pure kettle]

Not necessarily, though granted my previous job was linear content creation for corporates (videos, virtual production, etc.).

I did not miss that job.

[deep mural]

Idk it feels like it might be impossible to be a coder if I just get frequent burnouts

[pure kettle]

If you're under strict deadline, you're kinda screwed as you can't do distractions to counter attention deficit, and have to take shortcuts to save time

[deep mural]

Alright thanks

[round radish]

If you're burnt out, take a short break. If the deadline is a week away, taking a day off when you can't think straight is gonna mean the 6 days after that are going to be twice as productive.

If it's a considerable time away, plan regular breaks.

Avoid getting burnt out at all.

[woeful iron]

@pearl bolt you really need to get your priorities straight, it seems like you're just fishing at random positions and eduction without knowing what you want. The only thing that is clear that you want is money. Which in games is not the right place. If you wanna do programming for money a CS degree is the best way, but clearly you don't want to do that. So idk what you want but you need a reality check and need to think about what you really want.

Feels like you're just picking your future with a darts board

[deep mural]

Idk how to prevent that

[round radish]

Take time off.

[woeful iron]

don't work 12 hours a day

aren't you 17 and in high school? on what are you burnt out

[deep mural]

I'm built different

[woeful iron]

that definitely answers my question

[pearl bolt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNpVJWfLCD0 This is a game development degree. I might do this.

[woeful iron]

are you just doing this because it mentions average salary of 97k

[deep mural]

I mean idk it just happens

[woeful iron]

but burnt out from what?

do you have a job

or just from school

what do you mean by burnt out

[modern relic]

thats only 5 figures though

[woeful iron]

https://tenor.com/view/disappointed-hercules-disappointment-shouting-kevin-sorbo-gif-14893643

[pearl bolt]

no

[pure kettle]

Are you in desperate financial position?
Are you under pressure of abusive parents giving unrealistic expectations?

If you're on the latter, feel free to DM me to vent out

[restive gulch]

Unreals more of a hobby than a career to me but i gotta ask should i work in as an indie or with others

[woeful iron]

whatever you prefer

[restive gulch]

ok

Is Unreal Professional

[woeful iron]

wdym

like is unreal used in professional settings?

[restive gulch]

like is it suitable for professional game development

[woeful iron]

of course

lots of AAA games are made with unreal

[restive gulch]

ok but can you give some examples of them?

[woeful iron]

Fortnite obviously, Ark survival, Gears of War, The new witcher will be UE as well, Hellblade, octopath traveller, batman arkham city, FF7 remake, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Little Nightmares, Borderlands, Sea of Thieves, Star wars Jedi games...

the list goes on

[restive gulch]

ok thanks!

[shut token]

@woeful iron More patient than I in this answer. I don't know if I could've taken the question seriously honestly 😅

UE has been used to make AAA games for the past 20+ years

[pure kettle]

There's still room for good faith, the way I see it

[green oyster]

black myth wukong looks to be on UE5...same as stalker 2

[pure kettle]

I know some people who were religiously used Unity doubting on how other engine fare up, Unreal included

[green oyster]

what would you guys say it's a career endgame? I can't keep doing environment art in my 50s or 60s up until retirement 😅. What's the progression here? One should try to pivot to something else (art direction, management?)

[pure kettle]

I'd see myself doing game dev until I can no longer do so, but I have passion for music as well, so drumming would be my backup plan

[muted basalt]

What tips do people have to successfully get an epic mega grant for their game as a solo dev?

[pure kettle]

If you can bear badly paced livestream, you can watch recent Inside Unreal VOD on the official UE channel about Epic MegaGrants

[plucky hatch]

You would generally progress to Lead, Creative Director etc. Depending on where you work it's possible to keep your hand in and not just be doing boring spreadsheets.

[woeful iron]

I think most common path is indeed going into a more managerial role

[muted basalt]

Thank you

[muted basalt]

The video labelled MegaGrants: How to Stand Out | Inside Unreal that starts with a half naked dude dancing while a lady bangs some drum thing?

[woeful iron]

that's how you grab attention to get a grant obviously

[green oyster]

I wonder if teaching is an option. Something like organizing a bootcamp/course for gameart

[pure kettle]

You can do your own course class online and call it a day

[green oyster]

I'd get a dozen students, I'd lead them for three months in making assets for a small game, break the tasks for them and provide feedback/guidance on top of learning, we'd add everything in the project and publish packs on the MP and when the bootcamp is done release the game

Of course they'd pay me a few thousands for this 😆

[plucky hatch]

It depends on what you want, I teach/lecture now and again for additional income but if you are a full time teacher the pay is not great generally.

My personal route is be a design manager full time in terms of career advancement and day to day (but not so much hands on myself), freelance pure design once every few months to keep my brain ticking over and my skills sharp, teach and have other bits and bobs to keep up with networking and additional cash. It's a good balance.

[deep mural]

Is this true?

[woeful iron]

I would say no in most cases

you never know though, but if that was the case, you don't want to work for them either way

[deep mural]

Alright

[pure kettle]

Is this talking about school tests?

[deep mural]

interviews

specifically for cs

[pure kettle]

I mean, if the recruiter know what they're doing, they're more likely coming up with their own questions

[deep mural]

right

[pure kettle]

FizzBuzz isn't cutting it anymore

[devout totem]

I have a company i just created

I would give interview tests like

depending on the theme of the role

basically if it's backend web, I would ask "write an authentication service with real database"

or for frontend "make a UI/layout that wraps up X information"

for systems I would ask "write a simple binary serializer for a map"

[woeful iron]

you expect people to write an entire service or UI for an interview?

If a company gives me a test that takes more than an hour I'm just not doing the test tbh

[modern relic]

For my interviews I make applicants write and publish a small multiplayer game that I can then sell

[brave forge]

100%. The candidates that can do that, ain't wasting their time jumping through these hoops. These tests certainly filter out candidates. The question is, does it filter the ones you want filtered out?

[woeful iron]

strange way to promote a youtube channel tbh

enjoy getting banned though ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[deep mural]

completely new account aswell

oh they posted in every chat

[woeful iron]

I really don't get this weird way of promoting, there's like a 0% chance you get any subscribers from this right

[deep mural]

Oh yeah fs

It was a YouTube short too so it's even more counter intuitive

[tribal viper]

Does anyone know much about the steamdeck

[woeful iron]

idk what kind of question this is, but doesn't sound like #career-chat, maybe #hardware idk what your specific question is.

also, don't ask if someone knows something or if you can ask something, always just ask your question

[tribal viper]

Okay

[gilded helm]

Yesterday I did a 4 hour online assessment for a junior position for some junior ERP maintenance position

Today I got a reply that despite acing the programming questions they'd go with another candidate

[cerulean musk]

Hi all, new here. First message.
I´m a bit lost with so much information going around. Im an argentinian, architect, that uses programs such as Cad, Revit, Sketchup or psd. I started this year with my first c++ course, to understand what going on down deep, and im willing to start my first UE5 course.
If i had to guess, im interested in learning UE5 as a tool, not sure why, but i see the potential in 3d worlds for architecture / marketing / gaming. The last one is one of my oldest passions.
If i had to learn or try to move on in this last direction, what advice would you give me, or tool to learn? Remote working, level designing with unreal, and trying to combine it with revit seems interesting for me.
Thanks for readying.

[steady pewter]

Make sure you don't invest in something you won't need. Studying C++ probably is a bit too much. Basic blueprints work should suffice if you want just to do level design or archviz say.

[safe bluff]

You should check out Twinmotion on the Epic Games launcher. It's specifically catered to architects and Archviz creators

[cerulean musk]

and what about the different available courses?
Should i go the oficial Unreal engine course way?
Youtube free courses? In case which one is good?
Udemy courses?

Sorry if i ask to much, im starting and trying to collect as much info as possible to keep my way.

[deep mural]

Besides video game programming, what other type of options are there? (Preferably looking for something with C#)

[modern relic]

Since nothing else in game development is programming, I'd say nothing. Unless you want to branch out to software development which would open up more roles

[deep mural]

Yes, I meant software development

[modern relic]

Anything that uses c# then. I'd read up on asp.net and it's ecosystem if you are interested in webdev

[deep mural]

I'm not at all

I've heard backend is pretty fun though from multiple people

But I'm kinda just in a tough spot rn

[oblique ice]

also heard there is tester

[modern relic]

This is probably the wrong chat to ask for advice about other industries though. Look around for jobs in your area that match keywords like C# and .NET. You might find jobs for unity and webdev, otherwise stuff using winforms/wpf/uwp, probably xamarin too if that's still a thing and you want to make mobile apps

[plucky hatch]

I mean unreal is used in a lot more industries than game development I guess Automotive where I work is the latest main branch, so those skills are highly sought after, we hire ex-game devs all the time to work in Unreal automotive, after that you have architecture & fashion also huge well paid areas. Virtual production and VFX are also massive,

[round radish]

Virtual Production / Movies is big business too.

[plucky hatch]

Damn you ninjad my edit 🤣

[round radish]

Wizard ninja.

[rotund nymph]

Hi people! Besides programming with C++, I've lately been having lots of fun with Niagara, a bit of HLSL, and graphics programming is a field that I always had interest in. It is also an area of development that I know nothing about, in terms of career or work life.

Is the role of a graphics programmer overlapping with a VFX/tech artist? Are those roles also associated with similar work conditions as programming (in terms of salaries, work conditions, benefits, etc)?

[ashen lynx]

No, it does not really.

Some knowledge does

But not the work

Wage is higher. Work conditions are nice. You will be given a whole table to you. Benefits are also quite beneficial.

[rotund nymph]

I see, thanks for the response 🙂
I'll then keep learning a bit on the topic, my current job is very focused on C++ stuff but I can play around with graphics in other projects 😄

[ashen lynx]

Being familiar with graphics programming, even limited to one API/Platform, quickly and immeasurably raises your worth as technical artist, who biases towards optimization and shader work, and eventually may lead to hopping from tech art to rendering, but that is not symmetrical, as in most of the skillset you posses as tech artist or VFX artist will merely facilitate your ability to communicate with those being a rendering engineer and not much more than that. Just as a tech art, rendering has its own disciplines and responsibility scope varies with place you work at and can vary from singlehandedly maintaining rendering code of an engine to just working with API agnostic, high level code. @rotund nymph

[tired bear]

Weird question. I was employed by someone to make an application and was was supposed to get 60% of the application's paid price. However, he told me he sold it for $300, so my cut will be $180. I asked the buyer how much he paid for the app, he said 320, so i should be getting 192. Is it worth arguing over $12? I don't really like being treated as a fool even for $1 and i don't wanna call our partnership off, he was pretty helpful and supportive, and he offered me a new job for $300. So, what should i do?

[viscid anvil]

i cant see my career anymore atleast u are getting paid

[tired bear]

So, just ignore it?

[mint skiff]

I wouldn't work with them again if you know they're stiffing you

Are you accounting for sales tax that the buyer may have had to pay? Your client wouldn't see that money either, it may be collected on behalf of the gov.

[steady sand]

how was the seller able to hide the app’s price from you? it isn’t listed on a marketplace somewhere?

[bold coyote]

Any tips on how to find these 3+ years of game exp if I am a non-game UI/UX designer? Trying to find any studio which is open to this type of junior but no luck.

[viscid anvil]

youtube

[viscid anvil]

i am doing that ig now

[bold coyote]

you do not find 3 year experience into CV without working for the studio/project, I am not talking about the skillset, since working on your project vs studio project is different experience, so I understand the requirement 3+ exp from studio and not your personal projects

[woeful iron]

what is your question even?

there's only one way to get 3+ years of experience, and that's by working the job 3+ years

so hope to find a junior job

[viscid anvil]

i have 4 years exp in ue4

::)

[woeful iron]

how is that related to anything again though

[bold coyote]

the question was related to the lack of junior jobs, so my question was pointed if its better to start as volunteer on some indie project or something similar

[woeful iron]

indie projects are still jobs

if you work them

like a normal job

volunteering is strange though imo

value your own time

[chilly sundial]

That doesn't answer their question

[viscid anvil]

nvm ig

[bold coyote]

understand and agree, but feels more relevant instead of personal projects, since doing everything is wasting even more time, but personal projects, can be small demo games ofc

[plucky hatch]

It's great opportunity to join an actual game project, but one biggest issue is whether the indie project is trustworthy or not

any chances you'd find a studio that offer on-board training? @bold coyote

[bold coyote]

Trying to find an internship (since I am finishing my Ph.D. I can still use my "student status").

[plucky hatch]

internship can take some time before you can be confident for junior level at studio, I also spent my first work year in 2022 as internship/pre-junior level before actually joining the bigger leagues of junior starting this year.

[bold coyote]

I would be thankful for any real experience, so I understand that an internship can take some time. Do you have experience if remote internship is possible?

[woeful iron]

as remote you lose a lot of the benefits though when learning imo

[bold coyote]

yup but staying onsite limits my opportunities extremely, honestly I am confident enough that I can catch on quite quickly it's just a matter of giving me the opportunity (especially in something like UI/UX)

[woeful iron]

it's not just technical skills or whatever

it's team work and stuff

sharing a goal

[half tree]

@heavy ice please check your inbox. I've sent you a couple of my qualifications for the jobs you requested.

[heavy ice]

send msg again

i got so many msg

[half tree]

Oh

I see

[plucky hatch]

I can't be really sure if remote internship is available, it also depends on 1/ company's regulations, and 2/ the types of works you are responsible for, if the tasks require either team-works/ working closely under supervision / have a tight deadlines / delivered assets must match a specific technical checklists, then it's not likely you can work off-site. @bold coyote

[cobalt latch]

At my work, we do 3 month internships. We also do remote, however this is basically longer and more stricter to supervision and deadlines.

Also our remote, I don't believe is paid

[bold coyote]

Can you DM me website? just curious 🙂

[cobalt latch]

Just going to have a quick look if we have internships up. As if not there wont be much to look at 😂

[bold coyote]

i will add it to my list 😄

[cobalt latch]

Where you based?

[bold coyote]

Europe, Czech Rep

[woeful iron]

home of bohemia interactive

[plucky hatch]

Vietnam, and I work in an outsource studio (sorry guys I can't be too specific due to company's regulations) 🙂

[cobalt latch]

Not too sure we do international remote internships

[woeful iron]

strange company policy to not be able to mention the company name

[cobalt latch]

Sounds very sketchy

[deep mural]

Makes sense for reputation ig

[woeful iron]

how so

you employ people that make such bad shit that you don't want your employees to be associated with your company?

[deep mural]

No I mean like just people who are rude

[plucky hatch]

nah... I choose not to say, not them

[woeful iron]

we've been bamboozled

[deep mural]

Lol

[tidal herald]

Just finished a basic->advanced C++ course online and was curious on what steps others took when focusing on becoming an Unreal Engine Developer. Received some advice a while back to breakdown what I need to learn into sections. For example, I'm interested in MMORPGS, so I could learn about creating inventory systems, abilities, ai's, but should I start with level design first?

Mostly trying to get familiar with Unreal Engine & practice using C++ with it

[woeful iron]

I would personally set a lot smaller goal at first and finish something

if you focus on an MMORPG, first of it's not realistic for one person, let alone someone who never made games. But you'll never finish it and have a collection of useless systems. And only at a later point realise how everything could be better.

start with a very small idea and make it start to finish

so you know a bit of everything

and you can reiterate some things, so that you can build knowledge of how to do things the best way

like a simple "zombie" wave survival game will already give you a lot of basics and a "finished" product

then you can move on to the next simple idea, with some new things added

and so on and so on

starting with an MMORPG is a big meme

[oblique ice]

wow MMORPG? thats really ambition

[green oyster]

100% science based, dragon MMORPG

[tidal herald]

@woeful iron Ok, thank you for the advice!

[halcyon flame]

are there any available programmer internships for US citizens?

[unreal spear]

Hey uh I don't really know where to ask my dumb question but do you get a confirmation email when you apply for a megagrant? I got the "Thank you for submitting your project" on the website but without an email can't really be sure.

[brave forge]

I did not get a confirmation email either. But my application definitely went through.

[unreal spear]

Nice thanks!

[pastel estuary]

@split belfry job/team requests are only allowed on the Job Board section.

please read the #rules

[split belfry]

oups sorry ok

[rancid stream]

So I just found out that I'll be moving near the Epic headquarters. I've recently made my first UE5 game, but not sure what else is needed to boost my portfolio. Any suggestions? I'd be interested in pursuing level design starting out, then maybe character design.

[runic patio]

Hey, I've been having some trouble getting into the industry over the last few months. I was wondering, for projects, how important are playable demos vs a video of a full playthrough? I have the latter but not the former

[mint skiff]

What role are you trying to get?

[runic patio]

Game programmer roles @mint skiff

[mint skiff]

Then yes I'd think you should have playable demos

You should at least be making your source available

[runic patio]

The source for one of my projects is available, but the other isn't intended to be open source so I can't share it

[mint skiff]

It doesn't have to be public, but it's your IP that's up to you.

[dreamy trellis]

Anyone know if having a compsci or software engineering degree inhibits finding jobs bc they aren’t specifically game related

[woeful iron]

not at all

probably most game devs (as in programmers) with a degree have a compsci degree

[spice dagger]

I cant imagine any education that would hinder your ability to find a job.

At the most it would simply be irrelevant.

[round radish]

Sure there is

Being "overqualified" for a job isn't uncommon.

Entirely depends on the type of job and the education.

[spice dagger]

Fair point I suppose.

Cant imagine that happens often in this industry though lol

[round radish]

Possibly not.

[woeful iron]

overqualification is such a weird thing

if someone applies for a job and wants to accept your offer, why would it not be allowed

[round radish]

Because you get somebody with a degree in quantum physics applyng for a job as a cleaner, they're gonna have an attitude problem compared to your regular uneducated employee

...probably.

[spice dagger]

Thats a big assumption.

Ive never understood the practice of not employing over educated people either

[woeful iron]

the question is why would they apply in the first place if they didn't want it

[round radish]

Or the boss simply doesn't want to deal with somebody smarter than they are.

[woeful iron]

that I can see lol

[round radish]

Smart people rock the boat.

[spice dagger]

That doesnt seem smart if you ask me lol

[round radish]

You also have to consider why somebody so overqualified wants a position like that.

What did they do that meant they can't get a job they are qualified for?

[spice dagger]

If I was an employer and a position I had was attracting overqualified people, if they dont work out I could imagine there would be an even larger line of appropriately qualified people ready to replace them at a moments notice.

To me, the benefits of at least trying them in that position would outweigh any presupposed negatives.

But im not an employer, so what do I know.

[round radish]

You don't attract a lot of overqualified people, though. That'd be a different story.

Overqualification is the outlier.

[spice dagger]

In what way would the ratio to overqualified to qualified (or less so) make any difference? They are still overqualified, your perception of them should be the same? I didnt specify in that scenario there would be a lot of them. If anything I would think that given your argument, if you were seeing a large number of overqualified applicants there is likely a bigger economic issue happening (2008 crisis for example), how would that affect perception?

[round radish]

If you're getting a lot of overqualified people apply for your job, you've made wrong assumptions about your job.

Like how much you should be prepared to pay.

[spice dagger]

Or misrepresented it, intentionally or not lol

[round radish]

In other news, I want to strangle whoever wrote the property editor module.

[spice dagger]

I have heard stories of malicious sales companies posting jobs for sales, but actually interviewing the applicants for a lower job like reception or something.

[spice dagger]

Thats not career related, unless your intention is to get them fired? lol

[round radish]

Absolutely.

[steady pewter]

The offered work will not keep them around. Why they apply to begin with? Because they really don't know on what they will be working on. Sometimes it is even just an unfitting mindset, say an unbending academic in a "we agile" dev team.

[woeful iron]

But this is stuff you filter for interviews, or try to anyway. I’m talking if the sole reason is “over qualification”

[steady pewter]

Not sure I understand. These are consequences of overqualification.

[brave forge]

No they can be separate. Someone can be "overqualified" but looking for a job that's closer, or less responsibility, or even a change in direction. Overqualified does not always mean "I'm here until the next job comes along"

Which is what dieter is saying. There may be a reason that they are looking for a "lesser" role. And you can filter any potential job hopping or whatever fear you have via interview. Not just on CV. You could miss out on an amazing hire for an unfounded assumption

[steady pewter]

A missed opportunity is obvious enough outcome too.
I was providing reasons for Matt's comment, based on what I have seen happening not once or twice.

[autumn grail]

Hello I am new, what are the best practices for building a portfolio? Where and how do you start?

[modern relic]

Do work basically. Follow some smallish tutorials and put those up if you have nothing else. Also might depend on which area you are looking got a career in as formal education might also be a good idea

[mint skiff]

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Portfolio

Less is more - focus on a few excellent pieces rather than many mediocre ones. If you can, make each piece reflect a certain technical skill.

[autumn grail]

Thank you, I am looking to be come a game designer/ UI/UX designer

[autumn grail]

Thank you! This is really helpful!

[mint skiff]

Ooh the link I sent applies more for art but the essential concepts are the same

[untold jay]

Hi All, quick question. I recruit for the gaming industry and it is always difficult to find experienced programmers with unreal or unity experience. My question is, what is most important to you when considering changing employers? Is it remote working, team culture, exciting project etc. There are loads of great roles available but it seems not enough interested candidates

[woeful iron]

Cool product, freedom (e.g. hybrid/work from home, flexible hours), and of course compensation would be most important to me I think. Culture can also be nice, but tbh you can't really get that from a job description directly.

Also important to me is seeing a future, if the company doesn't show that they have a solid plan for how they want to continue or grow, it's a turnoff for me.

The first time I changed jobs was because of money, second time because of shit boss and money. Now again, when I considered changing, the main reason was money, followed by interesting product.

To close, something else that can make or break it is trying to show that the job is actually challenging, not just copy pasting code or recycling stuff.

just my thoughts though, and I don't work in games anymore since this job

[untold jay]

Thats interesting Dieter. Money is such an obvious motivator, but I also have moved for those reasons and it was a bad choice!

[woeful iron]

Of course it’s a combination of everything

[shut token]

I think Dieter pretty much nailed it. Doesn't matter how cool your product is though, if you're not willing to offer up an actual competitive salary, people are not interested.

[untold jay]

On that note of competitive salary, I know salary surveys are carried out regularly in certain countries, but how does everyone benchmark themselves? Are you speaking to friends, colleagues, or simply keeping an eye on job adverts (even though most dont advertise salary)

[woeful iron]

I know what I earn now, and I always want more 😄

but yeah mostly from talking to colleagues/friends, those online calculators can give a pretty good idea as well where I'm from

[modern relic]

Everyone has different ideas of how much they need/want though and it will also depend on where they live. Remote jobs add this extra layer where 2 people in the same position could be earning different amounts due to their cost of living and other factors. Not saying this doesn't happen with office jobs but I'd wager most office workers in the same role are (or should be) paid the same if not similarly. It's difficult to quantify a single value to pay someone. Personally I'd take whatever I need to cover my bills and add maybe 10%, then double it. As long as I can cover my cost of living, put money into savings, and have enough left over to live comfortably while wasting my money on hobbies I'll be happy

[novel ledge]

Hi, I want to find a job as Environment Artist. I've worked in one gamedev studio for a year. Could you please review my portfolio and tell me where could I apply for job worldwide? I'm Polish. Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/maciejwalaszek

[green oyster]

I think you should include only relevant works in your portfolio and for enviro art work I'd like to see good knowledge of workflows used: high to low baking, realistic texturing, unwrapping, some hard surface, etc. The building is pretty cool but I'd want to see some realistic, highly detailed examples too

[novel ledge]

ok. so something small and detailed like a gun?

what piece do you think i should get rid off?

[novel ledge]

?

[green oyster]

Maybe not a gun (there are weapon artists too), but something that shows good texture work and showcases skills

[green oyster]

The 2D stuff maybe?

[round radish]

If you want to be an environmental artist, stick to environments in your portfolio?!

[novel ledge]

what do you mean? a concept art?

[novel ledge]

Hi. what piece do you think i should get rid off? What do you think is missing in my portfolio

[round radish]

I haven't looked at your portfolio, I was just responding to your comment about the gun.

[ashen lynx]

So, to be realistic, with this state, you will not receive replies or offers.

at least, competitive ones.

You need to take two, maximum three environments and massage them into perfection

[green oyster]

You could do a building with tileable textures and an associated set of props for it

[plucky hatch]

Hello everyone, I'm currently preparing for job interviews in technical art and computer graphics positions. I'm hoping to find someone to study and share knowledge with. If anyone is interested in collaborating, please let me know. Thank you!

[quasi yoke]

Hello, everyone.
I would like to find someone to practice interviews with. Trying to get a Gameplay Engineer position

[dusky quest]

Hello, my name is Caitlin Mackay. Currently, I am studying Game Art and Development with a double minor in Graphic Design and Project Management at Southern New Hampshire University.

As a part of my bachelor's level course work, my college offers an experienmental learning course. This course allows me to gain volunteering and shadowing experience in a field related to my major. This course allows for on-site shadowing, or if distance does not permit it, then doing the course remotely is allowed. I would love the opportunity to gain insight and experience in working in the game industry. I am also hopeful that doing this course and similar ones in the future will help aid me in my job search when I graduate.

Would anyone be able to  provide me with information about what opportunities there might be for me to gain this experience at your organization. Do you know of any  volunteer or shadowing opportunities to students? 

Warm regards,
Caitlin

Ps. The reason why I am reaching out to you rather than my school is because the program requires the student to find the placement. It helps us work on networking skills and helps us learn to navigate the job market.

[pastel estuary]

I wish you all the best in finding such a place @dusky quest !

[dusky quest]

Thank you Luos!

[runic patio]

Hey, I'm striking out on all my applications atm. I was wondering if anyone had any advice

[modern relic]

Make better applications

Follow up with some of them and ask if they are able to tell you why you didn't make the cut

[runic patio]

The problem with the first response is I don't know what I'm doing wrong

I've tried the second, but either get not reply, or the initial rejection was from a no reply email

[modern relic]

It was a bit of sarcasm

[modern relic]

Ye its tough. Run your applications and cv by people in the industry. You could post it here I believe but redact any personally identifying information

[round radish]

Just to make sure, when you get no reply, it's not ending up in your spam folder, right?

[runic patio]

sorry to clarify, I mean I get no reply from my email requesting advice. So since it's a reply to a non spam email it shouldn't end up in spam

[round radish]

Ah okay.

You have to check these things. Sometimes people miss the obvious!

[runic patio]

so should I post the resume here, or do people not like that?

[modern relic]

Afaik it's ok, just be careful about personal information like I said

[round radish]

It all depends on intention, really.

You're not allowed to look for jobs in here.

Some might see pasting a cv as advertising yourself for a job.

[runic patio]

It'd just be for review

[round radish]

That's fine then!

[runic patio]

Ok here is a redacted version of my resume

I had it in a more software engineering format in the past, but it was converted to this after some research into what gamedev resumes look like

so the first two sections were added inbetween those versions

If I accidentally left any personal info, feel free to tell me, and I'll remove this version and replace it with one without it

[woeful iron]

that's a lot of text

I think the layout can be improved so that it doesn't feel like reading a novel

[runic patio]

In what way? It's already bullet pointed and each bullet point is less than 20 words. What aspect should I go about improving layout wise?

In case it comes across otherwise, not intending to come across argumentative

[modern relic]

It's a shit ton of bullet points and less than 20 words is still a lot. I'd trim it down to like 10 words with an absolute Max of 15. I'd also reduce the number of bullet points to like 3 with an absolute Max of 5. Use summaries in the bullet points instead of sentences and even use a bullet point to list the technologies you used (language, engine, libraries, etc)

This is advice from someone who has had basically no luck from their resume/cv so.. Take it with the biggest grain of salt you can

[round radish]

Maybe your cover letters aren't very good?!

[modern relic]

https://tenor.com/view/are-you-talking-to-me-dave-franco-zac-efron-gif-10585179

[round radish]

Well everyone really.

[runic patio]

But mainly I presume they were referring to me.

[deep mural]

Hi, anyway I can use my programming knowledge to earn money as someone with no reputation and 0 years of field in the actual industry?

[round radish]

The jobs boards?

[deep mural]

I'll try again, tried before but wasn't getting any responses.

Anything else to add?

[ashen lynx]

@runic patioLet chat gpt write you a resume

[ashen lynx]

yes

[deep mural]

you should leave the server

[ashen lynx]

not yet, time is not right.

[runic patio]

I can post an example cover letter as well if you want @round radish

[round radish]

Not sure I would be best at evaluating that. I didn't get my job by applying!

[runic patio]

Connections or you made your own job?

[round radish]

I got headhunted out of the blue because of UE-related code I had on git.

[runic patio]

That's really cool. Congrats

[round radish]

Thanks! And, yeah, I know it's totally lucky and random.

[violet pike]

Hey everyone! We’re looking for a 3d builder in unreal engine. I’m having trouble finding someone who can help us make a 3d boxing arena. We just want to add a hallway and put some pictures and video up!

Could anyone possibly help with this?

[round radish]

If you're looking to hire someone, #instructions

[violet pike]

Thank you

[cinder shoal]

where should i start with fundamentals in environment art i feel i can do the basic but putting together a decent environment i struggle with even tho i have intermediate modelling skill

im guessing this fall under level design

[mint skiff]

Ive heard that the cgma courses are good https://www.cgmasteracademy.com/courses/. Otherwise just practice and seek feedback on your work. Polycount.com is a good place to keep journals

[cinder shoal]

cgma is for rich folks lol

yeah i try.

[mint skiff]

You get what you pay for.

[cinder shoal]

that is true

[west sky]

just out of curiosity, does epic games hire for remote position or are all position on site?

i took a look at the offers and i couldn't find anything about this specifically

[round radish]

Afaik they normally fire on site staff.

There have a lot of subcontractors that do remote work, though, like the company I work for.

[shut token]

https://tenor.com/bbptk.gif

[round radish]

Tank used to work for them too!

[shut token]

https://tenor.com/Yjwf.gif

Silly discord

sigh

[round radish]

😛

[west sky]

can u tell us the name?

[round radish]

https://www.geotech.one/

[modern relic]

I'd focus on any project that showcases your current skills. Try not to go out of your way to learn new skills if you want to get something for a portfolio since it will take you forever to decide what to learn, then learn it, then make something to showcase the new skill

Afaik open source isn't as important as a good presentation of the result

Ie gameplay video > source

If someone applied to me for a job and said they didn't have videos but had source code I can promise I won't read it

[modern relic]

That does not look great on mobile

What is your current skill set?

OK well you aren't applying to me for a job so it could be a lot less wordy. I see gameplay and graphics programming buried in there but nothing else sticks out to me as being useful for a solo portfolio piece

[plucky hatch]

I think I'm weak at things like very detailed gameplay codes or physics oriented gameplays

[modern relic]

You could try making some sick materials to start off with I guess

[round radish]

Use a PC like a proper coder! 😛

[modern relic]

You mean you don't write code on your phone and you call yourself a coder?

[plucky hatch]

You mean shaders?

[round radish]

"Google, write me a class"

[plucky hatch]

I want to apply as C++ programmer mostly

[modern relic]

Yes and no. Materials are like shaders but kind of simpler

[plucky hatch]

Hmm, any advice?

[modern relic]

Nah mate it's chatgpt now

[round radish]

Surely materials are a shader authoring programming?

[modern relic]

Look on the unreal engine subreddit or marketplace for some cool effects you can try to recreate

[plucky hatch]

Thats might be good

[plucky hatch]

Shaders are different story

[modern relic]

You can write hlsl I think but I don't know anything about it

[plucky hatch]

I prefer HLSL mostly

[modern relic]

Materials are the node based shit which will help you pump out some cool effects if you stick at it

Tons of example node set ups around and #materials as well

[round radish]

I mean, does the material compiler not create hlsl? Or does it create bytecode directly?

Or what doe sit even do?

[plucky hatch]

I think it creates HLSL

[round radish]

So it's a shader authoring program!

[plucky hatch]

but HLSL is not same as programming any other language

[round radish]

Nobody said it was 🙂

[plucky hatch]

Sorry, I thought you meant that

[modern relic]

https://tenor.com/view/nerd-ackchyually-actually-gif-11156171

My material compiler generates microcode that runs directly on the gpu

[plucky hatch]

I thought maybe this kind of thing might work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuDGtXQiH54&t=18877s&ab_channel=MKIceAndFire

3d platform game prototype maybe

[modern relic]

You want to make psychonauts as your portfolio piece?

[plucky hatch]

Of course not all game, maybe 2 or 3 minute portion with blockmesh assets

[modern relic]

I would be extremely careful about recreating even portions of IP that you don't have rights to, even if it's for a portfolio piece

You would be much better off integrating single mechanics or visual effects for portfolio pieces

[plucky hatch]

Man, this will be simple 3d platformer game 😄

I will not make psychonauts 3

[round radish]

I thought gpus generated their own code from hlsl or some such? Why would you generate it directly and limit it to specific cards?

[modern relic]

Nah nah more like "why wouldn't I want it to run on any other card"

Nvidia bought me a house

What did amd ever do for me?

[brave forge]

Yesn't. Pretty sure the material editor creates hlsl, within the context of existing shaders written in usf files, which are hlsl. Then the engine does compile the shaders with the shadercompiler.exe for each platform you are targeting

And these are stored at edit time in your derived data cache, and when you delete that, long load times again while all the shaders compile

That's my high-level understanding anyway, I'm no expert

[modern relic]

A nice prank would be to include an action that deletes ddc as part of a build graph script

[brave forge]

Pure evil

Call the buildstep FillDDC just to further confuse people

[modern relic]

Lol

[round radish]

Kept Nvidia honest

Well, more honest.

A little honest.

[round radish]

I mean the gpu does the hlsl to bytecode compiling!

Maybe it doesn't

Shrug

[brave forge]

I'm not sure it does anymore. I know it does SOMETHING due to the hitches with dx12 sometimes, but this is where I get hazy

I know unreal does an offline compile step so gamers don't have to

Maybe that's to an intermediate representation,

[round radish]

Yeah. I thought it was that intermediate bit!

[woeful iron]

this seems more like advertising than career chat tbh

oop too late

[chilly sundial]

i clicked every channel and watched it disappear lol

[void jolt]

Hello all!
I was wondering if you could help me with some advice. I've been a programmer for total of 8 years. I was pretty much doing the job of a senior in my previous role. Last year i moved in games industry as a gameplay programmer in c++(i was doing c# before)..it has been tough back then and even now it is extremely tough to get through applications as most recruiting teams don't seem to look past my games industry experience.
How can I work towards showing I can handle myself?
I am working on a personal project to try to get something out there but it takes a lot of time to make a proper game ready for punlishing even if it has small scope.
Any advice would be appreciated

[woeful iron]

you don't necessarily need a finished product, although it would be nice. But you could also make small tech demos with interesting gameplay features that you develop. Like if you make a cool melee combat system, just make that system in a super prototype game to show it off. Of course finished product is nicer, but not always feasible, and a lot more time intensive.

just having a strong portfolio that shows your skills is nice

if you apply for gameplay programmer, the graphics for example of what you put on it are less important

[deep mural]

Any hope for me doing anything tech wise at such a young age? Or am I better off working for $9/h at McDonald's 😂

[plucky hatch]

Hey, is it possible to learn UE5 sensibly to some degree in a little bit more than a month? I can devote like 4-6 hours every day

[wary idol]

Well I started earning money with game development, in this case plugin development when I was 16
And it was more than what I would have earned if I worked any regular job here, so definitely possible

Not sure how viable that path is now considering how crowded marketplace is these days tho

[deep mural]

well what'd you do?

[wary idol]

I was selling plugins, the same 2 that are still up

[deep mural]

can I see your marketplace page

[wary idol]

it's also a good way to get noticed if you have a somewhat successful plugin/product

I'll send you a link so I'm not self promoting here

[deep mural]

alright

[mint skiff]

Definitely

You will learn faster with some kind of course

[plucky hatch]

well when I look at the scale of things it looks really overwhelming

I wanted to make a game or two (really small and simple ones ofc) in the process but I dont think Ill manage

[mint skiff]

The engine does a lot of things for a lot of different stakeholders, many things you will never touch

A project like that is a good way to direct your learning, just don't expect to finish it or anything

[plucky hatch]

Sure, but I need to understand a lot, know where to click, know how to attach what and when, how to program (with both blueprints which are basically a visual programming language and with C++)

one advantage is that I know C++ very well already, but I dont know the unreal api at all

[mint skiff]

It's possible. A month at full time is about what id expect to onboard someone. What's the rush?

[plucky hatch]

Alright, cool. I dont understand the last question tho, what's the rush? ?

[fresh idol]

think he is asking why you are only giving yourself a month

[mint skiff]

You just strike me as a bit anxious to get learned up so I wonder if there's a deadline or something

[plucky hatch]

Kinda, I have sort of an "internship" (not exactly, but that's the closest it translates to english) in a small game studio in a month, for a month (the month of time I'll be there is a crazy small amount of time, but that's what my school demands 🤷‍♂️)

[fresh idol]

There are alot of good courses out there some are free some are not

Smart poly has some good ones about learning ue5 and blueprints

its a good base to work of

and then i am sure you will find some more advanced tutorials for whatever you need later down the line

[plucky hatch]

Awesome, appreciate the help @mint skiff @fresh idol !

[fresh idol]

for the internship what is the focus

would you take on more of a generalist role or something more specialised

[plucky hatch]

I dont exactly know yet, Ill have a call with a friend of mine which got me a position there soon and he'll let me know everything about the project, since the studio is like 6 or 7 people, with half of them being artists/designers/etc. I think Ill be doing whatever coding they need but have put at the end of the list and marked as 'non important' or something

But again - no idea yet exactly

[fresh idol]

sounds like it might be worth just getting used to the logic with ue5

working with blueprints and c++ you should be able to do quite well if you already know c++

[plucky hatch]

yeah, but again, Im dumbfounded when a guy pulls up some world coordinates, hooks that up to some UVs, then extracts some R parts from some texture, hooks that up to some occlusion 💥

so Ill need to read up on all the technical stuff

[mint skiff]

Sounds like that's when they're going to train you

[plucky hatch]

Not sure they have the resources to do that

[fresh idol]

it gets a little overwhelming but start small and build on that foundation and you should get better every day 🙂

[plucky hatch]

Ill probably be just given tasks with the "if you need help just ask" note

or maybe Ill just be making coffee and sitting (sit? sitting?) in the corner 🤷‍♂️

[mint skiff]

Be a bit annoying and make them show you things :)

But team of 7 is not terribly small

[plucky hatch]

Well, I have no idea about the reality of gamedev, just assumed that 7 people is not a lot, but good to know

[plucky hatch]

if I do that Ill definitely be promoted to TheGuyMakingCoffee hehe

[mint skiff]

This is also training too

Just having access to people to pester about problems or questions is really helpful

[plucky hatch]

Well Im not sure about the training part, really

The "internship" doesnt have a clear goal (whether it should you testing your already acquired skills or learning more), but everyone automatically assumes it's the latter, and I believe that too

but

it was my choice to choose an "internship" that isnt directly related to my HS profile (which is basically general IT/CS, without much programming, except some lame webdev which is taught wrong anyway)

anyway, I think it's all to discuss with the friend that got me there anyway

but again, I dont want to be a burden, I know that gamedev really isnt the stressless niche possible and they dont have all the time in the world

[mint skiff]

Yeah you probably need to forget this feeling

As a junior you're going to get lost and in the way occasionally and everyone around you is going to understand that, because they did the same thing

You will be insulated from being able to screw anything up too badly, and ultimately it's the responsibility of your seniors/managers if you do screw something up catastrophically - not yours! (So long as you aren't like.. negligent)

[plucky hatch]

I guess

Well, I'll contact my friend to get all the info, I'll try not to worry about these things and just do my best to learn

Thanks for the help, really appreciate it

[mint skiff]

No worries

[mossy flame]

Do you need to learn C++? Or does having a good understanding of Blueprint

work just fine

[round radish]

If you want a career and not a temp job? Learn c++

[mossy flame]

When using unreal to what extent do you dive into c++?

Because when you look into the c++ scripts for anything even basic in the engine its looks rather... long

[round radish]

I've had a job with unreal for about 18 months now and I've used blueprints for a total of about 30 minutes. That'll be a lot more if you're actually developing games, though.

[mossy flame]

Is it as bad as it looks? Or do you kind of just get used to it

[round radish]

A lot of it just boilerplate you have to learn. When you get to the guts of it, it's very similar to blueprints. Things translate. You just have way more options in c++ and it's vastly more complicated.

[wary idol]

I personally haven't touched blueprints in like 2 years since I'm more on the engine and tools side of things and those are all C++

[mossy flame]

What kind of work do you do @round radish ?

[earnest slate]

Hello I’m applying to become a tools programmer for unreal engine. Anyone have any resources to learn that specific area?

[round radish]

Same as Blue Man

[mossy flame]

Outside of just programming what is the career like? Is there a lot of communication or collaboration with your coworkers? Or are you kind of just given work and complete it in your own zone/

[round radish]

If you work as a game developer, expect long hours and crunch 😛

[round radish]

If you're working for epic or somebody who works for epic, epic will expect you to use their stuff. So... you basically have to learn the entire codebase.

[wary idol]

I work from home, I'm not in contact much with other coworkers unless it's something they need
I'm in contact with the project lead/manager almost constantly, and generally I get a task, I give a rough estimate of how long it's gonna take and I finish it on my own
Push the work and then it's a bit of back and forth if stuff needs changing or bug fixes

[round radish]

Expect to use a lot of slate.

[shut token]

I work from home
In gamedev? Wild

[wary idol]

And generally I have a lot of "creative freedom" on this project as well as like giving my input on features and direction of the project if you know what I mean

[earnest slate]

Thanks I’ll look into that. You have any pointers to specific areas in the unreal engine source code I can look into just to read/learn?

[round radish]

He just said he was a tools programmer 😛

[round radish]

#slate read the stickies.

[shut token]

So this is where the good life is

[round radish]

I'm enjoying it.

[wary idol]

Honestly I like it more than actual gameplay stuff

[round radish]

The fact you (generally) don't have to deal with networking is a real bonus! 😄

[wary idol]

Oh yeah haha

[shut token]

Networking is fun though

[wary idol]

💯

[shut token]

See - BM actually agrees

[wary idol]

that was meant to go after my message 😅

(it is on my screen lol)

[shut token]

See, if you did networking you'd know about server authority.

tsk tsk

[wary idol]

[round radish]

Tools programming also doesn't use the u-system all that much (though, that is changing) - so knowing when, where and why to use TSharedRef, TSharedPTr, TWeakPtr, TStrongObjectPtr and TWeakObjectPtr is a 100% necessity. If you don't know why a TSharedRef<> won't compile as a class member, for instance, you don't know enough about them.

(though you can make it compile, you just have to know why it won't)

[earnest slate]

Thank you, Im honestly not that familiar with those so I gotta learn them. I really appreciate the help btw

[wary idol]

One thing to add is that with tools programming you generally need to be a lot more familiar with lower levels of C++ since you are almost always working outside the UObject and reflection system

Basically what Daekesh said

[round radish]

Honestly the U-system makes references so easy. 😦

[mossy flame]

@round radish @wary idol what was your guy’s paths into what you do now? Did you initially get into game dev and then found something you found the most enjoyable then specialized?

[wary idol]

For me it was mostly my game project I did as a hobby and the plugins I was selling, a large majority of the job offers I get come from people seeing those, that's the case for my current position too

I didn't actually fully answer your question 😅

I started with programming, then tried 3d modelling, tried video editing and special effects and went back to game development and programming

Always liked it the most

[round radish]

I've just been working with unreal for years doing various things. One of those caught the eye of somebody and they offered me an interview.

By "for years" I mean since 4.0 beta

[wary idol]

I started messing around with programming when I was like 10, got ue at 14 I believe, made my first somewhat serious hobby project and started selling stuff on the mp at around 15-16, got an actual job in the game dev industry at 18-19 and I'm 23 now

[mossy flame]

What are the hours like? How many days a week etc.

I’m trying to just judge if it would be a sustainable lifestyle or if I should just keep it as a hobby

[wary idol]

8 hours per day, rarely more and weekends if I want to

But this might not be the case everywhere

[round radish]

I tend to work whenever I want, as long as I get my 40 hours a week in.

[wary idol]

Similar here generally, don't have to do the 8 hours in 1 sitting

[mossy flame]

I was just thinking that, I don’t think they should ever expect someone to stare at a screen for that long

[round radish]

I did like 12 hours on Sunday, 15 on Monday and a like 4 on Tuesday. Then took a day off 😛

[wary idol]

Oh yeah it's impossible, you can't keep you attention for that long

You are way more productive if you split it up

[mossy flame]

Do you guys get offered OT?

[round radish]

No

Quite frankly I wouldn't want it.

[mossy flame]

You go gym?

[round radish]

Not having the option means you can't be pressured into taking it.

And nope.

[wary idol]

Nope

[round radish]

It's almost like we work for the same company!