career-chat

[plush ledge]

anyway it's disgusting to live in a such system

[still nymph]

I agree with you. Its very frustrating, but the way I see it is you'll sooner succeed within the system than wait for it to change.

[pure kettle]

It's hard to be idealistic for PC/Console, especially outside US/EU

Some EU countries like Belgium has laws prohibiting gacha, which is flourishing in Asia.

I mean, sure, mobile games took more extreme psychological measures and become deceptive in presentations, but if you set aside the work opportunity, then taking odd jobs is the next good thing.

[rapid iron]

you can always do something that is not common. I get paid well cuz unreal devs are rare for example. Plus nobody is that willing to do cpp.

Unity market is saturated for sure. Salary was low af and competition was absurd.

As for mobile there is also hardware limitations and a higher demand to worry about.

I have developed for quest 2 (android) it was no picnic.

[tidal moth]

I know there are some places that do this, but it just brings the question back: If you are working on the product, how much time do you spend actually leading?

consider working for others the "dry run" before working for yourself. you'll have more experience and a greater chance for personal success

[green oyster]

I had a project as lead artist, it was hell. I had 2-3 assets for me, 20-30 for the team. Most of my work was guiding the artists, fixing stuff and communication, I barely finished one asset. I imagine with a more functioning team I would have done half and half

[still nymph]

It depends on the situation what is required. Some disciplines lend themselves to work that is constant and high intensity, while others are more sporadic. My point is that doing work while in a lead position isnt a automatically a red flag that the studio is infantile or that the position is crap. Even within the same AAA studio you can have leads that do both or leads that just manage, depending on the discipline and the team.

[still nymph]

This sounds like a fundamental workload issue to me. Of course if they are giving you too much to lead you probably shouldnt be doing assets. But it sounds like they are giving you too much to lead even if you didnt do any assets at all.

[tidal moth]

right but that doesn't answer the question. I could even rephrase it as: which is more important, leading or contributing?

[still nymph]

I agree with you leading is more important. But your comment to his was "Thats not what a lead does", which I am just saying is not a ground truth to expect for this industry.

[tidal moth]

perhaps not, but this industry isn't immune to bad management practices either. if you're working as a lead and a contributor, and the contributions take place over leading (which is something I've seen just recently myself), you're basically a more expensive senior to the company. a lead should be leading first, contributing second or even third.

[still nymph]

I agree with you there

[north plover]

most probably depends on the studio and if it can afford such a lead. I've met leads who didn't do anything but leading anymore which was already a full time job, even complaining that they'd have no time to code on work anymore. But that's usually not true for smaller studios where the lead has to do more just because they can't afford it and also don't have the team size when it would be a full time job to just lead. It also depends on what the studio thinks about the position itself and what requirements etc. they have on that. You can most certainly have a team which is not 100% managed, performing well even with a coding lead, and vise verse.

There are also quite some differences between leads and directors in how much management they usually do.

[plucky hatch]

Also to add such as in my case, although a lead I have it in my contract I can get my hands dirty at least 20% of my time, if only to keep my skills sharp and not get bored of just telling other people what to do. Of course sometimes it’s just too busy for that but generally I try and abide by it. So many new things out this year in Unreal, Automotive HMI, Virtual Production, UE5 features etc, it would be hard to stay ahead if I wasn’t still designing in some respect and trying these things out myself.

[rotund echo]

I went through beginner tutorial for Unreal engine 5

now how do i figure out what career path to take

[chilly sundial]

Well what do you want to do

[rotund echo]

I would like to be involved in movies ,animation movies or gaming

Im not a coder

i can draw from life

I can do design

im not a sculpter or architect

im strong visually

i been trying to find a job in mobile and ui but that market is oversaturated

last year after college

[plucky hatch]

I would finish all of the learning paths for animation and virtual production then revisit in your mind what things you want to do. One beginner tutorial is not really enough to make an informed decision.

[rotund echo]

@plucky hatch keep messing around with the programe even try out animation?

[plucky hatch]

Well if it’s animation you want to do as a career why wouldn’t you try out those tools ?

[loud geyser]

Am I understanding correctly that this new UE Apprenticeship is $4000 from all providers?

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/fellowship

[craggy nacelle]

Where is that said?

[loud geyser]

On the Training Partners sites (the couple I've clicked on)

[rotund echo]

@plucky hatch a lot of animation today is outsourced to China

[mystic cloud]

Forget about searching for a game dev job in Turkey lol

[plucky hatch]

Indeed, as well as many other places, but what’s that got to do with anything ?

[mystic cloud]

Always try to aim EU/NA

And if you are just trying to get a good salary, those hyper-casual mobile game developers also pay good

Also working for them is better because they just want you to create fast prototypes with basic C# and dont even care about your code. They just want it as working. Insurance + good salary comes for a cheap price

[rotund echo]

@mystic cloud Theres game companies in South America also

@plucky hatch just citing what i heard from Nickolodeon

[plucky hatch]

I would not base career choices on such things.

[mystic cloud]

There are game dev companies all around the world but if you are based on Turkey, aiming EU specifically is always better compared to rest if you are a starter. Mostly because of timezone difference, cultural familiarity etc.

Of course nothing stopping a person from joining a team based on South America too

Also there are a few quality of studios in Turkey, I also worked for them. They are just not visible to community and pretty selective of people that they are going to work with, for the same reasons you mentioned

kthxbai
Is this LOLCODE lmao (http://www.lolcode.org/)

[rotund echo]

Anyone here a UI artist or VFX artist?

[plucky hatch]

Yes

[rotund echo]

@plucky hatch can i see your portfolio

[pure kettle]

Friendly reminder: For hiring, see #instructions on how to post to job board channels

[brave sandal]

hey guys, I have a question, how much money should I charge as a Gameplay Developer in Unreal Engine? I have 2 years of experience

[pure kettle]

Depends on the region you're living at.

[brave sandal]

why ? I can work as a contractor, it shouldn't affect anything.

[pure kettle]

Oh yes, it still affect the pricing. Both where you live and where the studio's located will make a difference in pricing. The same value can be dirt cheap in one region, and vice versa on other region.

[shut token]

Charge however much you think you're worth. Period.

[plucky hatch]

Charge it up til they balk at it. Thats your rate.

[round radish]

If your client accepts your first offer, you went too low!

[brave sandal]

Thanks you for answers

[vagrant bramble]

:triangular_flag_on_post: JOKERxD#3669 received strike 1. As a result, they were muted for 10 minutes.

[plucky hatch]

My professional portfolio is non-public due to the nature of my work but I have one for fun, it's mainly just my hobby of scifi design however. You can see the link in my profile.

[thorny sluice]

Hello guys, I am a beginner how can I start learning UE4 in best way.

[steady pewter]

Have money. Hire good people.

Otherwise go to the official site, there are tons of "Starting" tutorials.

[thorny sluice]

Can anyone suggest more ways to learn UE4.

Thanks @steady pewter for your help

[astral brook]

Is there anyone offering mentorships specifically related to the rendering pipeline and certain tools/features in Unreal? I'd love to have a guided tour of how certain features work, and more generally get some expert insight into how to make heads and/or tails of the unreal engine source code.

I'm tech artist, with the emphasis on the second word.

[plucky hatch]

What more ways do you want aside from taking part in the official learning videos and/or using a tutor?

[pearl bolt]

Learn unreal 5, not 4.

theres no need to use ue4 instead of 5 unless you know it well

[thorny sluice]

But I think the coding or blueprint part is same in both

[round radish]

If you have specific questions, plenty of people on here will answer for free... they may even offer more lengthy descriptions if you ask nicely! Or point you to the place where you can learn about it.

[pure kettle]

Nah, it's pretty much the same, at least for the basics.
Some things like math nodes change on how you use it, but it shouldn't be a huge roadblock for beginners.

Also no shame on learning UE4 in this day and age.

[pearl bolt]

its fine learnint ue4 but theres no need to start with that now that 5 is out

10x more coinvent to learn 5 imo

5 has much easier ui

but for learning any version of unreal i recommend unreal sensies beginer tutoriaks

[pure kettle]

Just use the official learning resources, it's a much safer (free) bet.
https://dev.epicgames.com/community/learning
https://learn.unrealengine.com/

[pastel estuary]

due to the colors epic uses for UE5, ^ that still triggers the "discord nitro spam" in me

[mystic cloud]

PTSD

[plucky hatch]

im thinking of moving to unreal from unity

the thing is, i have a algorithm that works in unity but doesnt work in ue4

[round radish]

Is tihs really the channel to ask that question?

[plucky hatch]

idk

[pastel estuary]

it isnt

[plucky hatch]

Wat is correct channel

[pastel estuary]

one of the general channels probably, unless you are already working on the algo, if its made in blueprints, the blueprint channel, if its written in cpp, the cpp channel.

[astral brook]

I abuse this fact regularly, still interested in mentorship :)

[astral brook]

Was it really a question? 😂

[round radish]

Implied question!

[topaz wing]

I landed a job interview, I'm already past the initial HR stage, technical stage is next. I have less than year of experience, I was working mainly with c++ and sometimes blueprints. I'm applying for junior gameplay programmer position.
When I asked HR person if there is any particular area I should focus to prepare for the next part only clue I received was something along the lines of

"You said your previous team already switched to UE5 right? Well it would be cool if you knew some Unreal 5"
Now that I think about it, it is kinda scary, because I haven't really noticed much difference when switching engine versions except UI and UTimeSynthComponent being replaced with Quartz, since I was working with audio at that time. Should I binge learn something in particular to not make a fool of myself?

[cosmic trench]

Hey guys be honest with me real quick please

Is implementing lag compensation a reasonable test task for a job application?

Like if they expect you to present code in a C++ UE4 project?

Because uh I think they're looking for someone experienced in lag compensation and it really seems to me like they're out to just see how to do lag compensation in UE4

[round radish]

Show them the CMC

[royal lintel]

basic client prediction is a reasonable ask to see if someone understands networking in unreal

full scale movement prediction and lag compensation is not unless they're specifically looking for an expert in such a thing. But you wouldn't implement that as a test... that's literally a job unto itself.

"how would you implement client-predicted weapon firing" isn't an unreasonable interview question for a network engineer, though implementing a full framework is a bit much.

but "please implement the entirety of the source multiplayer networking article" is a multi-week contract job in and of itself

[cosmic trench]

yeah thats what I kinda felt. It just really rubbed me wrong when I reread the job offering and it listed that they needed help implementing the exact thing they wanted me to do gratis

[round radish]

That does sound a bit off.

"We don't like your code... but don't check ours later."

[cosmic trench]

lol and here I was scrambling to make up an example, I think it was Daekesh that I asked to remind me about a keyword for RPCs

yeah I told em exactly what it seemed like, told em I apologize and to have a nice day. I already got a job recently but I was thinking about getting a position at another company with remote work to crunch it for double pay

[jade fox]

im looking for a skilled developer who is familiar with the lyra shooter set-up animations etc

[pastel estuary]

@jade fox this is not the channel for that.

[steady rover]

We're is?

[serene crystal]

#instructions

[cosmic trench]

Hey guys, more of a general question but how much work can a single developer be expected to do in a day? Like, I'm working pretty hard but I'm not exactly impressing myself with the amount of work submitted to the repo. Granted there's quite a bit of hidden, unseen stuff like designing architecture of a system on paper, time spent googling and reading about stuff, but like... I tend to worry about the perception this gives to the employer and I'd be interested in hearing what devs with professional experience have to say on the topic.

And it's not that I can't hack the task, either - when I'm not figuring out engine-related problems I'm implementing stuff just fine and I got a good grasp - I'm qualified, it's purely the speed at which I go at it that makes me worry.

[steady pewter]

8h a day is a norm

[brave forge]

Work submitted to repo is VERY subjective. It varies with the experience of the person, the difficulty of the problem they are currently working on, the state of the project, even how far along into a project it is. There are countless discussions on good metrics for developers, and they all come to a similar conclusion: it's a very difficult problem and no single metric is good enough

so, the best thing you can do is:

• be confident in your work and yourself
• focus on solving problems
• If you have a manager or coworkers, talk to them and gauge your progress.

If you are working for a client, it's harder to get feedback like this as communication can be tricky. You don't want to give the impression you don't know what you are doing, and you don't want them to be in a negotiating position to squeeze you dry. But hopefully you are in a good enough position with them to gather some feedback

Also, 8h a day is NOT all code time. There's emails, meetings, team chat, and higher level tasks like just thinking about the right approach to a problem. Not to mention general office distraction. It's common for a day to only involve 4-6h of actual code.

[royal lintel]

My team only plans as if each person gets 4h of actual work time a day at most. And even without meetings, email, chat, firefighting random issues popping up, etc. people simply don't focus for 8 hours straight.
Also, the actual amount of code you put out for some task may only look like a small amount of code... but it may take you a week to come up with those lines because you had to spend time planning, investigating different methods of implementation, trying different things, etc. That's perfectly normal.

[steady pewter]

Sticking finger in a nose, googling, intellectual crisis and etc. should be always part of work plan. That's what 8h a day mean.

[cosmic trench]

Thanks a lot guys

I appreciate it ❤️

[pure kettle]

Does air drumming while code compiling counts?

[steady pewter]

It counts.

!8ball Does it?

[vagrant bramble]

@steady pewter, :8ball: It is decidedly so.

[steady pewter]

Manny is the most hard working here.

[frigid oasis]

Hello. I want to work as a game developer but I have no working experience with Unreal (two months). What do you recommend me? Thanks.

[chilly sundial]

Get a bit of experience and build a portfolio

[pure kettle]

Ah yes, the dreaded experience paradox.

[round radish]

Experience: The only thing you always get right after you need it.

[arctic gorge]

i wanna get into coding games with ue5 but i have a 300 laptop what fo i do

do

prolly shouldve put this in ue5 general

[chilly sundial]

The specs matter a lot more than the price

[arctic gorge]

ik i was just giving you a rough idea of what specs it has

to be exact its ryzen 3 with built in nvidia graphics card (idk what) and it has 4gb ram

it might be 8

not sure

[plucky hatch]

hello

I hope everyone is doing well on this beautiful saturday

[chilly sundial]

You need to check actuak specs cause it matters

[plucky hatch]

I was wondering If anyone here is currently a 3D environment designer

I have some questions I would like to ask, feel free to ping me or dm

[oblique ice]

are you mean Environment Modeler?

[plucky hatch]

yeah

the person that makes the environment and assets

@oblique ice

[pure kettle]

https://www.dontasktoask.com

[pure kettle]

#hardware

[plucky hatch]

actually I dont think anyone would admit it

I feel like its a very personal question im asking

[chilly sundial]

Ask it

If you feel like people wont answer then theres no point asking, or ask anyway and see

Depends which environments you designed

Environment designer of dreamworld should maybe feel a little shame

[pure kettle]

Just ask.

Otherwise you get no answers, but it's up to you.

[chilly sundial]

Honestly me neither

[pure kettle]

Dreamworld is just an asset flip fest.

[chilly sundial]

Yup

I like how theie donator wall is just standard text render actors with crappy gold colour

[plucky hatch]

so my question was really to know more about the process of designing environements , like which software they use the most and what they model more in Maya for assets?

[chilly sundial]

How is that personal

Most environment artists use maya afaik

Or 3ds

Autodesk monopoly

[plucky hatch]

what do they model the most

[chilly sundial]

That all depends on the game

Environment design is pretty much all hard surface rather than organic

[pure kettle]

ZBrush, Maya, Blender, and other modelling tool

That's not even remotely personal.

NGL, I expected questions along the line of "how much wage do env. artists get"

[chilly sundial]

But i doubt there is a metric of most modelled model. Like environment designers model crates 99% of the time?

Because they model whatever they need to

And that depends on the game

[plucky hatch]

that's irrelevant to me

as long as Im making games

its my passion

[plucky hatch]

dman well guess I need to learn ZBrush in 2 weeks

l0l

[chilly sundial]

you will be taught it

its a junior position

[plucky hatch]

at work?

[chilly sundial]

yes

[plucky hatch]

well its a internship

[chilly sundial]

someone will show you the ropes

[plucky hatch]

and i dont even know if ill get accepted

my portfolio is shit

[chilly sundial]

well defo as an intern, and even then you likely wont get on the big boy models anyway

[plucky hatch]

obviously yeah

[chilly sundial]

and yeah with a terrible portfolio then you'll be lucky

[plucky hatch]

ffs mate

well guess doesnt hurt to try...

[chilly sundial]

definitely doesnt

but try making a portfolio

[pure kettle]

Environment is not the top in comes how noticeable stock assets is used, but incoherent use of them can break the immersion

[pure kettle]

FWIW you can kitbash Quixel stuff or build upon the scans.

[chilly sundial]

no way of knowing how good you are without a portfolio

[plucky hatch]

Im making my portfolio in wix

I heard artstation is good too

[chilly sundial]

for environment art artstation will do fine

and its free

why pay like $10 a month on wix

[plucky hatch]

yeah tbh im not really liking wix

they dont have many templates

can I show my portfolio later for feedback?

[oblique ice]

better to use artstation

[plucky hatch]

yeah remember when I said I had until friday to give my portoflio?

well now they extended to tuesday

[pure kettle]

Now you have something to do for the sunday.

[chilly sundial]

do as much as you can to put on a portfolio then pray 😅

[pure kettle]

Hope the employer convinced with your skill on display

[plucky hatch]

I have to do a presentation video of myself aswell

should I shave? I have quite the beard

[pure kettle]

Beard doesn't matter

Unless you're submitting for corpo work

[plucky hatch]

oh cause back in the day people used to tell me to shave for interviews

[pure kettle]

For corporate, enterprise work, yes.
When it comes to content creation, usually it's more lenient.

[oblique ice]

interview for any art position, don't worry about that
focus on your art and communication, and will be better 🙂

[pure kettle]

At least to my experience, corporate work has super strict appearance rule, set of uniform and hairstyle. I think growing beard or hair was punishable, considering none of my colleagues back then did so.

Of course I have since quitted the job due to mistreatments and trimmed down paycheck.

[brave forge]

A beard is fine, just make sure it's neat. Clean Shave only if you have growth that is short of a beard.

Don't interview during the "growing a beard" stage where it just looks shabby

Even in corporate bwork a well groomed and trimmed beard is fine

[wary idol]

If a requirement was to shave and look a certain way I wouldn't even step through their door

[plucky hatch]

Eh, where is this? I only work Enterprise side having a beard is no problem, In Europe and the US at least. Like others have said, if a company has a uniform and grooming policy then it’s best avoided.

[pure kettle]

I think it's more common in Indonesia, which is where I'm located.

[plucky hatch]

Aha I see

[royal lintel]

it heavily depends on industry, even in the us

[pure kettle]

Particularly corpo companies (or those dealing with corpos) have more stringent rules when it comes to attire and grooming policies

[plucky hatch]

Ive never had an issue in over 10 years in both US and EU in any industry and I’ve worked a lot of places.

[royal lintel]

banks and fintech (not the really hip ones) for a time required the same from engineers that they required from the rest of their workers. But some have at least wised up that it isn't a great way to keep talent.

Actual tech industries rarely require much beyond being somewhat presentable

[plucky hatch]

Yes indeed, I’ve seen that now with working from home rules, some companies I work with are super strict but now having to let people work from home at least one day per week to retain the talent,

[plucky hatch]

guys I think I'm in way over my head....

[wary idol]

Welcome to the club

[plucky hatch]

llol

like ima do an internship with a bunch of pros

and im there like

euhhhhhhhh

[wary idol]

Most professionals also have no idea what they are doing but they act like they do 😛

[plucky hatch]

my only concern is modelling

lol I havent done it much

and I gotta learn z brush in under 2 weeks

yikes

[plucky hatch]

So you have to learn sculpting not modeling ? Is the internship as a character artist ?

well im applying for environment designer

lol i dont even know man lol

[plucky hatch]

I would not look at Zbrush then, especially if you only have two weeks to prepare.

I think ima focus on modelling in maya

You should probably contact the company where you plan to have the internship, and base your training on what they use in the office.

that's the issue tho

we have no idea which company is participant in this internship program

we will only know during the zoom reunion

[frigid oasis]

Thanks for you comment, but getting working experience to get a work is a paradox, as @pure kettle said. I'll study and develop my own games to build a portfolio.

[midnight dawn]

Hi everyone, I am looking to apply to provide mega scanned assets for unreal, where Can I start?

[steady pewter]

Thought mega scans is reserved for quixel products.

[plucky hatch]

It doesn’t need to be professional experience, you can use your own explorations, hobby and passion projects for your portfolio too. I often hire juniors who have nothing but things they have done for fun in their portfolio.
I would always rather see something that is well thought out and executed even if it’s made up, rather than some ‘professional’ work that could be quite boring, because as a junior they are -or ably not trusted with anything end to end anyway.

[frigid oasis]

OK. Thank you.

[rapid iron]

I have heard of beards being frowned upon in S Korea and Japan as well so that checks out.

[rotund echo]

what job title is that where they do the other worldly backgrounds

for games and movies

[chilly sundial]

Wdym

[plucky hatch]

Matte painter or environment artist

[steady pewter]

Might be concept artists too.

Or whoever is high at the moment.

[rotund echo]

TThanks

[plucky hatch]

but game companies still need artists right?

[plucky hatch]

Sure, when you are an artist you can often work outside your specific area too, depending on the company. I work in design in many areas thankfully not constrained to just one.

[rotund echo]

commericals need enverionments too

advertising on social media

[plucky hatch]

All areas of CGI need environments

[sudden yarrow]

Hi guys im looking to transition into gamedev. Im currently working as a researcher in an ai lab. My portfolio/game im working on and aim to publish, is a multiplayer shooter with concepts of gas, asset management, and game design baked into it. what chances do i have of landing in any junior programmer roles in a studio? What more prep work do i need before a cold application?

[pastel estuary]

@hazy glen this is not the channel for such questions.

[hazy glen]

oops i meant to lcik on the one above

[steel creek]

Explains why people drop random messages in here sometimes.

Perhaps moving the career chat and industry chat channels lower beneath something else so when people misclick on General they don't spam these

[plucky hatch]

Its not spam if it was a mistak

[craggy nacelle]

if people are incapable of clicking on the correct channel, then all moving the channel will do is they will post into whatever channel is listed under it next time :P

[steel creek]

That is literally the definition of spam.

Not paying attention to what you're doing and just randomly putting stuff where it doesn't belong doesnt it make a better excuse... lol

[plucky hatch]

No it aint

Spam is intentional

[steel creek]

Not always

[plucky hatch]

Noit kss

[woeful iron]

not being able to click the right channel is not a great start to your career tbh

[steel creek]

Bro why are you arguing about this on the career chat Channel this is the exact bulshit we're talking about

[plucky hatch]

Do you think career spammers accidentally span of everybody

[plucky hatch]

Talk down to me

[steel creek]

The only one excited here is you

[woeful iron]

I wasn't talking about you lol but ok

[plucky hatch]

Im falling asleep actually

Btw youre getting upset about what ive said is not my faulr nor a problem for my career

[steel creek]

The only person that got upset about something that was said was you about a suggestion for the admins to move the channel so that people don't accidentally click on the wrong Channel and make themselves look like maroons

[plucky hatch]

what other tasks do you have as a 3D game artist other than creating textures , modelling assets and placing them in the game?

[balmy berry]

environment , lighting , level designing

A LOT

[pastel estuary]

3d game artist is too broad a term.

[oblique ice]

yup, there are many different position

[proud spear]

Yeah It’s the same as saying you are an artist at a game dev studio making a 3d game. So many positions

[plucky hatch]

Lol i told you i wasnt upset now allow me to clarify: i have zero concerns for what youve all said, know that youre wrong however.

[rocky bolt]

Hey! I am an apparel design student doing some light research into 3D design, specifically unreal engine, and what effects it may have on the fashion industry. I am looking to briefly interview an industry professional, or someone who is highly skilled within unreal, to give me a rundown on the potential effect it may or may not have. Please message me directly or respond to this if youre interested! I appreciate it.

[round radish]

You're more likely to get a response if you're actively asking your own questions... and just doing it in public.

It kinda sounds like you want people to just tell you things about unreal without knowing any kind of context.

Other than "apparel"

[rapid iron]

do contributions to marketplace (bug reports, feature suggestions, code contributions) plugins and github count in a CV for a gamedev?

[steel creek]

not sure what you mean by "count". There are many metrics used and each place will have its own. If you handed me those as part of a CV, they would 100% be positive as they show motivation in the area of work, not just "its my job"

[trim quartz]

Just out of curiosity with this chat. do people actually get hired from here? Is just knowing UE5 thoroughly, enough to land you a job? Or does having some kind of certification make you more hirable?

[round radish]

No idea. I got hired by somebody seeing my 5 year old UE c++ on github lol.

[serene crystal]

I got a job offer from here once

But a portfolio is king

[oblique ice]

wow, mine is always interview

[serene crystal]

of course I would have still needed to interview

so maybe I should say "recommendation" rather than offer

[wary idol]

Got quite a few offers from this server so 🤷‍♂️

[trim quartz]

Interesting. I'm getting into UE5 just as a hobby right now, but i have experience coding C++ from college. I thought it would be fun to make a simple game, and so far everything is really well done, like I haven't had any issues learning so far. I figure if i can get hired onto a team, i'd learn even faster lol.

@wary idol How much experience would you say you needed before getting offers? and what kinds of positions were people asking for?

[wary idol]

Hard to tell how much experience you need, I would say it entirely depends on how active you are (and if you know what you are talking about when answering questions) and if the right people are looking at the right time
Don't have a good answer to that

Mostly gameplay programmer

[trim quartz]

Ah okay, that makes sense, and thanks for being honest about not having a solid answer, I realize results vary wildly.

Did you find yourself doing more blueprint programming or C++ after getting hired?

[wary idol]

At my current job I'm entirely on the C++ side, haven't touched BPs in ages since I'm mostly developing tools for artists, designers, etc...
Haven't done any gameplay stuff in a long time, when I did it was mostly C++ with simpler things in BPs (around 75% C++)

[trim quartz]

That's interesting to hear. I was kind of hoping that with the implementation of blueprint, C++ would slowly be fading out, as the visual style seems much more intuitive.

[wary idol]

There are things that are not exposed to BPs and I just find C++ more readable than BPs, BPs can really quickly turn into giant spaghetti mess
BPs are great for quick prototyping and for implementing simpler features, even tho there are games made entirely in BPs I would always for a serious project implement at least the core of the project in C++

[trim quartz]

That definitely makes sense. Code is definitely pretty straight forwards to read if you've been practicing. I guess I need to do some refreshing on my C++ before trying to get into the game development scene. I also am realizing that for the creation of your own plugins and tools, Blueprint wouldn't be an option anyways, so that makes total sense.

Thank you for answering all my questions by the way. I'll definitely be keeping tabs on this chat. It seems there are a lot of really informed people here, and I'm really excited to get more experience in this "hobby" haha

[wary idol]

I also am realizing that for the creation of your own plugins and tools, Blueprint wouldn't be an option anyways, so that makes total sense.
Yeah the stuff I've been mostly doing is extending engine/editor features and implementing new editor tools, etc... not something that will be used in the game but rather help with development
So this is something that you need C++ for

Thank you for answering all my questions by the way. I'll definitely be keeping tabs on this chat. It seems there are a lot of really informed people here, and I'm really excited to get more experience in this "hobby" haha
👌
The answers I gave here will probably vary from one person to another so keep that in mind

[trim quartz]

Hey, all advice and wisdom is welcome here. Thanks again!

[silent yacht]

What’s the best method to becoming more fluent in BP? Specific YouTube videos (Mathew Wadstein?) or just follow tutorials making games?

[oblique ice]

can try also official unreal engine documentation and learn.unreal

[silent yacht]

Thx. I keep getting ads for udemy etc. anyone try that ?

[shut token]

The best method to becoming more fluent is just practice.

[pure kettle]

Use adblock, and go for https://learn.unrealengine.com

[red dirge]

has anyone here made a successfull title?

[trim quartz]

I thought elden ring was good.

[woeful iron]

it is, but how is that career chat?

you worked on it?

[trim quartz]

I was jokingly replying to An Epic Birb

I'm sure with a huge staffing, someone here works for them lol

[woeful iron]

well, I don't think this server is that popular in japan, and they don't use unreal so idk

[trim quartz]

They use the sekoro engine right?

I thought that was a branch of unreal, made for their games?

[serene crystal]

no

[trim quartz]

Well, i stand corrected.

[serene crystal]

they use a custom thing with havok physics iirc

since like Demon's Souls

[woeful iron]

indeed

[trim quartz]

Oh I see. I was searching this topic earlier using the term "what engine does fromsoftware use?" and one of the first results was "According to the project's description, the scene was made in Unreal Engine 4.27. 2 with no baking and no RTX. The terrain was sculpted inside Unreal and the foliage was set up using Quixel Megascans." But the thing they were referencing was an elden ring clone, which you have to actually read the whole article to find out about.

So long story short, I blame google for giving me bad info.

[woeful iron]

"Elden ring inspired environment"

not elden ring

anyway, this is not very #career-chat

[trim quartz]

This is what showed up on my end. Either way, my bad.

[woeful iron]

FromSoft did say they were learning it, but haven't used it so far afaik

[trim quartz]

I wonder if learning unreal will give future developers an edge in the job market for future souls-lite games

Kinda hard to get hired for a developing team, that uses proprietary software

[woeful iron]

learning unreal engine will always give an advantage

of course you can't know their internal engine, but no one can

and a lot of concepts are shared across multiple engine, be it public or proprietary

just knowing how to work with a full fledged game engine is a big up

[trim quartz]

In your oppinion, is it still worth learning blender, now that UE5 has their own modeling software?

[serene crystal]

yes

it's really, really awkward compared to any real modelling tool

[woeful iron]

of course

[serene crystal]

but nice for quick changes

[woeful iron]

ue5 is far from being a full modeling tool

and again, a lot of knowledge is transferable between lots of 3d packages

[trim quartz]

I've been trying to learn blender but it feels so backwards compared to how intuitive UE5 is

[pure kettle]

PROTIP: don't use Unreal Engine as DCC tool

For one, you can't make skelmeshes from scratch in UE5.

Modelling tools provided is more for level blockout and maybe post import fix on static meshes when you don't have the source files anymore

[woeful iron]

any software is just a tool

[pure kettle]

Use both.

[trim quartz]

Thats fair. I notice most of the tutorials I've been finding on Blender are kind of outdated. Does anyone know anyone I can look up that has clear tutorials from beginner to intermediate, similar to UnrealSensei's 5 hour video on Unreal?

[pure kettle]

You use Blender for making the assets, then bring them over to UE5 to be rendered or use it to script something

[woeful iron]

BlenderGuru has plenty of tutorials for beginner to advanced

His donut tutorial is well known as a first step

[pure kettle]

Apologies, misread.
But yeah, Blender Guru's newer tutorials are decent

[woeful iron]

of course the bigger step is making your own stuff afterwards

[trim quartz]

No worries, thanks for the info though!

[trim quartz]

I definitely want to get to that point of practicing by making my own original assets, but right now, even navigating Blender feels like a chore. I just want a fundamental understanding before I try to make original content.

[pure kettle]

It could be worse
||Blender 2.79 and prior||

Also inb4 bforartists

[woeful iron]

blender has really improved a lot recently

also, don't start making your own props out of thin air, use real life picture or concept art as a base, that way you can focus on the modeling instead of the willy nilly creative side

[trim quartz]

And I think that's one of the reasons finding tutorials has been difficult. The engine has changed so much lately, that everything feels outdated.

[woeful iron]

well anything after 2019 should be good probably

and what a coincidence, the donut tutorial was updated after that

[trim quartz]

Well, I'm working on an Indie FPS right now just for fun, and I wanted to learn to model all my own guns and assets in blender to import them. Something about purchasing a 100$ pack of assets doesnt feel right to me.

[woeful iron]

I just meant start from pics or something, not just modeling what's in your head

[trim quartz]

Yeah, that makes sense

Time to make a donut.

Do you guys know if people are hiring beginner/intermediates right now for Unreal, or generally only want people who know everything?

[pure kettle]

More of people who good at specific thing and do their job on it.

Exception would be lesser studios, indies, or sometimes enterprise side of things ("serious games", virtual production, etc.) where a generalist MIGHT be sought after

[trim quartz]

I see. The larger a team, the more task-specific you need to be.

[woeful iron]

I mean

that's a wild question

of course people hire juniors

otherwise the position wouldn't exit

and without juniors, how can you ever make seniors

but if you're just learning blender and ue5 now from scratch, you have a ways to go before being job ready

[rapid iron]

I mean its validity

[woeful iron]

of course they help prove that you're capable

probably not a big factor

but still shows that you're active and maybe knowledgable

[rapid iron]

you have to prove your skills are legit that's it. And as Megafunk says portfolio matters but if you are not a fresher and have been working CV works too.

Work on your speaking skills for interview, sound confident as that impression matters a lot and assume video on if possible for digital.

[rapid iron]

works for me

[deft vessel]

Hey guys!

I am UE4 developer, I worked on some freelance projects before and later full time in a studio. I know decent C++ and did one udemy course on Unreal Engine C++ specific, that landed me many offers in the gaming industry. I was able to get through tests and interviews of small indie studios.

But things changed as I applied for larger studios like Sumo digital, Kevuru Games and a few more. They gave me C++ code to debug and modify for my interviews but those were some really advanced stuff, it was all c++ ofcourse but advance c++ which I am not familiar with.

I need to know what should I do to brush up my skills should learn more general c++ instead of UE4 specific c++, or is there something else I am missing,

Thanks!

[halcyon skiff]

How do you become a gameplay designer?

[round radish]

#cpp pinned topics

(for saket)

[halcyon skiff]

I'm guessing you mean the pinned topics here. The cpp pinned are about other things.

[round radish]

No. I mean the pinned topics in #cpp about cpp coding. For saket to find out all about the stuff he doesn't know.

Like that definitive guide etc

[halcyon skiff]

oh that wasn't for me. There is actually someone named Saket. 😅

[round radish]

...

[halcyon skiff]

🤗

[steady pewter]

🐮

[outer matrix]

Hi guys, need some help.

I'm starting a new junior job next Monday, and it's fully expected from me to know how to work with scrum/daily standups/weekly sprints etc with the rest of the team.. The problem is, I've never used scrum before ever. I have a basic idea of how it works, but never practically used it especially when it comes to gamedev.

Does anyone have any resources that could get me up to speed quickly? I know I can probably find tons of scrum examples by googling, I'm just looking for things that are gamedev specific. Like how big the tasks are, examples, etc..

[craggy nacelle]

Frankly I've never seen a company which used those exactly the same way as another company

As long as you have a basic idea of how these systems work I think you'll be good. They're not that complex usually anyway so you should be able to get the hang of it at work pretty quickly

[proud spear]

I’ve never seen it implemented satisfactory in my job. Situations change too often and plans get thrown out the window after a few days.

[violet knot]

Scrum is like a board game. Play it a few times and you will get a hang of it. And if your team has a scrum master than you should not worry about it at all. It’s their job to get you up to speed and comfortable.

[pure kettle]

So it's like D&D?

[violet knot]

Yup. Everyone plays their roles and scrum master is DM

[proud spear]

I think that was the problem in my experience. People read about scrum but no one played the master

[rotund echo]

You can do logo design in Unreal Engine 5?

3d motion design?

If i should use this instead of Blender

[steel creek]

As a career choice? Since this is the career channel?

[rotund echo]

Yes

[steel creek]

Sure! Any tool that gets you results, is useful. UE5 is very good for motion graphics, as it has to do them in game 😄

[rapid iron]

are game artists expected to learn source control?

[plucky hatch]

Yes but you will be at a professional disadvantage to those who are doing graphic/motion design in more capable tools.

[royal lintel]

The basics, if nothing else. How to pull changes and how to commit changes. The degree to which they need to learn a VCS depends on the tooling where they work but those two operations should be pretty universal.

But even then, studios often have tools that help with both of those operations.

[rapid iron]

Thanks. Got a lazy artist blaming our dev team over stuff while we have been dragging his dead weight when it comes to importing assets and setting them up.

[royal lintel]

I don't want to pass judgement on anyone, but especially with a small team it's best to set expectations around this stuff. If you're paying a contractor just to deliver some models or textures then they probably aren't going to be touching (your) source control.
If they're a legit part of the team as opposed to someone making a few commissions for you and have any reason to work in the editor at all then they probably should be.

[rapid iron]

he is responsible for graphics and works full time. Either way I dont care anymore as I gave my notice for 20th but I want a peaceful exit.

[royal lintel]

fair enough

[rapid iron]

needed proof for the next time he tries selling me out at meetings ty

[round radish]

I'd expect anyone working with UE as part of a team to know how to use source control.

And, to some extent, how to use blueprints if they're going to touch anything inside the editor.

[full halo]

Looking at art jobs on artstation, I'd say VCS is pretty commonly considered a plus at minimum. I'd expect any artist to learn why it's valuable and that they should learn it- especially on a smaller team. Like, nobody wears one hat on a small team.

[rotund echo]

@plucky hatch what more capable tools?

Blender or Cinema?

[pure kettle]

The one that you're productive with the most

[stoic owl]

Ouch that's more of a roast than an answer

[pure kettle]

Or so you imply.

I mean it when I said it.
The tool that you can get productive the most is the preferred one, Blender or Cinema4D or other DCC tools

Of course not putting into account workplace requirement as it's not mentioned in the question

[stoic owl]

Yeah I definitely get it but it still seems more of a roast 😂 probably cuz all my friends use it that way that could be it too

[rotund echo]

Time to learn blender again

[stoic owl]

Both are capable softwares but it comes down to your choice blender is free and open software bit harder to use but still has a larger community than cinema 4D and cinema 4D is easier to learn but costs a lot

But tbh If you get familiar with the tools changing software's should be easier it would be just learning the new interfaces

[rotund echo]

@stoic owl what are you specialising in with Unreal?

[stoic owl]

Tbh it's just a hobby for me right now working on my own game and focusing on college

But to be fair this hobby started 7 years ago with Cryengine 3 😂

But mostly do coding in UE

[plucky hatch]

C4D is easier to achieve results faster but as others have said is not free. It would be unusual still to find Blender used for motion graphics in a studio setting

[stoic owl]

True among professionals cinema 4D is more used and common it's more of an VFX industry software than blender

But in terms of functionality blender isn't behind

But these days I'm sure studios are looking into blender too due to the amount of talent and the software is good too and it can support multiple rendering options unlike cinema 4D

But some one with prior experience should talk about this cuz I don't know a lot about the job security of them

[plucky hatch]

That may be the case but like I said, it's still rare to see it used in production in a studio setting.

I say this as someone with prior and current experience.

[woeful iron]

I've seen blender used by 3d artists, not for vfx or motion graphics, but for moddeling an UVing

ubisoft is swapping to blender fully afaik

[plucky hatch]

Yep but we are not talking about that, we are talking about motion graphics Blender vs C4D in a studio setting.

I use Blender myself nothing against it.

[stoic owl]

I mean it's basically Maya and max combined I'm not surprised they're moving to it to avoid the high prices for thoes softwares

[steel creek]

It's not about being behind it's about institutional knowledge and tooling built around pipelines that already exists on other packages

[steel creek]

As a pipeline engineer I entirely disagree with this assessment.

Maya is a package I can engineer against that has 25 years of legacy to be able to manipulate every single thing inside of the engine.

Blender is not rigged that way

[woeful iron]

isn't it though

you can do scripting in blender

it would surprise me if major things were hidden from scripting

but if they would be you can always make your own build from source

[steel creek]

Scripting is not API work. There are a lot of things missing access

We don't rebuild Maya from source lol

[woeful pendant]

What's a good site to post job openings on? (Aside from Discord, etc)

[mystic cloud]

Maybe upwork™️, for freelancers

[rotund echo]

@stoic owl studios look into Blender cause its cost effective

@woeful pendant Instagram even with a poster and use hashtags for the right kinda workers

and post it on your story

[plucky hatch]

Its expensive if it doesn't fit into your pipeline and you have to re-work everything.

[craggy nacelle]

Instagram for recruiting? 🤔 This feels like you'll just get a bunch of 15 year olds lol

[pure kettle]

I guess recruiting sexy models into game developers, who knows

[steady pewter]

TikTok devs

[round radish]

Blizzard probably did that.

[plucky hatch]

It depends, I get all my freelance work through Instagram and Linkedin. Edit: But that's direct messaging form other people to me, I agree its not the place to put out an 'advert' thats just asking for trouble.

[craggy nacelle]

Huh, that's interesting

[plucky hatch]

Ahh I re-read the original however you are right.

[craggy nacelle]

How so lol

[plucky hatch]

I get my work by people messaging me direct, I agree its not the place to make an advert for people to apply. Otherwise I think it will be as you say 'This feels like you'll just get a bunch of 15 year olds lol' 😂

[craggy nacelle]

Ahh right

Yeah I can see it being potentially useful as a sort of a showcase thing for artists and such

[plucky hatch]

I put out an advert on Discord a few months back it was a disaster 🤣

I would imagine it would be similar on Instagram

[misty knot]

You say 15 year olds, but people in their early 20s now basically grew up/live on instagram

And I say this as someone in their early 20s, even though I personally dont use it that often

But instagram/tiktok and such sites/apps are really hotspots for (young) talent for all kinds of disciplines

@craggy nacelle

[plucky hatch]

And do you get a sustainable amount of work via IG @misty knot ?

[misty knot]

None whatsoever lol, but a friend of mine does art commisions through ig

[serene crystal]

Makes sense for art I guess

[plucky hatch]

But does that sustain him to live full time?

[misty knot]

She does it on the side

I don't think it's a good option as your main contact page but it can't hurt to be present on more platforms

[plucky hatch]

I managed with it for 12 months between studios at least

[serene crystal]

How widespread are commercial licenses for 3rd party intellisense replacements like VAX/R#/Rider at unreal coding jobs?

[brave forge]

I've never worked somewhere without VAX license. So pretty common

Programmers are expensive. $250 is nothing compared to programmer time

[still nymph]

The same can be said for not switching. Ive seen many AAA studios using Maya have frequent problems with no hopes of improvement in site because Autodesk is complacent and will remain complacent because they are industry standard. Long term it would be cheaper if the industry switched to Blender or something where the development team actually cares to continue improving the software regardless of status and where third parties can take over control if needed.

[woeful iron]

pretty common in larger companies, but even if they don't have it, I think it's easy to argue your company into buying it

[plucky hatch]

While it would be fun (as im a Blender user) its still missing a few features that make it unsuitable for a main tool

[woeful iron]

don't tell ubisoft

[plucky hatch]

I work with Enterprise Unreal, im sure its fine if you work with games

[woeful iron]

what features are you missing

oh damn, this is actually cool from ubi https://github.com/ubisoft/mixer

[plucky hatch]

Large Datasets, an average vehicle (car) is about 50-250m polygons, anything over 100 is pretty unusable in Blender.

Also a lack of Datasmith and live link is not helpful

When working with complex models and scenes.

[steady pewter]

Blender ain't very good with many polys, true.

Datasmith/LLink are UE specific tho, I doubt they gonna do something about it. Up to the users.

[plucky hatch]

Indeed, but without it, its very problematic. Working with .fbx files in the GB range is very annoying and crash-prone no matter your hardware

[still nymph]

Thats really not the point. The point is to argue what could be, not what is.

[plucky hatch]

Eh? I don't have that luxury unfortunately I have to deal in the here and now and plan 3-4 years in advance. Blender is no better working with large models now as it was in 2018 with the launch of 2.8, so not helpful in work compared with Max/Maya,.

As much as I would like since I cant personally use those very well.

[still nymph]

I am responding to a comment talking about the "long term cost" of switching to Blender. Its a hypothetical context to begin with, not a practical production one.

[plucky hatch]

Aha I mis-read you then sorry.

[shut token]

Yeah, that is pretty cool. Even has proof that @charred sentinel loves Blender

[woeful iron]

busted

[pure kettle]

Gotta left Paul behind eh

[shut token]

Paul made their decision.

[pure kettle]

"kthxbye lmao"

[serene crystal]

turns out I can use my personal license for work stuff! Weeeeee

I think I could convince them to get it if need be though. They are nice 🙂

[woeful iron]

gz

got a new job or something?

[shut token]

If you're talking about Jetbrains license, yes, you can. However, you cannot be reimbursed for this at all.

[serene crystal]

Yep! Got it!

[serene crystal]

and Yep to this as well

[woeful iron]

Very nice

[woeful iron]

everyone here read #instructions

this is not the place to post job / service offers or to look for people in any capacity

there's a whole job board category of channels

[wary idol]

@balmy berry @shrewd shuttle @quartz valve

This is not the right place to post job offerings and similar, read the #rules and #instructions

[balmy berry]

I'm sure I was not posting a job offering was just looking for people to learn with🙁

[dense needle]

Anyone know a good discord for 2d artists who are looking for work? I'm hiring. Thanks!

[craggy nacelle]

Do people really not read even the few handful of lines when they go into a channel?

[pastel estuary]

https://giphy.com/gifs/doubleshotatlove-pauly-d-vinny-a-double-shot-of-love-ckGndVa23sCk9pae4l

[chilly sundial]

bruh moment

[pure kettle]

Desperate call results in loss of spatial awareness, probably

[acoustic frigate]

Hi guys, i have seen a lot of job titles as “UI Programmer”, i still don’t understand the job of the field, is it UI/UX? or the backend engineer who connects all these UI buttons and fields to backend systems to make it functional, and why the UI programmer role is only mentioned in the gaming industry and not in big tech companies?

[steady pewter]

It means what it reads i.e. depends on who is writing it. Any sane job request have a profile description. There, it should be mentioned what they understand by "UI Programmer". Can be backend logic with code, can be connecting diagrams, can be based on specific product, etc. Most likely, this is just someone who knows the code below but works on the UI side of the product.

[thick hinge]

hi i dont post here often but i'd like to hear a professional's opinions

or affirmations possibly?

is it normal to be unsatisfied if you are hired as an effects artist but is often relegated to other work such as 3d and qa work?

and if so, would that be a valid complaint to talk about to any supervisor or boss?

[woeful iron]

oof doing qa without being qa is not cool, unless in very small companies

[thick hinge]

if it wasnt obvious i dont have much experience professionally

[woeful iron]

it doesn't matter what is "normal" tbh

[thick hinge]

so im not sure what the norm is

[woeful iron]

just talk to your supervisor how you feel

but I would say unless you work for a startup with < 10 people it would not be normal

even then, you should bring it up if it bothers you

[thick hinge]

thank you for your opinion! i was afraid to be negatively perceived by my boss but it may just not be the workplace for me

[pure kettle]

How big is the company you're working for? 10+ employees in the team?

[thick hinge]

i work outsource, but the team i am assigned to at the moment is 35 people

i ...do not think it counts a seperate qa and production/marketing team though

[pure kettle]

Yeah, definitely too big for more generalist work

[brave forge]

It's certainly valid to feel unsatisfied if the work isn't what you expected or were led to believe

Regardless of if it's "normal", dieter is right, talk to your supervisor. Medium to long term that's not a good way to feel and it will impact your work and attitude, and neither side want that

[pure kettle]

For smaller single team companies that only have 10 or less members, generalist work is more expected due to lack of manpower.

You could talk to the supervisors, be honest and talk that you can't take generalist work given that the team is large enough

[thick hinge]

i do feel that way too

[brave forge]

Ofcourse context matters, and depending where in the cycle the project is, maybe it's just a strange part of their onboarding to get you familiar with the project. Etc etc. Either way, valid to talk to the boss

[thick hinge]

but so far the whole team has been consistently called for qa work and many of us just do it as if it was normal ahahaha

[woeful iron]

sounds like bad managment to me tbh

believe me, I have experience with it

quit the company for my own mental health

[thick hinge]

i wont lie it smells like that

[woeful iron]

company went bankrupt a year later

[thick hinge]

we seem to be bottlenecked by the operations team's heavy need for constant team-wide playtest sessions

but it is partially due to work culture that its hard to speak up against it

[woeful iron]

well if it bothers you and there's nothing you can do about it, sorry to say it, but start looking for a new job

[pure kettle]

I'd expect team of 35 people to be more specialised and spread around

[thick hinge]

im going to bite the bullet because its been eating at me for a while now

[woeful iron]

at my first job we had company wide play tests, but it was only closer to milestones and completely optional

[pure kettle]

You could quit, but make sure you have backup plan in hand

[thick hinge]

worst come to worst i'll be free to build a better portfolio

[woeful iron]

try to never quit before having another job lined up

[thick hinge]

yeah i would prefer not to quit

for the time being i plan on voicing my concerns to my supervisor and to see if i can be assigned another project instead

[brave forge]

This is the way. It gives you a bit more leverage in the next negotiation as you could always just walk away

[woeful iron]

I would start updating my portfolio/cv regardless if I were you

[thick hinge]

thank you for your opinions!

[hollow cipher]

Are there any good examples for your first post uni cover letter?

[pure kettle]

Never once I had wrote cover letter, though granted I'm not a uni graduate

Usually it's just send e-mail and CV, wait at least two weeks, interview, wait again, and get the outcome. No cover letters in the process

[hollow cipher]

The job im applying for wants one , hence why i was askinf

[plucky hatch]

Just do it. Be genuine and honest, try to sell yourself. Resume lists your qualifications. Cover letter advertises who you are and why they should hire uou. Ive done plenty of cover letters and stuff in the past. Never had an industry job at this point but its gotten me imterviews. it shows interest and effort.

Full disclosure i dont want an industry job.

[hollow cipher]

Thank you

[plucky hatch]

At least not anymore

[serene crystal]

It really only needs to be a fancy paragraph

[jade crag]

Hello everybody.
i've summed up videos of the recent work i've done
and it became like 148mb , i feel like recruiters are not gonna check it out , whaddaya say 😶

[woeful iron]

don't send videos as attachment lol, either send links to the videos, or embed them on a portfolio site if you have one

[jade crag]

🤦‍♂️

[woeful iron]

or put them in a shared dropbox/google drive

[jade crag]

it is in a google drive

but like , i know youtube sounds like the first choice
but no one can find out that i'm actually showing off these

[woeful iron]

unlisted videos

[jade crag]

and looking for a new job 😶

[woeful iron]

you could even make a new channel if you're that paranoid

[jade crag]

thanks for the help.

so if i post it on youtube , can i send the link here to see how bad or good it is?

[woeful iron]

you can always try

[jade crag]

https://youtu.be/jlD9A9t-030

[woeful iron]

bor you need to record in higher quality and for sure framerate

or is the game just lagging

ngl the bike camera makes me sick lol

what is your role?

programming? artist?

[jade crag]

it's my pc :' )

[woeful iron]

yeah the recruiter won't know that and assume the game runs like shit

[jade crag]

programmer and designer for this one

[woeful iron]

also, edit out the start where you're opening the game

and that part where you open the start menu

[jade crag]

thanks for the tip 😗

[woeful iron]

also idk if it's just me, but damn that video's dark

[jade crag]

i couldn't actually meddle with it to not ruin what the artist did
and the scene he prepared is just too heavy for my 1060 and runs laggy
i thought this would look better , maybe i should just setup a new empty level with only the game mechanics

[woeful iron]

why is your weapon wheel such low res lol

or ask your friend if you can make your recording on their pc

[woeful iron]

ah seems like the texture loading

[jade crag]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBHBb16uoX8

[woeful iron]

I would make the video shorter in general if it's for showcasing programming purposes

there's lots of walking around

you could also send both a short and a long version

but I don't think any recruiter is going to watch 10 min video if they're not already very impressed

but all in all not bad I guess, could get you a junior position for sure if that's what you're looking for

[jade crag]

can i ask where you are located and where you work? 😶
like is there any chances with these videos ?

[woeful iron]

again this quality is abysmal, also don't record task bar or cut it out

also cut out the part where you're in editor again and just make it a transisition

[jade crag]

i must start making neater videos

[woeful iron]

also cut out at the end where you end recording

[woeful iron]

I'm from belgium, don't work in games anymore, but like I said definitely that first video is impressive enough for someone starting out

also of course give context about the project, don't just send a link

[jade crag]

thanks
the problem is right now i have no idea how to understand the global standards so i could get to find a job

[woeful iron]

say what it's about, what you did, what tools you used, what you learned...

[jade crag]

noted, thanks 😄

[pure kettle]

If you have friends with better rig, ask them to record a gameplay video for you.

[jade crag]

will do , thanks for your notice 😄

[misty knot]

Write 2 short paragraphs. Introduce yourself in the first and how you found the job offer. Explain why you decided to apply. In the second paragraph, think of the 2 best reasons you fit in the company/you want to work at the company/the job fits with your skills. Thank them for the opportunity.

That's how I approach it usually

No grammar or spelling mistakes

[hollow cipher]

thank you

for sure

[misty knot]

Always triple check and then put it through a online spell checker

[hollow cipher]

Its been tricky removing stuff to make sure it fits , but its also helped me make sure only crucial stuff gets put in

I've re-read and re-written it twice

and have had 2 people look at it

[misty knot]

It shouldn't be longer than 500 words imo

[hollow cipher]

1 page

320 words

size 14 font

[misty knot]

That's should be enough

Don't size up just to make it look longer though

[hollow cipher]

oh for sure

[misty knot]

Definitely for tech/game jobs being efficient in your communication is a plus

[hollow cipher]

the issue was making sure the font wasnt too big 😄

[misty knot]

Sounds like you're good to go

Good luck

[plucky hatch]

who deleted my message

[chilly sundial]

probably not me

[plucky hatch]

because it wasnt just a baseless accusation

i spent a whole day trying to parent a physics object in unreal and it turns out its impossible by conventional methods

something you can do in 30 seconds in unity for instance

[chilly sundial]

if your question was about physics then thats why it was deleted

that aint a career chat

but yes, different engines have different workflows

you cannot apply your knowledge of one directly to the other

especially when they use different physics solvers

[pure kettle]

Sir this is not #chaos-physics

[chilly sundial]

eh easy confusion.... maybe

[pastel estuary]

@plucky hatch Please keep the conversation related to the topic of the channel.
"Talk about working in the industry, getting a job, and anything else career-related."

[modern relic]

Is it worth putting myself out there and posting in #hire-a-freelancer for example if I'm still a novice at unreal? Like I can use it and do blueprints and c++ but I'm not an expert and I'm still learning. I want to transition to game dev as a career but I feel like I don't know enough to get my foot in the door

[round radish]

Maybe try the free jobs first?

[brave forge]

Depends on what level you are at. Contract isn't just for seniors and experts. It'll require an honest look at yourself and if you feel you can offer value in that capacity. Not really something we can answer. Not every gig will be right for you either depending on your level. But that doesnt mean there won't be any gig that's right for you

Without pumping you up with false hope, I'm also aware that imposter syndrome is a real thing, and a lot of people are better than they feel. Hence the real honest look at yourself being a key thing

[green oyster]

I hired some people and they had no idea what they were doing 😅 I only found out after learning BPs myself

[plucky hatch]

Probably not, practice and revision is your way in not taking bottom of the barrel jobs for ‘experience’

I just practiced as much as possible and my first ‘freelance’ job was for a real client paying normal rates for where I lived (UK). My normal advice is just take a regular job if you need money while learning, I worked in a pub myself while practicing.

[modern relic]

Thanks. I'll see about some of the unpaid jobs

[plucky hatch]

That’s not what I meant, you may have a better time working on self development rather than taking low or unpaid jobs was my point. Its not a requirement that you need to do such things before applying for you first real job despite what many people will say. I will someone with a good portfolio and demonstration of thought process over someone who has some limited experience any day of the week.

[modern relic]

I think my main problem right now is lack of exposure to unreal and game dev in general. Like sure I'm making my own game but because I don't have the experience, I don't know what the best workflow are and I don't have good problem solving skills because I don't know what tools or solutions are available with unreal. My guess would be that some unpaid jobs might give me more perspective in these areas

[plucky hatch]

Usually people who want you to work for them for free are not the best placed to give advice, if they were successful then paying you would be a non-issue. I usually recommend to my students to just follow the official learning paths from Epic before graduating to some other courses by well known designers and developers.

[modern relic]

Ah ye that's a good point. I've been learning a lot from this server by running into problems and asking in the different channels. Maybe if/when my project is further along and it makes sense to hire people, I can learn stuff form them too

[vagrant compass]

Hi, not sure if this is right room. I'm trying to engage the bot, Manny, I send to him $job and I get the reply "please input one of the numbers above" but there's no numbers

If anyone could help me it would be much appreciated

[vagrant compass]

If you have a portfolio, you can send it to me, I know a couple of companies that consider Jr level. Not sure if that's allowed here. I'm totally new to this server.

[pastel estuary]

@tawny kayak can prolly help

[vagrant compass]

Hey fam, I just managed to post! Manny sorted it out after all. He's a champ

Thanks anyways

[pastel estuary]

ah, great you got it sorted.

[modern relic]

Thanks. I don't really have one aside from a few github projects and some gists. I lost a fair bit of my work when Atlassian deleted their hg repos (not that it was a proper portfolio either)

[brazen lantern]

first off no, none of these free or hiring discord jobs are going to get you actual experience tbh. what position are you trying to develop for? (Level design, audio, game design, concept art/illustration with 3d modeling ect.) if you want to work on level or game design dm me, im in a server with the majority of members being already established workers in studios sharing advice. i got into level design fully, i want it to be my career so within a few questions i was given everything i needed to know to start off

[young badger]

Was just going to post something similar

[young badger]

This is key

I'm trying to switch from Enterprise development to Game dev, which is my passion. But I've been seeing every job posting requiring years of experience in the industry and titles published...feels like the industry either takes recent grads to train them, or people already in the industry

I have 15 years of experience in Enterprise development, but only 1 in games, as a contractor with a proprietary engine for EA SPORTS UFC 2. I was doing a course on UE from Tom Looman and wanted to get a job with Unreal but after seeing all those job postings I began to wonder if it is really worth investing more time and money into it with that experience+published barrier in every search

If you say you know there are people hiring Jr devs that gives me a bit of hope

[vagrant compass]

Why wouldn't hiring discord jobs get him actual experience?

[brazen lantern]

if your getting hired through discord there’s a 85% chance hes getting paid less than what he should be. Plus indie game studios don’t really give you the advice and experience you should be getting, you want a career in level design for example working indie won’t get you real experience for the most part your probably gonna end up making a few levels. In real studios your gonna make one high quality level for example, (my point is they will try to stretch you thin for a few bucks) not the experience you want… (plus you will most likely be working on a low quality game)

[vagrant compass]

Hmm, I haven't been in here long, but I scrolled through some of the jobs yesterday and saw some companies that I know, advertising, and I know they pay very well

[brazen lantern]

(My full point is: He shouldn’t get hired by low quality, low paying discord jobs instead of working his way up till he gets a job at a studio, and gets real experience for real money)

[brazen lantern]

do any of them have games released ?

[vagrant compass]

The ones I know are AR/VR and NFT, so no, not as yet

[brazen lantern]

exactly, for the most part he’s gonna work with other beginner devs. you dont want advice from people on your level, you want advice from established industry workers.

what’s someone a little better then you gonna help you with?

[vagrant compass]

Point taken. Again, I don't know too much about the quality and pay for the majority, just the ones I saw,that I know, are very well funded building with great teams at the helm. Definitely possible the rest are as you say. I'm the new guy here

[brazen lantern]

im not too experienced either, im reciting tips I got from industry workers. but i have still yet to see a well funded indie studio in discord job channels.

i remember i wanted to be a level designer, got mediocre level design tips and got only slightly better.

got in a chat with experienced people and now i know how to get to where i want

[vagrant compass]

They exist. Promise.

[pastel estuary]

there are many companies, including trippleA posting jobs on our discord. many of them pay well as well.

you are also making a lot of assumptions about indie-devs and companies, i'd appreciate it if you refrain from that.

[pastel estuary]

that sounds a whole lot better

[brazen lantern]

im not making no assumptions, im stating what ive heard from well established devs. never said indies don’t pay well, or hire on discord. i said i have yet to see one, get it? more times than not, your not gonna find a good job on discord.

Yes this is a great answer, but on top of that a good indie will definitely be a lot more scarce to find.

especially if his job he wants to pursue is inflated and really popular.

[pastel estuary]

"ive yet to see one"
you've been here for less than a week.

[brazen lantern]

i just switched to unreal.

so your point again?

[shut token]

Felt like their point was pretty clear. You can read it here. #career-chat message

[brazen lantern]

I do agree with a lot those things, im just tryna get at the point that you don’t want to get “bad indie” job. Which discord in general has a lot of, not necessarily saying unreal slackers.

[shut token]

Yeah - you don't want a bad "industry" job either. Bad jobs suck regardless. There are indie devs that'll blow "industry" devs out the water and vice versa.

[pastel estuary]

luckily, after all these years I think we can count the amount of bad apples (posting jobs) on one hand.

(at least, the ones that got reported)

[brazen lantern]

Oh of course one of my favorite games was made by a indie studio with not a lot of funding

[shut token]

Too bad, according to your logic, that doesn't count as experience.

Bottom line is that you can get experience from all sorts of places. Just need to apply yourself.

[brazen lantern]

pretty sure that studio was not paying they’re devs, it was a passion job I think. they all had experience at that point too

[brazen lantern]

im getting at most indie jobs are consisting of amateur devs. don’t know about you but id rather wait till I get advice from AAA experienced devs

[shut token]

I don't put any dev on some kind of pedestal like that. You can learn something from all kinds of people.

[wary idol]

I for one want to work for indie teams, would think twice before joining an "established industry aaa" studio.

And indie can pay equally well.
You would be surprised how many professional work on indie project.

There are many that worked for AAA studios and decided to leave and go indie, start their own projects, etc...

You are making a whole lot of assumptions based on nothing

[plucky hatch]

The grass isn’t always greener. When the EA office shut down in my town many of the experienced designers and devs went to indie studios rather than leaving (for another city). Doesn’t make them any less experienced because they are no longer working in AAA. I would not generalize, its not the best thought space to be in.

[pure kettle]

You can say anything about discord being "informal" space for hiring, really.

[pure kettle]

Also I'm just gonna "appreciate" your idealism here, because some indie devs were industry veterans or worked for larger game companies.

[pure kettle]

But I digress, indies are always this green bedroom coders who know jackshit about development, according to you, right?

[chilly sundial]

this is why indie gets a bad name 😭

[brazen lantern]

also never said that, assumptions are getting put in my mouth left and right. i just said “for the most part” from what ive seen on discord now, the name indie studio is getting throw onto everything, even if its a fucking sprite game about throwing shit at other players, 1 other dev who thinks your supposed to code, design, and make audio after getting hired for UI/UX for which i wouldnt consider developing for. like I also said earlier one of my favorite short games come from a indie studio under 40 developers, but you of course will most likely throw a few more assumptions in my mouth.

[shut token]

It's not just about what you say though. It's about your general attitude. You literally opened up by saying "first off no, none of these free or hiring discord jobs are going to get you actual experience tbh". Then you doubled down with, "Plus indie game studios don’t really give you the advice and experience you should be getting, you want a career in level design for example working indie won’t get you real experience". And later on, "id rather wait till I get advice from AAA experienced devs".

[pure kettle]

That's peak idealism, if I say so myself

Felt like one of those spoiled brat stereotype

[brazen lantern]

looking back, i was thinking of all the bad experiences i had with anything indie. now i remember all the good aspects but that 3rd point is still valid because like you guys said “some” devs transition back down to indie, not all. i still feel like in my opinion id rather wait and refine my skills with what ever dev skill im passionate for until i secure a job in a more established studio where i could possibly pick up better advice and tips.

[brazen lantern]

felt like this is career chat, i mightve been wrong in my opinions, but you just wanna argue.

[pure kettle]

Sure thing, I'll skip you if you really want to.

[brazen lantern]

go head

[woeful iron]

if you're just refining your skill on your own, might as well go to an indie studio and refine it and get paid 😎

[steel creek]

I'm a well-established developer and I find plenty of jobs here on Discord that pay very well from very good Studios

[balmy dagger]

Yeah. Agreed. I'm on two jobs right now, half time on both, found trough Discord and getting paid what a doctor would in the US So

[vagrant compass]

Love seeing this

[pure kettle]

Please see #instructions, dad of Doom

I guess John Carmack secretly know French 🤔

[craggy nacelle]

John Carmaque

[hard zephyr]

Jean, surely?

[craggy nacelle]

True lol

[wary idol]

@celest sun #instructions on how to use the job boards and read the #rules

[plucky hatch]

Why dont poor people start indie games?

game engines are free, the software you need to make all the models and animate are free with blender and the likes of opensource software, i know hundreds of people who work in unreal engine and blender as a hobby but work factory and warehouse jobs

why dont they just use their hobby to make a living, its so easy

im not insulting anyone just surprised its not more common, as you could find comission work for anything nowadays and a group of unpaid amatures can fundraise more money for a game than the time it takes to get investors or hire people

[brave forge]

1. a decent PC costs money. 2) the actual changes of striking luck and getting a living wage with your own indie game is much lower than you'd imagine. 3) if people are "poor" they'd likely get a more significant boost to their immediate living circumstance by working an additional part time job which is guaranteed to pay, and pays weekly.

[modern hemlock]

Doing something as a hobby and as a career is different.
Also if they're poor they may not have computer, or at least one that can run game engines and stuff properly.
It's like saying if youre poor why don't you make music? They can't because it will take time to learn, and they probably can't afford to live without earning money.

[brave forge]

Also the time cost of investing in learning and producing something is incredibly large, which many don't have the luxury of doing

[craggy nacelle]

I like how y'all replied to that as if it was a genuine question and not a shitpost lol

[pure kettle]

Looking at the replies after few blocked messages, I'm expecting a more solid conversation, but nope

I'm inclined to say that dude's been making rather troll-ish messages for a while now

[chilly sundial]

Reminds me of the ol'

Just buy a house

[craggy nacelle]

First time I saw them post anything to my memory unless they've been using a different name before, but yeah sounds about right lol

[civic totem]

talk is easy, complain about unreal every single day is easy, make something is not.

exactly

[craggy nacelle]

Who has time for five hobbies though

[quiet steppe]

Books are free basically.
Training 20 minutes a day is too.

[plucky hatch]

Or one hobby that does all of those things 🤷‍♂️

[rough gust]

is sarcasm guys

[eternal mason]

5hobbies

1. dayjob
2. workout b4 or after dayjob
3. open ue
4. read anything
5. browse discord open mindedly

[craggy nacelle]

browsing discord is a pretty sad hobby lol

[wary idol]

And yet we are all here at least 5 hours a day lol

[pastel estuary]

5?

https://giphy.com/gifs/rookie-numbers-wolf-of-wallstreet-YmQLj2KxaNz58g7Ofg

[wary idol]

Lol

[plucky hatch]

my kinda people

[turbid burrow]

hello, i am vinay from india

i photograph photogrammetry textures scans and assets, is there any possibility to the full time job at @unreal

where i can share my works

[pastel estuary]

not sure what you mean exactly.

[viscid hill]

You could sell assets in the unreal marketplace

[turbid burrow]

Ok thank you

[surreal turtle]

Didn't find an education channel, so this place is probably the best 😃

https://youtu.be/32xSTkqTmWg

Full Cycle is a Provisional Unreal Authorized Training Center, the only one in Northern Europe 💪

[woeful iron]

does northern europe only start above Lithuania or what's the difference with the ones in NL, DE and LT? https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/training-partners

[surreal turtle]

It's an age-old debate yeah, but mostly it's Scandinavia + Estonia.

[desert wharf]

In my eyes:
Northern Europe: Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Faroe Islands and Denmark
Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark

[round radish]

I wonder what they teach.

[woeful iron]

I guess Unreal

[rotund echo]

You can make money from unreal engine and leave factory work

[pure kettle]

Easier said than done, depends on lots of factor.

[rotund echo]

Will take a lot of work and have to build clients

[austere slate]

Hello! I've been a Software Engineer for 10+ years and now a Engineering Manager. I've mostly done web applications but also worked on mobile and desktop applications. I've always had a love for film, and want to move my career to film. I figured learning C++ and Unreal Engine would be the best start to this career change. Has anyone ever made a change like this? Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should focus on learning?

[steel creek]

I'm confused as to what thing you actually want to do. You want to do computer graphics? Or do you want to be an engineer? Neither of those things are filmmaking but they can be aspects within it depending.

What do you actually want to do?

From the sound of it if you're programming that is very much engineering.

I made that exact change back in 1999. By degree I am computer science engineering. After a decade of doing database work I went back to technical school for CG.

When I started I learned Lightwave and then Maya because that's what they were using to make films at the time.

I'm sorry to say for all the hype we don't use much Unreal Engine in a lot of the work that we do.

It is still about 80% Maya for the raw CG. Given that I literally build pipelines for Studios I can guarantee you're not going to see unreal for a solid decade in most of these places because of the existing investment in the pipeline that they already have

@austere slate

[austere slate]

I only choose UE since it uses C++ and C++ still seems to be industry standard. I've used UE before and thought maybe having some sort of engine that is used in film that I have some experience in would be a good start. I'm also looking into learning Houdini as well. Are you saying Maya might be better to learn and just skip UE all together as just an introduction to get started with?

[steel creek]

Maya Houdini Max Modo LightWave Nuke even Cinema 4D are the packages that we use. I would also add renderman but if you're at the point where you're learning renderman, then you most likely have learned all the other ones

[austere slate]

The issue with Maya, is the price it costs to use, which makes self learning it difficult.

[steel creek]

Maya LT should still only be 300$?

[austere slate]

I'll take a look and do more research, thanks for your input

[rigid rampart]

Hello everyone, I need some advice

I’m a game developer with more than a year now working with UE/C++ and I’m looking for an internship.

After looking I started seeing that most companies want c++, without ue.
Also after speaking with developers, they all seem to have somewhat the same advice of strengthening my skills as a software engineer/developer in general.

My question is, where do I start?
Should I keep going with UE, or focus on just c++?
I have basic knowledge of c++, but I don’t know how to make games with it without API libraries or game engines, and I’m at the level where I get stuck between text/video tutorials.

I’d appreciate any advice.
Thanks

[plucky hatch]

Its very much location dependant too.

[rigid rampart]

yes, I understand that.
I'm in Germany, and there are good opportunities, but no luck so far

[plucky hatch]

There are a lot of UE opportunities on the Enterprise side, visualisation, CGI, HMI, virtual production etc. I just hired all 4 of my current interns, however none had any less than 2 years of experience, that may be an issue for you, 1 year is not long.

I am there next week to visit a VP studio (Potsdam)

[rigid rampart]

Yeah years of experience suck, I started learning 1 year ago

[rigid rampart]

what's that?
I'm in Brandenburg I can attend

[plucky hatch]

https://www.halostage.studio/

[rigid rampart]

Thanks.
I just checked their events tab, I thi nk they sold out next week's, but I'll definitely go next time.
Meeting people in the industry should help.

[plucky hatch]

Oh I didnt know they had an event, but yes you should as much as possible👍

[rigid rampart]

Alright thanks

Do you know any other events/gatherings in the area?

[plucky hatch]

No sorry I dont live in Germany

[rigid rampart]

I see, well good luck next week

[celest hemlock]

I work for a company in Germany that uses unreal engine

we do enterprise virtual reality stuff, if that might interest you @rigid rampart

[rigid rampart]

yes of course, what's its name?

[celest hemlock]

realworld one

[rigid rampart]

i knew it

haha, it actually was one of the few companies that gave me an interview

I like the company, but I'm trying to land something at a game company. Although if nothing works I'll definitely contact them again

[celest hemlock]

Haha nice, I was initially also hoping to land something at a game company but i ended up going for it

[rigid rampart]

yeah at the end of the day it's a chance to get experience in unreal

[rotund echo]

I have a interest in UI should i worry about mastering blueprint?

is that only for coders

[woeful iron]

are blueprints for coders you mean?

most certainly not

they're a layer on top of code

for people that don't want to deal with code

or build blocks with your code

UI is definitely very blueprint related

only insane people do UI in code

except for some interface kinda setup stuff

[past cradle]

Hey guys , when applying for unreal jobs , do personal projects count as experience as well?

Pls @ me

I see

How should I gain experience then?

[woeful iron]

It certainly doesn't hurt

if you don't have a job yet, personal projects is the only thing to go on pretty much

[past cradle]

I’m in the us, and yeah, I am working on personal projects

[deep mural]

what about animations? I've heard some people talk about that aswell

[royal lintel]

At larger studios animation blueprints will often be implemented by technical animators/artists, not normal animators.

Indie/small teams - "it depends"

[deep mural]

Icic

[past cradle]

how does one put themselves in the hire a freelancer channel?

[pure kettle]

#instructions

[past cradle]

thx!

although, do you write it then say $portfolio?

[spring cypress]

I know its a slightly older post but of all the game devs I know (none that are professional out of 7) I know two people working with unreal in corporate settings for vr/showcase stuff etc. Its a good field if you want to work with the engine professionally

[primal beacon]

I would like to know more about Level Design Test for Industry jobs and how they test you.
Do they give you assets or you have to use Unreal or any other engine to create a grey box level.
Dose the level need gameplay?

I seen videos of people using Map Editors for Half life or Far Cry to present there test.
I know it might be different for each studio but there's not much I can prepare myself other than research and basic level design skills. So any info will help. Thanks

[rigid rampart]

Thanks for the tip!
I'll try to get something in a game dev company, but if I don't I'll probably go with these guys, as you said at the very least I'm getting professional experience in unreal

[past cradle]

so, will having a gamedev day job help me get into software engineering?

like, will it count as experience?

[woeful iron]

well it could

but if you goal is SE,why take the game dev step in between?

[past cradle]

well, i mean if i get a gamedev job offer before the software job, i was thinking if i should take it or not

[craggy nacelle]

a coding job is a coding job

[woeful iron]

depends what you want lol

if you want to work on a specific type of software, go for those kinds of jobs

but in my experience, getting a "generic" software engineering job will be less of a challenge than getting a game dev job

just because there's more need in general

[past cradle]

i see, well i havent had any luck getting a se job so far haha,

[plucky hatch]

How many have you applied for ?

[elder rivet]

What common skills do people look for in a tech artist when it comes to Unreal? I currently work as a tech artist/rigger but deal entirely with Maya. I'm hoping to branch out to get more hands-on in a game engine and I've chosen Unreal. Looking to buff up my resume

Also if anyone can recommend any great resources specifically for unreal tech artists

[past cradle]

4-5 a day

[woeful iron]

that sounds like a lot

have you gotten any feedback about rejections?

[plucky hatch]

For how many days, that doesn’t really give me much to go on.

[woeful iron]

maybe if you're doing 5 a day, you're not being selective enough and vague idk

[serene crystal]

My first guess would be things like render targets and fancy Niagara systems

I am no tech artist though :p

[pure kettle]

IMO the term tech artist is still broad

Though I guess technical animator is its own beast

[elder rivet]

Do I need to know c++? Can I get by with just blueprints? I use a lot of python. Does that transfer at all to unreal?

[chilly sundial]

python can be used for automation in unreal, but for some things you will definitely need to know c++

a lot of things can be done blueprint only

but c++ is nice to have

for performace reasons, and the fact you can do a lot more with it

[elder rivet]

Ok great, thank you!

[chilly sundial]

ideally you write helper functions in c++ to use in bp

thats sorta the best in both worlds

[past cradle]

A year at least

[plucky hatch]

So over 1500 applications then, sounds like you are doing something wrong for sure then.

Make sure each application is a carefully thought out letter ], not just blindingly applying to things. You probably also need to work on your resume/portfolio, a good rule of thumb is if you don’t hear back from 25 applications then change it up a little bit.

[past cradle]

I see, that’s some good info, thx!

[vale stump]

I second that. Getting a job in SE is usually not too hard, however getting into game dev is a lot tougher

[steel creek]

Problem-solving, diagnose software problems, understand games engines, workflows and graphics rendering and develop them so they work more effectively, listen to the artists and programmers, explain and write clear reports. understand each of the major art disciplines. TAs can't provide support or tools unless they understand the process.

As opposed to all the "fluff" they put like high attention to detail or excellent communication skills; these "skills" are meaningless, the skills above are the goal.

[elder rivet]

Excellent, thanks for the reply!

[lost timber]

Did you guys know Laika is doing virtual production now?

they make stop motion movies

I'd apply there like mad rn but I don't have a portfolio yet

thought I'd mention it

I get the feeling this is a dream job for someone

[woeful iron]

laika the space dog?

[hard zephyr]

Laika studios, they do incredible stop motion films like Coraline and Kubo: https://www.laika.com/

[round radish]

Me laika

[steady pewter]

laika is flower, a herb

[copper hearth]

Hello, I was wondering has anyone tried this service Epic Offers ? , Considering picking it up in hopes they will finally answer the Lyra questions and issues that I have remaining. They said they would get back to me a month ago and a week ago and still nothing lol So as they say , maybe the money will get better results ?

[woeful iron]

Contact us to discuss your requirements

[copper hearth]

Im looking for user reviews

[plucky hatch]

Yes

Have had that setup for the past 5 years and works very well in terms of getting help etc 👍

[copper hearth]

Can you tell a little about how it works ? like how often could you get help and how ? Like a schedule ? or message wait time kind of thing

[plucky hatch]

I have a meeting with then once per week for an hour to discuss anything that’s up at the moment, and in between usually hear back in a day or two over email.

These is also the developer network you can get access to where you can ask questions etc, sort of like a forum I suppose.

[round radish]

It's a lot like the old answer hub

[spring snow]

Sounds pretty great

[copper hearth]

Cool , Thanks a lot @plucky hatch , best answer i have gotten in regards to how this works. Couldn't find anything on it. Sounds pretty good. When you say "Whats up at the Moment " do you mean what you need ? or epics latest content ? or is the 1 hour for both ? I also have the Dev port , but all the latest questions dont get replies from the devs on either forum barley ever. Figured they might be way busier then we think. Money might be the only way.

[plucky hatch]

Both. I suppose it depends on your company, who you are working with etc. Most of my customers are also big Epic clients and the projects very high profile so often we can be speaking everyday, but at a minimum at least for what we pay for it’s an hour or two per week.

[copper hearth]

Great man Thanks Again . Lots of people will benefit from this info including myself. If anyone else has any first hand experience with the service please do share your review as well. This could be what makes a huge difference for a lot of us. Especially if you are bold enough to work with Lyra. They built it , and for 1,500 youll have there support ? count me IN

[plucky hatch]

For clarity however, everywhere I’ve worked we’ve paid a lot more than 1500. I don’t want to give you the false impression that if you pay you can just call them up, I don’t honestly know what you would get for that base price 🤷‍♂️

[copper hearth]

o , so about whats an estimate on what you pay ?

[plucky hatch]

I can’t say I’m afraid, I would suggest just to speak to them and find out what it would be in your case for what you need. Its more likely Epic would just put you in touch with a local partner to help you out too.

[round radish]

For $1500, it sounds reasonable to just get UDN access.

[plucky hatch]

I would imagine so.

[copper hearth]

I would like to know what comes with the 1,500 base. I will still put a form in and see how the process goes because i do really like what youve said so far

[plucky hatch]

Well good luck, it’s always been invaluable to me and my projects to have a dialogue with them 👍. You do know that this is to speak to the non-games team too right.

[copper hearth]

Excellent. Your great man , thanks big time for this

[plucky hatch]

Only because you mentioned Lyra.

[copper hearth]

What do you mean the Non games team ? They will still help with Lyra if I get what you're saying correctly ? but i would also have the option of asking about other things that are not purely game related ? Like questions on there last presentation for example ?

[plucky hatch]

No that’s not really what this service is for, the Enterprise team deals with non-games projects. So take my company for example we are doing high end CGI/VFX, virtual production, on board vehicle HMI and product configuration. So we pay an annual fee in order to have support from this team.
But this team is the non-games team, designed to support professionals and companies who use Unreal to do everything else besides make games.
So no, I don’t think they would help you with game related things like Lyra.

[copper hearth]

awwwwww

and then the heavens closed and the light became dark

I went from so happy to so sad in the fastest time i can remember LOL I hope epic see's this convo and considers adding such a service. They would make a ton of money. Lots of people would happily pay if they were going to help with just an hour a week to answers questions relating to games made in the engine and practices and other UE related inquiries . Dont get me wrong , i see exactly how huge of benefit it could be if your working on a non game related concept. Most things made with unreal were games ,, i thought ? so it would be perfect to incorporate

[woeful iron]

the custom license is kinda the same but for games it seems?

[plucky hatch]

Yes pretty much the same thing

[woeful iron]

but with UDN

[copper hearth]

So neither of these would help with Lyra ? I say lyra because I know that will easily become standard , at least for me for sure. So its my main focus and i want to make sure I could get premium support on it ? it does say in custom "Private training " maybe it would ?

[plucky hatch]

From experience they (Epic) would probably just point you in the direction of a local partner to help with these things.

[copper hearth]

I mean , shouldnt we consider questions that cant be answered here , during epic live streams , or any of the forums as advanced questions ? Lots of us can never get answers anywhere.

[plucky hatch]

Its not really in their best interests to be helping with something so specific.

[copper hearth]

Plus if the customer is paying for the time , like the Non game devs ,, why not ?

Im going to try to put in a custom license and specify Lyra as my main training criteria . Would like to see what they say if you all here who are more informed on the matter dont think its a waste of time.

[hard zephyr]

It's worth putting in the request as we have people who can talk you through the different options. For UDN specifically it is generally focussed on specific technical questions / problems rather than teaching. i.e. if you're building a system and you're blocked on something then UDN can help unblock you but UDN won't provide step by step instructions on building that system. There are programs which do include training or more direct support however those are negotiated on a case by case basis which is why it would be best to discuss with our licensing team

[pure kettle]

Please see #rules, this channel description, and #instructions on how to post to job board channels.

[rotund echo]

@copper hearth wow one months of rent for a course

[steel creek]

If you're in the LA that's about half a month's worth.

[craggy nacelle]

It all depends on what kind of value you get out of it

[copper hearth]

Well I am going to do it if they accept. Ill let you guys know how it turns out once if It goes through. Sounds more than worth it though to me so far.

[craggy nacelle]

Tbh 1500 / yr seems pretty reasonable if it's for professional use and you get your money's worth

it's only 125 / month which is not that much

you quickly pay that for software like JIRA per month as well for comparison

[woeful iron]

or perforce in 5 minutes 🥲

[plucky hatch]

Professional 3D software costs a lot, especially on the Enterprise side. I’ve seen software upwards of $60k per seat per year. My Adobe account is almost $1000 a year 😬 I’m glad these such a good choice of free or cheap alternatives these days; Resolve, Affinity, Blender, etc.

[forest dagger]

How would you market yourself as a fps level designer for multiplayer games? Also any idea how I would reference my volunteer work with a company like Bungie or 343? Considering it wasn't a paid thing.

I want to leverage that time working with a AAA studio but wasn't in a payroll position.

[shut token]

Portfolio. Pretty much like any other position.

[forest dagger]

Yeah thats obvious, and I appreciate the effort there but I mean how would I label this on a portfolio. How would I reference the work and verify it.

[plucky hatch]

Why would you even need to mention it, if you worked for them and that work is good enough for a portfolio you don’t need to state if you were paid or unpaid, it’s kind of irrelevant 🤷‍♂️

[forest dagger]

I guess I'm just paranoid because the work isn't tangible or viewable, I feel like it's just a yo believe me bro situation.

[brave forge]

That's no different than a triple a Dev having to list time for a company that cancelled the game. That's where the interview comes in. They'll ask you about your work, get a sense of what you did, maybe dive deeper into things they don't understand or they are interested in for their position.

[serene crystal]

perhaps you could use someone who knows you and worked on the same project as a reference?

[plucky hatch]

You are overthinking things 👍

[shrewd shuttle]

Hey guys and girls, are there folks in the decentralized gaming industry that are looking for a project to take interest in? Writing the GDD and feel like I’m shooting a bit in the dark. Thanks for your kindness, not looking to ruffle feathers in any way on here

[shut token]

feel like I’m shooting a bit in the dark
That's 'cause that's what decentralized gaming is

[shut token]

blockchain games

[shrewd shuttle]

Agreed, gaming in general is however the new endeavor. The decentralized aspect is what we’re good at. Putting together a team to bridge the two is where we’re at

[pure kettle]

So the usual crypto NFT BS?

[shut token]

More or less. But this one is different™️

[pure kettle]

I know cryptobros tend to talk as vague as possible

[devout lava]

Can an example of decentralized gaming be given?

[steady pewter]

You play in one room, your bro in the other.

[plucky hatch]

Haha right…hey I’m making a thing, I can’t explain it fully, just trust me 👍

[tame flicker]

Hello, I was wondering today about the various experiences others have had with learning in the industry. This includes opinions on college, crash courses, or even community learned. Mainly, I'd like to know how others compare going to an online college, on-campus learning, learning via things such as Udemy and skillshare, or just picking up as much as they can from Youtube and free sources.

Are some applications better for getting a job in the industry, while others are preferred for solo indie devs?

[hallow stone]

It depends on: your aptitude to learn, your preference of learning, the quality of the curriculum, the specialization you focus on, your career interests, your game interests, your locality to industry hubs / studios / publishers, your networking with other professionals and recruiters, your portfolio, your resume presentation, your cover letter, your interview skills, etc.

[tame flicker]

Hmm I was curious about multiple aspects as I was wasn't sure which suited me best.

Right now I'd like to focus more on indie dev as a hobby, but getting a career in the industry later on may be a possibility.

I currently know very little, with only RPG Maker as a current background. So far I favor level design and creative writing, but I'd really like to dip into programming and learning the how-it-works of game design as well.

[hallow stone]

Writing, level design, gameplay design/scripting, and gameplay engineer/tools are all different areas. If you want a career you'd need to specialize in one.

If your aim is to be a hobbyist, then you tend to be a generalist because a lot of indie dev teams are either solo or small group.

Making something in RPGMaker is perfectly fine if thats the type of genre you want to focus on. And you can use finished games as portfolio pieces, if you plan on looking to get contracted or work for a studio that uses rpg maker.

Idk about the career / freelance market for rpgmaker though. So i cant comment what the prospects are.

[tame flicker]

Well I was using RPGmaker for awhile, until I found out it didn't even have basic collision and trying to code it in seemed to be a snowballing nightmare, which is why I opted to move to Unreal Engine.

I had a team of about 6 indie devs pre-Covid but due to the economy it fell through.

Now I'm looking to learn Unreal Engine myself, and pick up a few more skills so that I need to out-source less. My main goal is to make a few small games, each getting a bit harder to hone my skills.

[steady pewter]

RPGMaker -> UE
quite a move, nice

[tame flicker]

It's a drastic change. I dipped my toes into Unreal Level design, but got caught up in the coding bits of it. I also dipped into Blender for a bit to understand how 3D space works as well.

The issue is, I know I cannot do everything myself so I decided to make prototypes, and outsource for art. Models, textures, sound effects, music, and the like.

A friend sent me a link to an online college for game devs and designers not too long ago, but the cost had me wondering if it was worth it. It also had me consider if perhaps getting a job in the industry would be better, keeping indie development on the side.

[hallow stone]

You need to ask about a specific website / course to get a response if its good or bad.

As someone who used to regularly work for 8hrs a day in unreal for my job, I didnt want to go home and indie dev in unreal. Thats just me. Some people just love to game dev 24/7

But ive talked to ppl who got jobs or are still looking who attended colleges like Full Sail, Digi Pen, and UAT. Some never got jobs, some are in AAA, some are in indie.

[tame flicker]

That makes sense. Most don't want to do something for 16 hours a day, even if it's something they love or are passionate about.

I wasn't sure what options were all out there, though I suppose my current options were an online university or Udemy.

Full sail was the one my friend linked me, but the reviews were split pretty hard. I could not find many that related to me personally. There were few about game design/dev specifically but none seemed to go into great detail.

[hallow stone]

From those i spoke to that attended fullsail online, the online curriculum wasnt worth the cost.

I cant speak for udemy. Ive mostly self taught unreal using YouTube, documentation, forums, trial and error.

But i had a degree in comp engineering. So that gave me the programming and math foundation i needed to pickup a game engine like unreal.

[tame flicker]

Thanks for the information, that's what general reviews said as well but most were for full-time college students.

I would love to self-teach as needed but I have no background in programming. I was trying to learn blueprints since the visual language transferred somewhat from RPGMakers event system.

However I ended up getting stuck there. Videos taught me how to make things work, but I still can't wrap my head around why they work and therefore the learning isn't sticking.

[hallow stone]

RPGMaker events are built ontop of javascript. Unreal Blueprints are built off of C++. Id recommend finding tutorials that teach the fundamentals of programming (C/C++), or finding a course/tutorial where they teach those in blueprints.