There are very common questions that are raised in our career advice channel. Id like to collect the most common ones and get them here for us to link and reference to every time they are asked. We can get faster responses and not have to spend time re-explaining as well. Please contact DiNusty or Modmail on The Empire Discord if you would like to add something to this page.

Getting Into Games

Q. What are must haves to get into games?

• Good social skills - Making games is a very intense process that requires lots of communication and syncing up people to a singular direction. I’ll hire someone that is decent in the portfolio over someone who is hard to work with that has a god portfolio.
• A Portfolio - Shows your current skill level of the technical and artistic skills that are relevant to the position your applying for.

Q. How do I make it in the games industry?

Portfolios are required early on in the industry. They become less important as you gain industry experience. I would say that Junior to Senior are within those ranges. Experience shipping projects with teams is another set of skills like management. I would say however that if you were wanting to be an expert artist or someone who is not a lead but is above a senior, That should show in your work how much of an expert you are in your specific field, Your CV experience will also help reinforce that. You should work on building a network of people that either are in games or also want to be in games.

Q. How do I build connections in the industry?

• Interact on discord, help people, ask for feedback be present. Connections is mostly friendship really. People will help their friends out, that's how you get referrals. Don't approach people just to "make a connection". build friendships naturally. -Tim Burroughs
• Networking is just building acquaintance or friendships -Partikel

Job Title vs Portfolio

Q. What's the difference between Junior > Intermediate > Senior

• Junior
• If they have industry experience its usually through a internship. They have usually not shipped a title but it is possible since anyone can join a project at any time in its production.
• They are usually not familiar with the process of what it takes to make a game and usually require direction / guidance to make sure they are understanding the process and why we build things the way we do.
• Intermediate
• Having some industry experience between 2-4 years but not a hard rule. They usually have shipped a single title or two. Often on the portfolio they will not having work there unless they have shipped some projects.
• They are familiar with the processes of developing a game and if they have shipped a project, they also understand the technical standards required to meet those needs for the project to succeed.
• Senior
• Often has 4-7 years of experience but is not a hard rule. They usually have a few shipped titles.
• They are extremely familiar with the process of developing a game. Having shipped enough titles, they often work cleaner or make more predictable additions to the game that are easier to optimize later in the closing of a project.

Q. How do you work on your portfolio with a part-time or full-time job?

You should not grind your way to success when your time has to be split between work to stay afloat and also building on your portfolio. Yes building your portfolio will take longer but building a plan on when you work on your portfolio is key. The next best advice that can be given is that you should know why your working on the thing your working on? This helps with adding a boost to your growth in the limited time you have.

Artists now given the complexities of the roles / industry are better off focusing on a core discipline or two and working smart to push the exact skills employers want to see for that role. You can always branch out later. A quality portfolio clearly focused on a specific role will open doors. -Anthony O Donnell

Game Engines

Q. Do I need to know a Game engine?

Generally you'll need to have basic understanding of the editor and how to use it. After that it's more about understanding concepts and limitations of real-time rendering. For props as an example it could be more about collision, lods, material/shader setups etc. Anything involved on making the content game ready and bringing it to the editor -mirbobo

Q. Do I need to do my own concept art?

Absolutely not. You are welcome to but I think this will slow down your overall progress towards your 3d skillset growth.

Megascans & Other Assets

Q. Am I allowed to use Megascans in my portfolio?

A. Thats what they are there for! It is important to keep in mind why you’re using them and what they do for your portfolio. If for example you are a lighting artist just building scenes to light, thats perfect to just use content that already exists. A rule I (DiNusty) personally stick to is to use existing content to fill in gaps or to cover the things you don’t want to spend the time making. For example cardboard boxes or cups / plates.

The important point to keep in mind is your portfolio should show that you understand how to make props and texture them with the current standards visually that you see. This is specifically towards people looking at being a environment artist or prop artist.

Q. What should my portfolio have in it?

For a Prop or Environment artist - Show us a scene or two. Dioramas count towards this. The way that I (DiNusty) look at portfolios is split into two categories. Technical skill & Understanding and Artistic skill.

• Technical skill I judge by seeing:
• Wireframes - to see how you deal with geometry. are you wasteful? PS this does not mean that you should make it so low that the shape starts to show edges of the “Low Poly” mesh.
• Texture flats - to understand how well you bake / texture in PBR workflows
• Optimizations - are you showing some form of consideration for how things render? alpha split on shaders only needing alpha? Mesh draw calls per prop is reasonable. Are you using master materials?
• Unique mesh draw calls can be 2 to 4. depends how big the prop is. A mesh draw call is when you can assign a different material to it.
• Artistic skill I Judge by seeing:
• Composition - how have you framed your scene or prop?
• Lighting affects what we focus on.
• Color palette to affect mood or tone.
• Storytelling - In my book a must have.
• Scale of props is within reason - No giant chairs that can’t fit under a table.