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@Riot Employees (Or those who work/want to be in game design)

ralsei·7/10/2015, 10:40:48 PM·6 votes·2,806 views

Nothing too important :p but what made you interested in joining the gaming industry? How did you start your path? What are your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to projects? I'm aspiring to be in the game design industry (but who isn't ;3?), but I'll tell you what I can about me so far!

I played a lot of games when I was younger and like any child, I had the big dream of becoming a game designer! I first thought I'd try out programming and ending up making my first official website when I was 12 (got payed too! $20 a month was a lot for me). Anywho, I started character design in middle school, mostly just concepts with really REALLY rough sketches, and now I have more characters I can count for. My freshman year, I took a 3D Animation and Modeling class, and I loved it. We used 3DS Max as a class, but I decided to try other things like mudbox, maya, blender, etc.. I ended up going into a competition for 3D M&A, and last month I got 5th in the nation (SkillsUSA competition). I'm currently still an intermediate 3D modeler, and beginner programmer (HTML, CSS, JS, Python), and amatur artist in drawing sense. I'm going into my Senior year for high school, and hope I can get accepted into a college where I can continue my path. 

I also notice a lot of times, I have problems doing solo projects. I love having help and helping. When I'm doing a personal project, I'll probably never finish it. I also get discouraged at my lack of skill a lot of times, and end up not practicing that skill JUST because I'm bad at it (Makes no sense, right?).

Anyway!! What your story?

8 Comments

Riotmoonstones7/10/2015, 11:22:22 PM3 votes

Hiya!

My story isn't super conventional, buuuut I'm willing to share! ^-^

I graduated in 2011 with a BA in Graphic Design, and proceeded to work at a local entertainment magazine in my city. I design ads, as well as wrote for the publication. I interviewed bands, photographed concerts, and had my own column which covered game reviews, PAX coverage, and other odds and ends - one of my favorites being interviewing Jonathan Coulton about his experiences working on composing music for Portal.

I'd worked there for ~2 years when I received word that the company where my friend worked was hiring testers for their MOBA. Knowing I had MOBA knowledge, he suggested I apply. This sparked my interest in the games industry. I didn't think my education background was something that could help me push into the industry, but I certainly jumped at an opportunity to attempt to break into the industry. Riot was always a dream job in my eyes, buuuut, I didn't think it was achievable at the time. I was offered a position as a QA tester based on my MOBA knowledge, as well as art background (attention to detail, good eye for design, that kind of thing).

Fast forward to GDC in 2013. My now fiance and I took a trip so he could have his reel looked at by animators at other companies. I had zero intention of looking for a job, and was more there for moral support and checking out the event. He pushed me to talk to a Riot recruiter (I was super nervous - I'd been an avid player since 2010, and as mentioned, working at Riot was a dream job for me). I ended up handing them my card, and thus began the interview process that resulted in me moving from Massachusetts to California to work here! My QA experience, as well as knowledge for League of Legends as a whole were two large contributing factors to ending up here. I'm currently a QA Analyst on the Skins team.

I'd say my strengths include good attention to detail, solid communication skills, I'm able to keep my work organized and well documented, and I'm able to collaborate successfully in groups. I'm still improving on giving critical feedback, since I'm terrible at telling people what they can do better, buuuut, in the year I've been working here, I think I've improved. I'm also still working on perfecting a healthy work/life balance. (I tend to work a lot because I'm really interested in the content I'm working on).

If I were to offer any advice, I'd say the following -

  • Explore various aspects of the game industry - animation, programming, etc., to really get a good understanding for what you enjoy and would like to pursue.
  • Don't get discouraged! It takes a lot of time to perfect your craft and become an expert, but keep at it!
  • Don't be afraid to ask for feedback - critical feedback is a great way to improve! Learning to take and use critical feedback is a great skill to have.
  • Events such as GDC (Game Developers Conference), as well as job/career fairs are a great place to ask questions, or have your portfolio looked at.

Hope this helps a bit, and best of luck! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!

RiotSuperOmelette7/11/2015, 12:11:43 AM2 votes

I've been playing games since I was a young girl (Atari!). When I got older, I wanted to be a part of creating immersive experiences that bring people together that are fun. My path was through engineering, then to game engineering, and moving to product. It was a blend of concrete professional skills (in my case, programming) and passion/experience with gaming as a player that helped me get into the industry.

RiotScuttleChris7/11/2015, 12:22:18 AM2 votes

My origin story?

I grew up playing games (NES, Genesis, my parents got an 8086 computer with a 20 MEGABYTE harddrive and CGA monitor), which increased through college (then playing Starcraft and Civ).

I started studying English, but it was the height of the 2000 dot-com boom, and I decided that I could still study English, but major in Computer Science.

As a graduating programmer, I thought it would be way cooler to program games than enterprise software or databases. I was lucky there was a big shortage of programmers in general. Even today there is still a big shortage of great programmers, but back then some companies were hiring people who had taken 1 or 2 programming classes (so having majored in it gave me an advantage).

I got a job at a little-known game studio called Monster Games making NASCAR Heat games. It was super fun (they sent us to a race track to drive NASCARs and see what doing laps felt like so we could get it right for the game).

After about 4 years of programming I was looking for a different challenge, and went back to business school to study marketing. Again working in games seemed way more fun to me than working on marketing soap or detergent.

I joined Riot in 2009 to work in marketing and publishing and never looked back!

In terms of personal projects - maybe the way we develop at Riot can be helpful. In general, we do agile development. We plan work in 2-week chunks, and ideally you have a demo at the end of each 2-week chunk. Something everyone can play and interact with. That helps keep momentum going because you have something to show (at a minimum) every 2 weeks. Also we're working with lots of other gamers and talented professionals - which keeps things exciting. In college you'll probably find way more gamers/modders to work with (I know I did).

Kobold7/11/2015, 12:38:42 AM2 votes
I also notice a lot of times, I have problems doing solo projects. I love having help and helping. When I'm doing a personal project, I'll probably never finish it. I also get discouraged at my lack of skill a lot of times, and end up not practicing that skill JUST because I'm bad at it (Makes no sense, right?).

Are you me?