Gwendolyn Stickney

Practice interviews can be incredibly valuable. Especially after you've been through something traumatic like a layoff or a toxic work environment. Find someone you know well, someone you trust; if you don't have anyone like that, reach out and find someone (www.amirsatvat.com has resources). It's important that you pick someone who can give you critique and someone you can hear it from. One of the things that we do in every interview, whether we're conscious of it or not, is to frame our own work in relation to the experiences we have had. There are a lot of potential pitfalls in that beyond the obvious bad-mouthing of people and companies. For example, I've interviewed a lot of senior production leaders over the last few years. Several of them have related situations where they were not able to get higher-level alignment among stakeholders - this is extremely common in game development. But, how you relate that experience makes a tremendous amount of difference. If you focus on how frustrating it was, how blocking the stakeholders were, how impossible it was to make progress because of that issue, that doesn't put you in the best light. As a production leader, I expect you to resolve issues like that. If, on the other hand, you focus on how you got the team to work around the blocking issue, how you got the stakeholders into alignment, how you forced accountability into leadership on the lack of alignment - now we're talking. Every story you tell in an interview gives the people you are talking to a window into what working with you is going to be like. If you're not aware of your own unconscious framings when you're telling these stories, you may be putting their focus on the wrong places. Practice telling those stories with people who have the right ear to call out the false notes that are coming up. Again, especially after a highly emotional event, you're likely bringing emotional contexts to your stories without even being aware of it. You wouldn't walk up to the mound at a baseball game without having practiced your pitch. Get your reps in on interviewing, and it will pay off.

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🎮 Want a job in the video game industry? 🎮 Begin with the end in mind.* ➡ When you drive to work do you just turn left or right based on how you feel that day? 😅 (I hope you left extra early that day) ➡ When you gather data for a project, do you grab monthly active users, popular breakfast items and breeds of dog? 🤐 (This report might be fun but your boss will not be happy) ➡ When you schedule a doctor appointment, do you call random numbers in the phone book? 🙃 The same applies to...well...applying for jobs. ❔ Do you look at the minimum requirements for a job or do you click easy apply on cool titles? (Although, I might as well shoot my shot for Game Director) ❔ Do you update your resume with your most relevant experience when you apply? What is your desired outcome? Work backwards and you'll see at least some of the steps in a path to get there. This is not easy to do, because there is no perfect way to be the best fit for a job. Everyone's journey is different. What steps have you taken to get to your goal or how have you been successful in your journey? *One possible end goal pictured #Letsgetyouhired #RecruiterAdvice

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At Uncapped Games I'm helping to develop my favorite game I've ever worked on professionally by far... and surprisingly it's an RTS. This is surprising because I (unlike nearly the whole team who are RTS powerhouses), have basically no RTS experience at all. Fire up Super Smash Bros and I may have a shot to impress, but RTS has been a huge - and fun - mental shift for me! ...and somehow, I've gotten pretty good! (At our game at least 😅). Very excitingly, we're on the schedule to say more about our game at SGF ( https://lnkd.in/e5uDTwZp ) in June, but now, kicking things off so to speak, we've put out a really cool documentary that explains some of our philosophies, hopes, and goals. If you're an RTS nerd - or just curious to learn more, check it out: https://lnkd.in/eQpxP3WZ

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I'm always slightly amused when game design discussions get heated, because it betrays a perception gap between What We Do (incredibly difficult technical art) and What We Offer (entertainment). For example, how long did your team spend on fine-tuning the animation design and player feel of hero movement? How many rigorous debates were had over the balance of animation expressiveness versus input responsiveness, and how that weaves into the overall user experience and product promise? Add those hours up, and multiply by the emotional intensity of said conversations. Now compare the size of your playerbase to that of a game where you click a banana. (spoiler: your game has less players 😅 ) Maybe you're overthinking it. Maybe most of us are! Embrace the jank. 🍌 Have a banana.

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🎮 Want a job in the video game industry? 🎮 ➡ Proactive - creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened ➡ Reactive - to be ready to react or respond to something else Are you Proactive or Reactive in your job search? 1. Open to work banner on 2. Following favorite companies 3. Notifications from those companies (the bell icon in the top right) 4. Clicking on the "People" tab on the career page to find employees to follow on Linkedin to absorb their wisdom There's no one way to get a job. There's only the way that finally works for you individually. It is super tough right now. Any questions or comments? Advice for fellow job seekers? Put it below in the comments and we'll see if we can help. #Letsgetyouhired #RecruiterAdvice

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Creating games is very difficult. And building games is challenging. The process of build requires to compile the code and all the data required in the game in a specific sequence involving many dependencies. As such monitoring the outcome is essential, but not sufficent. What if we were able to predict the outcome of a build ? What if we were able to decrease the required computing resources while increasing our iteration capability ? #Ubisoft #Ubisoftlaforge #innovation

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One phrase that keeps coming up from big game publishers when trying to justify their layoffs and cuts is this, "the market is oversaturated." They're intelligent enough to identify that fact and blame it on enhancements to technology and accessibility, but they don't appear to have been intelligent enough to acknowledge that their habitual hiring/firing practices have contributed directly to the market's oversaturation that is now harming their growth. I can almost guarantee that every one of you reading this knows multiple people who have started their own indie studios, joined an indie studio, or become solo developers following the disillusionment they experienced due to the current widespread job insecurity in AAA games. These companies have identified the problem while simultaneously contributing to the problem, because the ability to think in terms of short-term financial gains does not equate to the ability to think in terms of human behavior. Unless employment in AAA becomes truly equitable - and I'm talking about what will take years of shows good faith, of creating and maintaining steady full time employment for everyone across the board (that means doing away with a lot of temporary contract work), that means no more leaving the creators out to dry - the future of games will belong to Indie developers. There will at some point be a decisive shift in power if there is not active, intentional, and equitable change made by the people in positions of power. I'm not saying this with hope that the indie devs will win out above AAA. Not at all. I want both to thrive, and to everything there must be a balance. I've been far more enmeshed within and therefore very hopeful about the future of AAA games throughout my career, and I still dream of a world in which AAA game devs on every rung of the ladder have steady and unshakable lifelong employment within that world. It IS possible, and it HAS been possible. But as long as greed is at the wheel, that dream will not become a reality outside of independent studios. And that's just the truth of it. What can you do? In whatever capacity you are able, do what you can to create a more honest, decent, and equitable world. You can do this in your company, you can do this in your personal life with the people you meet. Take every little opportunity to do something good, because every good act plants a seed. We simply haven't had enough little good acts, and that shows up in in society in big, big ways. Peace to you. -B

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🎮Monthly External Game Dev Pulse🎮 I’m on a personal mission to broaden my awareness and gain an ongoing pulse into the landscape of External Development in the Video Games industry. Video Games is an industry that I have been employed in for nearly 20 years, with External Development covering much of this tenure. I love it, I live and breathe it, and I’ll be doing this until I’m much older and wrinklier. I care about seeing this industry continuing to thrive, and I believe that the flexibility, scalability, and diversity of expertise in External Development can be a key component in supporting the industry as the landscape begins to (hopefully) restabilize. As such, I am starting a monthly pulse survey to gain regular snapshots in time of the industry-wide vision on External Development, with an aim to provide Video Games professionals the data needed to lean on external development to create increased development stability. To help with this mission, I am asking the community to please take 5-10 minutes completing this 5-question survey. I plan to release these pulse surveys on a monthly basis, and as a thank you I will share key data and insights with this community on Linkedin. This survey is open to participation for those working in External Development in the Video Games industry as a Service Provider, Developer or Publisher. I hope that this personal initiative will help many throughout the industry, whether you are involved in external development, hoping to learn more about external development, or interested in learning more about options for industry stabilization. I hope for a large pool of diverse participants, so if you see the value in this initiative please do share this post with your network. If you have any feedback for how the most can be made of this initiative, or improve the questionnaire for future releases, please let me know your perspectives through a Linkedin message. Thank you.

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🚨 Two weeks remaining to submit your indie games for my LinkedIn community #LiGDA Showcase!!!🚨 Submissions will close on June 17th! From there I'll pick the best entries, notify those that won, and cut together a fun video showing off everyone's awesome work. Winners can add the "LiGDA Award Winner" to their resumes as an extra boost, and everyone will vote on the absolute best entry which will receive an extra post and team member callouts. Here are the rules: 1. The game can be currently in development, or released this year. 2. Must have video footage of the game (so I can actually add it to a showcase!) 3. Must have a company Linkedin page in order for me to give a callout in the winners post. That's it! Thanks all! Please share this far and wide. :)

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🖥 🥷It is Release Day for the PC EDITION of Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut! One of my personal greatest games of all time. Played it for 80 hours within a week. It's THAT good. If you haven't played it yet or you're thinking about another playthrough, here's the link: https://lnkd.in/gkRQyEVy Big shoutout to Nixxes Software for porting to PC. This game looked beautiful on the PS4/PS5, I can't wait to see what this game looks like on a decked out PC. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I will! ⚡ *disclaimer: this is my personal unofficial promotion of the product because I love the game. srsly, if you haven't played it, please do, it's a gem of a game. #Ghostoftsushima #steam #playstation #pc #jinsakai

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Great list of companies and resources here -- bookmark this one!

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I found a question on Reddit about "How to go from highly technical career game programmer to solo dev game designer?." This subject fills me with interest because both areas of video game creation are presented so differently even when they are forever intertwined. How many times you have played a video game with perfect gameplay mechanics that it's boring as hell? This was my answer to the question from this programmer. I'm going to tell you what works in my case, but have in consideration that every path can be different. I started studying and reading a lot of content related to games and level design. Yes, I know that there are many YouTube tutorials, but I went back to the previous technology: Books. What is important in any type of learning is the structure methodology. Try to avoid leaving holes without explanation. That's a killing approach when you're learning new basic concepts. Remember, you don't know about this, or even worse, you still don't know how much you don't know. This is my recommendation based on books I've read that help me understand the intricacies of video game design and level design. From the most essential to the less, here's my list: - The Art of Game Design - Jesse Schell - An Architectural Approach to Level Design - Christopher W. Totten - Level Design for Games - Phil Co - Level Up - Scott Rogers The other part is to try to connect with your gamers of the game genre you're creating. Start building a relationship so they can provide you with some feedback and ideas to improve your game. Be open to listen and to test ideas. Post Saturdays on Twitter (X) using #screenshotsaturday and ask for feedback. This will help you build a fan base and get ideas/suggestions for free. Finally, to continue my education in that area I listen to podcasts related to game design. Perspectives from other designers will help you big time. One more little thing I purchased, was the Master Class of "Will Wright - Teaches Game Design and Theory." He's a master of the art of game design. To close this post, remember that I'm creating an educational program with live sessions to mentor and teach people about how to become a successful video game creator. You can't be only a game developer, a game designer, or a level designer. You need to build your career with intention and follow a path and a strategy. If you're interested in becoming part of this project, I'm doing a group of interviews to collect information and design the content of this educational program. Reserve your time to talk with me here: https://lnkd.in/gPYJeadb Have a great journey! Tony #GameDesign #GameDevelopment #SoloDev #IndieGameDev #GameProgramming #LevelDesign #GameDesigner #GameDevCommunity #GameDevTips #LearnGameDesign #GameDesignBooks #GameDesignLearning #GameDesignJourney #GameDevResources #MasterClass

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So excited to take this course! Alex's first course, First Principles of Game Design, kick-started my game journey. I can only imagine this course will be an amazing continuation of my game design education ~ Alex is where and how I got started in my game design journey and education. I cannot recommend him enough.

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EDIT: I appreciate everyone's interest, but we've found our new DD. Offer accepted last night. Game Producers: Going fast, but we're hiring a Development Director on my team. This is a mid-to-senior level production role, based in the US working remote (from approved states) focusing on process and general skills. We are actively interviewing, but still open to a last minute unicorn if you'd like to get in to the process before we make our decision. My ideal candidate fills all of the following (READ these, don't just reach out blind): - At LEAST 5 years experience in production (DD, Producer, PGM, TPM) IN the game industry, with a STRONG preference toward LiveOps/MMOs. If you don't have actual experience working on a live service game, that means we have to train you into the role - and I need someone who can not only come in strong, but can help level us up. You've been there, you know the drill, you've learned the hard way what works and more importantly, what does NOT. - Real scrum experience. Our team is undergoing an agile transformation as I write this and that means I need someone to help with that. The CSM or PSM-1 is the minimum price of admission here, but I need actual boots-on-the-ground experience in running agile teams, preferably with experience helping with a waterfall-to-scrum transformation ON a live game. - More than just a "pod leader" or scrum master. If you've got a lot of experience with running stand-ups, sprint plannings, and moving tasking on Jira boards, that's great. I need you to also be able to become an expert in the game, understand issues that relate to player expectations, live market sales, in-game event planning, greenlighting content. The best candidates are more than just production - they're a little bit design, a little bit product, and a little bit magician. - You've got a system for that. I'm going to ask you how you come up with your dates. I'm going to ask you how you validate your reports. I'm going to ask you how you assess risk, how you track your team's health, how you update leadership, how you make sure we're on course. I'm going to want to hear your systems you've created or used more than just how you personally do it all yourself. If we've worked together in some capacity and you'd like to talk to us about this OR you know someone I should talk with, reach out asap. This role is not going to stay up for long as we're already actively interviewing.

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I was recently interviewed by Conor Ross about my role at Summit Games Studio , the state of the industry and much more, watch the full interview below

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Do you want to level up your game dev team? Do you want to learn some of the magic that makes some of the greatest games? Alex's course is a great place to start. And if you have designers on staff you think would benefit, I highly recommend this bootcamp. #bootcap #gamedesign

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They say opposites attract. But yin and yang can be boring. Think about the 70:30 rule when preparing pieces for your portfolio. Details are good, but too many details in a scene can be overwhelming. The work can become disorienting and unfocused. 70% Open - free space to let your eyes rest 30% Detail - focusable detail. An example of this could be in hard surface modeling. While maintaining detail within the asset, you want the model to be as readable as possible. However, don’t just think of this within the mesh of the asset. This rule can also apply to the texture, color, and composition of the piece as well as many other aspects of the piece such as lighting and shapes. Of course, rules can be 𝑏𝑟𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑛 but if you break them, do it well and with intention.

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In the past couple years, tens of thousands of talented game devs, who had no hand in the decisions that led to their studios' financial situations, were laid off. This has left them scrambling to find a foothold in a dumpster fire of a job market. You know who isn't desperately trying to find enough income to support their family, manage healthcare, and imagine a possible future in this industry? Every exec who did have responsibility for the financial realities, including: Matt Booty, Microsoft Sarah Bond, Microsoft Jeff Strain, Prytania Media Annie Strain, Prytania Media Strauss Zelnick, Take Two Shuji Utsumi, Sega America How many devs have to have their existing careers derailed and futures put at risk before an executive gets laid off (without severance)? What's the acceptable ratio?

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Tip for publishing consideration submission to Midwest Games... tldr - Send info through our portal (https://lnkd.in/gWtKgpuU), not through email (or LI). I get that it's a little counter-intuitive...you might think you want to put your info right in front of the sourcing decision influencers' faces. But it's actually a disadvantage - especially those of you who are agents throwing multiple titles at us at once. The submission portal goes right to our database, and that database is there for a reason: to keep an organized and consistent record of all submissions in one place. I look through there all the time. I'm reminded of titles I may have overlooked or need to go back to consider as circumstances change all the time. We rarely, if ever, make immediate decisions or even quick deep review/consideration. Our factors for consideration shift regularly. I do not review your particular email regularly, or at some point even remember you sent one. I go to the database. Connection via other channels is good. Discussion about your game over other channels is good. But having your core game info in those channels is not good. Please use the submission portal!

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