Internship Experience at Level Infinite (Tencent Thailand)
As a third-year Business student in Thailand, I have intense passion in the Game Industry both locally and internationally. Before interning at Tencent, I had done a fine share to game development projects and internship, but had never touched game publishing. As far as I knew, game developers and publishers are in a siblings-like relationship: we either get along really well or be at each others’ throat all the time.
This is a story of a Game Developer entering the world of Game Publishing.
Before I digress any further, this blog is all about my internship at the Game Publishing department at Tencent Thailand and my first day was a total culture shock. Why you ask? Well, the workload just isn’t the same. I was prepared for a task-dump with a strict deadline. Instead, I was given systematic daily tasks that are meant to be completed day by day. Whereas I was expecting unlimited grunt work with no limits, I actually received a lot of tasks that go on to become a foundation of something impactful. And whereas I expect the meetings to discuss how to game would function, they would instead discuss how people would view the game as it currently is. In hindsight, developers and publishers are really like a pair of siblings: they grew up in the same background but their difference couldn’t be any larger.
Alas, the company treated me very well: I was given tasks suited to my work pace, seats to the most meaningful meetings, and very warm welcome without much prejudice from all my seniors.
As a Game Publisher, you are the overseer of the game’s public image. You look for discordances in the community and fix them, find opportunities to strike non-in-game events, and make sure that the in-game assets looks good enough to launch. As an intern, you support your seniors in doing these tasks. Things to note is that most of the tasks are all related to Marketing in general. If that is not your cup of tea, then you would not find yourself enjoying much of this job.
Finally, I would like to give advices to those who are interested in Game Publishing. If you like games, it would not hurt to try. While it is true that the job is more of a marketing job than a game job, working to promote and sell successful games that you recognize from the side of consumer may be very exhilarating. The point of internships is not to just learn real-work skills, but to also find your future-self within. If there is a slight interest in you but you are still not so sure, please do not hesitate and just apply.
