3 Ways to Get On To Game Teams (Even Not as a Dev)

I love gaming. I played at a high level before it was mainstream as it is today. My parents didn’t like that and were rigid in their decision to make me go and pursue something else. So I did (er… kinda) until we founded Unnamed.gg, and I returned to what I’m passionate about. The following three ways get easier as you go down the list.

I’d love to leak some alpha… DM me for the pic

1. Most Difficult: Develop

I know, I know. You’re not technical. A short time ago, I was not either. It takes time, but you can gain the skills needed to develop your games or someone else’s in no time. There are TONS of resources available, and more are produced every day. Here are some of my favorites:

1. https://www.udemy.com/user/vladimir-limarchenko/ — Awesome course by a pretty rad dude. Disclosure: I’ve worked with him BECAUSE I found him through Udemy, so that’s a bonus.
2. https://www.edx.org/course/cs50s-introduction-to-game-development — Harvard released a bunch of courses for free on EDX. This is one of them.
3. https://www.codecademy.com/catalog/subject/game-development — They recently rebranded and are okay. Middle of the pack and the cost is a bit high IMO, but the value is there
4. https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-to-code-rpg-1-5-update/ — Any FreeCodeCamp course I’ll endorse. It’s in the name.
5. YouTube Selects:
   Unity: https://www.youtube.com/c/CodeMonkeyUnity
   General: https://www.youtube.com/c/SebastianLague

It won’t be easy, and you’ll go through many ups and downs, but it ultimately gets you there. If you’re looking for another way into the industry, keep reading.

2. Medium Difficulty: Marketing

I’m tempted to put this as the most difficult because people underrate how difficult marketing truly is. I don’t mean creating a sheet of Tweets to send out daily (although that’s part of it). A true marketer understands the audience and knows how to grow it x over y daily. Some of this can be learned, but most of it needs to be worked out (or inherent, you lucky few) the same way you would a bicep.

One of our recent marketing campaigns for FutureProof (a game we’re building). Check it out here: https://clicktothemoon.com

Here’s the difficulty with marketing: it’s hard to pinpoint what works. You can look at a game that’s launched, dissect its go-to-market strategy, and land on the one that worked for them, but it may not work for you. Example: Blizzard launched Overwatch 2. How did they market it? They said, on all channels, “We’re launching OW2.” That is repeatable.

The best marketers come up with strategies that use my patent-pending formula (it’s not) that I love (and if you can do any of this, please DM me at @GuyettAaron on Twitter any time):

The Marketing How-To

1. Make something simple. In coding, we call this KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). You need a tagline, phrase, one-liner, mission statement, or anything that your new or existing fanbase can repeat FOR YOU. They are the ones truly doing the marketing. How can they convince others to market your game if they don’t know what it is?
2. Present a unique hook. This can be a differentiator, earnings potential (sigh), a unique approach to marketing (like the one above), a celebrity interested in the game, a new genre, or ANYTHING. You need a hook. This is not the hard part, though.
3. Tell other people about it and get them to buy in. This is the hardest part. “But Aaron, I can go on Twitter and get 100,000 followers to shill and retweet my game to their friends. That’s easy.” Sure it is, pal. The problem is, on launch day, you’ll have sub-1,000 users and be out of a job. It’s hard to get people to buy in. You need to be creative and willing to listen and willing to give away something.
4. Finally, and not most importantly (no. 3 is most important), be present. You can get a job, start a company, or build a game by being present. Others call this building in public. The idea here is that you are on socials, responding on Reddit, messaging users in Discord, absorbing all industry knowledge, and paving the way to be an influencer for your game every day.
   Every
   SINGLE
   DAY

Again, if you think you can do this (and a couple of other things, of course), shoot me a DM. These skill sets are rare and hard to train.

3. Easiest: Testing and Community

Early alpha games suck, but you can help make them better. This one is the one many of you may not like because it will feel like it has the littlest payoff and starts slow. You are wrong about the first part. Game testers and community managers (mods, influencers, and the like) are all needed to have a successful game. Most game studios know this and are always looking for people who are diehard fans. They want you to buy into them early when others won’t and will give you things for doing so. Sometimes, this is even training (without them even realizing it).

In a connected world, there are a lot of channels for you to find and interact with game teams or even start your own.

Now, all of these take effort. This one takes effort and is not the easiest to track. You won’t know if you’re making progress, but you can easily tell if you’re impacting the project you’re working with/on. You’ll need to interact in all the places possible with the brand if you’re not a part of the project and support newcomers to the brand. It’s as simple as reaching out and asking what they need from you. Eventually, if it is a rock-solid brand/game, they’ll find a way to compensate you for your efforts. Most games need TONS of alpha testers and don’t know where to find them. Be that person and help ’em out. Gives you some resume experience and lets you learn the ins and outs of the industry.

All These Seem Hard

They are, kind of. If you are passionate about something, you’ll find a way to make it happen. This is a short article on how to do so. If you want to dive in, you’ll spend the time digging and finding out exactly how you want to get into the game industry. There’s always the option of reaching out to every person you can think of on Twitter and asking for a job at their game studio. Just DM me first!

Aaron is the technical co-founder of Unnamed.gg, a game and Web3 studio currently producing two games: FutureProof, a tactics PvP game with some deck builder elements, and Project Ocean, a secret project in the works at QuarterMachine.io which he also owns. In his spare time, he ponders what to do with his spare time.

Follow me on Twitter: @GuyettAaron and ask for a job or advice any time!