Ok, so what I did understand so far:

1. Theoretical experience is nothing. This is something I was quite aware of. I have seen how true this sentence is when I got employed for the first time ( also last time ), and I realized that I actually knew nothing ( I might exagerate a bit )

2. Field experience is nothing unless is related to games. Somehow, I did not expect this. As I said, I work for a year as an embedded software developer, which I find related to games somehow, at least in the sense that both of them have real-time constraints, and the project I have been working on for the last year might be considered by many persons quite interesting. I thought that this experience might help me somehow and give me some sort of advantage. It's heart breaking

3. Doing little programs and demos at home helps a lot. I have a hard time accepting this, and while I do such thing quite often, I do them just for fun, and I never thought that they could actually mean something for an employer. In fact, most of the projects made at home have been deleted from my hard drive for a long time. I never actually considered them real projects.

4. A little bit of self confidence never hurts.

5. The game industry is not the best industry to work within. While this might be real, the desire to be there is too strong, at least in my case. Anyway, I got a lot of time ahead to convince myself if this holds true or not.

Bottom line: I should hold my horses for now, and improve myself for a while, before attempting to enter the industry. Thank you for sharing your opinions.

1. It's the basis for practical knowledge. While it doesn't really "count" for studios when hiring, it does count for you personally to be able to develop your skills to a point where you can apply this knowledge to build your portfolio.

2. This is not entirely true. It just counts less. Previous work experience shows you're experienced in keeping a job and have more experience in actually "working" than a fresh graduate.

3. Projects help a ton, but do finish them. Many have dozens of small demos, very few have a polished finished project.
A single finished project is worth more than a dozen different tech demos.

4. Never hurts, but don't be over confident http://en.wikipedia....g–Kruger_effect is a trap many fall into.

5. Honestly, many paint it in horrible ways, but how many people can say they wake up in the morning and look forward to heading off to work? I know I can.
It's not an industry for everyone, but it's an amazing industry if it's for you. I'm surrounded by clever intelligent people who teach me something new every day.
And you don't even hear me complaining when I dive into our 12 year old legacy code base written in crunch time.


Finally, game programmers are in very heavy demand. Now is a pretty good time to jump the bandwagon .
Many studios have open programmer positions they just can't fill, many are willing to hire juniors to train instead.

I have no idea what happened to some people to make them consider the game industry so horrible. I consider that I have yet to work a day in my life. Every day I happily commute 40 minutes to my place of work, and I hate commuting. But I don’t care because the job is so fun.
A coworker annoys me to no end and I can’t do anything because he is a senior compared to myself, but I keep a smile because I enjoy the job that much more than his level of annoyance can reach.

I awaken happily every day because I live in my dream city, Tokyo. It was my intention to live here since I was young. Why was I able to do it? Thanks to the game industry. Which by the way also took me to France and Thailand, with business trips to Malaysia, America (my home country, where I have never actually worked, except for the one business trip (go figure)), and 2 other countries.

My previous company wanted me to work overtime. According to Japanese style, although I am doing more and harder work than my coworkers, because I leave on-time I show less dedication to the company. To show my dedication I should work at least 4 extra hours daily. Hence you have all these stereotypes about Japanese who work work work. And they aren’t just stereotypes.
Funny thing is this was NTT DoCoMo, the phone company. Not making games.
In my case, not making games was more troublesome than making games (I have always exclusively made games except for 2 months at NTT DoCoMo and 1 day at Morgan Stanley).

So I left. Simple as that. At my new company, my salary is doubled, my self-respect for what I do/make (which includes Final Fantasy games) is higher, and I am not judged based on how long I stay at the office. 8 hours including a lunch break and everyone except a few leave. And this is Japan.

Your career is what you make it. You need to remember that your oyster is not just your country, not just America, but the world.
I have no threat of being bought out. Not by Zynga, Electronic Arts, anyone (and if you ask me the best example of a company buying other companies is Zynga, whom I really don’t like).

I found a relaxed work environment in Japan, a country known for its terrible labor system and 16-hour work days. So I am fairly sure you can very easily find one in America. Or Thailand or France. Do keep in mind that as an English speaker you do have the entire world at your fingertips, not just your own country.


L. Spiro

Spiro, your post is wonderful. while reading it, I was thinking about a friend in Japan, who has problem finding work. But he has also the language problem, since he is Italian and doesn't know very well other languages. He tries to study japanese, but for an Italian I think it's very difficult to learn.

Anyway, you are right about stereotypes, and I always thought about the 16 hour work in Japan, (and I know people working for 16 hours, anyway, so it's a stereotype but also a little truth, hehe).

I know also about workers refusing holidays, to show dedication to the company.

But let's go back to your post, it's a wonderful Tokio diary page, you wrote with your heart and I'm very happy that you found your dream work.

About mine, my dream work is music and I'm proud of it. And strangely, while other artists relax themselves with music, as a musician, I relax myself with 3d art (and absolute silence, of course!).

Thanks for your post, it's been great to read you

Spiro, your post is wonderful. while reading it, I was thinking about a friend in Japan, who has problem finding work. But he has also the language problem, since he is Italian and doesn't know very well other languages. He tries to study japanese, but for an Italian I think it's very difficult to learn.

Even language barriers have no meaning as long as you speak English (and I have no idea of your friend’s English level, but since it is easier for Italians to learn I would suggest learning it before learning Japanese, even if your goal is only to live in Japan).
As I mentioned I lived in Thailand, France, and Japan, and in every case I did not speak the language until living there for a while. So what did I speak in every case? English. Yes I do currently speak Thai, French, and Japanese, but not when I first started living in each of those countries.

From personal experience I recommend you suggest to your friend that learning English takes priority, even if he actually lives in Japan. Take this job offer for example:
http://www.tri-ace.co.jp/en/recruit/category/programer.html#programer_02
“Though Japanese skills are not necessary, English skills are required.”

This is a growing trend here, as Japanese companies are starting to realize the world does not revolve around Japan, especially when it comes to games. I can say from personal experience that English will take you everywhere you need to go if you do not have good Japanese skills. Japanese is necessary for some things, but not for getting a good job. As I mentioned before, English speakers (specifically) have the world open to them.


L. Spiro