Indie developer resume for AAA studio?

Red · 07-29-2012, 01:24 PM

Hi guys!

I'm an indie game developer, and have been one for the past 5 years. I've never worked in any game studio before though, but I'm considering getting a designer position in a bigger studio, and was hoping to get some advise for my resume.

Now, I've release about 8 titles over the years, many on Flash and a few on Steam and iDevices. I'm the producer, designer and artist of my games, and got help from hired programmers and musicians. Few of my latest also manage to find moderate success in the indie community and got some nice reviews and coverage from IGN, Kotaku, etc.

Yet I'm not sure how these experience translate to these game companies, especially the bigger players, and what would they wants to know in my resume? I'm gear towards just focusing on my game design choices and point out the rest of the producing and artist stuff as additional skill sets and career highlights, mainly to keep the resume bite size and readable. What do you think? Am I on the right track? Or should I just throw everything in, as detail as I can?

Anyway, most of the other resume threads seems to be for fresh graduates, but I'm sure there's more cases like myself, self taught and stuff, but never worked in a game company before. Hopefully, we have someone with similar experience or if I'm lucky, someone in hiring position to give some advise

tsloper · 07-29-2012, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red

1. I'm an indie game developer, and have been one for the past 5 years... I've release about 8 titles ... I'm the producer, designer and artist of my games, and got help from hired programmers and musicians.
...most of the other resume threads seems to be for fresh graduates, but I'm sure there's more cases like myself
2. I'm not sure how these experience translate to these game companies, especially the bigger players, and what would they wants to know in my resume? I'm gear towards just focusing on my game design choices and point out the rest of the producing and artist stuff as additional skill sets and career highlights, mainly to keep the resume bite size and readable. What do you think? Am I on the right track? Or should I just throw everything in, as detail as I can?

1. Well, most people with the impressive amount of experience that you have don't have to ask the question you're asking. All you have to do is write a good resume and make a good portfolio. You've got all the beginnings of a good resume and portfolio. Now put it together.

2. Your paid work experience (and any products you released that made money) belong in your resume. Everything else goes into either your portfolio or your cover email. Read http://sloperama.com/advice/lesson27.htm and don't do any of the stupid tricks in http://sloperama.com/advice/lesson24.htm and you should be fine.

Red · 07-30-2012, 01:48 AM

Thanks for the reply, Tsloper. To be honest, the confusion is partly because I'm looking to relocate and hopefully at least get a mid level position and a reasonable salary. That's why I'm not sure if my experience is good enough to warrant me that, or maybe I can get a job, but entry level since I have no AAA experience.

As a game designer, I'm usually pretty confident about conveying message with my documents. But in this case, I'm hesitant as to how much to throw in. I do have quite a bit to include if I want to, things like includes the unique features, team size, review links, etc. but if it doesn't matter to the big company, I suppose I should just focus on my role as a designer and keep others to a minimum.

Anyway, thanks for the links. I'll be sure to read through before I work on my resume.