It’s a basic human need – for some even an obsession. Play time is a stress reliever, a much needed distraction, and arguably a self esteem builder for the winners. But another basic need that computer games can feed, is that of creation. Everyone loves to create. Whether it’s a five year olds finger painting hanging on the fridge, or Stephen Kings next great horror epic. Anyone with an emotion to express, story to tell, or movie to capture can do their thing.

I must confess to be a wanna-be game developer from way back. I first tinkered around with building games on a Commodore 64. And if I really want to date myself, I’ll confess to writing a very basic random number generator type game in Basic on a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer. Fortunately for the inspired gamers of today, the technology supporting game building has improved by several light years since then. From the simple to use yet powerful GameMaker from YoYo Games to the Unreal Editor (UnrealEd) that ships with the purchase of most games powered by the Unreal engine. This enables anyone who owns the game to create their very own version of the game using the same tools as the professionals.

It’s a beautiful world to live in, if you’ve got the itch to build games. Not only are the tools available, but the information on how to use them is freely given and discussed in forums all over the internet. A google of the term “game developer forums”, shows 194 million results. WOW! I’m sure they’re not all totally relevant, but as I puruse the top few entries, I see a few places where I’ve spent lots of time. Including, but not limited to GameDev, and IndieGamer forums. The latter being an offshoot of the independent gamers forum started by Steve Pavlina on his old Dexterity website, back when he was a legend in the world of independent gamers.

While the tools mentioned above work great for building and designing games, there is plenty of opportunity for other skilled artists to create for the gaming world. Digital artists are every bit if not more a part of game creations than programmers and designers. It’s the visual styling of a game that often sets it apart from the competition, and garners kudos from critics and fans alike. Musicians and sound effects artisans can have fun helping to build games these days. While music and sound effects can often be rather forgettable in games, (especially some of the derivative casual games clones), the really good ones auditory aficionados can really add a whole dimension to the gaming experience. Games like System Shock 2 (Irrational Studios), and the more recent Bioshock (2KGames) come to mind as benefited from some incredibly talented sounds and music.

So, don’t put it off any longer. If you’ve got the game builder itch, it’s time to scratch. You could be the next Leonardo Da Vinci of the game business. The world is waiting.

The first thing I did was contact game developers. Most of the companies that produce video games do not post ads in the daily classifieds or online like most other companies do. I am not sure why they don’t but I have never seen a job posting like that.

Search online for “a list of video game companies”. There are hundreds of companies that create video games that need beta testers. All you have to do is find these companies and present yourself to them. Make sure you are professional though, don’t just email them and say you want to test video games.

Create a resume. It might sound silly, but if you have a resume about your gaming experience then you will look much more professional and you will be more likely to get hired to test video games.

The next thing you need to do is follow up. Follow up with the companies that you talk to and let them know what systems you own and that you are available to start testing games immediately.

You will eventually get your first game to test and what you will also want to do is continue contacting companies to test games for. You are not actually employed by these companies so once you test a game for one company they may not have another game for you to test for a few months. It is a good idea to spend a few hours a day contacting companies asking to test games even if you already have plenty to test. You don’t want to run out of work.

Know what you’re getting into

Before you dive into becoming a video game programmer, spend a little time to research what working at a video game studio actually entails. You don’t want to spend time and effort becoming a video game programmer only to realize that it’s not what you were hoping for.

Working as a video game programmer takes a lot of effort. The work hours and deadlines can get stressful, especially near the end of a project. Talk with people who are in the video game business, either in person or online, about any questions you may have about the business.

Create your own games

Try your hand at making your own games at home to see what it’s like. You can start with simple projects first, such as basic text games or simple shooters. Grab a book on video game programming at your local bookstore (there are many to choose from) and dive in. C and Java are good programming languages to start out with.

Don’t try to create something too big or you’ll quickly get overwhelmed. The purpose of this is to learn what it’s like to make games and get a little experience, not to develop the next award winning MMORPG. Development studios will be more likely to hire you if you have a good project or two that you can include with your resume.

Go To College

Currently video game development studios are hungry for programmers. They spend a lot of money using headhunters to help them locate new people to hire. The good news is that once you are in the video game business, there are many opportunities for companies to work for. There are many different projects and locations that you can choose from. The bad news is that the studios can be very picky about hiring new employees with no previous video game programming experience. Therefore it can be very hard to get your foot in the door.

Going to college for a Computer Science degree and getting excellent grades is one of the best ways to show video game studios that you will be a competent and committed employee. The classes will also give you many of the skills that you need to work.

There are schools now that specialize in video game degrees, such as DigiPen. They are still relatively new and it’s not clear whether they increase your chances of getting a job in the video game industry.

Play Games

Know your games! The video game industry is changing at a breakneck pace, so it’s important to stay up to date with the new products. Play many different games every month to see what companies are doing now with video games.

Development studios want to make sure that they only hire programmers that are devoted to video games. Staying up to date with videogames is an excellent way to demonstrate this.