One of the advantages to putting off writing my articles till the last minute is that occasionally a topic will pop up that grabs my attention so hard that—since I haven’t yet written the article I was supposed to—I can share it with you immediately. I got an email yesterday that asked what is not only a very common question, but also a pretty important one:

How does one break into the gaming industry?

I actually had a bit of a back and forth with the player who emailed me yesterday and I’ve printed both e-mails he sent as well as both of my replies.

In your article last week you asked for opinions on what characters deserved (or could handle) teams of their own. You'll probably call shenanigans on this but He-Man, Master of the Universe is the archtypical team leader. This isn't as far out as you think. My friend Heath, an incredible comic book collector, showed me an issue where Superman stumbled into a battle with Skeletor and He-Man on Eternia. Not only do I think He-Man has a cult following strong enough to support interest in a team, but if he is a DC property, then he's ready to go for that universe.

Imagine the Prince Adam character that you KO to search for He-Man,
Man-at-Arms and his equip abilities, Ram Man and his fantastically stupid attack method. I'm a classic fan of He-Man from the original series (complete with action figures in an attic somewhere) and the Vs. System has made all the right moves in my book. I think combining the two would be outstanding.

Peace, R. O.

Here’s what I wrote back:


I too was/am a fan of classic He-Man. I've seen a couple episodes of the newer show, and it actually looked pretty good. I agree it would be pretty cool to do in Vs. (though I know for at least the near future the plan is to keep Vs. strictly Super-Heroes). Either way, I'll have to check out if DC has given us access to the property.

Thanks for your input,

Danny Mandel

PS Is your email (heleghast) by any chance from the Lone Wolf series of gamebooks?


Couple things: While I’m not going to call “shenanigans”, I am more interested in hearing which Marvel and DC characters—or other super-hero comics or characters—you think should get their own teams. I guess it could be argued that He-Man is a super-hero, but I’m going to invoke the “C’mon! You know what I mean!” rule.

It important to mention the PS in my reply. You see, the Lone Wolf series of gamebooks by Joe Dever (not to be confused with the comic, Lone Wolf and Cub) was one of my earliest introductions to gaming. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the series was essentially a bunch of well-written Choose-Your-Own adventures or Endless Quests with heavy continuity between the books. Also, like in most RPGs, you had a character sheet complete with your Combat Skill, your Endurance, a list of your chosen Disciplines (there were ten and you could choose five), the contents of your backpack (which could hold up to eight items), your weapons, your belt pouch (where you kept your gold crowns), and your special items. You were this character named Lone Wolf, the last surviving member of his order of semi-magical monk/rangers, who eventually goes onto to become a great hero.

I stumbled across these books back in the sci-fi section of Waldenbooks when I was a little kid and I was immediately hooked. (There’s just something about second-person story-telling that really makes you feel a part of the action.) So when I noticed R.O.’s email featured the word Heleghast (which is slight variation/typo on this really scary undead monster from the books) I had to ask about it.

(For those of you interested in finding out more on the Lone Wolf books, check out projectaon.org, where they’ve been reproducing the gamebooks online, or the very new Lone Wolf RPG from Mongoose Publishing.)


Danny,

Yeah, you got it, I was a huge Lone Wolf fan. (Actually it's a typo, Helghast only has one “e.”) Maybe you know Grey Star too, more obscure but a great delve into Bandeon's Magi Brotherhood. My older neighbor hooked me on those and DnD's original basic set in the red box when I was about nine. Mind-altering substances like those should carry warnings.

I know this is an illegal segue, but since I have your attention for a moment (and I hate to punish you for that), I could use a word of advice. I have firmly decided that I will be happier doing anything in the design of CCGs, RPGs, or boardgames for $18k a year than whatever I will make with my PhD once I get out of here. I can't justify not doing what I love, it seems like a wasted life not to. And I know that sounds a bit Thich Nat Han, but its honest.

Anyways, I have no idea how to go about getting into the industry. You're there, you're qualified, and I thought you could tell me how you did it. I am absolutely serious about this. If you suggested I go get a job in the mailroom at TSR or some such thing, I'd be there. My free time at home and idle time at work consist of creating storylines and game mechanics, which never seem to get completed cause work (that doesn't include magic lore of elven races, for some reason!) keeps interrupting. I want to devote myself to these things. I know all you can do is show me the door, but if you do, I'll walk through.

Alright man, thanks for replying to my first email and taking the time to read this off subject one. Any advice you could send my way would be appreciated, but I am going to keep trying either way. Oh, and BTW, was it just me or was it incredibly tricky to get through the mountains outside Hammerdale without Animal Kinship? Man, what a world.

Peace, R. O.


Okay, so now we get to the million-dollar question. Be forewarned of a couple of things:

I didn’t realize I was going to put this into an article until I was pretty much done which is why . . .

I pretty much geek out for the first the first part of my reply.

I have put some notes for you guys in the body of my reply in [brackets].
 

R.O.,

Yeah, I looked up Helghast (to make sure) before replying to you so I knew if it was really from Lone Wolf, it would be a typo (though I didn't want to mention that).

Actually, Grey Star was the first one I picked up. Those toad monsters near the end did me in my first time through. I found that series more challenging than LW (or Freeway Warrior for that matter) especially because Healing is just a broken discipline. I really liked the Willpower mechanic in Grey Star. It was a value you had some control over. With the Kai Disciplines you either had one or you didn't, but the Willpower resource system forced you to be choosey about using your magic.

[Told you I geeked out. In case you’re wondering, Healing was a power that you could choose in the Lone Wolf books which let you gain an endurance point for every numbered section you’d turn to—kind of like every time you turned the page. Trust me on the broken-ness. In the Grey Star spin-off, you got to be a wizard with all kinds of different magic on which you had to spend Willpower points.]

Have you read the Magnamund Companion? It was a one-shot magazine style book that included a mini adventure where you played Banedon himself.

I think my favorite book was Shadow on the Sand (book 5) because the opening chase sequence was hella cool (especially if your arm got infected...)

[Seriously, while these books are kind of aimed at a younger audience, there were really well-written and full of incredibly dramatic moments. Man, I’m a geek . . .]

I'm sure you're aware that there's a Lone Wolf RPG now. Have you seen this site?

www.projectaon.org

And yeah, Animal Kinship is necessary unless you take the magic spear out of that wounded Helghast (and don't give it away to that other guy).

[Okay, here’s where I actually start talking about “real stuff”]

About the industry . . . well the bad news is there's this whole catch-22 thing going on where they (and by "they," I mean pretty much any company, including UDE) only want someone with experience which means you can't *get* experience unless you already *have* experience. It's really a tough situation. More on this in a minute . . .

The way I got in was first a little luck and then a lot of luck. It was almost entirely a right place/right time situation. I played on the Magic Pro Tour for a little over two years as part of a relatively famous testing team called Your Move Games. About a year ago, when the Vs. System engine was still in development, they brought out a bunch of YMG guys (including me) to help work on the game as contractors. I did a good job (as did everyone), and they hired me full time to work on the game. So basically, I was good at Magic and happened to be on a strong team. I was given an opportunity to work on a game based on those factors, and fortunately, I ended up being good at it.

Note: Before I got this job I applied for jobs at several game companies hoping to get an interview based on my Magic experience and the fact that I managed a hobby game store for two years—and I never even got a reply to my applications.

Okay, so what can you do to get in the industry? In no particular order . . .

1. Build up your resume. This means volunteering, playtesting, and so on with game companies (it's especially good to build up the areas that you're most interested in—if you’re shooting for a TCG job, build up your knowledge of TCGs).

2. Make yourself a known quantity. It's not that hard to get a volunteer position, especially at conventions, and most game companies end up hiring people that have worked/volunteered for the company in some capacity. Of course if you suck—no offense—you're going to have trouble, but we're operating under the assumption that you don't suck.

3. Hone your skills. Making games requires talent and it requires skill. Talent you either got or you don't (again, let's assume that you do), but skills you can develop. You should play lots of different games. Get a sense of what makes games tick from the inside out. Ask yourself what makes each game fun (or where it falls short). Break things down. Ask yourself what's fun or not fun about individual parts of a game. Think about the strengths and weaknesses of different games, and not just with the play experience but also other issues—how expandable is it, whether or not there’s enough replay value, how difficult it is to learn, how difficult it is to get good at, how much of the play experience is luck-based or draw dependent, how much of the play experience feels luck-based or draw dependent (presentation and what's actually happening are often two different things), and so on.

Learn to think like a game-maker. I know it sounds silly, but most prospective developers remain stuck in the mode of thinking like a player. While it's important to look through the player's eyes, it’s at least as important to understand what's really going on in the game behind what is presented to the player. In Vs., the two card draw is sexier that a one card draw, ("Hey, I get twice as many new cards!") but it also changes the strategy vs. tactics ratio of the game. Your opening hand has four cards when you decide to mulligan or not, but by turn 2, you've doubled your hand size. This means more decisions "in the moment" as opposed to long-term planning.

When we interview prospective developers we pretty much concentrate all firepower on TCG knowledge both of the industry, of specific games, and general design/development issues. So yeah, make sure you know what you're talking about.

4. Excel at a game(s). There's a reason most of the members of our development team are former (and current) professional Magic players—they understand how to break (and fix) a card pool. They understand the process behind building and testing decks. In short, they're excellent card players. And this is important: They're *known* as excellent card players. If you want a job at a company, it sure can't hurt to become a "name" player at that company's game. Make the Top 8 at a PC. Show your stuff.

A tangent to this point is that there are other ways to show that you know what's going on. Writing articles is a good way to get on a company's radar. Delve into high-end theory. Talk about some wicked decks you've created. Predict where the metagame is going or which cards in the new set will have the greatest impact. Vs. is a very new game, so there’s plenty of opportunity for a new writer to delve into unexplored territory. Get in there and wow people with your insight.

5. Make games. No, really . . . make home-brewed games or sets of cards for existing games. You don't have to try to sell them, but you can impress the hell out of people when you send them in with your resume or bring them to an interview. And of course, they're fun to play with. There's nothing like designing a game to get you better at designing games. I was lucky in that while I had no actual design experience, I'd picked up a lot of insight and theory based on having played a ton of different games (and by "a ton" I mean 200+ different games—remember, I used to work at a game store). So yeah, get stuck in and really work on some of your ideas. And even if they suck at first (and most initial ideas do suck, let me tell you), you'll learn a lot.


I guess the bottom line is it takes a lot of work and a lot of luck, but it's doable. If you're talented and able to hone your skills, it's only a matter of time before you break in. It's just up to you to do it.

Take care,

Danny Mandel
PS Having reread our question/answer thingy, it occurs to me that it might make a good article topic. Is it okay if I print your email, and if so, should I leave your name off of it?


So those were my thoughts last night around midnight. And yeah, if you mention a beloved game from my childhood in an email, I tend to write a long reply. I hope the above gave you some insight into breaking into the industry (or at least my warped view on breaking into the industry).

Tune in next week, where I promise to talk about Web of Spider-Man and get back to making fun of Dave Humpherys.

Send questions, comments, or stories about your favorite games to dmandel@metagame.com.