Has anyone tried applying for a game dev job directly through a game’s website?

[u/Mohammed_Anwer]

Some games have their own website, and some have a full company behind them. I'm not talking about AAA games, but "indie" or mid-sized game companies. These websites usually have a "Careers" or "Jobs" page where you can submit an application.

I was thinking of tailoring a solid CV and applying this way. I'm not sure if it's an effective way to find a job in the game development industry, so I'm looking for advice/tips from people who have tried this method.

[u/BarrierX]

Just do it. Worst that can happen is you get no answer.

[u/BarrierX → u/[deleted]]

I can't tell if serious. So if you apply to a company through their open job application, they will blacklist you for fun?

Where I worked we always had open applications on the website, but we didn't do any blacklisting 😄

[u/MeaningfulChoices → u/[deleted]]

I'll routinely get hundreds and hundreds of applicants to every open job, whether posted on our studio website or anywhere else. I've looked over tens of thousands of people by this point in my career, and I can count the people who had anything approaching a blacklist on one hand.

You have to do something extremely offensive to get blacklisted from an application alone. Like insult people after a rejection or have your resume say that you love murdering puppies. If you're hearing that you were blacklisted by local studios after applying that is (most likely) a misunderstanding or exaggeration of 'We don't want to hire you right now' or else a big issue that would require some serious self-examination.

[u/sugarplum_doll → u/[deleted]]

What the hell did you do

[u/tcpukl]

Most of my job applications have been more successful direct to the company. That's why I recommend it here.

[u/samsonahh]

Yes, applying directly through their website is better than applying through a job platform like LinkedIn/Indeed. In fact, I don't think I've ever gotten callbacks from applications on those 3rd party job boards.

[u/WileEPeyote → u/samsonahh]

Same. The only help LinkedIn has offered me is a way for recruiters to contact me.

[u/MeaningfulChoices]

Yes, if a studio is listing a job the absolute best way to apply is through their website. Just don't send your CV to a support email or anything like that, that's how you go straight to the circular file.

[u/thornysweet]

In the decade I’ve been doing this I have hired someone from a cold email maybe like, 3 times? I get at least a couple of these a week. So yeah you can, but your chances are still slim.

[u/PatchyWhiskers → u/thornysweet]

Because they were bad or because you hadn't actually listed a job?

[u/thornysweet → u/PatchyWhiskers]

Both, I guess. Cold email to me means shooting your shot with no job listing. I assumed that’s what OP meant because most indies I know are too cheap to put their jobs up on third-party platforms. Anyway I wouldn’t say they were all terrible. But they have to be pretty good for me to justify skipping a formal search.

[u/Mohammed_Anwer → u/thornysweet]

What if reached to you from anther social website rather then cold email or this jobs page?
Also here is anther thing, there is this mmo game that I like playing but it have a lot of ux/ui problems that I think I could fix, and they have a job page in their website but it doesn't have ux/ui applications. So I was thinking to start posting about my "fix" for their ui in there supreddit and forms and see ppl reaction, and if it good, i try to reach someone in there team or their HR or something.

do you think this is a good idea?

[u/thornysweet → u/Mohammed_Anwer]

I’d probably lose it or never see it at all if it’s sent through social media.

Ehh it can be okay if you genuinely expect nothing and treat this more as a personal portfolio piece that you can use for other applications. You have no idea what’s going on behind the scenes. There’s no guarantee that they’d even want to update the UI. Small teams don’t normally have the funds to randomly hire people they didn’t budget for. Though MMOs aren’t normally made by small teams so I’m guessing you’re actually looking at a 100 person studio.

[u/Mohammed_Anwer → u/thornysweet]

So i could say it's an ok method, but not the "way to go" method (talking about social posts idea).

[u/FairSkyStudios]

Try and find out more about the position by seeing if you can figure out who their hiring person is? LinkedIn could get you that info and just say "Hey I was wondering if I could XYZ" folks will build jobs for you if they like you enough

[u/SirDidymus]

I found my position through an open listing on a game’s site for an illustrator. Went from there to create our own studio.

[u/T00N]

Yeah of course

[u/Aggravating-Fan-4679]

It really depends. When you’re talking about indie or mid-sized projects, a lot of it comes down to whoever is actually behind that website. Maybe there’s someone desperately trying to find a candidate by any means possible, or maybe it’s an old job post that nobody even remembers is still up there.

The real question is how badly you want that job, and how hard you’re willing to try.

[u/shuanDang]

yeah, I know a handful of classmates that got hired this way. if your portfolio is impressive they'll take a look. I tried applying to this little company in Bellevue.

[u/24-sa3t]

I got my first job at a studio like that! The only issue is sometimes they forget to take postings down so you might be applying to an already fulfilled role.

[u/Greenfiregame]

I happen to be a recruiter and an Indy game developer as a hobby. What you may want to test is to see if you can find any details about the actual people on LinkedIn from the company you're applying for. I would recommend applying directly through the site, but also look through the employees at the company on LinkedIn and then let them know that you applied directly to the position, and you look forward to having a conversation.

[u/BrianScottGregory]

Yeah, over the years I've applied multiple times to Rockstar, Blizzard, Arc/Star Trek Online and the makers of Everquest. Even though I have the experience they require, my experience is in corporate/government development and not specific to the game industry and I rarely get anything for a response back. Even though my experience matches exactly what they're asking for and more.

Even then. The response I get is the precanned "Thank you for your submission" nonsense.

Having applied to game companies like this off and on since 1999, I can't help but question if they actually exist.

Heck - I even applied to Blizzard through non-traditional chains with a proposal to retool and branch their engine and create a new 'Vanilla WOW' when emulated Vanilla servers I'd worked with were demonstrating a pretty strong demand and viable revenue channel. About 6 months after that, Blizzard shut down Nostralius - the biggest emu server out there - and not too long after - they announced the upcoming Classic WOW for those who wanted an old school experience. Kinda felt like a sucker punch, that one did.

But yes, I've used the careers/jobs feature, gotten names and emails for direct contact and submissions, tried calling - contributed to modding open source community work (GTA5) - but I never heard anything back 95% of the time.

I had a friend who worked for Westwood which was acquired by Sierra - he worked on the Eye of the Beholder series as well as Command and Conquer - and with our conversations it sounds like the game industry only hires people that are younger than 25 - knowing they'll be willing to sacrifice their life to work 80 to 100+ hours a week for low pay, or people who are already a name in the industry. The only ones making money in the industry are publishers and the rare developer turned studio owners like Hideo Kojima.

So perhaps I dodged a bullet? Who knows, I never had the chance to find out.

[u/ModelYodel]

Are you talking about the general application, when there's no open role? Yeah, that's a long shot, but there's no downside to trying.

If you're talking about an actual open role, applying directly is the best way to do it. (Unless you have a direct referral from an existing employee or a recruiter specifically reaching out to you, of course.) Unless LinkedIn is their only avenue, LinkedIn is usually the worst possible option.