Getting your start in the Gaming Industry: Student Q&A with our team
By the Tidebreak Games team · 8 min read
Every spring our inbox fills with the same hopeful question: how do I actually get hired to make games? So we gathered our art, code and design leads, handed them real student questions, and wrote down the answers we wish someone had given us.
Your portfolio beats your diploma
No lead has ever hired a résumé — they hire proof. One finished small game says more than four years of coursework. Ship a tiny complete thing: a one-button arcade loop, a three-room adventure, a polished character rig. Finished and small always beats ambitious and abandoned.
Specialize early, generalize kindly
Studios hire spikes, not blobs. Be the person who is dangerously good at combat feel, or UI motion, or lighting — while staying pleasant to work with across disciplines. Our technical artist Arlene puts it bluntly: "I hire the specialist who documents like a generalist."
- Show process, not just results: breakdowns, blockouts, iteration GIFs
- Contribute to a mod or game jam — collaboration is the skill being tested
- Apply to the internship even if you feel 70% ready — so did we
And if you want a human to look at your work, our careers inbox is answered by developers, not bots. Bring the weird portfolio. We like weird.