How to land your dream job in game art

22.01.2024 - 15:35 / gamesindustry.biz

This article is part of our Get into Games special, offering students insight on life in the games industry and advice on how to get into the business

Working as an artist in games can seem like a difficult role to land. But it's something that – with the right level of skill and hard work – is absolutely within your grasp.

On the GamesIndustry.biz Academy stage at EGX 2023, Sinéad Oram, a 2D artist at Sony's Media Molecule, shared her insights into securing a position within this segment of game development.

When considering a position in games art, it helps to narrow down what you like about this sector of development and where your talent lies.

"I'm pretty confident in saying that whatever your art skills and interests, there is an art role in the industry for you," Oram says.

"The best place to start is what you enjoy doing and are naturally skilled at"

She suggests a UI role might suit those into graphic design; if you are good with shaders and enjoy coding, technical art might work for you. People who love Substance Designer might find that a material artist role is up their alley.

"The best place to start is what you enjoy doing and are naturally skilled at," she continues.

"The more you learn, the more you practice and experiment, the more you'll find that perfect role. For example, I always wanted to be an animator growing up. I even did an animation degree, then I made an animated short film for my final project and found out I liked modelling more than I did animating. I was also better at it because I liked it. So I then became an environment artist."

Salary is an important consideration when choosing a specific field within any part of game development and art is no exception. Oram recommends checking Skillsearch's annual games and interactive salary satisfaction report to learn more about pay within the industry.

"There's a huge difference between art roles in the industry. Certain positions are very in demand; they tend to pay better and have less competition," she explains.

"Companies are always looking for tech artists, VFX artists and UI/UX designers. Therefore, the pay is typically a little bit higher, whereas a role like concept artist is very competitive as there are so few concept art roles compared to 3D art roles. Usually, there's one concept artist for every ten 3D artists at a studio. That can be even more extreme. At Media Molecule, we tend to do our concept art on projects; at Hutch, the art director did a few key concepts for us."

To secure a job within games art, you need to look at education. This doesn't need to be university-based, but if you are looking at that path, Oram recommends that you try to find the best institution for you. You can check The Rookies for university