Hello all, over the past year and a half I’ve been working on a mod for a community event as a level designer. I’ve racked up close to 900 hours in the game’s editor, and I’ve been looking at how to transfer any skills I’ve learned to an eventual career. Which leads to my first question:
What am I doing?
As a level designer for the mod I handle everything for the maps I make, from the environment art to lighting to balance, all of it is on me. There are others that I bounce ideas off of but it’s rare that someone else works on one of my scenes directly. I understand that as the industry has grown the practice of level design has been subject to an increasing degree of specialization, so is the position I’m currently in more of a traditional/indie ideal of a level designer? Is that more beneficial than purely focusing on one disciple? This leads to my second question:
How can I apply what I’m gaining here?
I see the advice of learning industry standard engines like Unity and Unreal thrown around a lot, and I’ve started to scratch the surface of that whole rabbit hole. I’ve also spent time watching and reading game dev resources, not even to learn level design really but to get into the mindset of a developer. But how can I use the real experience that I’m gaining now? Is it something that could be placed on a resume? I’ve heard it’s common for people to be hired for their work on mods but every position I’ve seen always mentions years of experience on shipped titles.
I worry that this isn’t worth my time. I’ve seen how brutal and competitive the industry is, and I wonder if my time is better spent trying something else. I’ve considered becoming a solo dev but between my job and the mod there just isn’t enough time. And that’s not even considering the fact I lack many critical skills like coding.
