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Electronic gaming careers: challenge plus fun
Advancing technologies keep a growing workforce on its toes
The industry seeks women and minorities to increase diversity in the field
By Angela M. Hutchinson
Contributing Editor
 Over the past two decades electronic gaming has become a multibillion- dollar industry. That growth has spurred a booming job market for those with an interest in the technology behind the games. Success in this field demands excellent problem-solving skills and multidisciplinary team work among computer programmers, game developers, artists, psychologists, writers and many other technical and nontechnical professionals.
But the industry has a long way to go on the workforce diversity front.
“While the number of women and minorities in the gaming industry has increased over the years, it remains a male dominated field,” says Jim Whitehead, associate professor of computer science at the University of California-Santa Cruz (UCSC). That reflects the still mostly male audience for electronic games.
To continue its robust growth, the industry must widen its audience; a big step in that direction is attracting a more diverse workforce. “Video games are a form of computational media, and any media is a direct mirror of culture. Diverse cultural backgrounds lead to diverse games,” Whitehead observes.
Joseph Saulter, CEO of Entertainment Arts Research (Atlanta, GA), agrees that the most challenging aspect of the gaming industry is its lack of diversity. Saulter serves as co-chair of the International Game Developers Association diversity board. He has studied the gaming industry from a diversity standpoint and says, “Eighty-three percent of the industry is run by white males. It is critical for other ethnicities and women to play a more active role. Industry tools can be learned by everyone and range from programming, art and design to sequencing, music and all the ancillary business areas.”
Victoria Delgado is IT director at Insomniac Games (Burbank, CA) and always encourages women to apply for jobs at her company. “I’m always telling my co-workers, ‘Hire another woman! I need a friend!’ And they always tell me, ‘We’d love to hire more women, but none apply!’ I’m not sure what’s keeping women away, but I can tell you that in all the places I’ve worked, I’ve never felt so accepted as a contributor and acknowledged for my talent.”
Whitehead would like to see more technical women and minorities applying to UCSC’s undergraduate BSCS/computer game design degree program, which is still heavily male. UCSC also offers a two-year MFA program in digital arts/new media, which is about half women. Students learn about digital media theory, explore the boundaries of what constitutes a game, and develop new game concepts.
Breaking into and staying in the industry
 Video game companies look for strong computer, analytical and communication skills. For entry-level positions a strong working knowledge of C++ is also a must. Recent grads should have a bachelors degree with a focus on computer science, engineering or a related area. Double majors or minors in areas like psychology or graphic design are highly encouraged.
Continually advancing technologies keep many employees with the same game company for years. Jim Hejl, for example, is the director for rendering technology at the Vancouver, Canada Black Box studio of Electronic Arts (Redwood City, CA), and has worked at the company for ten years.
“At minimum we see completely new game consoles every seven years, and it takes about that amount of time to master the hardware. So from a technical perspective, the work is never stale. It’s always a challenge to stay current and a constant learning process,” says Hejl. “We’re at the leading edge of what is technically possible, and that’s a big part of what makes the job so rewarding. It is a world of innovation where ideas can literally show people something they have never experienced before.”
IGT’s Robert I. Francis directs manufacturing engineering
Robert I. Francis has over twenty-five years of technical experience. He’s a director at International Game Technology (IGT, Reno, NV). The company is one of the largest suppliers of gaming machines and player monitoring systems in the world. It provides video and slot games for many applications, including traditional casino and lottery environments.
Francis has been with the company for almost two years. He focuses on manufacturing engineering, test engineering, and material master and technical services. “Manufacturing engineering at IGT is the development and implementation of assembly and test processes required to support current and new gaming products,” Francis explains. “Test engineering provides supplier management with testers for contract manufacturers to validate product specifications and quality. And the material master and technical services function supports information and documentation for product manufacturing and service.”
Francis works on several new products at a time. He says, “My team works with engineers, firmware developers, production and logistics people, product management and many support areas. Helping introduce new products to market is exciting.”
In 1979 Francis earned a bachelors in mechanical engineering from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA). In 1991 he got an executive MBA from Colorado State University (Denver, CO). He began his career at IBM, where he held various engineering and management positions, and worked at several other engineering companies. When he was approached by IGT, he decided to change industries.
“What I like most about working in the gaming industry are the dedicated people, the mix of technologies and the customers. What is most challenging is driving change while meeting current business requirements,” says Francis.
He chose to work for IGT because of its 70 percent market share, strong financials, management team and technological leadership. “I was impressed with the vice president of manufacturing operations, his management style and genuine care for his employees.”
Diversity at IGT is practiced throughout the company, Francis says. “I notice people of multiple cultures represented at all levels including management. I believe diversity is important because it enriches our products and services.”
Jose Caban is in software engineering at EA
Jose Caban interned for five months at the Tiburon, FL studio of Electronic Arts (EA, Redwood City, CA) and took a full-time job there in the summer of 2007. Founded in 1982, EA is an independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for advanced console systems like PlayStation 3 (PS3), PlayStation 2 (PS2), the Xbox video game system and the Wii as well as online, portable and mobile phone games.
Caban is a software engineer working under the technical director in the core technology group, and focuses on lower-level game systems. He is the build engineer for the video game Tiger Woods PGA Tour, which has been created for Xbox 360, PS3 and the Wii. His duties involve putting together the system to profile the running game.
He explains, “When you’re working on video games, you aim to have a frame rate of thirty to sixty frames per second, which is how many unique images are displayed on the screen. I help determine how much time we spend generating each unique image.”
Caban programs using languages like C and C++ to get the best performance out of the game consoles. Languages like C# and Java are used to create the tools developers use to make the games.
What he enjoys most about working in the electronic gaming industry are the people and the informal office atmosphere. “I hate to brag, but I have an Xbox 360 and two PS3s on my desk,” he says with a chuckle. His favorite EA video games are Mass Effect, Army of Two, the Battlefield series and Medal of Honor.
Born in Puerto Rico, Caban moved to Florida when he was three years old. He speaks Spanish and French as well as English. He developed his interest in electronic gaming at a young age. “I’ve wanted to make video games since I was ten,” he says.
In 2007 he graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA) with a dual degree in mechanical engineering and computer science. “I focused on computer simulations and physical simulations, which are a big part of video games, especially the physics modeling.
“It’s fun and challenging to work on advanced technology,” says Caban. He joined EA as a full-time employee because “It was ahead of the competition.”
In fiscal year 2007 EA posted revenue of $3.09 billion and had twenty-four titles that sold more than one million copies. Its games include blockbuster titles like Madden NFL, Need for Speed and the FIFA football series.
Warner Bros’ Samantha Ryan: game team leader
As the head of production and development for Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment (WBIE, Burbank, CA), Samantha Ryan oversees the creation of games for consumers worldwide. She has had the job since early 2007. Before that she was CEO of Monolith Productions, a game development house wholly owned by Warner Bros.
Ryan truly enjoys her work. “Developing interactive entertainment is incredibly challenging, but also rewarding,” she says. “It combines creative elements like art and design with technical elements like graphics rendering, physics, artificial intelligence and more.”
Every few years the platforms that games are built on change and upgrade. This requires that game development teams recreate years of code and art for new systems. “The latest console systems, including Xbox 360 and PS3, are the most powerful yet,” Ryan points out. “We are nearly at the point of creating completely realistic interactive environments.”
Ryan was born in Pittsburgh, but grew up mostly in Ohio. Her father was an architect. “He loved technology and was an early adopter of all forms of consumer entertainment, from video laser disks to the Atari 2600 video game system,” she says.
Ryan developed her own interest in games during the 1980s. She attended Ashland University (Ashland, OH), where she earned a bachelors in broadcast production. She spent the next decade in the broadcast industry, creating news and entertainment for local radio and TV stations. She transitioned into the gaming industry because she was looking for something new.
“Game development is increasingly complex. Ten years ago a couple of guys in a garage could create a best-selling game. Today there are teams of anywhere from fifty to 150 people working for years,” Ryan says. “The fastest growing part of the industry is the artistry, as games need to be increasingly realistic. That being said, we push the technology envelope and programmers are always in high demand.
“Warner Bros is an exciting company,” she remarks. “It has an amazing history creating compelling entertainment in other industries, such as film and TV, which are great complements to bringing a video game to market.”
Diversity at WBIE is crucial, notes Ryan, “particularly since we must create games that appeal to a worldwide audience across many cultures.” WBIE currently works with twelve developers, seven of whom are based in North America. The other five are overseas.
Victoria Delgado: on the cutting edge at IG
As an IT director at Insomniac Games (Burbank, CA), Victoria Delgado says, “I have been working here for almost five years and have loved every minute of it.” Her responsibilities include network stability, backup and availability of asset information, and management of IT resources. “Every once in a while I’m also asked to fix the microwave,” she jokes.
Founded in 1994, Insomniac Games is an independent game developer. It works closely with Sony to develop video games such as Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Resistance: Fall of Man, as well as the upcoming highly anticipated sequel, Resistance 2, all of which are exclusive to the PlayStation brand. In fourteen years the company has sold more than twenty-five million console video games worldwide. For the past three years it has been named one of the “ten best small companies” to work for in America by the Great Place to Work Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management.
Delgado likes the glamour of the industry, but she enjoys making products for IG customers more. “We’re making games, after all,” she says. “In every meeting I go to, one of the topics of conversation is always ‘How do we make this more fun?’ Probably the most interesting part of my job is the sheer variety of hardware and software that we use.” Along with standard off-the-shelf development packages, the company employs unique 3D rendering software and proprietary in-house tools.
Currently Delgado is working on the video game Resistance 2 for PS3. It centers on a first-person shooter during an alien invasion in 1950s America. She says, “It’s a great game that we’re really proud of. Its predecessor, Resistance: Fall of Man, is one of the top-selling games on PS3.”
Her favorite project since joining IG is the video game Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. “While I’m not a big gamer I’ll spend hours on this one. It’s witty, beautiful and fun to play.”
Delgado is originally from Mexico and credits her family with encouraging her to get an education. After college she worked for a computer manufacturer where she wrote manufacturing documentation. Then she worked in the IT field as a systems administrator and says, “That’s when I decided IT was the field for me.”
Initially Delgado wasn’t looking to work for a game company. She wanted to secure an IT job in a small firm that offered opportunity for career growth. She started at IG as a junior systems administrator. “I count myself super lucky to have found all that I wanted in a job that makes people happy at the same time!” says Delgado.
Delgado notes that, with the constant changes in technology, making games has become more expensive, leading to innovation and workplace efficiency. “As far as IT resources go, we need to be at the cutting edge all the time.”
Games for military training at Sandia
Some games are deadly serious. The multifaceted Sandia National Laboratory (Sandia, NM) creates training games for its sponsors, which include the Army, the Marine Corps, the Army Special Forces and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). Elaine Raybourn, a social scientist with a background in human-computer interaction, is a principal investigator at Sandia. Her expertise is in the design of serious games, simulations and interactive groupware systems that help the player understand culture and communication.
“I create games for learning, education and training that help improve interpersonal communication, cultural awareness, adaptive thinking and metacognition,” she explains.
Raybourn notes that the teams she works with are very collaborative and bring together people of different backgrounds and disciplines. “It’s important that our teams are multicultural since we develop games about cultural awareness.”
In 2003 Raybourn led the creation of a video game for the U.S. Special Forces called Adaptive Thinking & Leadership. The game was a multiplayer training system for practicing negotiations and honing cultural awareness. It has been successfully incorporated into the training program for the Special Forces as well as at several military training schools.
She also headed a recently completed game project called DARWARS Ambush NK. The game is part of a series developed for DARPA to train Army soldiers and Marines.
“Currently we’re working on developing in-game assessment capabilities, which will help us to know exactly how much someone is learning while playing the game. It’s a great multidisciplinary project,” Raybourn says.
Originally from the Republic of Panama, Raybourn speaks Spanish, English, French, Italian and a little German. She came to the U.S. in 1982. “I have always been interested in intercultural relations and now I design games for intercultural communication. It’s a great way to combine my primary interests: art, culture, communication and technology,” she says.
In 1985 Raybourn earned her bachelors degree in visual art from Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, FL), and went on to a masters in communication from the University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL). In 1998 she received her PhD in intercultural communication with an emphasis on human computer interaction from the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque.
Raybourn says that college students who have an interest in the gaming industry should “Maintain a grade point average of at least 3.6, participate in internships that teach them how to design and develop games, and have a passion for working with people.”
Joseph Saulter: video game entrepreneur
It was about four years ago that Joseph Saulter launched his company Entertainment Arts Research (EAR, Atlanta, GA). EAR is one of the first African American owned and operated 3D video game development companies.
Right now Saulter is working with his team of ten to fifteen people on two major video game titles: Firewire District 22, a futuristic urban third-person stealth game, and Seventh Day, a Christian gospel-based 3D game. Both games are being created for Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.
As CEO of the company Saulter oversees all aspects of game development and production. He manages a team of software developers, artists, musicians, business development associates and programmers.
He also chairs the game design and development department at American Intercontinental University (Atlanta, GA). “The students are great,” he says. “The joy for me is teaching and inspiring new developers to join the gaming business.”
Saulter is the co-founder of the Urban Video Game Academy, an educational program for at-risk high-school students. The program has been a Harvard University case study.
Originally from Long Island, New York, Saulter has degrees in digital entertainment, performing arts management and visual technology.
The future looks bright for EAR. The company has been given the opportunity to partner on initiatives with the NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future, a program started in 1990 and housed at Wheeling (WV) Jesuit University’s Center for Educational Technologies. Saulter explains, “EAR will provide consultation and direction that will result in educational change throughout the country.”
D/C
Angela M. Hutchinson is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.
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