作者：Ethan Levy

如果你一直追随之前的系列文章，你便已经将自己的简历和游戏组合发送出去，并即将迎来公司的面试。之前有关编写简历的那篇文章已经提到了手机面试和直接面试，所以我就不再重复。而如果你已经走到这一步了，你便有可能通过残酷的面试并最终获得这份工作。（请点击此处阅读本系列第1、第2篇）

面试主要涉及三个内容。团队将评估你是否有完成工作要求的能力，所以你必须清楚地呈现出自己的技能和经验。除了技能，团队也会通过你的性格和文化去考察你 是否适合这份工作，所以你必须将自己当成是他们的同事。最后，如果该团队只是你的众多选择之一，他们便会想办法推销自己，并向你保证这份工作能够为你今后 几年的生活带来巨大帮助。

interview(from anbusivam)

举个例子来说吧，如果你想要和我一起设计《Enhanced Wars》，那么作为面试官的我会准备一系列问题（也有可能是一些笔试内容）去测试你的各种能力，不只是关于多人游戏的平衡和功能设计，还会包含UI/UX与参数的使用，以及基于玩家反馈的游戏迭代等。同时我也会考察你是否足够自主，能够激励自己在一个虚拟团队中有效工作。如果我真的喜欢你，我便会开始与你谈论在一个小型且虚拟的团队中工作的好处，以及在早期阶段加入一个全新工作室将如何提升你自己的潜能等等。

但Quarter Spiral只是一个团队。你所申请的每个工作室或游戏团队都具有自己独特的要求和文化，所以他们想从应聘者身上看到的能力也不同。如果你已经走到了这一步，即创造了自己的游戏组合，编写了一份优秀的简历，那么你接下来需要做的便是为面试做准备。

玩游戏

这点很明显。但是很多时候当我通过电话对那些想要加入《龙腾世纪传奇》的应聘者进行面试时，却惊讶地发现他们从未玩过这款游戏。或者在与那些申请我们工作室不同部门的应聘者接触时发现他们从未玩过我们的网页游戏。大多时候，只要遇到这种情况该应聘者就会被取消资格。因为如果他们未曾认真玩过我们注入了许多心血所创造出来的游戏，我们该如何相信这些人会愿意为游戏创造做贡献呢？

如果你在申请一家工作室的某个职位，请至少玩20分钟（最好更长时间）他们所创造的游戏。多了解下该团队，并找出你所接受面试的团队之前创造过哪些游戏。

做好功课

十有八九，你都会知道给你面试的人的名字。如果你未获得相关信息，请直接向HR要份信息，并在上面寻找相关人员，并仔细阅读他们的相关信息。检查LinkedIn上的资料，并寻找他们的博客或社交网页。你不一定都能找到相关信息，但大多数情况下你都能够找到一些帮助你了解对方团队或人员的资料。也许这种准备工作不一定能在面试过程中发挥作用，但是却能够让你进一步了解该工作室及其文化，从而明确这份工作是否真的适合自己。

准备问题

大多数面试官在最后都会问，你有什么问题吗。有时候这只是为了填补安排上的时间（就像我之前所说的，面试官在面试前通常都不会做过多准备）。但是有时候你所提出的问题也能帮助该团队去检测你的个性，是否有所准备以及有多大的抱负等等。

基于你的工作描述准备一系列问题，并且是围绕着你对于该工作室的了解。但是你也必须清楚所提出的问题将表露出自己的种种心态。举个例子来说吧，假设你正在申请《Enhanced Wars》的一个初级设计职位，但是你的问题却是关于你是否能够快速成为首席设计师。这时候我便会判断你对于这份工作带有不现实的期许，即比起实际工作你更加看重头衔和权利，而如果我让你反复做一些单调的游戏设计工作，你便有可能憎恨我。这时候，除非你拥有极端出色的游戏组合和简历，否则我便会因为这一问题直接将你淘汰掉。

同时，你可能因为一天经历多个面试而想不出其它问题了。其实面向不同人提出同样的问题也没关系。你可能会因此听到有关游戏团队及其文化的不同答案。

坚持不懈

如果你已经走到了本文中的这一步，接下来你就需要开始准备游戏设计的申请工作了。我知道，从字面看起来这很简单，但实际上申请与面试却是件很残忍的事。因为你可能会面对各种形式的拒绝。你会觉得自己把简历丢到了无底洞中。你可能会因为搞糟了一次电话面试而与该工作室失之交臂。你可能会问一些不适当的问题。你可能本来以为该团队对你很满意，但是最终却遭到了拒绝。可能对方口头答应你的申请，但是隔天却告知该职位已经有内定人选了。这都是就业市场上会出现的各种不幸。

我在这一系列文章中所列出的所有内容只能带你到这里。要知道，获得一份工作既需要运气，也需要技能，经验和随机情况。千万不要因为一次的拒绝就哭哭啼啼，你应该从各种申请失败中吸取教训，并勇敢地面对各种挫折。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Breaking into game design: Part 5 – prepare to interview

by Ethan Levy

If you’ve followed the series of articles up till now, then you’ve sent your resume and portfolio out to the world and are landing some interviews. The previous article on writing your resume covered the general process of phone and in person interviews that you can expect, so I will not reiterate. Suffice to say that if you’ve made it this far you will likely have to pass through a gauntlet of interviews to land that job.

An interview is about three things. The team is assessing if you have the skills to complete the job requirements, so you must sell your skills and experience. Beyond just skills, the team will also try to determine if you are a good fit in terms of personality and culture, so you must sell yourself as a colleague. Finally, if you are a candidate the team would want to hire you probably have some options, so the team will be selling themselves to you as the ideal place invest the next few years of your life.

For instance, if you were applying to join me in designing Enhanced Wars, as an interviewer I would prepare a series of questions (and probably some written tests) to get a feel for your skills in not only multiplayer balancing and feature design, but also UI/UX work and using metrics and player feedback to iterate on a live game. Personality wise, I would need to make sure you are self-directed and motivated enough to work on a virtual team and I would not constantly question if you will complete your tasks or are too busy watching Hulu in your pajamas. If I liked you, I would prepare to talk about the virtues and autonomy of working on a small, virtual team as well as the incredible growth potential of joining a new studio at such an early stage.

But Quarter Spiral is just one team. Each studio or game team you will be applying to will have unique requirements and culture, so they will be looking for different qualities in prospective candidates. If you have made it this far, have built your portfolio, written a killer resume and landed that all day interview session for your dream job, then you need to make sure to go that extra mile and prepare properly for your interview.

Play the games

This should be obvious, I know. But I was surprised by the number of times I would get on the phone with a candidate about a design position on Dragon Age Legends (which was live at the time) only to discover that they had not played the game, or in fact many free to play games. Or to talk with someone applying for jobs in different departments in our studio who had not played any of our live web games. In most instances, this would instantly disqualify someone in my mind. If they did not make an effort to play the games we had poured our blood, sweat and tears into, how could we trust that they would devote themselves to our games?

If you are interviewing with a studio, play any games they have made for at least 20 minutes (hopefully more). Do some research on the team and find out what games people you are interviewing with have worked on in the past. The importance of being knowledgeable about the work of the people you are trying to impress cannot be overstated.

Do your homework

In all likelihood, you will know the names of the people who will be interviewing you. If you have not been given a list, it does not hurt to ask your HR contact for one. Research anyone on the list. Read any interviews by members of the team (even if they were related to past games or studios). Check LinkedIn profiles and look for any blogs or social presences. You may not always find material, but in most instances you will be able to find something that will give you insight into the team and potential colleagues you are interviewing with. This preparation work may or may not come into play during the interview, but it can give you a reasonable first impression of the studio and its culture to determine if this a place you will truly fit in professionally.

Prepare questions

Most interviewers will end by asking if you have questions for them. Sometimes this is just to fill time in the schedule (as I said previously, interviewers do not always do a lot of preparation work before getting in the room with you). But your questions can also help a team get a feel for your personality, preparedness and overall ambitions.

Prepare a decent list of questions based on the job description, anything you know about the studio and anything that is extremely important to you. But also be cognizant of what the questions you ask say about you. For instance, let us imagine you are applying to a junior design position on Enhanced Wars but all your questions are, at their core, about how quickly you can become a lead designer. I would intuit you have unrealistic expectations about the work you will be doing, that you are more interested in title and control than the actual work, and you will generally be resentful of being asked to do the many unglamorous parts of game design. Unless your portfolio and resume where at a true rock star level, this line of questions would be a major red flag.

Also, during the course of a day of interviews you may feel like you have run through your full list and have nothing left to ask. There is no harm in asking the same questions to different people. You may get different answers that reveal new things about the game team and its culture.

Persevere

If you’ve made it this far into the article series, then you should be fully prepared to start applying for a job in game design. I know it all sounds so easy on paper, but the realities of applying and interviewing for jobs are brutal. You will face rejection in all its forms. You will feel like you are throwing your resume down an endless series of bottomless pits. You will nail a phone interview only to never hear from a recruiter or studio again. You will flub questions. You will make it through the gauntlet of in person interviews feeling like the team loves you only to get turned down. You will be told verbally you have the job only to wake up the next day to an email stating it has been given to an internal candidate. These are the unfortunate realities of the job market.

All the preparation I have outlined in these five articles will only get you so far. Landing a job is equal parts luck, skill, experience and random circumstance. Don’t take the rejections personally, learn from any application mistakes you make and persevere in the face of the many setbacks you will undoubtedly face. Before long you’ll be emailing me with a link to a launched game asking for feedback.(source:gamasutra)