Networking With Game Developers

tim-cain networking game-development career-advice game-jams gdc online-communities

Abstract

Problem: How important is networking for game developers, and what are the best ways to do it — especially for those who are introverted or early in their careers?

Approach: Tim Cain reflects on his own career-long failure to network, tracing the reasons company by company, and shares what he wishes he'd done differently.

Findings: Networking is critically important and deeply undervalued. Game jams, conferences, and online communities are the three main avenues — with game jams being the strongest recommendation for newcomers. Toxic forums should be avoided at all costs.

Key insight: The biggest networking regret isn't awkward conversations — it's all the conversations that never happened. Start with game jams: you have nothing to lose but a weekend.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hnivqfkjr4

Tim's Networking History: A Company-by-Company Breakdown

Tim openly admits he was terrible at networking for most of his career. He walks through each company to explain why:

  • Cybrón / Pegasus Software — His first company, located in the Washington DC area where there were no other game studios. He simply had no opportunity; the only developers he knew were his coworkers.
  • Interplay — He attended GDC a couple of times (around 1993–94) but never gave talks. Despite nearly 15 years in the industry, he felt he had nothing to contribute (impostor syndrome). Networking was also actively discouraged — he was threatened not to socialize with people from Virgin Games, located a block away, even though he observed Interplay executives playing poker with those same Virgin employees.
  • Troika Games — He was simply too busy. Working every day of the week, 12–14 hours a day, there was no time for conferences.
  • Carbine Studios — He gave one GDC Online talk about story in games, but when Carbine ended, he was "traumatized" and just wanted to make games, not talk about making them.

The Turning Point

Tim started networking later in his career and wishes he'd done it sooner:

  • 2012 — Fallout retrospective / postmortem talk at GDC
  • 2016–2017 — Reboot conference in Croatia, GX Australia

He emphasizes that giving talks, talking to other developers, and seeing what others think of your work are all genuinely valuable.

Recommendation #1: Game Jams

Tim's strongest recommendation, especially for people who aren't ready for conferences or find GDC too expensive:

  • A game jam is a weekend (sometimes 3-day) event where people form groups and build a game as quickly as possible, showing it off at the end.
  • Skill-building: You're forced to work outside your comfort zone because you won't have enough experienced people. You just have to make things.
  • Meeting people: You'll meet like-minded, enthusiastic, sharing-oriented people — some wanting to break into the industry, some already in it who can give direct feedback and career advice.
  • Low stakes: "What do you have to lose? It's a weekend."
  • Even if the first jam doesn't click (bad group, introversion), Tim recommends trying a few more before writing them off.

Recommendation #2: Online Communities

Something that didn't exist when Tim started 30–40 years ago:

  • Genre forums — Communities focused on RPGs, strategy games, etc.
  • Engine forums — Unity and Unreal forums in particular; Unreal forums have excellent tutorials and experienced developers sharing knowledge.
  • Game-specific forums — Communities around games you love (God of War, Fallout, etc.).

The Toxicity Warning

Tim's single strongest piece of advice: avoid toxic forums.

The warning signs:

  • People who have never made a game and aren't even trying to make games
  • People who think they know everything about game development
  • People who present their opinions as objective truth
  • Pervasive negativity, jadedness, and sarcasm

Instead, seek out forums where people are actually making things — game developers, game jam participants, conference-goers who discuss talks and ask real questions.

The Core Message

Tim's closing advice comes from genuine regret: as someone who didn't network for most of his career and wishes he had, he urges aspiring and active developers to try networking — "if only to talk to like-minded people who enjoy making video games."

References