There are several large publishers with established internship programs. Most of them are paid. None of them are remote. Activision, EA, and Ubisoft all run internship programs where you can apply via their job websites or campus outreach programs (if they have them). Some smaller publishers do their own internship programs too, like Riot. Due to their company size and the number of applicants each year, most AAA publisher internship programs start taking internship applications in the fall for the following summer.

Remote work for interns is super hard to find. Working on a game that’s on specialized hardware (e.g. a game console or mobile devices) requires you to use that specialized hardware during the development process, and most publishers aren’t going to entrust a dev kit and workstation that costs thousands of dollars to an intern with no training in a remote location without a protected network environment. Also, an intern is going to need training and mentorship, something that’s much harder when done remotely than face to face. Full-time remote work in the game industry is pretty rare in general, I only know of a handful of senior devs who managed to swing that. 

If you can’t relocate for a summer, consider reaching out to local game development studios (or even just a software company) and asking them to carve out an internship opportunity for you. This may not necessarily be a paid position, since most smaller dev studio budgets (especially indie) are stretched pretty tightly, and they may not necessarily have an opportunity for you. An internship obtained this way might not be everything you wanted, but at least you’ll be able to earn some valuable experience which will go a long way to getting you your first full-time job in the industry after you graduate. 

The FANTa Project is currently on hiatus while I am crunching at work too busy.

[What is the FANTa project?] [Git the FANTa Project]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Some will. Most won’t. If you want to help increase your chances at getting an internship, most hiring managers find the same sort of qualities attractive. If you have them and can show them to us, you’ve got a good chance.

#1. An intern can comfortably talk to us

A huge portion of working on a team is communication. This means being able to talk out problems and express issues to other people in a clear manner. If you’re super quiet, shy, introverted, or have a hard time approaching and engaging with people, you’re going to have trouble passing the interview process. This doesn’t just include work topics, but also the ability to engage on a variety of related topics - engineering, art, other games, ideas, etc. Remember, we’re looking for a member of the team - somebody we can trust to do the work, who we can turn to when we need an opinion on an issue, and that means finding a candidate who can communicate with other team members.

#2. An intern wants to learn

The point of hiring an intern is mostly to provide the intern with a learning experience. We honestly don’t care that much about the work that an intern does, because one of the more senior developers can usually do an entire summer’s worth of intern work in a day or two. Interns are brought on to learn, and that means being willing to check your ego at the door and soaking up the knowledge like a sponge. We want to see this come through at the interview - show us that you like learning, that you want to be there because you love game development, and show us through your actions and history. Show us your projects, show us what you’ve learned, show us what about development excites you.

#3. Solutions, not excuses

People will eventually screw up. It’s totally normal, especially when engaging in unfamiliar activity. The important thing we want from any developer is that they remain engaged in the face of adversity. If something goes wrong, we want to see you looking for a solution, not just making excuses for why it isn’t your fault. If the game is released and it sucks, it won’t matter who’s fault it is - the players won’t like it and the entire team will get the blame. You’ll see us probing for answers about this at the interview with questions like “Tell us about a problem you had to overcome and how you approached it”. Remember, if you’re being interviewed, chances are that the people interviewing you have been through the trial by fire of crunch and certification to ship a game. We need to know that you’ve got the same internal fortitude to do the same.

Obviously, there’s also more than some element of luck involved and a bunch of smaller details that need addressing. An intern needs to meet the right people at the right time, an intern needs to stand out among their peers to be the most attractive. Practically, an intern should be willing to move and possibly even be willing to work without pay. I know that this can be a difficult ask for some less financially privileged, but a good internship will usually lead to a full-time job upon graduation and even if you don’t get the job, the experience gained from working on a game that actually shipped is a huge bonus when looking for your first job. 

Just remember - you might have all of these qualities when you apply for an internship, but that isn’t necessarily enough. You need to show them to us so that we also know that you have these qualities. If you aren’t sure you’re doing it right, make it part of your preparation process to work on it. Practice and get feedback from your friends and professors. Remember, we’re looking for somebody we can work with. If you can’t show us why we should hire you, how will you be able to show us how we’re going to create some feature or content together?

Most of the time, internships are offered during the summer to students through various internship related programs through the school. Internships are almost always an excellent way to get a permanent job after graduation too - if you can show you’ve got the necessarily skills and that you can work with the team, assuming that the team has the head count for a new developer, you’ll probably get a job offer.

When I worked for EA Sports, they had interns come in every summer. A good number of them had job offers waiting for them after graduation - it was really up to their performance during the internship and the company’s financial situation that determined whether they got the offer. We can’t really hire anyone if the studio is bleeding money, after all. At my current studio, we’ve currently got an intern who started a few weeks back. According to the program he’s in, he’ll be working for us full-time for the summer and the fall semester. 

As for part time work for the full year, it is also possible… but problematic on most sorts of titles simply because of the development cycle. Most of the time, an entire year is a huge part of the total development time and much of the work is bottom-heavy - you need to do more work later in the game than the beginning. It’s actually more likely to get hired as a year-long intern for a studio that provides a game as a service than a single product - think something like working on Sims expansion packs, MMOG development, MOBA development or games in the social, online, mobile, etc. sphere.

Year-long internships aren’t terribly common though… if you’re looking for something to just help pay the bills, you’re probably better off with a more traditional part time job or an on-campus research assistant position. It’s really hard to get a significant amount of work out of somebody who only does 10-20 hours a week. Most of the time we cherrypick specific features for the interns to better teach them about the development process without requiring too much of them. Lining up enough features like this over the course of a year is very difficult, since we don’t necessarily know exactly what we’ll be doing 9 months down the road.

Let’s turn this around and think about it from the hiring manager’s perspective. Say you’re the hiring manager. What qualities would you look for in an intern? They’re actually a little bit different than an entry-level engineer (assuming it is as a programming intern and not a design or production intern), since I know that the intern will likely only be with the team for a few months, and will most likely need to return to school afterward.

These are the sort of qualities I would be looking for in an intern:

Seems pretty straightforward, yeah? You might be looking over this list and thinking “Yeah I totally qualify for all of those.” But you also have to consider that we’re probably going to get at least twenty or thirty resumes for each open position that we have. If you have those skills, you need to show it. It needs to be in your resume, and it needs to be in the way you talk about yourself. You need to be able to stand out enough to get past that first wave of rejections and brought in for an interview with the hiring manager.

Given what you’ve told me, it is possible for someone with your qualifications to be offered an internship position, but it is unlikely. Why? Because getting a job isn’t about meeting minimum requirements, but about being the most attractive candidate for the position. You need to be the one that we want to pick compared to all of the other candidates, because we will always want the best candidate.

You might luck out and everybody else turns out to be slackers with no skills at all and no interest. If that’s the case, then you’ve defaulted into it. Congratulations. But that’s extremely unlikely - I’ve answered lots of general career questions about getting a job in the industry, and plenty more I haven’t answered. Would you hire someone who made a simple java game from youtube tutorials over someone who wrote her own Half-Life mod, Skyrim questline, or graphics engine? I’d even be impressed if the person created his own RPG Maker game with some custom features written in Ruby.

If you want to get a job as an intern, you have to prove to me that you want it. You need to show me that you have the skills that I’m looking for, through your resume and the way you answer questions at the interview. You need to stand out in some way, so that I remember you and view you favorably compared to the other twenty candidates. I’m trying to build the best team that I can. You know this! It’s up to you to show me that you belong on that team.

No, you certainly wouldn’t. There are plenty of developers in the UK and Europe at large, and you should definitely try hitting them up before seriously considering crossing the pond. I would suggest contacting the folks at the London chapter of the IGDA and asking them about what studios might have internships, as well as just make some industry contacts in general. If you’re in school still, you could also try talking with your school counselor or career center for any potential information they might have.

You can also try looking at GameDevMap.com to see who is local, and then try contacting them. You may have to get used to hearing “No” if you contact them, but many developers do have internships available. Persevere and you’ll be able to find one.

Further Reading:

Thanks for your questions. I’ll  try to tackle the them one by one.

#1. Are game development internships available? Should I try to get one?

Yes, it is absolutely possible to get internships, and I would heavily, heavily encourage those who are interested to look into them. This is an opportunity to get some real hands-on experience on a project that will very likely ship, and that’s something that is invaluable to someone hoping to get into the industry.

The important thing is to do the research for it, and do it early. Some of the larger studios have more established internship programs, while others don’t. Some might help you with housing, some won’t. Try to contact them and find out. Do it early (like… the fall, if you can) since a lot of places will wrap up their recruiting in midwinter. If you have an on-campus career center, see if they have any connections to companies or alumni.  Try to cultivate those connections if you can.

Link to Activision’s current available internships.

Link to EA’s current available internships.

Link to Ubisoft’s job search page (they have an internship category under “employment type”)

Riot Games has an internship program, though they are no longer taking applicants for 2014.

Don’t just look at big publishers either. It is totally possible to go work for smaller developers or studios directly. Email them, talk to them, and thank them for their time. Don’t turn your nose up at an opportunity just because it is mobile, social, XBLA, PSN, downloadable, etc. As a student, you are basically the lowest rung on the totem pole. You typically don’t get the luxury to be picky, and I can guarantee you that an internship at a small studio working on mobile or social games will be far more impressive than just school project work.

#2: What about internships far away from where I live?

Internships are almost never going to be remote. If you want an internship, you’re going to have to either be local to the studio, or you’re going to have to move there for the internship (temporarily). Remote doesn’t work - you’re going to be working with a team, and that means you’re going to need face to face time for training and evaluation of your work. You’ll need to be part of meetings, and you’ll need to review and learn new things. It’s very much a collaborative process.

If you are a foreign student and want to consider an internship in a different country, you absolutely need legal clearance (a student or work visa, for example) to participate in an internship elsewhere. You will also probably need to be prepared to foot the bill for travel expenses. This will likely also include interviews, since any normal studio will want to interview you before they decide to hire you. That can get expensive, especially since the internships might not be paid. In addition, try checking locally for internships before thinking about going international.

#3: How do I make myself more appealing to get an internship?

I’ll start by saying that there is definitely competition for internships. Most teams only have enough room for a handful of interns, because they need mentoring and tutelage from more senior developers. Summer internships generally comprise of one or two tasks or features that the intern gets to work on and attempts to finish within 2 months or so. If you want to make yourself more attractive as an internship, start by networking. Go to any meet and greets, talk to people face to face if you can, etc. If they know your face, you’ve got a much better chance of being remembered when they see your resume in the pile.

Do work on your own, and show it to the recruiters. Write a mod, design a level, animate a short film, reskin a model, model a creature, create a quest, and so on and so forth. Try using existing and available tools at your disposal and burn a demo disc or provide a link with your material on it for them to try. Put up a demo video on youtube with your explanation as to what choices you made and why. Make sure it is easy for them to get it functioning. 

#4: How easy is it to get an entry level job for a new graduate?

I’ll be honest here… it’s not that easy. The vast majority of openings are for people with 3+ years of experience and at least one shipped title. The highest chance at getting hired on entry level is actually through an internship. If you successfully complete your internship (and make sure that you work well with the rest of the team while you’re there), your chances of coming back as a new hire go way up for two main reasons:

If you don’t, you need to impress somebody with your work. You need to do something to stand out in order to get a callback. And you need to make it easy for the people who make these decisions to see the things that you’ve done, and why they (and, by extension, you) are awesome. You want to make it as easy as possible for them to want to hire you. Make sure that your resume and your demos showcase all the reasons why you would make a great addition to the team, and why they would want to work with you, not just why you want to work with them. You need to present them with a value proposition - that you’re better than the other applicants for these practical reasons, and why these reasons are important.

Game development certainly isn’t the easiest of roads to pursue, but it can be extremely rewarding (on a satisfaction level… not really that much on a monetary level). Most of this sort of advice also applies to practically every career.  If you’re really passionate about developing games, then you need to work on showing it. Tailor your resume to the target, show them why you are good, give them as few reasons to red flag you as possible. You always want your resume to pass the 4pm Friday test… if the recruiter saw your resume at 4pm on a Friday, would she actually take a look at it, or would this person just toss it so she could go home for the weekend? It’s a lot of work, but all things that are worth getting tend to be. I wish you the best, and I really hope you have the determination and skill needed to get in the door.