Rocket Rainbow - Internship Progress

RopeDrink

Hi folks!
Figured it'd be nice to make a little thread about my current progress here at Rocket Rainbow Studios during my Community Manager & Customer Support Internship.

Hoping it may either inspire people to consider internship options (seeing as there's quite a lot of them floating about, on top of the fact they are often a solid 'foot in the door' for those struggling to get some sort of CV meat to fluff up their attempt at securing work in the games-industry) or maybe just to brush up on yet another independent gaming studio trying to carve their place in the world
To the unaware, I attacked Boards with all manner of posts in October & November in a bid to get out of a work-rut and finally transition from hobbyist fanatical hardcore gaming social-media content creator (Fancy words for 'used to sit at home making gaming-movies all day', see YouTube link in signature) to finally taking things seriously and putting myself out there in the hopes of FINALLY getting to work in the industry I have followed since 1989.

Apologies in advance for any grammatical mistakes or dodgy wording - I've no idea what possessed me to write this at 6am after no sleep.

• My history:

Wrote my first game via CBasic on the C64 and it completely blew apart all previously set 'what I want to be when I grow up' ideas and set me 500% biased towards games & gaming - Everything got pushed aside to play, or create, in the name of gaming... All my childish desires of being involved in art, being a writer or making music, was washed away in a blaze of Dizzy the Egg adventures or countless C64 gaming.

Since then I've always had my finger on the gaming pulse while growing up, from the early modding & game-editing scenes (Hence I requested the old Game Editing thread donkeys years ago here on Boards, back where 'modding' consisted mostly of making maps in Half-Life & CS using the Hammer tool, or making maps in the Starcraft Campaign Editor). Needless to say, I've been modding, brushing up on game-development (Made my first 'PC' game in 2005 - A flawed mess, but it was MY GAME) and naturally as you can see by my Forums, used work on creating my own game-art, sounds and all manner of things, whenever not hard-core gaming.
As the years went by I found myself less-game-making and more movie making, which is something I've passionately done for 7 years and have built up a not-too-massive audience, but quite a respectable one for someone who operated under a secretive persona and only uploaded raw gameplay with no viral tricks or commentary/web-cam and some very scatty direction.

Cue the present day where I was pushed out of work after 5 years of 12hr shifts in a medical factory and the recession hit us - Needless to say, I was one of many who took a step back for a bit then found it a struggle to get anywhere once work-hunt resumed.

So, that's where Rocket Rainbow Studios comes in - After snooping around here on Boards and re-visiting old friends who I lost touch with (but discovered on places like LinkedIn), I started absorbing a lot of advice, took some tips on 'selling myself' via the CV (My old one being way too honest and not all that employable) and chucked it into Zenimax Ireland, JobRidge (Social Welfare) Internship for RRS, multiple Job-Seeker websites online (Games Job Direct, OPM Ireland etc) and started praying.
Thanks to some luck, RRS needed a Community Manager and they seemed to have faith that 13 years of Moderating Boards, an obvious life-time of gaming community involvement and some semi-decent content-creating stats might not be a bad investment for the company... And, well, let's face it - They don't even have to pay me for my work! Interview went by and the team seemed happy enough - So they get my experience and skills in their pocket while I get to fluff up my CV with some additional, up-to-date, recent and relevant experience that will hopefully benefit me in the future.

• The Company:

Rocket Rainbow Studios is an independent game development studio based right here in Ireland, with myself and three other chaps (far more knowledgeable and experienced than little old me) who are all equally passionate about game creation and are looking to make fun and colourful casual cross-platform games with mobile gaming mostly in mind (New area for me - I've been mostly console/PC based but have avoided mobiles for years).

It's heading to the second month for me now - And it's my job to help build interest and community around this shiny new company and it's upcoming games.
While we've made some progress here (Not as much as I'd like, but I have to think that way!) it's going to be a slow-rolling snowball and I hope to ensure that whether I get to stay or not once this expires, I place a definite 'RopeDrink' mark on the company and leave behind a self-sufficient base of operations for their future community endeavours.
This includes lending my content-creation experience, building up a game-channel to be used for movies and game footage (YouTube, Twitch TV live-streaming etc), while managing their social media accounts and doing research in how to measure the current metrics and improve our analytic's and overall media reach - All the while taking time to learn SCRUM (Optional for the most part but comes highly recommended from our Producer) and supplying some quality assurance, play-testing, bug-splatting and error reporting.
It's proving to be a barrel of fun as well as vitally informative, something that will be invaluable for my future job-hunts (or simply getting comfortable in the role for if I can step from Intern to 'employed')

I've spent a lot of time on LinkedIn lately and while it's quite snobbish and full of smoke-and-mirrors, there's been a hell of a lot of group discussions of value to read as well as job opportunities and internships (Such as the Riot group, who are announcing their massive 2014 Internship program for aspiring Riot employee's, though it's in the states at the moment - But a good place to ask an official Riot employee if it'll ever come to Ireland) so LinkedIn is still pretty decent in some respects and I intend to sniff around more.
I can't say for sure what will happen in the future with this - But it's most definitely a life-changing experience for me, partially because it's a fantastic opportunity but mostly because it's part and parcel of getting my life in order after over a decade of madness, depression and work-finding issues.
With so many new places open here in Ireland now (Galway & Dublin seem to be booming at the moment) it's a good time for people to think long and hard about if, when and how they want to get into the Industry - And being prepared to do whatever it takes, even if it means having to take on roles that weren't originally planned for.
I had no intention of becoming a Community Manager but once it was explained to me, it made absolute sense (I thought I'd be more of a content creator or even *gasp* somewhere in game-development but, realistically, I could never sell myself into that going by my past experiences).

We have the Elder Scrolls MMORPG coming out soon via Zenimax, Ireland - We've got EA sitting here, Riot Games in Dublin, lord knows how many Indie based companies or other mainstream companies (I know I'm missing some) so I strongly suggest people get investing time in the hunt!
I can't wait to see how this all pans out as far as I'm concerned - It's satisfying taking some initiative then studying the results to try and improve it for the next attempt, socially, while watching the team build up their first game to be released sometime next year
I hope I don't let them down!
I'd recommend people consider creating a profile/CV on LinkedIn, even just to connect with people on Boards and/or have a sneak peek at the discussions there, or the opportunities on offer... Already been asked by someone if I'd consider applying for a Community related job involving a move to Japan (Note, asking someone to apply is obviously not the same as just directly offering) but I wouldn't have ever seen these opportunities if it wasn't for recruiters just spreading the word about.

So, some random links:
LinkedIn (Link in my above rant is my profile, not the direct linkedin site): http://www.linkedin.com/

Games Job Direct (They've a discussion group in LinkedIn as well last I remember)
http://www.gamesjobsdirect.com/

OPM Job Search
http://opmjobs.com/

I had a lot more of these bookmarked but I seem to have cleaned them out once I landed the internship - Got to make space for all the work related stuff :pac:

If you're not into a big rant of personal stuff then here's some RRS links if you're interested in following our progress while we get ourselves off the ground - It'd certainly help a lot, but we're not here to promote (obviously):

RRS - Website
RRS - FaceBook
RRS - Twitter

You never know - If this crowd become some global phenomenon and uber massive, might be opportunities in the future for people who, like me, desperately wanted their foot in the door.

In turn I've been following other sites and communities hoping to grow theirs in kind - Just because the gaming-industry plonked on the Irish doorstep and seems to be growing doesn't mean we shouldn't all be trying to nurture the growth somehow, whether it's our own job/workplace or not.

Anyhow, sorry for the rant - But I felt it may have been slightly relevant

To anyone who is looking for an opportunity in the industry, seeking their first gaming job or already have experience but are trying to find out where else they next want to set their sights on - Give it everything you've got - If it's this hard to get in the door right now, I don't think it's ever going to get any easier despite how many venues, companies and names have opened up shop here.

DRakE

Best of luck!
Your twitter and fb links are broken though

DRakE

Liked and followed. Had a mobile game idea myself that I'm hoping to develop with a uni mate in the New Year so stay tuned ;D