Passing the First Gate, next you’ll talk with the Art Director – either alone or with their Art Lieutenant of sorts (a Lead or Senior Artist). The AD will lob softball questions at you, mostly because video game Art Directors tend to be fairly UI UX agnostic. However, they will still be fiercely interested in your process and previous work. There is also the likely possibility their Art Lieutenant is a UI UX Designer, and they may ask you the more piercing – but equally tonally placid questions. 

The Art Director will definitely ask about your process. Want to learn the basics of video game UI UX Wireframes? Check out this quick guide!

Lastly, you’ll meet with the team in a perfunctory little meet-n-greet to see if everyone can get along for 30 minutes without somebody exclaiming, “There goes the neighborhood!” 

If you’re talking to the team, it’s likely you’ve been fast-tracked to an offer that’ll be in your inbox within the week and there’s nothing but daylight. 

However…

A word of caution about meeting the Team (gentle reader, please imagine a room full of candles suddenly blowing out). Depending on the Studio’s druid-like traditions, you may not just talk to your immediate Team. You might end up talking to the Executives, as well. This may include the Producer, the Creative Director – all the way up to the CEO and President if the Company is treehouse-y enough. 

Indies in particular will spring the Executive trap on you, much less to unnerve you and more to develop group cohesion – especially remote-only Companies. Think Dr. Hammond in Jurassic Park just before an egg hatches: they want everyone to imprint and feel connected. Meeting the Execs will rarely happen to Juniors in larger firms, but you never know… 

What I do know is that Companies want some guarantee you can make a million-dollar project wheeze past the finish line. They don’t want the word of some hugely flying-quotes “relatively” sane Photoshop-jockey on a Zoom call. 

They want The Test. 

The Art Test is the harrowing in the application process; an elephant graveyard where your bones will crown the marrowworks. 

Art Tests can be week-long assignments (in timeline, not necessarily in workload) that happen after you talk with the Art Director but before you meet the Team. The goal is to evaluate your real skills with a real goal amid real constraints. Nobody is expecting a breathtaking masterwork, but they will interpret your Test as the bounding box of your talents and a vorpal-sharp indicator of how well you follow instructions. 

Historically, the Art Test is meant for Junior-level artists who don’t have labyrinthine Portfolios or a ton of LinkedIn social proof. Okay, I lied, even Seniors still get the test; and it’s always an annoyance I’ll never tire of Shawshanking around.

In fact, if you’re Senior or charming enough, you can actually convince companies to not give you an Art Test. Ask the Art Director if you can make a wireframe for one of their game screens and walk them through your process over Zoom. A week-long Art Test is grueling and ultimately wasteful for all parties. No shame giving them a better evaluation and giving yourself an easier time.  

But if you fail every saving roll and simply must do an Art Test, focus on it. There’s a big difference between being rejected giving your all, and being rejected knowing you could’ve done so much more. 

“I wish I had tried” are killing words.

I’ve been part of a AAA studio closure, a round of layoffs from another AAA studio and fella, I’ve lost my share of gigs as a Freelancer. I know The Humbling always hurts, regardless of where you are in your career. In fact, I would argue what makes a Senior-level talent is the grace with which one endures ribcage-splitting rejection. At the best of times, it takes a while to recover.

But these are not the best of times.

As such, please allow this salt-and-pepper Gen-Xer who has made it this far to gift you a light when all others fade.