Boy, I hope so.
While the intriguingly titled “Is working in Computer Games a ‘real’ job?” section of the 24 hour Mega Panel podcast at Insomnia this weekend seems like it has a fairly obvious answer, the Staffordshire University pair running it seem more interested in explaining how to go from ‘I’d like to work in videogames’ to the rockstar lifestyle of late nights, early mornings and code, code, code. The marathon podcast is in aid of Special Effect, those folks who help people with disabilities to enjoy videogames.
The Mega Panel itself is actually being ran by students from the university, and the relevant section from their lecturers Paul Roberts and Chris McCreadie is from 6pm to 7pm GMT tonight. It’ll all be livestreamed via their Twitch channel, embedded below, with the talking starting at 4pm GMT today and running until 4pm Saturday.
The full schedule is over on Facebook. They’re hoping to raise £2,400 for Special Effect, and you can help out with that over here. There’s a fairly impressive guest list, including representatives from Square Enix, Bossa, Amazon, Four Circle Interactive and Mode 7.
“Our section is aimed at any budding games designers or programmers hoping to forge a career in the industry. As the sector grows there is inevitably more competition for jobs.” says Roberts of his segment. Others will cover game design, eSports, if there are any good game movies – it’s a real smorgasbord of serious to silly across the 24 hours.