Video Game Producer
Trey Smith, EA Sports
Trey started at Northern Arizona University (NAU) and got a theatre degree. After graduation he moved to Los Angeles to pursued his acting dreams. After looking for his acting break, like so many others in the area, he stumbled across an opportunity. One day, Trey was playing the first Tony Hawk video game with a friend that worked in the video game industry and found a glitch. When going up a ramp he was able to get Tony Hawk’s character stuck in midair. When he showed it to his friend, he asked him to do it again. He did, and his friend offered Trey a position as a video game tester, right then and there.
He had never even sent an email before he started working, and ended up having to send 200 to 300 emails a day. As a part of training, he had to take apart a computer and put it back together, as well as learn how to use programs such as Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint.
He tested games for about a year and a half at Activision when he got a call from the production team of Tony Hawk. They asked him to be a trade show demonstrator for their new game. Essentially, his duty was to play the game in front of people and make the game look appealing. At the expo he realized that this is what he wanted to do as a career, and ended up dropping his acting career to pursue his love for video games because it “got the creative juices flowing.”
Trey soon grew tired of L.A. and moved up to Vancouver with his girlfriend to work at EA Sports, where he was brought up to work on one of the games in production. When he played MVP Baseball ‘05, he wrote down the top ten things that he would change and sent it to a producer. The producer offered him a position to work on the next MVP baseball game. This opportunity was the first time he could actually have some creative control in the design of a game.
His advice to anyone that wants to get into the video game industry is “to be patient, because you’re not going to be making a lot of money right off of the bat. I was making more money in college than outside of it for the first year and half. I was making about $7 an hour and living with six guys in an apartment while working as a tester.”
“Also, another big part to getting into games is being where they’re made. There are a couple of studios in Tucson. One is called Running with Scissors. You would never know, but they sell about 500,000 copies a year. Rainbow Studios in Phoenix, does BMX games. L.A. is a Mecca for video games. In Vancouver, I’ve seen about five or six companies start since I’ve been here. Austin, Texas is also an up and comer, but outside of those areas it is tough to find a place.”
More advice to gamers that want to get into the industry:
“Find a game that you like and try to look at it differently. It’s not a game anymore it’s a product. Break it down. Find its mechanics because all video games are is just a roll of the dice. It’s numbers, it’s graphics, and it’s a board game on TV.”
We also asked Trey if he had any advice for students in general, and here is what he had to say:
“I’m really big on preparation. If I ever had an interview I would do some research on them, (visit www.mobygames.com for video game related interviews), what games they’ve made. If you haven’t played them yet, I’d play them. So at least you go into that interview knowing who is sitting across from you. Getting your foot in the door is the most difficult thing to do, so do your research. Be confident, yet humble.”
One of the coolest experiences Trey had while working at EA was going to Roger Clemens’ house. Being a University of Texas Longhorn, Mr. Clemens wanted to be a part of the new college baseball game. Trey made the trip down to Texas to show Clemens the game. He explained to the “Rocket” and family how to play the multi-player mode. Roger even let him hit in his home’s batting cage, which Trey admitted was pretty cool.
Further advice for aspiring game techs is:
“Search out experiences where you will work with a lot of different types of people that are working towards a common goal. The experience you will get is invaluable because it puts you in a situation in which you will work with people that are difficult. And no matter where you go you will have to work with difficult people. Try to find a collaborative thing, and communication is vital. Whether it’s public speaking, an email or a PowerPoint, it is key to get your point across.”
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