Working as a Freelancer

Freelancing and the jobs within:Working freelance in the computer games industry means you do not belong to a company within the games industry, instead you’re self employed and can be contracted to do different jobs for people. Freelancer jobs can be literally anything that can be done as an employee, these can include:3D Modelling, Designer/Artist, Coder, Music producer/sound designer, and many more just like these.

Resources as a freelancer:To work as a freelancer you will need physical and digital resources such as Maya, Unity, Photoshop, Logic, Apple Mac, etc. You will also need internet connection, electricity and basic living supplies such as heat which you will have to provide since you’re not in an office where your boss would be paying for that stuff.

Professionalism: If you don’t have these products you won’t be able to do your work and so you won’t get paid.In the gaming industry, if you are a developer or such type of jobs, you don’t have to wear suits since that is more uncomfortable and not necessary similarly, if you are a freelancer you can wear whatever you want because you are in your own home, however if you are meeting with a company who wants you to work on their game, it is better to dress in a suit to give off a professional appearance, otherwise they may think you’re unprofessional and go and hire someone else.

Health and Safety:Health and safety as a freelancer is important because you will have to pay for your own medical care whereas a company will usually give you health care insurance, as a freelancer you need to have a good chair (which an employer will usually provide you with) because if you spend hours a day sat in an uncomfortable chair it can hurt your back and leave you with bad posture and eventually a major health problem, similarly with your eyes, you need to take breaks and walk around otherwise you can hurt your eyes.

If you work in sound design then you need to keep your headphones to a sound limit otherwise it can damage your hearing.

Types of contracts in the gaming industry include:

Freelancing - Advantages:custom work times, work from home, you’re your own boss.

Disadvantages: find your own work, sharing work to your contractor can be harder.

Permanent -Advantages: you don’t have a time limit on your contract, being given this contract is a massive compliment.

Disadvantages: most work is often suited for part time workers.

Full time - Advantages: paid sick pay, often given health insurance, better options afterwards.

Disadvantages: long hours, hard to balance normal life.

Part time - Advantages: very flexible hours.

Disadvantages: much less pay because of less hours.

Voluntary - Advantages: experience, goes on your CV.

Disadvantages: lack of pay, loss of time.

Internship - Advantages: experience, skills and knowledge.

Disadvantages: often unpaid jobs, competitive to get.

Working to a brief - When a company/person wants you to do a certain thing for them, they will provide you with a brief that details everything they want, you have to follow this brief otherwise the company/person might not pay you since you didn’t do what they had asked you to do. Copyright.

Costing and Budgets:

Costing - you need to work out what you need to do your job, this includes the resources listed above, you need to work this out so you can take it out of your budget and ensure you don’t go bankrupt.

Budget - the amount of money which you have to spend, this is used to work out your costing.

Scheduling - you need to schedule what you need to do so that you won’t miss your deadline, because your employer may fire you.

Risk Management - you need to assess and prioritize risks based on the risks involved, these can include: time, reward and negative repercussions.

Intellectual Property - Intellectual Property refers to anything made by someone that is original or different, the owner of the IP is protected by Copyright.

Copyright - Copyright is a law that protects owners of Intellectual Property from being stolen or copied, the owners can file a copyright complaint and take the person to court or remove their content, sometimes big companies try to abuse Copyright to take down competitors or smaller companies, however if the person has done something constructive or changed the thing enough from the original they can claim for Fair Use which protects people from being abused by bigger companies or figures (fair use is a creative commons licence).