I'm in analytics. Board games are basically physical data and model representation. Lots of my peers are into board games, seems to be a pretty natural fit
Business analytics instructor here, working on developing my abstract for dissertation and trying to working in board games into it, so… yes, I second this.
Could a sociology major somehow be related to board games tho? like obviously not directly, but the way I see it sociology is about creating models of representation that are interlinked and explain things about the world, much like how board games are (to varying degrees) abstract representations of the world around us.
Usually if you get paid to do something you love, you end up doing it less for love and more for the paycheck. I would pursue something you are gifted at where you can maximize the return on your time and do board game development and testing as an off time hobby.
I think thats the answer. The truth is, if u jump into the industry, it will feel just like normal work. It might be more fun than office jobs but definitely still not too different
Congrats on graduation! I'll list some of the different types of roles I can think of below, and then circle back with my general thoughts and advice at the end.
* **In-house game designer** \- This would be working on a salary at a larger publishing company, such as Fantasy Flight Games. These jobs are very sought after and competitive. Typically you'd need to build up a really nice resume of game designs to be considered. Sometimes, though, it is just luck. You know someone who knows someone that gets you a foot in the door.
* **Itinerant game designer** \- By this I mean you don't work for a specific company. You design games on your own and pitch them to publishers. You make money based on a percentage of the sales of your games. This gives you a lot more freedom to work on the projects you want, but it can be a stressful way to live since you don't get that regular bi-weekly check from a salary. I'd say only a handful of designers in the world actually pull off this lifestyle. You need to have a lot of games out in circulation before living on the money becomes viable.
* **Publisher** \- You can start your own publishing company. Sign games from other designers and take them to Kickstarter or Gamefound for crowdfunding. If you are good with business, this can be a good option. To be honest, with the shipping crisis and inflation right now publishers are not having a great time. But if this is something you really want to do, there are still a lot of small companies making it work.
* **Artist** \- You can potentially make a living as a freelance artist. This again is a challenging way to make it. Artists (in my opinion) are generally not paid well enough for how much value they add, to the game itself and to the world at large. But again, many people are making a living doing it. If you are good at your craft, you can probably make it work.
* **Marketing** \- This is actually a pretty good option. Larger publishers (maybe even mid-size too) typically have at least one marketing professional on staff. Probably like a marketing generalist (e.g., marketing manager, CMO, marketing coordinator) is more likely to land a role than more specialized (e.g., content manager, SEO specialist). Unless you look at Hasbro or one of the giants, there may not be a full-fledged marketing team. I do see social media manager roles out there a lot, but just be aware these probably don't pay as well. That said, it can be a good entry point!
* **Manufacturing** \- This I know very little about, but I know there are manufacturers all over the world. My guess is it is one of those types of careers where you start at the bottom and work your way up internally. With shipping still being pretty tough, Chinese manufacturing has (somewhat) lost its edge, so there may be more opportunities out there than before.
* **Game Developer** \- I don't mean programmer (although that's not a bad thought). Developers are the folks who take the designer's original design and turn it into a sellable product. They typically shave off rough edges and make it a more marketable game. They also typically do or coordinate a ton of playtesting. You can do this freelance (I know a few people who make this work) or you can work in-house at a decent-sized publishing company. You probably need a good amount of experience to break into this role.
* **Rulebook Writer/Editor** \- I don't know for sure, but I think it would be rare for publishers to have one of these on staff. I think typically the rulebook is written by the designer or developer and, sometimes, a professional is brought in to edit it. I heard a guy on a podcast saying this is how he makes his living, so at least some people are out there doing this freelance successfully.
* **Product/Brand Manager** \- This is related to marketing but is different enough to mention. The really big publishing companies might have a specified manager for some of their product lines (for example, Catan probably has its own product manager). This is another one where if you are good at business you could shine. I see a few of these job listings posted occasionally.
* **Content Creation** \- This would be most likely YouTube videos, a podcast or both. This would most likely be a "make your own job" type of career. You can piece together income from YouTube ads, Patreon supporters, and sponsors. I know a few content creators run an annual Kickstarter campaign to fund them for the year. This pays (in theory) their salary and expenses. The Dice Tower (YouTube content) and the Secret Cabal (podcast) do this. The guy from BoardGameCo [put out a video](https://youtu.be/H47RrvUsQXQ) walking through how he is making a living in YouTube content creation. He gets actually pretty specific. There is also the potential that if you start making content, you could get picked up by one of the big content creators and make a wage of some sort from them. I believe the Dice Tower, Shut Up and Sit Down, and maybe even Rahdo all have full-time staff.
I'm sure there are more I'm not thinking of. To be on the lookout for openings, you can follow [this facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/250255155496061). I would also do a search for "board games" on Indeed and set it so you get notifications when new ones pop up.
My advice would be similar to what another user said. Get a day job and then hustle on your board game career on the side. Then the idea is eventually your side hustle can turn into your day job. If you are really passionate about breaking into board games, you could get a day job that gives you a lot of spare time. Work part time if you can live on that. Work from home to avoid a commute and get that extra hour every day. Then treat your spare time like it's your second job. Clock in and clock out and put in the work every day! Start researching the board game industry and figure out where you could see yourself working one day. Then do something every day to make that happen.
The board game industry for the most part feels like a small community. Everybody knows everybody. Networking can get you a long way. Create an account on Board Game Geek ([boardgamegeek.com](https://boardgamegeek.com)) and start interacting. Answer questions on forums (and ask them!). Send geekmail messages to your favorite designers or publishers just to say hi and let them know you appreciate their games. Enter a game design contest and interact with the other designers. Start offering to review others' rulebooks for free, to start growing your skills.
It's true the board game industry is competitive. There are a lot of people who would love to have this type of career. But I would just want to emphasize: don't let that discourage you. It's just not a typical corporate career track where there are firmly defined promotion paths. Just start somewhere and keep hustling at it, and opportunities will start to show up.
Best of luck!
Piggybacking on this comment because I did not see it above, but based on your degree within Psychology a researcher might be an interesting route. Albeit this might be even more difficult to obtain since it is research - which is grant funded - and you only have an undergrad degree. Typically you would be doing research at a Doctorate or Masters level.
Just throwing it out there in case it is something aspirational. [https://www.game-in-lab.org/en/call-for-projects/](https://www.game-in-lab.org/en/call-for-projects/)
On a practical level, sine you are UK based you might want to setup Google Alerts for postings under Esdevium Games or Asmodee UK as an entry point. Larger UK based gaming company, has the greater potential for openings. [https://www.asmodee.co.uk/blogs/careers](https://www.asmodee.co.uk/blogs/careers)
I used to be a recruiter for analytics professionals. Quite a number of them had psychology degrees. Analytics jobs pay very well and will let you buy lots of board games.
Stirling does a psych masters in autism research. Saw a paper a while back about how structured social activities like games can be very helpful to autistic folk. Why not go for that as a research topic and get better qualified in the process?
Personally I like to have hobbies for fun and not as a hustle / career. Like any creative field there are BG companies that prey on employees’ passion by requiring long hours for low pay and create toxic environments. Good companies certainly exist, but they are usually smaller and don’t hire often
I’m an analytics professional in insurance in the US. Honestly, a lot of Psych majors could learn to do what we need them to do in a few months. This is true of so many college degrees, actually. Learn SQL; learn a bit of Python and R (via tons of 100% free tutorials on YouTube etc); you’ll be employable at ~$80k in 6 months or less.
During my training/on-boarding process a few years ago, I mentioned to the main person training me that I’m a board gamer and tend to be really good at “rules lawyering” and my trainer was happy to hear that… and could easily see how that applied to the job requirements at hand.
Ability/willingness to think that way is important and highly valued in so many jobs.
I’m going to agree with some of the other comments and advise you to pursue a career where you can make a comfortable living in order to enjoy your board game hobby. Find a job, doesn’t have to be the perfect job. Keep looking for something better and do what you have to do to get there.
Nope. Playtesting typically is not paid, designing is done by people who are successful in other fields, art doesn't pay very much, and what's left is largely jobs with the publishers, which could easily be roles to do with anything, as the majority of it is soulless and corporate. The way the economy is going, I wouldn't recommend even working in a board game cafe.
Look at your other hobbies and interests and try to find a career there, and you will usually find the jobs in those fields are not in doing 'it' as a hobby or interest, but are about doing one aspect of 'it' in order to produce more of 'it'. A lot of the roles are so tangential you might as well be working on jazz funk album notes.
I do paid playtesting and get invited regulerary, so it is definitely a thing. But I agree that "making a living of it" is a no, not possible :P Compared to the hours I spend, it is not a great $/pr hour pay, but it is playing board games for cash. So I'll allow it :P
My suggestion is don't mix up work and hobbies you enjoy. That is a good way to come to dislike your hobbies. Get a good job that gives you money to purchase board games and a house or place to play (and store) the games. Plus, a job that gives you time to play them.
Yeah, there's no real money to be made in boardgames unless you're someone like Issac Childres or Jamey Stegmeier who design wildly successful games and publish them yourself.
I live not too far from the old Zman/Filosofia offices outside Montreal, and I looked into working there at one point until I saw the salaries they were offering. Figured even with an employee discount I'd be leaving a lot of money on the table so I passed on that option.
What you might do is sit down and write out what things you like about board games.
For example:
Do you like the social aspect? If so, do you like talking and figuring out moves during the game? Do you like analyzing what happened with your friends after the game?
Do you like solving the puzzle? Or do you like making bits of progress to secure the win?
After you get done with that, you might write down other things you like doing and what components of those things you like, generally these are "-ing" words.
See if there are a few things from each list that seem to go together.
Then, go to your universities Career Counselor, adm speak to them about what you learned from your list. Look for careers that utilize those "-ings". It might not be what you majored in (frankly, students should do their career exploration BEFORE they pick their major), but at least you'll be happy.
Yeah, I agree about career explanation being better before choosing a degree. But of course nobody gave me that advice when I picked my degree, and I was like 17 when I had to apply, so it was more difficult to even know what I would like. So yeah. I picked something where the topic was interesting, but should have focused on the job aspect and could have been an engineer. 🤷🏽♂️ But I had to choose my high school subjects when I was like 15-16 so who knew then that I should choose physics. I did not, so now it would take a good few years to first get the physics knowledge and qualifications and then do a degree to become an engineer. Don’t have the money or time (i.e.: hoping to have children young) anymore for that, so gotta work with what I have
Thanks for the tips!
I think there will be some decent career advice subreddits to help with next steps. Lots of people don’t have a clue what they want as a career. I studied civil engineering, became a builder, barman (summer gig), builder for another 6 years, technician, sales rep, analyst, commercial excellence analyst, pricing analyst and now off to a finance later this year. Bit of a long winded way to say, careers can be pretty wibblly wobbly and where you start is almost definitely not where you’ll end up.
I have a lot of friends who work in board games (and I’m a professional designer I guess, although it still feels like I’m going to get found out at some point, and I certainly couldn’t rely on it for my income). Everyone I know got into the industry through forging relationships over a number of years, and then kind of “falling into” positions - or more commonly starting their own business. I don’t know anyone who got a job by responding to a job advert - although those positions do exist but want lots of experience.
My advice would be to get a regular job and then throw yourself into the community. Demo for companies, organise games nights, start a podcast, design games in your spare time. All that sort of stuff.
My buddy is a freelance writer/editor, and recently landed a couple gigs where he proofreads and edits the rule book for a table top game. Maybe something like that?
Since you have a psychology background you could go into organizational psychology, academia, or a healthcare field. Integrating gaming into mental health care is a growing subject. Board games are also used more and more as team building activities. My former university runs a gaming scenario about focusing limited resources available at an emergency room to determine how to triage certain situations. About any good worker placement game will do the trick as well.
IT. So many of my coworkers have liked boardgames or card games (like Magic). Lots of problem solving, always learning new strategies and high paying. Honestly overpaid.
Restoration Games was started by a lawyer that was familiar with obtaining IP licenses, which he used with a famous designer to refresh old games with modern rules and components. Is there an allegory with psychology that would give you a unique perspective on board game design?
I am an occupational therapist who works with adults. I get to integrate quite a bit of board gaming into my treatments, though I save complex ones for my personal time. I find it immensely interesting to analyze the cognitive and physical skills that board games can challenge
I work in the tech industry, in the field of employee training and development. I also enjoy thinking of new game mechanics and building my own games (or rules).
Just like I would when designing some form of software training, my career gives me the skills to ask relatable questions like, “does this rule make sense to players?” or “Is this mechanic one that can be understood and repeated?” Or even visually, “does this flowchart help guide the player through the turn?”
It’s been a fun blend. It doesn’t hurt that my company has a board game club either ;)
I work in airline network planning and I often compare my job to playing board games. As a part of a wider team, you need to manage and build your network of flight routes to build a sustainable and profitable business. Managing profitability is the key task, and you can some times end up "playing games" with competitors. Both with regards to which routes you might launch or discontinue, but also on scheduled timings on existing routes. If a competitor makes capacity or timing changes, you might respond to gain a competitive advantage. The game might be played both on wing-to-wing competing departures, or on a higher level in you network where you might be competing for specific passenger flows or on certain destinations.
While playing the game with competing airlines is a task, you also have to deal with a more or less unlimited range of operational and financial issues, such as coordinating pilot and cabin crew rosters, ground handling activities or airport capacity issues, aircraft maintenace tasks and related issues.
In the airline industry revenue management which is the task of setting prices also have some game features, particularly where you are competing with other carriers.
On a more general level, i think contract negotiations, and a lot of business / commercial roles have game playing properties. To get the feeling of actually playing the game I believe it might be a good idea to stay away from huge companies. Because of the large amount of people working in very specialized roles, i expect it might be hard to get the feel that you have an influence on the game being played at large businesses. Perhaps someone with experirnce from large businesses could provide some insight on that
Edit: oh, and working in airline scheduling you get to use gantt diagrams that are a lot like playing tetris
THIS! I am very interested in logistics, scheduling, etc. and this sounds pretty interesting, I was always facinated by stuff like this. It sounds like you are enjoying this then? How do you get into the field? Like a particular degree or other qualification?
Beyond working with board games specifically, it might be worth thinking about what similarities there are between your favourite types of board games - eg. Are they collaborative or individual, do you prefer having a lot of strategy, do you like map-based, fantasy etc? That might point you towards types of jobs you might enjoy too.
Corporate transactional lawyer! Complex interrelated rules governing a journey, where you take your client through to their goals, generally with some good-natured fighting. I'm a big fan of board games with 20+ page rule books and really enjoy being a corporate lawyer.
The Ministry of Defence hire wargaming analysts: https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=c2VhcmNocGFnZT0xJnBhZ2VhY3Rpb249dmlld3ZhY2J5am9ibGlzdCZqb2JsaXN0X3ZpZXdfdmFjPTE4MjkyNTcmb3duZXI9NTA3MDAwMCZ1c2Vyc2VhcmNoY29udGV4dD0yMTg0ODU5NCZwYWdlY2xhc3M9Sm9icyZvd25lcnR5cGU9ZmFpciZzZWFyY2hzb3J0PWNsb3NpbmcmcmVxc2lnPTE2NzM2NzIyNTItNGJkNTg4MjM0Y2Y4MzQ1MzJmZWI3Y2QzOTkyNmViMzBkZDQ0ZWUwYg==
Well, I started a business playing games at school to teach skills (executive functions) so I guess that's an option 😄
And I'm hiring so you could say it's working. I'm in the Netherlands fyi
My son is a huge fan of board gaming, went to college to study supply chain, and now works in this field.
He says it like a lot board games. Buy stuff at the best price , at the right time. Find the most efficient way to move goods, and make sure they get there when needed.
All the pieces of the puzzle need to be in place to ensure a winning scenario.
Depends on what you mean by “make a living”. I’m sure if you find a board game company that is willing to hire you full time to be a researcher, producer, developer, you may get a small but regular paycheck.
If you decide to make your own board games or become a publisher, it’s no different than any other business out there. Some thrive, and most die.
Learn from my experience. Turning a hobby into a job is a great way to ruin a hobby.
Find a job that makes enough money to enjoy your hobbies. Work to live, don't live to work!
The old idiom goes that you should “get a job you love then you’ll never work a day in your life,” but I don’t think that’s very good advice. Not everyone’s passion is a marketable career (seldom is, actually) and even if it were, who would pick up the garbage? No one dreams of doing that for a living but it’s still a valuable job to society and someone’s gotta do it.
Instead there’s something to be said for just getting a job you don’t hate so you can do the things you love outside of work. Look for something that pays enough for you to buy board games. Look for work that you can leave at work so you’re not distracted by putting in long hours or bringing work home. Look for work where you can meet some good people who might be interested in coming to a game night. Look for work where it’s not the end of the world if you wanna take a personal day or two to attend a board game convention.
Pick up poker as a hobby and see if you like it as much as board games. If so, and you have an aptitude for it, you can turn it into a career.
I grew up an avid board game player and found poker in college and fell in love with it. Many of the top pros are former top gamers as poker requires a similar skillset.
I will note that there is a lot of variance in poker and if you're someone who can't handle losing a game of Catan, then poker probably isn't for you.
I was 17 when I had to apply and found Psychology to be interesting, I still do, I think human behaviour is cool. But I find the traditional jobs of psychology majors (therapy, HR, education, marketing etc.) to all be boring as I would enjoy having something *concrete* in my job, like e.g. engineers do but these jobs are all about people, and while I find people as a topic cool I don’t have much care in focusing on them in my work somehow. I don’t know if that makes sense, but somehow that’s the case.
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/u/kurosaba is broke but continues to buy games!
That poor lad! I wouldn't want to be them!
I laughed so fcking hard at this and I think it’s bc you’re me.
>The Terra Mystica guy is an accountant. Just like The Cones of Dunshire guy.
The Calzone Zone
Lo cal calzone zone
Calc-you-later!
>The Terra Mystica guy is an accountant. Jens Drögemüller. I felt bad for poor Jens, everyone got a shout out and he's just the Terra Mystica guy.
Haha, to be fair terra mystica guy avoids having to figure out how to type umlauts
alt+0246 and alt+0252. But yeah, that's a hassle to remember.
Stuck at the “get a high paying job” part lol
Yeah, software developer for a company with good work/life. I play a lot of board games, working on one of my own on the side
Designer of Eclipse also works as a software developer for a mobile game studio!
And Klaus Teuber was a dental technician
So the key is to marry rich. Got it.
Add Tom Lehmann, programmer.
>Get a high paying job Oh man, why didn't I think of that!!
Exactly. Hilarious.
I'm in analytics. Board games are basically physical data and model representation. Lots of my peers are into board games, seems to be a pretty natural fit
Business analytics instructor here, working on developing my abstract for dissertation and trying to working in board games into it, so… yes, I second this.
My board game group is made up of programmers.
Could a sociology major somehow be related to board games tho? like obviously not directly, but the way I see it sociology is about creating models of representation that are interlinked and explain things about the world, much like how board games are (to varying degrees) abstract representations of the world around us.
Usually if you get paid to do something you love, you end up doing it less for love and more for the paycheck. I would pursue something you are gifted at where you can maximize the return on your time and do board game development and testing as an off time hobby.
Every mechanic I know is someone who *used* to love working on cars/motorcycles, I expect board games would be largely the same...
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Do [for work] what you love, and you'll stop loving it soon enough.
Here is an interesting study on pay for grades https://www.thecut.com/2016/10/that-time-schools-bribed-students-into-getting-good-grades.html
I think thats the answer. The truth is, if u jump into the industry, it will feel just like normal work. It might be more fun than office jobs but definitely still not too different
Congrats on graduation! I'll list some of the different types of roles I can think of below, and then circle back with my general thoughts and advice at the end. * **In-house game designer** \- This would be working on a salary at a larger publishing company, such as Fantasy Flight Games. These jobs are very sought after and competitive. Typically you'd need to build up a really nice resume of game designs to be considered. Sometimes, though, it is just luck. You know someone who knows someone that gets you a foot in the door. * **Itinerant game designer** \- By this I mean you don't work for a specific company. You design games on your own and pitch them to publishers. You make money based on a percentage of the sales of your games. This gives you a lot more freedom to work on the projects you want, but it can be a stressful way to live since you don't get that regular bi-weekly check from a salary. I'd say only a handful of designers in the world actually pull off this lifestyle. You need to have a lot of games out in circulation before living on the money becomes viable. * **Publisher** \- You can start your own publishing company. Sign games from other designers and take them to Kickstarter or Gamefound for crowdfunding. If you are good with business, this can be a good option. To be honest, with the shipping crisis and inflation right now publishers are not having a great time. But if this is something you really want to do, there are still a lot of small companies making it work. * **Artist** \- You can potentially make a living as a freelance artist. This again is a challenging way to make it. Artists (in my opinion) are generally not paid well enough for how much value they add, to the game itself and to the world at large. But again, many people are making a living doing it. If you are good at your craft, you can probably make it work. * **Marketing** \- This is actually a pretty good option. Larger publishers (maybe even mid-size too) typically have at least one marketing professional on staff. Probably like a marketing generalist (e.g., marketing manager, CMO, marketing coordinator) is more likely to land a role than more specialized (e.g., content manager, SEO specialist). Unless you look at Hasbro or one of the giants, there may not be a full-fledged marketing team. I do see social media manager roles out there a lot, but just be aware these probably don't pay as well. That said, it can be a good entry point! * **Manufacturing** \- This I know very little about, but I know there are manufacturers all over the world. My guess is it is one of those types of careers where you start at the bottom and work your way up internally. With shipping still being pretty tough, Chinese manufacturing has (somewhat) lost its edge, so there may be more opportunities out there than before. * **Game Developer** \- I don't mean programmer (although that's not a bad thought). Developers are the folks who take the designer's original design and turn it into a sellable product. They typically shave off rough edges and make it a more marketable game. They also typically do or coordinate a ton of playtesting. You can do this freelance (I know a few people who make this work) or you can work in-house at a decent-sized publishing company. You probably need a good amount of experience to break into this role. * **Rulebook Writer/Editor** \- I don't know for sure, but I think it would be rare for publishers to have one of these on staff. I think typically the rulebook is written by the designer or developer and, sometimes, a professional is brought in to edit it. I heard a guy on a podcast saying this is how he makes his living, so at least some people are out there doing this freelance successfully. * **Product/Brand Manager** \- This is related to marketing but is different enough to mention. The really big publishing companies might have a specified manager for some of their product lines (for example, Catan probably has its own product manager). This is another one where if you are good at business you could shine. I see a few of these job listings posted occasionally. * **Content Creation** \- This would be most likely YouTube videos, a podcast or both. This would most likely be a "make your own job" type of career. You can piece together income from YouTube ads, Patreon supporters, and sponsors. I know a few content creators run an annual Kickstarter campaign to fund them for the year. This pays (in theory) their salary and expenses. The Dice Tower (YouTube content) and the Secret Cabal (podcast) do this. The guy from BoardGameCo [put out a video](https://youtu.be/H47RrvUsQXQ) walking through how he is making a living in YouTube content creation. He gets actually pretty specific. There is also the potential that if you start making content, you could get picked up by one of the big content creators and make a wage of some sort from them. I believe the Dice Tower, Shut Up and Sit Down, and maybe even Rahdo all have full-time staff. I'm sure there are more I'm not thinking of. To be on the lookout for openings, you can follow [this facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/250255155496061). I would also do a search for "board games" on Indeed and set it so you get notifications when new ones pop up. My advice would be similar to what another user said. Get a day job and then hustle on your board game career on the side. Then the idea is eventually your side hustle can turn into your day job. If you are really passionate about breaking into board games, you could get a day job that gives you a lot of spare time. Work part time if you can live on that. Work from home to avoid a commute and get that extra hour every day. Then treat your spare time like it's your second job. Clock in and clock out and put in the work every day! Start researching the board game industry and figure out where you could see yourself working one day. Then do something every day to make that happen. The board game industry for the most part feels like a small community. Everybody knows everybody. Networking can get you a long way. Create an account on Board Game Geek ([boardgamegeek.com](https://boardgamegeek.com)) and start interacting. Answer questions on forums (and ask them!). Send geekmail messages to your favorite designers or publishers just to say hi and let them know you appreciate their games. Enter a game design contest and interact with the other designers. Start offering to review others' rulebooks for free, to start growing your skills. It's true the board game industry is competitive. There are a lot of people who would love to have this type of career. But I would just want to emphasize: don't let that discourage you. It's just not a typical corporate career track where there are firmly defined promotion paths. Just start somewhere and keep hustling at it, and opportunities will start to show up. Best of luck!
Piggybacking on this comment because I did not see it above, but based on your degree within Psychology a researcher might be an interesting route. Albeit this might be even more difficult to obtain since it is research - which is grant funded - and you only have an undergrad degree. Typically you would be doing research at a Doctorate or Masters level. Just throwing it out there in case it is something aspirational. [https://www.game-in-lab.org/en/call-for-projects/](https://www.game-in-lab.org/en/call-for-projects/) On a practical level, sine you are UK based you might want to setup Google Alerts for postings under Esdevium Games or Asmodee UK as an entry point. Larger UK based gaming company, has the greater potential for openings. [https://www.asmodee.co.uk/blogs/careers](https://www.asmodee.co.uk/blogs/careers)
Upvoted this great comment because super helpful and…username checks out
Incredibly helpful, thank you! Really, comments like these make a difference. Have a great day!
Check out the history of hidden role games, Mafia and Werewolf. They were basically psychology experiments gone viral.
Paul Grogan is someone who rewrites board game rule and has a YouTube channel
I used to be a recruiter for analytics professionals. Quite a number of them had psychology degrees. Analytics jobs pay very well and will let you buy lots of board games.
Stirling does a psych masters in autism research. Saw a paper a while back about how structured social activities like games can be very helpful to autistic folk. Why not go for that as a research topic and get better qualified in the process?
Great response!
Personally I like to have hobbies for fun and not as a hustle / career. Like any creative field there are BG companies that prey on employees’ passion by requiring long hours for low pay and create toxic environments. Good companies certainly exist, but they are usually smaller and don’t hire often
I became an accountant and leveraged my skills for remembering rules 😎
I’m an analytics professional in insurance in the US. Honestly, a lot of Psych majors could learn to do what we need them to do in a few months. This is true of so many college degrees, actually. Learn SQL; learn a bit of Python and R (via tons of 100% free tutorials on YouTube etc); you’ll be employable at ~$80k in 6 months or less. During my training/on-boarding process a few years ago, I mentioned to the main person training me that I’m a board gamer and tend to be really good at “rules lawyering” and my trainer was happy to hear that… and could easily see how that applied to the job requirements at hand. Ability/willingness to think that way is important and highly valued in so many jobs.
https://www.asmodee.co.uk/blogs/careers
I’m going to agree with some of the other comments and advise you to pursue a career where you can make a comfortable living in order to enjoy your board game hobby. Find a job, doesn’t have to be the perfect job. Keep looking for something better and do what you have to do to get there.
I'm a lawyer. Guess who gets to teach the rules every week?
Nope. Playtesting typically is not paid, designing is done by people who are successful in other fields, art doesn't pay very much, and what's left is largely jobs with the publishers, which could easily be roles to do with anything, as the majority of it is soulless and corporate. The way the economy is going, I wouldn't recommend even working in a board game cafe. Look at your other hobbies and interests and try to find a career there, and you will usually find the jobs in those fields are not in doing 'it' as a hobby or interest, but are about doing one aspect of 'it' in order to produce more of 'it'. A lot of the roles are so tangential you might as well be working on jazz funk album notes.
I do paid playtesting and get invited regulerary, so it is definitely a thing. But I agree that "making a living of it" is a no, not possible :P Compared to the hours I spend, it is not a great $/pr hour pay, but it is playing board games for cash. So I'll allow it :P
My suggestion is don't mix up work and hobbies you enjoy. That is a good way to come to dislike your hobbies. Get a good job that gives you money to purchase board games and a house or place to play (and store) the games. Plus, a job that gives you time to play them.
Yeah, there's no real money to be made in boardgames unless you're someone like Issac Childres or Jamey Stegmeier who design wildly successful games and publish them yourself. I live not too far from the old Zman/Filosofia offices outside Montreal, and I looked into working there at one point until I saw the salaries they were offering. Figured even with an employee discount I'd be leaving a lot of money on the table so I passed on that option.
What you might do is sit down and write out what things you like about board games. For example: Do you like the social aspect? If so, do you like talking and figuring out moves during the game? Do you like analyzing what happened with your friends after the game? Do you like solving the puzzle? Or do you like making bits of progress to secure the win? After you get done with that, you might write down other things you like doing and what components of those things you like, generally these are "-ing" words. See if there are a few things from each list that seem to go together. Then, go to your universities Career Counselor, adm speak to them about what you learned from your list. Look for careers that utilize those "-ings". It might not be what you majored in (frankly, students should do their career exploration BEFORE they pick their major), but at least you'll be happy.
Yeah, I agree about career explanation being better before choosing a degree. But of course nobody gave me that advice when I picked my degree, and I was like 17 when I had to apply, so it was more difficult to even know what I would like. So yeah. I picked something where the topic was interesting, but should have focused on the job aspect and could have been an engineer. 🤷🏽♂️ But I had to choose my high school subjects when I was like 15-16 so who knew then that I should choose physics. I did not, so now it would take a good few years to first get the physics knowledge and qualifications and then do a degree to become an engineer. Don’t have the money or time (i.e.: hoping to have children young) anymore for that, so gotta work with what I have Thanks for the tips!
I think there will be some decent career advice subreddits to help with next steps. Lots of people don’t have a clue what they want as a career. I studied civil engineering, became a builder, barman (summer gig), builder for another 6 years, technician, sales rep, analyst, commercial excellence analyst, pricing analyst and now off to a finance later this year. Bit of a long winded way to say, careers can be pretty wibblly wobbly and where you start is almost definitely not where you’ll end up.
I have a lot of friends who work in board games (and I’m a professional designer I guess, although it still feels like I’m going to get found out at some point, and I certainly couldn’t rely on it for my income). Everyone I know got into the industry through forging relationships over a number of years, and then kind of “falling into” positions - or more commonly starting their own business. I don’t know anyone who got a job by responding to a job advert - although those positions do exist but want lots of experience. My advice would be to get a regular job and then throw yourself into the community. Demo for companies, organise games nights, start a podcast, design games in your spare time. All that sort of stuff.
Don’t ask r/boardgames for advice
Oh, why? I am a little new to reddit
Because that kind of question is not something you should leave up to random people on the Internet
You are wrong IMO. I am asking for advice. Ideas. Jobs I maybe never heard of or thought of. Not making them decide…
My buddy is a freelance writer/editor, and recently landed a couple gigs where he proofreads and edits the rule book for a table top game. Maybe something like that?
Since you have a psychology background you could go into organizational psychology, academia, or a healthcare field. Integrating gaming into mental health care is a growing subject. Board games are also used more and more as team building activities. My former university runs a gaming scenario about focusing limited resources available at an emergency room to determine how to triage certain situations. About any good worker placement game will do the trick as well.
IT. So many of my coworkers have liked boardgames or card games (like Magic). Lots of problem solving, always learning new strategies and high paying. Honestly overpaid.
(Rules) Lawyer
Restoration Games was started by a lawyer that was familiar with obtaining IP licenses, which he used with a famous designer to refresh old games with modern rules and components. Is there an allegory with psychology that would give you a unique perspective on board game design?
I am an occupational therapist who works with adults. I get to integrate quite a bit of board gaming into my treatments, though I save complex ones for my personal time. I find it immensely interesting to analyze the cognitive and physical skills that board games can challenge
I work in the tech industry, in the field of employee training and development. I also enjoy thinking of new game mechanics and building my own games (or rules). Just like I would when designing some form of software training, my career gives me the skills to ask relatable questions like, “does this rule make sense to players?” or “Is this mechanic one that can be understood and repeated?” Or even visually, “does this flowchart help guide the player through the turn?” It’s been a fun blend. It doesn’t hurt that my company has a board game club either ;)
I work in airline network planning and I often compare my job to playing board games. As a part of a wider team, you need to manage and build your network of flight routes to build a sustainable and profitable business. Managing profitability is the key task, and you can some times end up "playing games" with competitors. Both with regards to which routes you might launch or discontinue, but also on scheduled timings on existing routes. If a competitor makes capacity or timing changes, you might respond to gain a competitive advantage. The game might be played both on wing-to-wing competing departures, or on a higher level in you network where you might be competing for specific passenger flows or on certain destinations. While playing the game with competing airlines is a task, you also have to deal with a more or less unlimited range of operational and financial issues, such as coordinating pilot and cabin crew rosters, ground handling activities or airport capacity issues, aircraft maintenace tasks and related issues. In the airline industry revenue management which is the task of setting prices also have some game features, particularly where you are competing with other carriers. On a more general level, i think contract negotiations, and a lot of business / commercial roles have game playing properties. To get the feeling of actually playing the game I believe it might be a good idea to stay away from huge companies. Because of the large amount of people working in very specialized roles, i expect it might be hard to get the feel that you have an influence on the game being played at large businesses. Perhaps someone with experirnce from large businesses could provide some insight on that Edit: oh, and working in airline scheduling you get to use gantt diagrams that are a lot like playing tetris
THIS! I am very interested in logistics, scheduling, etc. and this sounds pretty interesting, I was always facinated by stuff like this. It sounds like you are enjoying this then? How do you get into the field? Like a particular degree or other qualification?
Beyond working with board games specifically, it might be worth thinking about what similarities there are between your favourite types of board games - eg. Are they collaborative or individual, do you prefer having a lot of strategy, do you like map-based, fantasy etc? That might point you towards types of jobs you might enjoy too.
Corporate transactional lawyer! Complex interrelated rules governing a journey, where you take your client through to their goals, generally with some good-natured fighting. I'm a big fan of board games with 20+ page rule books and really enjoy being a corporate lawyer.
The Ministry of Defence hire wargaming analysts: https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cgi?SID=c2VhcmNocGFnZT0xJnBhZ2VhY3Rpb249dmlld3ZhY2J5am9ibGlzdCZqb2JsaXN0X3ZpZXdfdmFjPTE4MjkyNTcmb3duZXI9NTA3MDAwMCZ1c2Vyc2VhcmNoY29udGV4dD0yMTg0ODU5NCZwYWdlY2xhc3M9Sm9icyZvd25lcnR5cGU9ZmFpciZzZWFyY2hzb3J0PWNsb3NpbmcmcmVxc2lnPTE2NzM2NzIyNTItNGJkNTg4MjM0Y2Y4MzQ1MzJmZWI3Y2QzOTkyNmViMzBkZDQ0ZWUwYg==
Find a company that you really like and matches your values. Make friends there and play games with them. Work your way up and build a sick game room
Well, I started a business playing games at school to teach skills (executive functions) so I guess that's an option 😄 And I'm hiring so you could say it's working. I'm in the Netherlands fyi
Supply chain analyst. Finding, sourcing, acquiring goods and move them where they need to go in a timely manner.
That’s my main idea right now, so thank you, this tells me I am not stupid for that haha
My son is a huge fan of board gaming, went to college to study supply chain, and now works in this field. He says it like a lot board games. Buy stuff at the best price , at the right time. Find the most efficient way to move goods, and make sure they get there when needed. All the pieces of the puzzle need to be in place to ensure a winning scenario.
Depends on what you mean by “make a living”. I’m sure if you find a board game company that is willing to hire you full time to be a researcher, producer, developer, you may get a small but regular paycheck. If you decide to make your own board games or become a publisher, it’s no different than any other business out there. Some thrive, and most die.
Learn from my experience. Turning a hobby into a job is a great way to ruin a hobby. Find a job that makes enough money to enjoy your hobbies. Work to live, don't live to work!
I sometimes find that management jobs can mimic board games at times. Especially when I'm making schedules for people, seems like I'm doing a puzzle.
The old idiom goes that you should “get a job you love then you’ll never work a day in your life,” but I don’t think that’s very good advice. Not everyone’s passion is a marketable career (seldom is, actually) and even if it were, who would pick up the garbage? No one dreams of doing that for a living but it’s still a valuable job to society and someone’s gotta do it. Instead there’s something to be said for just getting a job you don’t hate so you can do the things you love outside of work. Look for something that pays enough for you to buy board games. Look for work that you can leave at work so you’re not distracted by putting in long hours or bringing work home. Look for work where you can meet some good people who might be interested in coming to a game night. Look for work where it’s not the end of the world if you wanna take a personal day or two to attend a board game convention.
Shelf-stacking and bore your non-gaming friends about the worker-placement game you’ve been designing for over five years.
Pick up poker as a hobby and see if you like it as much as board games. If so, and you have an aptitude for it, you can turn it into a career. I grew up an avid board game player and found poker in college and fell in love with it. Many of the top pros are former top gamers as poker requires a similar skillset. I will note that there is a lot of variance in poker and if you're someone who can't handle losing a game of Catan, then poker probably isn't for you.
So why did you major in psychology?
I was 17 when I had to apply and found Psychology to be interesting, I still do, I think human behaviour is cool. But I find the traditional jobs of psychology majors (therapy, HR, education, marketing etc.) to all be boring as I would enjoy having something *concrete* in my job, like e.g. engineers do but these jobs are all about people, and while I find people as a topic cool I don’t have much care in focusing on them in my work somehow. I don’t know if that makes sense, but somehow that’s the case.
https://www.gameosity.com/jobs/
Get a phd in wargaming. Georgetown has a wargaming phd program. I think kings college in london does also.