Dear Future Gamer

I'm writing in response to Michael Green's email (FG51) about submitting his game ideas to software houses. You're right, it's tough and gets even more difficult, especially when you keep getting rejected! To make it even worse, if you don't already have experience in the industry, well, you'll probably be in for a long ride.

However, if you're after advice there are tons of websites out there that can provide really useful information, and in some cases even good contacts. A really good one I came across is the Gamasutra site. It's biased towards the American games industry and you'll need to subscribe to their site (it doesn't cost anything), but there's loads of really great information, covering just about any area of game development you can think of, even legal issues, such as protecting your own work.

There's another site as well, this time a UK-based software house, Interactive Studios. They've set up their own site dedicated to helping people get into the industry. You might want to have a look at that too.

It's really, really hard to get in, but if you think you've got what it takes then persistence and patience are the key. You've just got to keep at it until someone finally says, "Okay then, let's have a look at it." It took me two years but I finally made it, so don't give up.

Sam

FG: Thanks for that, Sam. There you go people - it might be tough but it can be done.