For Kerry Allen, picking a career wasn’t difficult to do. “I’ve known pretty much all of my life that I wanted to make video games,” the Full Sail Game Development graduate acknowledges. “I was fairly lucky.”

Just over a month after graduating, Kerry started his career as a Programmer/Software Engineer at video game developer Vicarious Visions, which operates under publisher/gaming giant Activision. In just two years at the company, Kerry has worked on the hugely popular Guitar Hero: On Tour title for the portable Nintendo DS, along with its sequel, Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades.

“It’s been really amazing,” he enthuses. “I didn’t think when I first got this job that I’d be working on such a big title, especially taking it to the DS. The games have sold really well since they came out, and working on a game for DS means that you’ve got a smaller team and you’re able to contribute a lot more to a project.”

One of the biggest challenges in adapting the popular games for the DS was creating a peripheral that was able to capture the game’s hands-on experience in a portable format. Kerry helped develop a guitar grip peripheral that had been previously not been seen on the DS.

“It was a lot of fun prototyping that. We built and soldered it together in the office, trying different set-ups and button combinations,” he says. “We knew that it’d be hard to pull off, but it was also really great to be a part of. We were really happy with the results.”

That type of teamwork has been a constant not just in Kerry’s career at Vicarious Visions, but even during his time as a student at Full Sail. Known for his friendly, social nature, Kerry also tutored his fellow students while taking classes and was never afraid to make connections with anyone who he encountered throughout his education.

“I definitely prioritized helping others. Most Game Development students spend a lot of time on our computers writing code – we have to, it’s what we do, and if you don’t do it you’re not going to make it through the program,” he explains. “But your attitude and ability to sell yourself as a team player who can help others and is really easy to talk to is what really puts you in front of everyone who can really just code.

“Full Sail definitely stresses that you go out and meet people and make contacts, because those are the people who will then get you a job,” he continues. “I definitely listened when they said that and tried to meet as many people as I could. I actually interviewed with Vicarious when they made a visit to campus, shortly before I graduated. A couple weeks later, I was up in New York starting my job.”

Since then, Kerry says that the experience of working in the industry has been a fairly smooth one. “I definitely felt prepared, like I had all of the skills that I would need walking in,” he says, claiming that even the inevitable "crunch time" that finds its way into the workflow of any gaming studio hasn’t proven to be too overwhelming. “In my two years here we’ve only had a couple months of crunch time, which really isn’t that bad – at Full Sail, it’s like 21 months of crunch!”

Kerry’s advice to students preparing to enter the gaming industry is simple – get out there and talk. “I’d say definitely take the time to meet people and email people in the industry who you feel you can relate to,” he says. “You can be afraid. Two years ago I had just graduated myself, and I kind of idolized everyone in the industry, but we were all there at some point. We all know how it is. What’s important is that you just not be shy.”