There's a job I'm considering applying for and one of the things listed is Experience shipping one or more games, I realize this isn't something I can fake or really get until I've worked in a position that is involved in shipping a game (I have not), what are some things that I could do or list on my resume that at least show that I have some knowledge of this? I've been online and read a few articles about this but I'm sure that's not enough to at least show some effort in that area. Any advice?

I'm sorry this is in the complete wrong forum, if someone could move this to the career development forum or explain to me how I can.

Moved. It's frequently asked so search the forums for variations on your theme.

mruckman said:
what are some things that I could do or list on my resume that at least show that I have some knowledge of this?

Show what you have done, just don't call it work experience. Call out hobby projects related to your desired work, call out education projects that are related, call out open source contributions, whatever you've got. There are many ways to make your history scream “I can build games” without an existing game credit.

As a common example, if you had a coursework assignment you feel was related to games somehow and was more than just learning basics of data structures and algorithms, you might call it out: “For my senior year networking class and graphics class I combined the work, wrote a networked pong game using VBE for graphics and SPX for networking” or whatever fits your background.

mruckman said:
one of the things listed is Experience shipping one or more games

Different jobs need different things. For some companies and some projects this is a hard limit. For some companies and some projects it is preferred but not required. You don't exist in a vacuum, the longer a job opening remains the more flexible the company will usually be, and they need to sort out between the applications they receive.

If you think you fit generally or are interested and willing to work, apply anyway.

Thanks for the advice @frob , I didn't think about using school work or solo projects to show experience for this specific ask, time to update the resume!

@Tom Sloper Thanks! I'm going back through the resume as we speak and making sure that I haven't don't that!

GeneralJist said:
So the question is how to apply for games jobs that look for shipped experience? if you don't have said shipped experience? Answer: Don't apply to those jobs.

This one is a bit tricky, and varies by employer.

For a job like “senior” anything, I'd absolutely agree, don't apply. They'll often say things like “5+ years in the industry” and other clues that if you don't have years making games professionally you won't cut it.

For a lower-level job asking for at least some amount of work experience results may vary. For some companies it really is a hard limit; they don't want you unless you've got at least one published game credit. For some companies it is a preference, not a hard limit. And for many, it's more of a gradient, they'll prefer people who have shipped a game, then prefer people who have worked on games but haven't actually shipped, then ultimately take someone who shows interest but is still professionally raw.

There are also borderline cases. I had a co-worker who was super excited to finally get his name in a published credit. He'd been working in the industry for about 8 years but due to a mix of cancelled projects, uncredited outsource partnerships, and similar, he had nothing he could point to as a published game credit.

If a job listing is only asking for one, and otherwise is a good fit for you, apply anyway and let their HR team figure out if it is a hard limit or not. You don't compete in a vacuum, so if they get very few candidates you can be called in even if you're not an ideal drop-in match. If they get flooded with top-tier talent with years of experience laid off from a big studio, they won't call you back and that's okay too.