| What do you do?
On any one day, the first thing I do is touch base with
the team and see if there is anything that needs to
be done for the day. We all have our work scheduled
out quite well so I generally follow the process that
we’ve already detailed. So it’s a matter
of ticking of boxes to see that I’m on track.
My job is organising people to do
their work, tracking they are on time within the time
frame, and also checking the quality of the
work. It’s a matter of working out what
we need for the game, working out who will work on key
areas, and managing the work flow and the quality. I’m
also there to answer questions.
At the moment, my team is a world-building team. We
make objects that go into the game’s virtual world.
These could be anything from trees to buildings, to
park benches, or whatever. Each of us is assigned to
create the different bits and pieces. In the game that
I’m working on it’s a World War II project,
so we have history to draw upon for ideas. We do very
extensive research, and it’s all very location
specific.
How did you get to where you are today?
Originally I was one of the quintessential ‘starving
artists’. I started in sales years ago, but I
got fed up with that. I’ve always had a bit of
artistic background, so eventually I tried my hand at
illustration, web design, graphic design and so forth.
I didn’t envisage myself as being in the games
industry as back then I didn’t really see it as
a real job. I was finding it difficult to make a regular
income from the work I was doing at the time so I had
to analysis it – how could I make money from what
I love doing, and that’s creating art? There were
a number of options, so I narrowed it down to what I
was more suitable to and what was achievable.
It was a windy road. I knew nothing about the games
industry, or what was required to create a game. So
it became a process of detective work; tracking down
what you need to do to get into the games industry,
where the jobs are, and what sort of experience and
background you need.
What skills are necessary for you
to do your job?
For an art position, it always helps to have a 2D
background – that can be illustration
or graphic design. There are a lot of jobs in the games
industry, in art in particular, so you can diversify
a bit.. But it’s important to have an artistic
ability, and that can be tough as it’s
not something that you can learn in a college. You can
get a general overview from a college, but if you don’t
have a bit of spark or a bit of ability, then you’re
not necessarily going to get a job.
I did both painting and drawing. I did a bit of digital
painting, where you use a software package like Photoshop
and paint an image. But hand drawing is at the base
of all illustration work.
In the lead art job, you need people skills
and time management skills. You also
need to be able to solve problems. Problem solving
is a very big thing in the games industry as you have
all these constraints – monetary, time constraints,
hardware constraints for each platform you are working
on. Developing for next-gen consoles, we have certain
limits in storage and memory, so we have to keep all
our objects as small as we possibly can but achieve
an acceptable amount of quality at the same time.
How important was your education/training?
After thinking about the best way to get into games
I thought a communications degree might be the best
way. Part way into that I discovered private colleges
– colleges that train you in particular software
packages – so investigated that further. I discovered
that in the games industry. If you have an understanding
of the software package and you can create game quality
assets, and build a portfolio, then that is more important
than doing the four year degree. So I did private training
in a software package. After getting that foundation,
I spent about a year putting together a portfolio of
work which is called a show reel – creating world
objects that you would see in a game.
Where do you see your career going?
Earlier on I saw myself going into film, but the more
time I spend in the games industry, the more I love
it so I think I’ll be in the games industry for
a lot longer. As you get more experienced, you take
on more management roles, looking after other people
like I’m doing now.
What advice would you give to someone
wanting to enter the games industry?
Research all of your options as thoroughly
as you can. Try to network with people.
You may have a degree, but at the end of the day, if
your work isn’t up to scratch then you’re
not going to get a job in the industry.
So you need to focus on polishing the actual quality
of your work and, if you can, have it assessed by someone
who works in the games industry, and try and get
feedback and advice. Most
of all you need to be persistent. It can be quite disheartening
trying to get a job in the games industry. I sat by
the phone for many weeks hoping someone would call,
but it doesn’t work like that. You really have
to chase hard to get a job and you
have to be motivated.
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