18/10/2010
The first guest lecturer that we had in was Arthur Parksons from Traveller’s Tales knutsford, where he’s the head of design, a role that I would someday like to hold myself, albeit not with TT. TT work on various games, primarily aimed at a younger target audience, including multiple Lego titles, such as Lego Star Wars and Lego Harry Potter. Arthur has been working for TT for about 12 years, and since his joining the company it has been purchased by Warner Brothers, and is now part of the WB group. While he is still a senior designer, he is still involved with base level work, such as writing design documents, something which I too have some experience with, and will as such keep the skill in practice for use in the industry.
Arthur informed us that while the credit crunch has helped improve the state of the game market, it is still very hard to get into industry with less than one percent of hopefuls successfully making it into a games developing career. This is, to a certain extent something I was aware of, and while the industry is highly competitive, new ideas and commitment will help lead me towards my career goals if I can maintain a high level of both. In addition to this, he stated that while graduates may join them with a 1st or a 2:1, they still won’t have all the skills required to work from the word go, and as a result will still require considerable training, which means that final degree grade, while important, is not as important as demonstrating creative ability and the intelligence to learn the new skill-sets required to function within the industry.
Because there are so many applicants for so few positions, he explained that there is very little time to read CVs, so something to make my CV stand out is very important, either a striking appearance, or scented paper, something he specifically mentioned. In addition to the CV and portfolio experience is very important, and often the deciding factor, as a result I will make sure to get as many experiences working with the industry as possible, while trying to find a more permanent position.
In addition to this information, he also explained some rather basic concepts relating to interviews, most of these were fairly obvious to me, as I have had several interviews before and am used to the routine, but some things which he mentioned I will be taking careful note of. Most of these relate to doing background research into the company, and knowing what kinds of games they make, as well as what releases are upcoming, and about the actual content of the company’s games. This all falls neatly under one of my own personal rules for interviews, which is to as far as possible, tell the interviewer(s) exactly what they want to hear, I’m a team player, love the company’s work, and want to give it my all for as long as I remain working for the company in question.
The prevailing opinion he gave on agencies is that with the industry the way it is, it is better to try and go it alone, rather than forcing companies to chose between me with an agency and anyone else not working for an agency, as agencies charge a percentage based on the salary I would be hired for. While I have used agencies in the past seeking non industry jobs, it is clear that going it alone in the industry would be a wiser move.
Arthur also discussed what looks best in a portfolio, that it is better to have few very good pieces than several mediocre ones. He also suggests showing diversity, something which I had already considered, and have put into practice, when complete my portfolio will have my 5-6 best pieces of work, and will show my skill with level design, 3d modelling, narrative and plot creation and game concepts.
I learned some useful information during this lecture, most of which I will go on to put into practice, on the whole it was nice to hear from someone who started in a similar position to the one I hope to be in come September.
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