Transcript Artist at Pitbull Syndicate/Midway (1999-2003)

Computer games careers
Gabrielle Kent – Teesside University
My Route into Games
•BA (hons) Design and Illustration (1995-98)
•Work experience at Iguana Entertainment (1996)
•Freelance artist (1996-1999)
•Artist at Pitbull Syndicate/Midway (1999-2003)
•Teaching and freelance game dev since 2003
The UK Games Industry
• 1,902 game companies
recorded in UK in 2014
• 95% are small businesses
• Over two-thirds of UK
developers self-publish and
focus primarily on IOS
• UK developed games earned
£1.8bn in 2014
• UK games industry employs
around 10,000 people and
indirectly supports almost
17,000 further jobs.
stats from NESTA, UKIE
SOME ROLES WITHIN GAMES
Game Designers
Programmers
Artists
Scriptwriters
Audio Engineers
Animators
Testers
Producers
GAME DESIGNER
Designers develop the game concept and
decide what the player gets to do as well
as the basic story.
The lead designer defines the gameplay,
the world, story, characters, enemies,
controls and all other game design details.
Tim Schafer
Design Director
Double FIne
Game/Gameplay Designers
Level Designers
User Interface Designers
User Experience Designers
KEY SKILLS: Computing, C# Scripting, Creative thinking
GAME PROGRAMMER
Programmers have various roles and
specialisms:
• AI (artificial intelligence)
• Engine development
Jeep Barnett
Programmer
Valve
• User interface
• Tools development
• In game physics
KEY SKILLS: Maths, Physics, Computing
GAME ARTISTS
Concept artists design the look & style of games
3D Artists model everything using 3DS Max or
Maya. Colour and detail are added with 2D
textures (skin) created in Photoshop. Artists at
bigger studios will specialise in:
Characters, creatures or vehicles
Environments, buildings, street furniture
Textures
User interfaces
Concept art
Technical art
Alesssandro Taini
Art Director –
Ninja Theory
KEY SKILLS: Traditional art, 3DS Max/Maya, Photoshop
GAMES WRITER
A games writer’s job can involve:
•Writing the overall story
•Scripting everything the characters say
during the game and animated scenes
•Giving characters personality, depth and
story arcs.
Rhianna Pratchett
Games Writer
Freelance
•Auditioning and coaching/directing the
voice actors
KEY SKILLS: English Language/Literature, Scriptwriting
AUDIO ENGINEER/MUSICIAN
Musicians create the game’s soundtrack.
This can include everything from music
and speech through to sound effects
such as footsteps, gunshots or
explosions as well as crowd noise, cars
and rain.
They also audition and record voice
actors as well as composing, recording
and mixing music.
Austin Wintory
Musician
Freelance
KEY SKILLS: Music, traditional and digital
ANIMATORS
Games Animators set up games characters
for animation (rigging) and design how
everything moves. An animation must be
created for everything every character and
creature does in a game.
• Body movements and hand gestures
Karen Prell
Animator
Valve
• Facial animator - expressions and lip synching
• Cutscene animator
• Motion capture animator
• Rigger
KEY SKILLS: Traditional art, 3DS Max/Maya, Acting
GAMES PRODUCER
Studios that work for external publishers will
have an external Producer as well as one inhouse.
Jennifer Clixby
The Producer ensures the game is on time
Senior Producer –
and on budget. They liaise between the
Microsoft Lionhead
publisher and developers and make sure that
the team are making a good quality game.
Producers often present and promote the
game to the media.
KEY SKILLS: Management, people skills, Agile/Scrum
FREE DESIGN/ DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
UDK – The Unreal Development Kit by Epic Games. Games
created in UDK include: Arkham City, Alice: Madness Returns
and Gears of War.
http://www.unrealengine.com/udk/
Unity – Games include: The Room, Monument Valley,
Plague Inc.http://unity3d.com/gallery/made-with-unity/gamelist
Gamemaker – Games include: Hotline Miami, They Need to
Be Fed, Ninjammin Beat-Jitsu, Another
Perspectivehttp://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/studio/st
andard
GENDER & GAMES
Under 10% of the people working in UK games
development are women
Women/girls make up 50% of the game playing
population
Under 10% of all human player characters in games
are female
More women in development would mean more
diverse games characters and content
Companies
http://www.gamedevmap.com/ - Game studio world map
USEFUL READING
Skillset have lots of great information on the
industry as well as roles and skills and
qualifications needed etc: LINK
SOME OF TEESSIDE’S COURSES
Art Foundation Year – Games and Animation
BA (Hons) Computer Games Design
BA (Hons) Computer Games Art
BA (Hons) Computer Games Animation
BA (Hons) Character Animation
BSc (Hons) Computer Games Programming
BA (Hons) Indie Games Development
MA Computer Games Art
MA Computer Games Development
MA Animation
MA Concept Art
Any questions?
[email protected]