FluffyLogic is based in central Bristol working in film, digital media, Internet (and networked) content, video games and hand-held devices (such as PlayStation Portable). Ana met with David Smith of Game Careers at the recent Develop conference in Brighton. Her advice to anyone thinking of working for one of he hottest studios in the South West of the UK is “”Email me. But email me with why you like games and why you want to work for Fluffylogic. If what you want is a career ladder, then we are probably not the best company because we are not huge. You are not going to work your way up the company in that kind of way. What you will get is lots of experience, and experience in a pretty open organisation. We have meetings where everyone can put into what our next games idea will be. It’s very approachable and easy going and from that point of view it is a very nice place to work.”
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David Amor is Creative Director of Relentess Software which is synonymous with the Buzz! franchise that’s sold over eight million copies. Relentless has grown from a small team of 11 to a 100-strong studio that specialises in making games to be played in a social environment. They are proud to have won many awards and accolades along the way. David met with David Smith from Game Careers at the Develop conference in Brighton in July 2010. His main tip to work at Relentless is ”you must have demonstrable talent. If you’re asking people for a leap of faith with your talent described only through the CV given, that is hard. I think any employer about to hire someone is going to expect the new person not to start and be useful on day one but at least help them feel that in a month’s time this person can be used on a project. So you need something that demonstrates your talent. The other thing that is more pragmatic is that sometimes the ideal job doesn’t come out and perfectly fits what you want to do in your CV. But if you’re in a company and you demonstrate you are smart at what you do then other opportunities will arise from that. So I would say be ready to start in a position that isn’t exactly what you want to do or the salary you want, but get in and demonstrate that you can do a good job and it will lead to other things.” Are you passionate about the latest and greatest web-gaming technology? Lou’s company has over 100 staff in three arms: TorquePowered.com, which sells Torque game engines. InstantAction.com, which publishes 3D games in browsers and Our Game Studio, which creates games for InstantAction and beyond.The company is constantly on the look-out for new talent in game development, engine marketing, and online project management. They hire both experts in the field and promising up-and-comers who are ready to create high quality games and engines. David Smith caught up with Lou at the Develop conference in Brighton, UK. Lou’s tip is “no matter what you do have some amount of editorializing that you have to do to your portfolio. I really encourage that less is more, pick your absolute best stuff, pick as few things as you possibly can that will really show your talent and abilities. When you go into an interview, go in open minded because every culture and company is different, having recruited both at Westwood and EA which have very different cultures. I see way too many times people are trying to include everything and are very methodical about approaching a job. The most important question I ask when people are coming in is what’s your future look like? Where do you want to be in a couple years and how does your personal aspiration fit in with the company and what kind of positions that company is looking to fill. Going back to why we are a great place to work, one thing we are committed deeply to is growing people and their careers and helping them move up to the next level. It has allowed me to work with some fantastic people and keep working with great talents that grow in the industry.” Successful developer and publisher of browser-based computer games Bigpoint GmbH was among the finalists at this year’s “Develop Industry Excellence Awards”. Bigpoint was nominated in the categories of Publishing Hero and Technical Innovation. Nils-Holger Henning, CCO of Bigpoint spoke to David Smth of GameCareers.BIZ about the expansion of the company. For advice on jobs at Bigpoint, Nils Holger says “To get a job in our company first of all, I think the most important thing, is creativity and of course you must have the ability to achieve something and to touch new ground. What we saw inside the company is very often you are only fixed to a very small limited space of working and you will see a lot of different areas, how games are created, how games are advertised, all of this together in the company which is developing so fast. You must be very creative, very flexible and very open for new inventions.” An entrepreneur, visionary, and ex-programmer, David’s job is to lead the team making Unity, Unity Pro, Asset Server, iPhone and iPhone Pro to stardom, while making sure that each step is taken with love and care. In the past David founded and participated in startups in fields such as news and community integration, music distribution, and consulting. David serves on the boards of several games and technology startups and a day after the interview with David Smith picked up the Develop Magazine’s coveted Grand Prix Award and Technical Innovation Award at the Develop Conference. Based in Denmark, Lithuania, the UK and USA, his advice on those looking to work for Unity: “First, be super good at the technical bits. Second, have a real commitment to the possibilities of good technology made simple. We really want people to take care of the user and have a humble attitude. That is the most important beyond of course the raw skills.” The BBC has gone direct to the games industry and plans to go direct to consumers for its first Doctor Who game. Charles Cecil has been signed up to make Doctor Who: The Adventure Games. The episodic, PC/Mac games are billed as an extra four episodes for the new 13-show series five run which began in the UK during the last Easter weekend. MD of Revolution Software, Charles speaks to GameCareers.BIZ and gives advice on working in the games industry. “Right in the very beginning, if you want to go into programming get good maths. Please, please, please or get good physics. It is really important you have the key core subjects. If you want to go into art, learn to draw first. When I was employing people, if someone could draw a hat I would employ them because you can always take someone that can draw and teach them 3D, but not the other way around. Learn the core subjects please.”
Lightning Fish are a video games developer specialising in family-oriented titles and were formed in June 2008 by Simon Prytherch, Mike Montgomery and David Hunt; some of the most experienced names in the business. They develop games for Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Windows and smart phones. Lightning Fish are based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK where they employ a talented team of producers, programmers, designers and artists. David Smith of Game Careers.BIZ interviewed Simon Prytherch at Game Connection in Lyon, France in 2009. Proper Games is a small, highly skilled games development studio, located in Dundee, Scotland, founded by industry veterans in early 2006. Proper Games first title Flock! recently scooped the Game Award at the Scottish BAFTAs, the first time the Scottish BAFTAs have included a category specifically for videogames. Chris Wright is COO of Proper Games. |
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