We have been lucky enough to have, friend of the Beacon Centre, Independent Game Developer Lucy Blundell write a blog entry for us. Find out what it can really be like to work in the Video Games industry. She has also been kind enough to send us some of the concept art for her work!
"Hi, I'm Lucy Blundell. I have been working in the video game industry for over 11 years. Working in an entertainment industry can be tough at times, as you are often expected to work long hours, but it can also be very creative and rewarding.
To work in the video games industry you typically need a university degree, however this isn’t mandatory if you have the required skills. Myself, I studied animation at the University of Salford, completed a three month unpaid internship, before starting my career as a Graphic Designer at Chillingo EA: A mobile games publisher.
Chillingo was a small studio with only eight employees at the time I started. I was the only designer on the team so the work I did was very varied: I would design magazine adverts, website assets, App Store screenshots (selecting the best ones, adding tag-lines etc), App Store icons, company presentations, gaming network re-skins (Chillingo had their own gaming network called Crystal, whose UI needed to match the game’s), event posters, flyers, wall art, and even artwork for some of the games themselves. I worked on hundreds of games over the five years I was there, but I moved on to develop my own games. Now, I am an independent game developer, using the skills I learnt during my time at university. I have been working independently now for six years and am self-employed.
As an independent game developer, my average day starts with a typical morning routine, then moving to my home office to check emails, messages and game sales. I receive fewer emails now than when I did at Chillingo as I work with less people. Now, I speak with publishers, musicians, programmers, fans, customers and other game developers (though not every day).
After I have read all my emails, I check my to do list on Trello, which is where I keep a track of everything I need to do to complete my game. This board contains several cards for all my tasks, such as artwork required, story edits, missing features, programming bugs and so on. I cannot do them all in one day so I prioritise what is needed first. This can be difficult to do but I tend to focus on story and programming first as they can change quite a lot as the game develops and, if artwork is done too early, it may get wasted if a scene is dropped. However, graphics are needed to test the game, so earlier artwork is done as placeholder.
Typically, I focus on a specific task per week. This week, I have been focusing on editing the story for my game. I have two screens at my desk: one has the working game, and the other has the code, which I edit directly for the finishing touches. Whilst playing the game, I often find bugs or small issues which I will either make a note of, contact my programmer about, or fix myself if they won't take too long. I should note: I also have Twitter open most days as it is a good way to connect to other people in the industry, not miss publicity opportunities, and feel a little less lonely whilst working at home.
At lunchtime, I eat whilst watching a TV show or reading a book. I then take my dog out for a walk to keep active and run any errands that I may need to do. Sometimes these errands are helping other game developer friends test their games.
Afterwards, I continue with my work until about 6pm, however somedays I work later, taking my iPad to the couch. I will sometimes work on weekends as well, however only when I want to. Unlike most of the game industry, I try to avoid “crunch”. Once a task is completed, I will decide on the next priority. Next week, once story edits are finished, I plan on requesting a few more features from my programmer. After that, I will be bug testing and ensuring the new features work.
Working as an independent game developer requires you to wear many hats as it is expensive to hire without funding. I am fortunate at the moment to be working with a programmer and musician, but for my first game, I had to do it everything myself, meaning it had to be a much simpler, smaller game. I love my job but it requires a high level of self discipline as working alone on a project can take several years. However, my job sometimes takes me to exciting places like San Francisco and Pisa to attend game events and give talks…but mostly I love that I can keep creating work I am passionate about every day."
Comments
Post a Comment