Week 8 - 10/11/14 - 16/11/14 Job placements

This week I was looking for potential workplaces after I finish university. I found an interesting magazine which showed 100 UK game developers, there locations,  games made, and websites. It was from 2013, but was still relevant and was a good way for me to look into the UK industry more.

Here is the link:

http://content.yudu.com/A28qw0/Dev1002013/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=

The top platforms according to this magazine are I pad, I phone, android, and PC. Which is the same as what I found out for my UK games industry presentation.

I wanted to look into what the most popular type of art style developers use, as  I want to be good at doing different styles.

But from looking at this magazine, many of the developers use low-poly, stylized assets too, and there are plenty of 2-D sprite based games. I assume this is because of the most popular platform being mobile and tablet, and usually the games made are 2D or stylized to appeal to a wider audience.

As someone who enjoys doing both realistic high poly models, and low poly, hand painted, stylized assets, and I am unsure what  I should really be focusing on most, and what will give me the best opportunity.

I think I will continue to do both, and maybe even start learning some 2D, as its probably a good general skill to have, and will help me improve as an artist.

I looked at a few job positions from companies, to see what kind of responsibilities are required.

Facepunch studios

Facepunch Studios are a independent company based in Walsall, England. They have a few small teams which are developing different games.

They don't have any specific requirements for positions, and are just looking for anyone who they think are good enough for the job.

This is on there jobs page.

Fig.1 Facepunch (N.D)

I have looked at this studio before for the UK games presentation, but I think there a good studio, and would love to be able to work with a studio like this one. I like how they are in touch with the community, and are always getting feedback. The fact that they show there work every week is something I have not seen before from a studio, and its useful for me as its a way for me to see the development process for the game.


Travelers tales studios

One job that caught my attention was from a studio called travelers tales, it was a position for Junior designer. The company makes Lego games from franchises such as star wars, lord of the rings, marvel and batman, and is quite an old company.

Junior Designer

Location: Knutsford
Advertisement publish date: 04/11/14
Start date: ASAP
Salary: £Competitive + benefits
Duration: Permanent (After a probationary period)
TT Games Knutsford are looking to recruit up to 4 new Junior Designers to work within the DESIGN department on our hugely popular LEGO console games.  These roles will be to work across projects within the Knutsford office. 2 of the positions will be to work on the cross project HUB design team, the other 2 positions will be to bolster the two design teams based in the Knutsford office.
Main Responsibilities:

• Responsible for creating, documenting and communicating level designs under the direction of the Game Director / Assistant Game Director
• Responsible for taking levels from paper design / block-out stage through to “box-ready” complete standard under the direction of the Game Director / Assistant Game Director
• Responsible for communicating level content to all key stakeholders involved in the respective level, including: characters, animations, cut-scene content, vehicle requests, environmental and technical art and audio
• Responsible for testing, balance and tuning of all aspects of gameplay within given levels.
• Any other tasks as identified by the DESIGN Head/Leads
• Undertake relevant on-the-job training where required and keep up-to-date with industry advancements and technologies

Skills & Qualifications:

• Excellent communication skills
• Excellent time management and planning skills
• Solid understanding of game editing tools and software
• Practical and methodical approach to both technical and creative problem-solving
• Demonstrates dependability and commitment to projects / tasks
• Flexible approach with the ability to adapt with change
• Ability to work under pressure and to strict deadlines

In return we offer a competitive salary and a range of benefits.
Salary: £DOE + Benefits

This one a role I had not seen much, and something I had always wanted to try and do but never knew how to get into it. It seems like a really interesting position but I think they would want people who are big fans of LEGO, and while I think the games are interesting, I don't collect LEGO, and haven't played the games since the Star wars ones when I was younger.

They also had positions for an environment artist too.

Environment Artist

Main Responsibilities:

• Responsible for creating in-game environments compliant with the game design, both technically and aesthetically
• Creating 3D models using packages provided (Maya, Z-Brush and Photoshop)
• Creating and applying 2D textures – create and apply texture maps to the specification set by the Lead Artist
• Lighting environments – ability to apply good lighting principles to all artistic output
• Creating materials/shaders – Diff/Spec/Norm maps etc. and being responsible for the final look
• Setup of dynamic lighting, post effects and basic scene animation via in-house editors
• Ensuring work/level hits all memory and frame rate guides/restrictions – optimisations/LODs etc
• Understanding that changes and amendments are part of the pipeline
• Attend regular reviews of their work (and present all concept and ref used)
• Constructively feedback any concerns of design impact on level/work
• Other tasks as required
• Work with Art Leads and other artists to ensure consistency between vision and implementation of environment assets
• Contributing original ideas towards all aspects of the project
• Undertake relevant on-the-job training where required and keep up-to-date with industry advancements and technologies

Skills & Qualifications:

• Good demonstration of skills through CV/Showreel/Website or Art Tests
• Excellent communication and organisation skills
• Good working knowledge and proficiency in Maya, Z-brush and Photoshop
• Good understanding of in-house tools and software used in development
• Practical and methodical approach to both technical and creative problem-solving
• Excellent artistic ability
• Demonstrates dependability and commitment to projects / tasks
• Flexible approach with the ability to adapt with change
• Ability to work under pressure and to strict deadlines

Both game design and game art appeal to me, but if I had the option I would love to be able do both.

Star Breeze studios


This is a studio based in Sweden, I don't think I would mind moving abroad but I would prefer to stay in the UK as I know no other languages. I think this is more for experienced environment artists though.

ENVIRONMENT ARTIST

Job Description:
As an environment artist you will work in a team where you will have the ownership of full levels, pushing your aesthetical and technical skills to the fullest.
Your interest lies foremost within creating realistic worlds, exteriors, interiors as well as nature.
You need to be able to multi-task, and possess good communication skills both spoken and written.
Responsibilities:

• Modeling, texturing and creating collision and implementation of environmental assets
• Being able to follow references, concepts, art direction and yet being able to take the work further independently
• Ability to take on the responsibility of the full scope of the level environment. Participate and communicate with peers, managers and vendors
• Working closely with the team to ensure the quality consistent and cohesiveness

Qualifications:

• 3 years of experience working as a 3D artist within the games industry or equivalent
• Understanding real time graphics, preferably worked on at least one released title
• Strong artistic skill set, a good sense of scale and proportions, materials and color/light
• Well experienced in Maya, Photoshop and Z-Brush
• Ability to work in a team, communicate well and being proactive
• Thorough understanding of architecture and nature
• Great with time estimations, assessments and prioritizing

Portfolio:

• Your portfolio must be provided through a webpage

References

Figure .1 Facepunch (N.D) Face punch studios (Website Screencapture) Accessed at -
<http://www.facepunchstudios.com/jobs/> on 15/11/14.