Interviewing Game Designers

ESSAY

Part 1 : An introduction. (250)  

Briefly describe your own practice and the aims of your project. 

Part 2 : Personal Research Studies (1000 words) 

Explore the ability to contact, network and discuss relevant professional issues with appropriate artists, designers and others who can help inform your own professional journey. You must evidence that you have contacted professionals in your chosen field.  Please discuss the work of at least 2 in relation to your own work and how to generate opportunities when you leave. 

Part 3 : Practitioner Lecture Series (1000 words) 

Explore the ability to critically evaluate the creative practices, methods and philosophies of people in practice. You are to attend all the Friday morning lectures and take notes relating to their creative practices, such as methods, philosophies and strategies that have been key in tracking their success.  

Choose a minimum of 3 of the lectures and write a broader critical evaluation (1000 words), identifying relevant connections to inform your own project from a range of creative disciplines as well as your own. Note, this is to evidence and explore how practitioners from other disciplines influence your own practice, therefore only choose one from your own creative discipline.  

Part 4 : Research Reflection (250 words) 

Summarize your approaches and critically evaluate your own position in relation to the broader context.  

Write a conclusion (250 words) based upon how your networking, meetings and these lectures, meetings have influenced and helped to shape your own practice and /or project work.

Personal Research

It doesn’t specify how many to contact but the minimum to talk about is 2 in relation to your own practice.  If you want to discuss more that is also fine.  Some people might find they want to talk about a lot of different people and others might want to just talk about 2  people in more depth.  If you have contacted 5 that is still OK.  Last year it was 5 but after some discussion we felt it was better for some students to have a more in depth conversation with 2.  This makes the brief more flexible.

Lecture Research

Attend all the lectures.   Write about a minimum of 3 and make links to your own practice.   You can write about more if you wish if it feels relevant.

Questions

1. How and were do you take inspirations for your work?
2. How do you manage to fit the story telling elements in your work? (Design, texture)
3. How do you handle your task, time management, efficiently, attentions to details?
4. How you use the software’s to design and create your works, and how would you approach the design?
5. Do you create your work for functionality of creativity, or do you balance both? (Logic behind the models)
6. How would you bring priority when designing and what are your main goals for your works?
7. What are the problems you try to avoid when designing, what would you focus on first?

Personal Research

Abbie Willett

Interview 9/02/2023 Abbie Willett - Game designer - Sumo Digital

I went to Yorkshire Games Festival, in Bradford. I spoken to Abbie about the work and networking.

Abbey Carter 

Interview 01/03/2023 on LinkedIn Abbey Carter 3D Artist at Beyond Skyrim: Valenwood, Argonia.

  • How and were do you take inspirations for your work? In terms of how I find myself constantly researching, I’ve always had a passion for visual arts and follow many creators from various disciplines. Seeing other creators' work in itself is an inspiration, I then find myself going down different rabbit holes from a single creator and researching many branches that I consider interesting. It’s not just art it can be anything I find interesting; history, science, architecture, culture. That isn't to say I don't find inspiration from other places. It's not always research. Sometimes I will be travelling and see something that catches my eye. No matter what I’ll stop and take a picture as reference, I will develop a way to include it within my work. A prime example of this being a personal project I’m working on at the moment in which two locations I visited are featured in the opening exterior shots. • How do you manage to fit the story telling elements in your work? (Design, texture) When working in teams such as Beyond Skyrim, we have to consider many things. What culture does the item come from, is it new or old, what environmental factors should we consider, to name but a few. The work we do is designed extensively from Concept Artists as a rough basis to go from before progressing over to the 3D artists such as myself. In terms of the Insect Resin Weapons and Armour they are featured in the world as very regal weapons. From a design aspect of this there are filigree reliefs across the weapon set. There is minimal wear on the weapons and armour as they are new and again, regal. The materials used are resin, shellac and amber which then plays into the lore of the game and carefully danced around the “Green Pact”. • How do you handle your task, time management, efficiently, attentions to details? I have a range of methods I use with various softwares and websites available. Trello is such a key aspect working within teams and this is a strong one for us all to stay organised. For time management on personal projects I use gantt charts, then in order to keep all my references collected I use a software called pure ref. Finally to know what I’ve done and how much I have left of each asset I use microsoft lists or failing that write out a to do list. Sometimes depending on the scope of the project I find keeping a journal or sketchbook handy! • How you use the software’s to design and create your works, and how would you approach the design? I first approach a piece by blocking out the important shapes in Autodesk Maya, I sometimes add in hints to details within this stage too as a way to remind myself in Zbrush where different elements go. From here I develop the piece in a software such as Zbrush starting with low decimation to build up the shape more. Once happy with this I up the decimation and start working in layers. I prefer working in layers as not only it allows for a cleaner faster way or navigating what steps I’ve done but, it also allows me to alter a stage if say for instance i didn't like the finish or felt it too harsh. At this stage onwards I would say feedback is super important. Once happy with the sculpt I then bring the mesh back into Maya to retopologize and finally UV Map, depending on the asset this can be the most time consuming. One thing I do like with UV mapping is that if there is something you have missed in retopologizing the model it is highlighted in the UV editor. After setting up the texture and naming convention and then take it on to Substance Painter to finalise the piece. • Do you create your work for functionality of creativity, or do you balance both? (Logic behind the 3D asset) I believe with working in 3D it's definitely a balance of both that always need to be considered. Especially with working on assets for a fantasy world one strong element to make fantasy believable is to have realism thrown in. Would this creature be able to function in the real world? could we use this object in the real world? This doesn't just apply to the design of the asset but things like the scale the object is being built at, the optimisation of the object if it will be a hero asset or animated.  

• How would you bring priority when designing and what are your main goals for your works?

  For me it would be delivering a high quality product at the end of the piece that fits the style of the world I’m working in while ensuring its functionality. The Priority for me is to ensure I’m delivering the best piece I can. What are the problems you try to avoid when designing, what would you focus on first The key problem I try to avoid is having non manifold topology, this shows up a lot more so within organic pieces across the furniture I have done. It can double the amount of time I would normally spend retopologizing a piece while making it a stressful situation. To somewhat help this situation I would use Zbrush’s Zremesher feature which helps reduce the manual workload. Editing will still have to be done to get an optimised game ready model though.

Burak Coskuner 

Interview on 01/03/2023 on LinkedIn Burak profesional 3D artisit and Freelancer

1.QuestionAnswer : Imagination. or the desire to create a new model inspired by a famous model is my inspiration. 2.Question-Answer: The important thing is the result. As well as modelling, texturing is an indispensable part of the resulting work. both should definitely be in one study. the two complement each other. A perfectly made model is garbage unless it has a realistic texture. 3.Question-Answer: The Pomodoro technique is indispensable. If you spread the time in modelling and design, if you postpone it, your desire to do will be lost as much. There are mistakes and omissions in a work done reluctantly. 4.Question-Answer: For business purposes: first of all, the reference is checked. modelling, Uv design, Texture Coating and Rendering are the work sequences, respectively. Out of Business: you can make creative designs by adding your imagination by referring to the reference. 5.Question-Answer: A creative design does not necessarily have to be functional. Aesthetics is more important to some people. 6. My main goal is to address different areas such as hard surface, costume-design, prop, organic modelling in this sector. My aim is to increase the possibility of finding a job in different fields. 7. The thing I pay attention to the most is that the topology is smooth in prop and hard surface models. If it is not correct, fixing the topology sometimes takes longer than making the model. It slows down the workflow.

James Henry Burton

03/03/2023 James Henry Burton - 3D artist from White Paper Games  

1) Inspiration

James inspiration for the 3D models, while working for white paper games, comes from tons of different places, such as: films that he watches, particular things and themes that they will explore as team, in the medium of games. for examples the theme of happiness. they as team will start brainstorming and drawing things that will remind them of happiness, from everyday life events or other medias such as films. Most of the work are technical stuff and character art, so the main inspiration comes from discussing the narrative angle with the team, anything they may do or want to do for a particular character, and brainstorm. Other times the narrative design engine, coming up with certain architypes of what the character may be able to do, things that the team they want to convey about the character, from this knowledge the sculping process will start taking place showing how the character can relate to the particular emotion (in this case happiness). Most of the people will try to draw from their own personal experience and things that happens around of them, 

A game that James and Benni hill worked in: Ether One

The game was developed for a long time, originally was meant to be a sci fi game, and eventually found its way expressing dementia as principal aim. Narrowing down the things with one clear goal. The game team had a few issues with experience with the theme dementia, for James previous experience with the topic in a scientific way thanks to his father's studies and researches. so the Team was more able to have a close understanding and feel of the theme. 

Managing to connect things that happened in real life with the game, as everyone draws experience from real life scenarios, as it is natural.

2) Story telling elements

Everything they create as team have some sort of elements, if needed, avoiding the danger of telling too much. The game needs particular assets, things, events or spaces on the world that you create that accommodate. White paper games team will come up with a story that hey wants to tell, if it is a snip of a story, example: in one of their games they have a section were they are celebrating the birth of one of their children of fictional characters that you never actually see, they will create a note or something that indicates that event happened in the game, or making elements in the world that related to that event for the player to find and build the story as they discover new things. The Team will think of the full process of recreating a scene in the environment that showcase the event happened in that particular place. they will dive into the visual and how the particular assets would be used to narrate a particular circumstance, making sure to draw from the character perspective. 

Usually the team will make the player character observe from the audience perspective, setting it in a way that the audience will be able to approach it, but there are also certain elements that will be created from the team perspective, things like "Easter eggs" or particular things that they know no one will no but they love the craft and makes the experience much more enjoyable. 

3) Handle Task

White paper games will not micromanage everything, they will pan one particular small task for everyone, generally what they do is that they review the current goals every seven weeks, and on the seventh weeks they will ask the question: were do we want the company to be? all the things they need to do, the things they should be moving towards, all the things that can come handy for research and development, so when you plan from the point of view of the company, you can start the department, and how to archive these goals, making sure to stay on track with all the work of each individual team member.

4) Designs and software

This depends on the particular task, essentially what going to give the best result, in the fastest and more effective way possible for a determinate goal, there are no particular preference, anything that can be used for a particular peace of work and effective can be suitable for the the project.

5) Functionality vs Creativity

There is always a balance, it won't be possible to be fully creative and not be functional, even something that is fully creative must have a function, the thing that drives me as artist is what the design intention and what's the emotional impact or player impact, 

6) Priority and Main Goals

Ignoring what it must be done sooner, my priority is to work from the big shapes and ideas and slowly move to the smaller components. Example, if I'm working on a character I will prioritize the silhouette and shape, exploring the idea of the character trough that, then move to the primary and secondary shapes and details, all the foundations then the general details. this process of having a strong foundation is true to sculpting, texturing, narrative design, you start with a big idea you start from a character and you need to connect it to the world, having a big form that support the idea 

7) Problem Solving

Deepening on what I'm working on, there is a point were you make a design decision or a creative decision, in which you have to make a choice, is best to measure up and understand if is correct to follow a certain design path, and having a confirmation with the team, as Technical Artist performance is a big concern, I'll try to get the best look out of everything, but always conscious of how performance wise will it be able to be optimized. Making sure the team is happy.

8) Experience as Artist

Games influenced me as I was growing up as child, one game in particular: God of War, when completed unlocked the development mode which allowed me to understand that people actually make videogames and influenced my carrier choice, becoming a game designer. He travelled to the UK, did the game design course and the masters in Uclan, and he really enjoyed creating and making things, for many reasons, relaxing, enjoy problem solving, feeling like he is constantly engaging and learning, enjoying being engaged in a particular activity. He wants to enjoy creating and make games, mostly for the experience. He cares about building something great with people, enabling him and the people around him to make amazing games as team.

Peter Dimitrov

06/03/2023 Peter Dimitrov - 3D environment artist at Rebellion 

How and were do you take inspirations for your work?

I get inspired from all kinds of creative fields. But most often I find that to be the case from fields bit away from games. Instead I get inspirations from movies, tv-shows and books.

Then when I start a new project (inspired in parts from one of the above) I will try and search for related, or bit distantly related images. Most of the time I start with paintings and old art, sculptures, glassworks, metalworks, things that are museum worthy. I have a few websites I search in. After I settle more into what I am making I start to look for contemporary high resolution photography too so I can have insight from realism.

The websites I use for the art related, museum stuff are:

• V&A
• Bridge Images

How do you manage to fit the story telling elements in your work? (Design, texture) I make sure to start small: block out the space with no colors and complex pieces. Instead its rudimental parts. I focus on that but also on my camera placements from early on so I know I have good shots and good scale in the scene. Only after I have that nailed, I start slowly introducing texture and bigger strokes of storytelling through the collection and clustering of different props and pieces. How do you handle your task, time management, efficiently, attentions to details? I accept that some parts of a scene will inevitable take time. There is no other way around it. For example right now I'm in the middle of making a new scene where I have a circular scene and in the middle there is a rock orb with crystals (you can find screenshots and WIP of this on my Twitter, by the way, so you get better context). In there my prime example is the crystal rock that once I got into I knew there is no way it will take me less than 2 weeks of nearly everyday work (this is work after or before my fulltime job, so I cant spend more than 2-3h of it per day). As such I just had to accept this is the type of creative journey that takes time and I had to try and not rush or get impatient. Instead I had to focus on getting enjoyment out of it no matter how long it took. Twitter Peter Dimitrov 

How you use the software’s to design and create your works, and how would you approach the design?

  I use PureRef to gather all of my influences, art images, photos into one place. I have that open on my second monitor all the time and always remember to look at it. I design my spaces in UE5 directly where I move and drag different pieces and primitives I create in Blender. When I block out my initial spaces I always try to focus on primitive shapes and not overly complicate. (you can find exmaple for that again on my Twitter, in my latest scene, if you go back in time enough to see it at its start). Do you create your work for functionality of creativity, or do you balance both? (Logic behind the models) I balance it. Its a funny thing because I always find in the real world, while walking outside, random items, pavements, textures, combinations of imperfections, that combine in such a way that I immediately think "wow, if you were a player, and was this in a 3D world, you would totally say its fake and not realistic!" As in sometimes even in life, we have things that when put into a fabricated, 3D reality, immediately start looking unrealistic. But there is nothing wrong with those things! It's just the human brain expecting specific patterns (or seeing patterns where there are none and its coincidence). As such while making a 3D scene I will embrace the imperfections and "issues" in my scene that come off natural and give it better organic look. But the moment I introduce an imperfection that is good but looks unnatural, I will tweak it. This is the way with props too: when I make a prop I analyze its real world equivalent and focus on bringing through the real functionality of said item. But the moment I see a part of it getting in my way or suddenly "looking fake" even though its the same IRL, I'll tweak it. How would you bring priority when designing and what are your main goals for your works? My main goals these days is to look detailed, rich and not low poly. I want my texturing and my visuals to match megascans quality even if I'm making them by hand. It's something Im constantly learning and improving towards so I can't say I am fully there yet (but this is art and this is the story of every creative - its a journey that never ends and you always learn). The moment I get an idea that is fantastic and sci-fi in its nature, and not realistic like Megascans, I will still go for it and try to balance it is. This is because I love fantastical stuff and I don't want to settle for ultra realism. What are the problems you try to avoid when designing, what would you focus on first? As I already said I would usually focus on blockout and early camera angles. I will try not too introduce anything too complicated early on (as shapes) or any texture as that can be distracting and give you a worse composition in the long run. It's like in painting where you will start with a tiny, compositional thumbnail and nail that down before increasing the canvas resolution and starting to flesh out and render more.   

Personal Research

Benni Hill

03/03/2023 Benny Hill - co founder of White Paper Games and Creative Director of Bonsai Collective

Benny worked in different fields with multiple talents for more then 10 years, he graduated from Uclan.

He was always a gamer and spent lots of his time playing games when he grew up, 

Questionnaire

How and were do you take inspirations for your work?

I take inspirations from lots of different sources. Primarily I take inspirations from the world around me. As a writer I like to draw upon my lived experiences to tell compelling stories that I understand emotionally. Of course I am also inspired by lots of different media like film, music, art, games & animation. I also read a lot of books on philosophy and science and use these as a basis for core ideas of worldbuilding.

How do you manage to fit the story telling elements in your work? (Design, texture)

There are lots of way story and worldbuilding connect with my work – every aspect of our games use story and context to an extent and is often multidisciplinary. For example – we needed to create a graffiti decal kit for our current project, which was worked on by an environment artist and our writer to ensure the content was thematically relevant of the environment the player will engage with.

How do you handle your task, time management, efficiently, attentions to details?

We use Jira to manage our day to day tasks using a mixed methodology of waterfall and scrum. This involves a daily stand-up meeting where tasks are talked through, tickets that are created in Jira, and various other production meetings to help the team manage time and tasks. Personally I also use a mixture of Google Calendar and Evernote to keep track of notes and meetings effectively.

How you use the software’s to design and create your works, and how would you approach the design?

This depends entirely on the kind of experience that we want to create. We use Unreal Engine primarily and use its strengths [rapid white boxing, environment and material tools, lighting engine] to drive our visual and level design effectively. Our general approach is white-box, greybox, first art pass, alpha, beta etc.

Do you create your work for functionality of creativity, or do you balance both? (Logic behind the models)

We are a world-building first studio – so work deeply to establish the rules of the world that we want to create, and then grow game systems and creative elements out of that. This is a strong way to balance both functional game development [defining what is achievable] and creative exploration and expansion.

How would you bring priority when designing and what are your main goals for your works?

In development we create a feature list that we diligently review every sprint. Its in hear that we prioritise, as a team, our feature set. This allows us to review it regularly and see if priorities have changed. This is a fairly organic process as we build the game and begin to test, seeing what players are engaging with the most.

What are the problems you try to avoid when designing, what would you focus on first?

Collaboration and communication are the most important areas to resolve – so clear pipelines and documentation are critical to allow for smooth and cooperative creativity. Every one on the team is incredibly important, so it is critical that they understand the game vision, where key information is, and the process they should go through to complete creative tasks.