B1: Personal Progression
--------------------------------------------------Steps To Completion--------------------------------------------------
Research into careers/future steps (employers, jobs, academic qualifications).
- The job I am passionate to go into it level design, the jobs in this category can range from junior designers working on individual levels to senior roles which may work on large scale multi-person levels.
- The job itself requires either a level 3 BTEC, A-Level or Diploma meaning if you want to go straight into a job or apprenticeship, the following Level 3 qualifications will be relevant:
- Aim Awards Diploma/Extended Diploma in Games Animation and VFX
- BTEC Diploma in Graphics
- BTEC Diploma in Digital Games Design and Development
- BTEC Diploma in Computing for Creative Industries
- UAL Diploma/Extended Diploma in Art and Design
- AQA Technical Level Entertainment Technology: Video Games Art & Design Production
- The job of a level designer involves certain strengths such as:
- Creativity: come up with new challenges and missions
- Knowledge of gameplay: imagine the game, see it visually and develop the gameplay mechanics
- Knowledge of programming: understand programming, have some scripting language competence
- Physics: understand how objects respond according to the laws of physics
- Art: have a strong spatial awareness with 2D and 3D design skills
- Communication: work with other artists and the design team and share the vision with games developers
--------------------------------------------------My Inspirations--------------------------------------------------
Constructing your digital profile (work showcase and skills profile).
- I personally use Artstation to show off my work and skills, I use wordpress and blogger to show off the creative progress of my levels and also use linkedin to check the latest job requirements:
https://www.artstation.com/jayconlin8
https://jaydenconlin.wordpress.com
https://jaybtecgames.blogspot.com
Further developing your profile (networking, experience, products).
- I have had a bit more experience working with a real game studio during QA Testing for Bright Star Studios.
- I have produced a few products too, showing them off on Artstation.
Conduct some research and complete some profiles of current practitioners within the media industry that inspire you or may influence your career paths in the future?
Who working in the media industry inspires you?
- Gabe Newell: Who dropped out of Harvard to join Microsoft, leaving to form his game company Valve.
Gabe Newell is one of the founders of valve, Newell and another employee, Mike Harrington, left Microsoft to found the video game company Valve on August 24, 1996. Newell and Harrington funded development of the first Valve game, the first-person shooter Half-Life , which was a critical and commercial success. Harrington left in 2000.
Newell led the development of Valve's digital distribution service, Steam, which was launched in 2003 and controlled most of the market for downloaded PC games by 2011.
In late 1995, Doom was estimated to be installed on more computers worldwide than Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 95. At Microsoft, Newell led development on a port of Doom for Windows 95, which is credited for helping make Windows a viable game platform.
He is also the owner of the marine research organization Inkfish.
How did they get where they are today?
Newell was born in Colorado and grew up in Davis, California. He attended Harvard University in the early 1980s but dropped out to join Microsoft, where he helped create the first versions of the Windows operating system.
Newell spent 13 years at Microsoft as the producer of the first three releases of the Windows operating systems. Newell later said he learned more during his first three months at Microsoft than he ever did at Harvard, which was one of the primary reasons why he dropped out.
What reasons do you have for wanting to potentially go into the same media employment areas?
I look up to Gabe as someone who made a name for himself out of something he was passionate about.
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Who working in the media industry inspires you?
- Todd Howard: Started off playing games in the 80s' from the company he would go on to produce for after being rejected multiple times.
What role do they play in the industry? Which media company/companies have they worked for?
Bethesda Softworks eventually recruited Howard in 1994 as a producer. His first game development credit for Bethesda was as the producer and designer of The Terminator: Future Shock, followed by work as a designer on Skynet and The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, both released in 1996. He was project leader for the first time on The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, released in 1998.
In 2000, Howard was appointed project leader and designer for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and the expansions that followed. The game was released in 2002 and was a critical and commercial success, winning several Game of the Year awards. He then led the creation of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as its executive producer. After this, he served as game director and executive producer of Fallout 3, released in 2008.
Howard returned to The Elder Scrolls series to lead the development as the creative director of its fifth installment, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which was released in November 2011. He subsequently directed Fallout 4, released in November 2015, and produced Fallout 76, a multiplayer installment in the series that attracted criticism upon its release in November 2018.
How did they get where they are today?
Todd Andrew Howard was born in 1970 in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania. His elder brother, Jeff Howard, later became the director of creative affairs for Disney.
He developed an interest in computers, particularly video games, at a very young age. Howard says the 1980s role-playing video games Wizardry and Ultima III: Exodus were inspirations for his future games.
Howard attended Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1989. He then attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he majored in business while taking computer classes for credit. He graduated from William and Mary in 1993. Howard later stated that a business major appeared as the easiest path through college.
During the holiday break of his senior year in college, Howard obtained a copy of Wayne Gretzky Hockey by Bethesda Softworks in Rockville, Maryland. He visited the offices of Bethesda Softworks, which he passed by daily on his commute to and from school. He asked for a job at the company but was rejected and told that he needed to finish school as a prerequisite. After graduating, he returned to Bethesda, seeking a job but was rejected again due to a lack of job opportunities then at the company. Howard then started working for a smaller game company in Yorktown, Virginia, which enabled him to visit several conventions like the Consumer Electronics Show, where he continued approaching Bethesda to request being hired.
What reasons do you have for wanting to potentially go into the same media employment areas?
Todd has went on to produce and create some of my favourite games, he inspires me in many ways, particularly in the theming/story, gameplay etc.
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Who working in the media industry inspires you?
- Tim Sweeney: Tim is the founder and CEO of Epic Games, and the creator of the Unreal Engine, one of the most-used game development platforms.
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Tim Sweeny is the founder and creator of Epic Games and Unreal engine - two of the most used programs and launchers.
Sweeney had the idea of creating games that could be sold, programming them at night or over weekends outside college work. This first required him to create a text editor based on the Pascal language to be able to program the game, which led to the idea of making a game out of the text editor itself. This became the basis of ZZT. He let college friends and those around his neighborhood provide feedback, and was aware it was something he could sell to other computer users. ZZT sold well enough, a few copies each day that came to about US$100 per day, that Sweeney decided to make developing games his career. Recognizing he needed a better name for a video game company, he renamed Potomac Computer Systems to Epic MegaGames.
Following ZZT, Sweeney started working on his next title, Jill of the Jungle, but found that he lacked the skills to complete this alone. He formed a team of four people to complete the game by mid-1992. For continued development, Sweeney sought out a business partner for Epic MegaGames, eventually coming to Mark Rein, who had just been let go from id Software. Rein helped with growing and managing the company; due to the company's growth, Sweeney did not end up getting his degree, short by one credit. Sweeney would later start work on the Unreal Engine, developed for the 1998 first-person shooter Unreal and licensed by multiple other video games. With the success of Unreal, the company relocated to North Carolina in 1999, and changed its name to Epic Games.
How did they get where they are today?
Sweeney was raised in Potomac, Maryland. At a young age, he became interested in tinkering with mechanical and electrical devices, and stated he had taken apart a lawnmower as early as five or six, and later built his own go-kart. Though the family got an Atari 2600, Sweeney was not as interested in the games for that, outside of Adventure, and later said he had not played many video games in his life and very few to completion.
At the age of 11, Sweeney visited his older brother's new startup in California, where he had access to early IBM Personal Computers. Sweeney spent the week there, learning BASIC and establishing his interest in programming; while he had had a Commodore 64 before, Sweeney was much more taken by how easy the IBM PC was to use. When his family got an Apple II, Sweeney began in earnest learning how to program on that, trying to make Adventure 2 in the spirit of the Atari 2600 game. Sweeney estimated that between the ages of 11 and 15, he spent over 10,000 hours teaching himself how to program using information on online bulletin boards, and completed several games, though never shared these with others.
He made a good deal of money by offering to mow lawns of wealthy residents in the area for half the price of professional services.
What reasons do you have for wanting to potentially go into the same media employment areas?
Sweeney has created my go-to engine, this inspires me to create games and look at the other creations used on this software.
----------------------------------------Working In The Media Industry----------------------------------------
- Employment in the industry-
Conduct some industry research into the media area you are most interested in working within.
- The job I am passionate to go into it level design, the jobs in this category can range from junior designers working on individual levels to senior roles which may work on large scale multi-person levels.
What companies are active in these areas in the UK?
- The companies in these Areas are: Ubisoft Reflections, Epic Games, Sumo Digital, Double Eleven and Rockstar North.
What types of jobs are available within this area and what are the job roles?
These jobs can range from QA Testing all the way to Lead Programming Design.
These companies come with their own webpages full of information and will often come with a page for showing available jobs.
What skills/Experience are required to follow a career in this area?
The job itself requires either a level 3 BTEC, A-Level or Diploma meaning if you want to go straight into a job or apprenticeship, the following Level 3 qualifications will be relevant:
- Aim Awards Diploma/Extended Diploma in Games Animation and VFX
- BTEC Diploma in Graphics
- BTEC Diploma in Digital Games Design and Development
- BTEC Diploma in Computing for Creative Industries
- UAL Diploma/Extended Diploma in Art and Design
- AQA Technical Level Entertainment Technology: Video Games Art & Design Production
Conduct research into the current job market, looking at potential vacancies in the areas you would be interested in working in for your future career.
- The number of creative staff in studios surged by 15.2 per cent and at an annualised rate of 11.4 per cent from 20,975 in December 2021 to 24,155 full-time and full-time equivalent staff in April 2023. The total workforce including freelancers grew to 25,026.
- The number of jobs indirectly supported by studios in the supply chain rose from 38,348 to 44,162.
- Studio numbers grew from 1,528 to 1,801, an increase of 17.8 per cent.
- Combined direct and indirect tax revenues generated by the sector for the Treasury are estimated to have increased from £1.2 billion to £1.5 billion.
- Annual investment by studios rose from £1.3 billion to £1.66 billion.
- The game development sector’s annual contribution to UK Gross Domestic Product increased from £2.9 billion to £3.68 billion.
last edited Dec 2023
Analyse these in terms of what you would need to consider - What skills/experience is required? Where are these jobs located?
for example -
Unity Developer - £42,000 - £47,500 - Newcastle, Upon Tyne - Full Time
- Minimum of 4 years of professional experience as a Unity Developer
- Strong proficiency in C# programming language
- Proven track record of successfully delivering immersive applications or games
- Solid understanding of 3D graphics, physics, and mathematics as applied to game development
- Database design and implementation (SQL, NoSQL)
- API design and implementation
- Design and implementation of multi-tier architecture
- Excellent problem-solving and debugging skills
- Strong communication and collaboration skills within a cross-functional team
- Bachelor's or higher degree in Computer Science, Game Development, or a related field
- Must be over 18 due to age-rating restrictions of the products tested.
- Must be available to work weekends (at least occasionally).
- Must have experience of playing video games and operating both recent gen games consoles and computers. This knowledge is essential for the role.
- Must be based within 1 hour's commute of the work location.
- You must have access to a dual-analog stick controller as part of the recruitment process. You can borrow one from a friend if you do not own one, but we will need to witness you using it during a video call one before we can add you to the pool.
- Bachelor's degree in Art, Design, Technical discipline, or other relevant training.
- 5+ years of experience as an Unreal Artist, preferably in a lead role within the video game industry.
- Advanced knowledge/hands-on experience with Unreal Engine, especially in look development for lighting and shading.
- Proficiency in Maya, Photoshop, Substance Designer.
- Experience in shader writing and modifications.
- Familiarity with version control software such as Perforce or Git.
- Comprehensive understanding of creative and game development processes.
- Team player with an open-minded attitude, strong work ethic, and self-motivation.
- Passion for playing and making video games.
https://london-lmi.startprofile.com/page/videogames-overview
University: You could do a foundation degree or degree in:
- computer games technology
- computer games development
- computer science
- interactive media
- mathematics
College: You could do a college course, which may lead onto more advanced qualifications, such as a higher apprenticeship, or may even help you to get a trainee position with a company. Courses include:
- A-Level in Computing
- T level in Digital Production, Design and Development
- Higher National Diploma in Creative Media Production or Games Development
You may need 4 or 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English, maths and computing for A-Levels or a T level. You might also need 1 or 2 A-Levels, or equivalent, for a higher national certificate or higher national diploma.
- at least 1 A level, or equivalent, for a foundation degree
- 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree
Level Designer:
Developer:
What courses appeal to me?
Games Design (with Foundation Year) BA (Hons) course | Teesside University
What skills will you develop on these courses?
Develop your understanding of design and programming to build creative solutions to production challenges.
You plan and develop 2D and 3D games in a number of game engines, giving you the skills to enter a broad range of careers ranging from programming to level design.
You also take part in a wide variety of game jams, hackathons, and industry networking events.
Real-world experience: enter GameJam events, take part in industry competitions and Beta test upcoming games before they are released.
Career-ready: our ExpoSeries of events allow you to showcase your skills to industry professionals who are seeking to recruit new and rising talent.
This course provides you with a range of technical and design skills, making you the perfect candidate for a career as an independent games developer.
Entrepreneurial support from University-based Launchpad helps you to start your career as an independent developer or small company. Many small studios now take advantage of Kickstarter funding to generate the funds to develop their games. As a graduate of this course, you have the skills to put forward a polished proof of concept to attract funding.
As the course provides a range of transferable skills in real-time environments such as Unity and Unreal, you are also well suited for careers in virtual reality or real-time visualisation and interactive experiences.
96-112 UCAS points from any combination of recognised Level 3 qualifications (this includes my current BTEC course), we may also be able to help you meet the entry requirements through our summer and winter university modules.
You can gain considerable knowledge from work, volunteering an life. Under recognition of prior learning (RPL) you may awarded credit for this which can be credited towards the course you want to study.
So far, Teeside seems like the best option - relatively close, course goes over the exact job I want to do, lecturers have a high reputation, many students have gone on to work at big companies.
In most cases, your CV should be headed with the following titles:
- Profile – an introductory paragraph
- Core skills – bullet pointed snapshot of your main offerings
- Career history – detailed list of your roles
- Education/qualifications/technical skills
And here is an example first page of how this structure works in practice.
----------------------------------------Constructing a personal statement----------------------------------------
Research into and present information on what to include/how to structure a statement for a university application:
https://examstudyexpert.com/personal-statement-for-university/
To make your personal statement reflect you as an individual, make sure you include a healthy dose of:
- Your subject beyond the classroom – What have you done that reflects your interest in the subject? Here are three examples:
- Public lectures & Exhibitions
- Museums & Galleries
- Books & Documentaries
- Achievements –These can serve a dual-purpose showing both academic achievement and passion for your subject. Such as:
- Competitions e.g. Olympiads
- School Subject Awards
- Additional Courses
- Any non-academic extra-curriculars – These can show individuality and transferable skills, e.g. positions of responsibility, organization, teamwork, critical thinking etc. For example:
- Sports, Music & Drama
- Volunteering
- School Committees
A final submission of your personal statement, presented professionally and effectively:
--------------------------------------------Analyzing digital profiles--------------------------------------------
What is a digital profile and what could it include?
A digital profile is the sum content about a person on the Internet. A digital profile can be composed of personal or professional information shared on public Web sites posted personally or by others. One of the most effective ways to build a positive professional digital profile is through social media. It is increasingly important to maintain a positive digital profile as others mine the Internet to find out about a professional prior to meeting them.
Customer data is crucial for delivering valuable content:
Keeping up with today’s audiences and extreme competition makes it pivotal for companies to deeply understand and retain their customer base by extracting valuable consumer datasets. Currently, our research shows that the top three data inputs used by media and entertainment brands to inform a consumer’s content experiences are:
- Transactional or past purchase data: 46%
- Historical content performance/content metadata analysis: 42%
- App and website behavioural data: 40%
But first, earning trust is critical to making audiences feel more comfortable with sharing their personal data. In gathering a trove of personal insights about users’ behaviours, preferences and unmet needs, brands must be transparent and give consumers assurances that they will:
- Deliver personalised, relevant experiences
- Provide applicable content recommendations
- Renew subscriptions with enticing options
- Solve users’ problems
- Optimise products and services to meet audiences’ preferences
Microsegmentation strategies are also critical in providing real-time personalised content at scale. Corralling data across different platforms, systems and applications can build a more complete understanding, but it may not be enough to compete in a new content age — even with the benefits of predictive modeling and AI. Organisations must identify their data blind spots to capture data proactively and intentionally across touchpoints.
Promisingly, 67% of media and entertainment leaders and practitioners either agree or strongly agree that their audience data value exchange is transparent, competitive and informed by their audience’s needs and journeys. Ultimately, content providers that reorient around the consumer will win out.
Key findings:
- Short-termism in marketing is undermining effectiveness - it boosts ROI but not profit growth
- Reach, scale and emotion are vital ingredients in effectiveness
- Adding TV to an ad campaign increases effectiveness by 40%, making it the most effective medium
- TV is the best for generating top-line growth that drives profit, with a 2.6% average market share point gained per year when using TV
- TV advertising is getting more effective, thanks in part to the internet
- TV and online video work in synergy, the most effective campaigns use both
The advertising world is changing – and the direction of travel is towards audio-visual. And landmark new research by the IPA revealed that TV advertising works best of all, especially when used in combination with online video.
In the world of marketing effectiveness research, two people stand above all others: Les Binet and Peter Field. In 2007, they published their first seminal meta-analysis of the IPA’s Databank, ‘Marketing in the Era of Accountability’, to identify which media strategies performed the most effectively at driving business effects such as profit growth and market share increases. The Databank contains every IPA Effectiveness Awards paper submitted since 1980 and as such, this was the largest and most thorough effectiveness study of its kind.
Fast forward nearly a decade, and Binet and Field have revealed their latest analysis of the IPA Databank, ‘Effectiveness in the Digital Era: Media in Focus’, which is designed to identify marketing best-practice at a time when usage of online channels is widespread. As stage one of four separate analyses, this work sheds plenty of new light on the effectiveness of advertising and the role of different forms of video within it.
The first part of the report, Media in Focus, is now available from the IPA. It takes the changing media landscape as its focus and addresses, among others, the issues of: Does mass marketing still work? Is tight targeting now the most efficient approach? Is unpaid making paid media redundant? It also investigates the broader issues of budgeting, planning and reporting, and challenges the industry to reconsider approaches to efficiency, ROMI and measurement strategy.
Useful link - Digital media trends 2023 | Deloitte Insights
--------------------------------------------Designing A Brand Logo--------------------------------------------
To further your digital brand, you are to construct a logo.
Research into existing logos (use terminology and deconstruct/consider effect and purpose):
The logos I chose are simple but get the job done.
Designing a business card
To further your brand you are to construct a business card.
Research into existing logos (use terminology and deconstruct/consider effect and purpose):
custom:
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Creating a portfolio
The importance of a portfolio - A portfolio introduces you to a potential employer. It’s a presentation of your qualifications, skills, experiences and work. It tells employers who you are and why you would make a valuable addition to their team/company and helps show off the work to prove it.
The positives of a portfolio:
- Represent your performance and skills as well as strengths and weaknesses.
- Allow peers, mentors and potential employers to get an understanding of you as a student, your passions and your work.
- Back up your experience and provide a concrete way to endorse your experience in the field.
- Talk about your work, as "a picture is worth a thousand words".
Some example portfolios:
http://www.mikebarclay.co.uk/ - Micheal Barcley (Game/Level Designer)
https://www.rsmithleveldesign.com/ - Ryan Smith (Level Designer)
https://roberthallwood.wordpress.com/ - Robert Hallwood (Senior Level Designer)
Personally, I use 2 sites to showcase my work, one for the making process and the other for renders and finalized scenes. This helps get feedback from the creative process and show any fixes or updates I've made and good for the fact I can get feedback for the final pieces.
Create Britain Account
https://www.createbritain.com/Profiles/jay5
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Mock Interview
I am conducting a mock presentation to replicate an interview pitch with Nathan and Andreia.
Researching interview techniques:
1. Read the job description carefully.
2. Do research on the company you're trying to join.
3. Look over your CV or Interview form and think of questions the interviewer may ask you.
4. Prepare notes and examples to practice with.
Researching interview types:
Phone interview - One to one over phone.
Video interview - One to one over a video call.
In-Person interview - One to one in person face to face.
Group interview - Multiple people all going for the same job at once.
Panel interview - Multiple employees
Prepping for the interview with notes:
I used multiple government sites to gather notes and wrote them down into a document, I practiced thinking of questions and answers and looked over my CV too.
Video recording of me doing the mock interview:
https://mysunderlandcollegeac-my.sharepoint.com/:u:/r/personal/21003938_my_sunderlandcollege_ac_uk/Documents/Microsoft%20Teams%20Chat%20Files/Jaydens%20interview.m4a?csf=1&web=1&e=Bfv1ex&nav=eyJwbGF5YmFja09wdGlvbnMiOnt9LCJyZWZlcnJhbEluZm8iOnsicmVmZXJyYWxBcHAiOiJUZWFtcyIsInJlZmVycmFsTW9kZSI6InZpZXciLCJyZWZlcnJhbFZpZXciOiJwb3N0cm9sbC1jb3B5bGluayIsInJlZmVycmFsUGxheWJhY2tTZXNzaW9uSWQiOiJhY2MxNGIxMS0wODRmLTQ4ZTUtODU4My1hYWNkMjU4ZWVhNTEifX0%3D
Evaluation of the interview:
I believe that the interview went well, i struggled with a few questions because it was quick and stressful.
Nathan said: "Have a little bit more confidence when answering and try to answer the questions in a bit more detail."
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Networking Experience
In the sense of networking, I had recently been to Teesside to take part in Animex, a big networking event with many guest speakers and big companies. I had also started doing some Work Experience with a company called Bright Start Studios, helping to do Quality Assurance on their new game - In which I do weekly.
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Work Experience
I got selected to do WEX with a company called Bright Start Studios, a company based in Denmark, I got to do a day with the company testing their new event for their up and coming MMORPG. This involved testing and writing feedback. Weeks later, I got selected again to do unpaid experience with the company - Every week we get issued multiple tasks and are told to test and feedback different features and write up any bugs like they would do in a real job, this is amazing as it is helping my portfolio grow.
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Progress Evaluation
What do I think after going through B1?
I think that a portfolio is one of the major things to have and experience is a must! I am lucky to have had the experience and opportunities I've been given. I am so thankful for all i have learned within my time here and how much I have improved. B1 will defiantly be something I always will look at to make sure I'm staying professional and keeping things fresh.
How will I use B1?
I will be updating my CV and making sure to grow my portfolio with any good work I do :)
Will I be sticking to any sites?
My portfolio will remain mainly on ArtStation as its where most professionals will post and see work.
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