Guest Lecture Synopsis and Review - David Bramhall, Vicky Rowley (Sony Evolution Studios)

Two key members of the Sony owned development company Evolution Studios attended the University today as part of the final year Games Business module. David Bramhall, a designer / Q&A veteran who has previously graduated from Bolton University and Vicky Rowley, a HR specialist, both performed a presentation covering such items as; what jobs are available at Sony, how the company is structured, their roles / experiences within the industry and what can be done to help students improve both CV's and Portfolios.

I attended this lecture and felt that the talk covered lots of useful information on how we're able to get into the industry, with David sharing his story, the problems he faced and how he dealt with the situation. Alongside this, we were also given some good insight into one of the biggest first party development companies on the market, a very exciting opportunity for anybody interested in the industry.

David began speaking about his journey through the industry, his first position being a Q&A tester at Sony on the WRC series, then moving to Travellers Tales and working on LEGO Indiana Jones II alongside Arthur Parsons before eventually moving back to Sony again and working on upcoming PS3 title, Motorstorm: Apocalypse. David's challenges and positions in the industry were very similar as to what I wish for mine to be, making his talk on past experiences both interesting and relevant.

After this, David went on to speak about company structure and the roles of several different departments; Coders, Art, Design, Animation, Producers and Q&A. Both him and Vicky both stressed how important it is to understand that each of these areas are split up into many different roles (for example, Design having Game Directors, Lead Designers, Designers, AI Riggers, Level Scripters, Interface Designers and Level Designers.) Each individual should know what role within industry they're aiming for, such as mine being that of Designer (and maybe even one day, Lead Designer!)

Next, the 'requirements' of a designer and Q&A tester were given, something I hope to keep in mind throughout both applying for a job and when in industry;

Designer;
- Ability to communicate on a good level.
- Excellent writing skills.
- Broad technical knowledge.
- Can willingly take criticism.
- Excellent knowledge of games.
- Good presentation skills.
- Is passionate about their work.

Q&A Tester;
- Strong writing ability.
- Learns from the best.
- Proactive and passionate.
- Can identify the games problems / areas correctly.

The average life cycle of a game was described next along with the various stages of development. David explained, as you'd expect, the life cycle of a game varies depending on both the title and the studio creating it.

For the final part of the presentation, Vicky spoke about how to contact game development studios in regards to jobs and what they'd expect to see along with the application. CV's and Cover letters were discussed, with CV's being three pages maximum and being specifically tailored to each role applied for in the industry. The cover letter is to be one page maximum and compliments the CV, starting with an interesting opening line and containing information on why the job position / company excites you along with facts about yourself.

Interviews were the last topic of discussion, with Vicky going talking about how interviewee's should dress and what they should bring along to the meeting. As with the Codemasters guest lecture, the importance of doing research into the company beforehand and having questions prepared was heavily mentioned.

I very much enjoyed the presentation today and felt it was a fantastic insight into the studio and how they operate. Going by David's previous experience and due to the close links between the company and Bolton University, it's highly likely I'll find myself applying at Evolution Studios in the future and I very much look forward to doing so.

http://www.evos.net/

Level 3 Team Project - Week 25

This week, the team has spent each available day testing people with our final level artefact. So far, we have tested a total of twenty-five candidates and hope to have reached thirty by the end of the week. Each test candidate has been invigilated by a single team member, with four being taken at a time (maximum.) The pre and post-test questionnaire data is also currently in the process of being collated in an Excel file ready for analysing at the end of next week.

Alongside our testing, Andrew and Amanda have been taking a look at some of our written documentation and have provided formative feedback in how it can be improved. The final group report has been amended after seeing this feedback and work is still being completed on the document despite being in University testing.

In the past week, I have spent my time exclusively testing people and arranging the ability to go into lessons with lecturers. Brian, Andrew, Craig, Tim and Pete have all agreed and replied to my e-mails, being a massive help in aiding us gather test candidates. After our testing phase, I plan on e-mailing these lecturers thanking them for their compliance and help.

In the next week, we'll be gathering more test candidates to hopefully reach our aim of fifty tests completed by next Friday. This will allow us to analyse the data and discuss it at the weekend in preparation for our Presentation with Brian the week following.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

To view all of the Team Project diary entries, click here.

Guest Lecture Synopsis and Review - Thomas Hulvershorn (I-Play, Oberon Media)

Thomas Hulvershorn is a lead game tester at Oberon Media owned company, I-Play. Working with downloadable PC titles such as Womens Murder Club 4 and social networking applications such as BubbleTown, Thomas manages project milestones and works as part of a very close knit team to help add final touches to I-Play's games and get them released on time.


Thomas recently attended the University of Bolton to give a guest lecture on his current role in the industry, what it entails, the benefits it creates and how post-graduates are able to get into it. After previously working alongside Thomas by doing some voluntary testing on I-Play's latest title, Dream Day Wedding, I felt the talk would be relevant to my interests and hoped to learn even more about a role I'm most likely going to be looking to pursue nearer to the end of my time at University.

Thomas began the lecture speaking about the sort of downloadable PC titles that I-Play create and how they go about testing them. Different types of 'test lingo' were mentioned, with Thomas explaining the meanings of Functional Testing / Non-Functional Testing, Black Box Testing / White Box, Testing and Regression Testing / Re-Testing. An overview of Thomas' teams project methodologies was also given, with I-Play using a mix of both Agile and SCRUMM, similarly as to with we handle our Team Project work.

Facebook games was the next topic of discussion, with Thomas giving his views on how they've both affected the industry and how he feels his company can further make use of them. Two interesting quotes given by Thomas on this subject were; "Facebook games are services, not games!" and "Facebook games are like an infection, and their testing process is completely different than with normal games." I found his insight into Facebook games very interesting and definitely agree it's a fantastic opportunity to further expand the games market.

Further detail was given into testing processes, with the Funnel Analysis process and the BCS / ISTBQ being explained. Funnel analysis was interesting, displaying the amount of users who install a title on Facebook up until the users who go through with micro-transactions. Thomas gave some rough figures, stating on average around 10% of people who install a game on Facebook will actually play further than the first level. Some insight into how I-Play handle risk assessment and time management was given next, processes that were all too familiar to me after working with two team project modules at University.

Overall, I thought the lecture with Thomas gave much useful information on both social networking games and the role of a games tester. I hope to further aid I-Play and volunteer once again as a student tester when needed.
 

http://www.iplay.com/index.aspx?GEO=ROTW

Level 3 Team Project - Week 24

Slightly behind schedule, the team spent this week finishing out test artefact and researching / writing questionnaires. After booking the project room today, our testing will commence tomorrow between 9:30am and 5pm with team members scouting around and looking for potential test candidates. 

 

Emails have been sent to lecturers teaching on our predicted testing days requesting for us to pop into lessons half way through and asking for any volunteers to come and take part in our test. We're aiming to test around thirty or so candidates within the next two weeks, so contacting lecturers and requesting to take students from certain classes could severely help in bumping up our number of tested candidates.

In the past week, I have spent time working alongside our final level build, compiling our questionnaires and communicating with other teams / lecturers in regards to our testing process. I'm very happy with how both the questionnaires turned out and feel both Brian and Andrew provided some excellent feedback that's been taken into account ready for our final print-outs.

In the next week, our whole focus is turning to our testing process and collating the data gathered. By this time next week, we hope to have tested a good chunk of people and have the majority of our data collated.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

To view all of the Team Project diary entries, click here.

Guest Lecture Synopsis and Review - Bruce Fitter (University of Bolton)

Bruce Fitter is a web designer / artist and general business enthusiast currently lecturing at the University of Bolton. With plenty of experience in many different business fields, Bruce has much advice to give and many stories to tell regarding his previous endeavors in the games industry, film industry- and pretty much everything else.

After an unfortunate twenty minute delay at the beginning of the lecture leaving students thinking it had been cancelled, Bruce turned up and proceeded to talk about his business experiences. Immense detail was given regarding what jobs he's covered, how he's handled his money and what contacts he's made, to name a few. It all seemed quite interesting, with Bruce taking opportunity after opportunity and openly sharing his experiences along with his opinions.

While defiantly not the path I wish to go down, Bruce spoke about setting up your own business and what it entails. The definitions of several different business types were given ( Sole Trader, Limited Company and Partnership) were given along with what differences they have. Business Plans were mentioned, harking back to Cameron Thompson's guest lecture a couple of weeks before. Bruce explained that a Business Plan can serve a variety of purposes, showing how your company works, what your business is doing and where it is going.

We were also given an insight into different types of finance, with definitions given for finance sources such as loans, grants, family & friends, banks, profit & loss, balance sheets, cash flow, business angels and venture capitalists.

While not the most relevant lecture considering I do not wish to get too much into the business side of games or set up my own company, I enjoyed the lecture and it's always good to receive advice from an industry veteran.


http://www.bolton.ac.uk/

Level 3 Team Project - Pre and Post-Test Questionnaires

To compliment our test artefact, pre and post-test questionnaires have been compiled to be filled in by candidates at the start and end of our test process.

The pre-test questionnaire aims to collect information regarding the candidates background with games, what aspects of them they enjoy the most and which type of genre they play the most. With this insight, we're able to see which candidates are more interested in items such as Gameplay over Narrative and compare the results given in the post-test questionnaire on this basis.

The post-test questionnaire asks candidates directly how they felt towards the non-playable character in our test at different areas throughout our test. By using a scale for candidates to plot their answers on, we're able to gather quantitative data that can be analysed once our tests are complete. To back this quantitative data up, some questions include space for candidates to further elaborate on why they plot where they did on the scale.

Both documents have been compiled by me after analysing the research Steve had performed into existing tests and questionnaires. This research proved useful as it gave us both ideas of how we could record our data and what sort of questions we could ask. All other members of the team have looked over the questionnaires and have made edits where necessary.

To view the pre-test questionnaire, click here.

To view the post-test questionnaire, click here.

Level 3 Team Project - Week 23

This week the team performed our fourth milestone presentation, supposedly showcasing our final level build. Unfortunately, due to certain team members missing the deadlines of their assigned tasks, the presentation ended up a disappointment to both assessors and students. As with Milestone II, no preparation was made by milestone presenters which (once again) led to an untextured, unfinished run-through of what was promised to be our final build.

Thankfully, the team also received feedback for the Test Planning presentation performed the previous week. Lecturers were generally happy, suggesting the team could have scored higher if we had gone into more detail in regards to the pre / post-test questionnaires and the methods of analysis we plan to utilise. Overall, the team received an A (70) for our third milestone.

In the next week, I will be assisting with our level build and will aid in finishing any outstanding tasks not completed by other team members already working with the level. Ideally, this level build will be complete and fully functioning for Monday morning, allowing us to dry run our test process in the project room.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

To view all of the Team Project diary entries, click here.

Level 3 Team Project - Week 22

This week the team performed our third milestone presentation, covering the testing plan and recapping all of the work completed thus far. I spent much of my time working on the test planning documentation along with Steve and I felt the presentation went exceptionally well. Lecturers gave good feedback and seemed generally pleased with our performance, a good confidence boost in preparation for the final level demonstration next week.

In the next week, I will be assisting with our level build in preparation for our dry run presentation on Wednesday. Currently, the level is quite a way off from being 'finished' in my opinion and team members will need to work harder if we're to have a full final demonstration ready.

To view the Team Fable project blog, click here.

To view all of the Team Project diary entries, click here.

Level 3 Team Project - Test Planning Documentation

As a part of the teams third Milestone and to help aid us during our upcoming testing phase, a twenty-two page document has been compiled discussing several factors of our test and the rationale behind them.

"By the end of this document, a clear picture will have been painted of both the test process and the justifications behind it. The sections included help clarify the teams testing methodologies along with both data collection and the different methods of statistical analysis that will be performed. The test process itself will be defined and the means behind it will be backed up with research into existing testing procedures and also by investigating and defining a variety of different human emotions."

To download the document in .pdf format, click here.

Guest Lecture Synopsis and Review - Nick Rathbone (Codemasters)

Nicholas Rathbone is an experienced games designer (in Car Handling) and is currently working at a Codemasters studio in the UK. Once graduated from the University of Bolton back in 2008, Nick found his first position in the industry at Climax Studios where he found himself working Wii title, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

Nick recently returned to the University of Bolton to give a guest lecture on becoming a games designer, discussing what work to expect, how development studios operate and also the steps he took to get into the position he is now. I saw this as a fantastic opportunity to further learn about my profession so happily attended.

I found the lecture to be extremely useful in that I could relate what Nick was saying to myself, being currently in the position he was two years ago. Ideas of what developers are expecting to see in terms of CV's, cover letters and portfolios were given alongside tips on what the best methods of creating them are. Nick backed up some items Arthur Parsons mentioned in an earlier lecture, discussing how to make CV's unique and how it can help attract a designers attention.

We were also given an insight into how a graduate secures a place in industry, how to manage any financial problems we may encounter and also what studios to contact and by what means. Nick spoke on the topic of interviews and how to handle the immense pressure some studios put graduate designers under, requiring interviewee's to think up game mechanics and plan out level designs in short amounts of time.

I feel the most important piece of information to remember from the lecture was to always be prepared. If I'm going to contact a studio and apply for any position, always research the studio and its heads, then send a copy of my CV, a unique cover letter, a link to my website and my portfolio on disk.

After the lecture I managed to get some one on one time with Nick to discuss the course and my portfolio / CV. Nick gave some good feedback on both, mentioning what I could alter and improve. This led to a complete overhaul of my CV, of which can be found in the downloads section on my website.

I very much enjoyed the lecture with Codemasters and felt some valuable information was given regarding the possible routes graduates can take to secure a place in the industry.

http://www.codemasters.com/?territory=EnglishUK