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/
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