Peter Akrill is an experienced programmer currently working at the Codemasters studio in Guilford. After graduating from University back in 2005 (receiving a First in Maths + Computer Software and Development), Peter moved to Travellers’ Tales where he worked in production management on titles such as Bionicle Heroes, LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones. After deciding he wanted a change, Peter later moved to Codemasters to pursue his strongest area in the industry, programming.
Peter came back to the University of Bolton today to give advice on getting into the industry, how to survive when in industry and what items should be considered for our online portfolio. I attended this lecture today and found Peter to be a very interesting and entertaining character, giving some fantastic inside advice on how a game company operates and how to work long hours while still living a healthy lifestyle.
Peter began by stating the companies he’d previously worked for and what titles he’d worked on. Currently, Peter and his team are working on an upcoming First Person Shooter title named ‘Bodycount', a spiritual successor to the ‘entirely destructible environments’ shooter on the PS2 and Xbox, Black. After watching trailers for Bodycount at the time of E3 this year and after seeing it make Gamasutra headlines from time to time, it was very interesting to hear what Peter had to say about the team working with it and what his roles (gameplay programmer) involve.
Moving on from what games he has worked on, Peter went into more depth about how Travellers’ Tales and Codemasters operate; listing what toolsets and languages programmers at both companies work with. While programming is not my area of profession, if I wish to be a designer it’s always good to know how other areas of the team work, know how they feel towards designers and what programs and languages they use. Peter mentioned that his personal gripe with designers was that they usually have a tendency to change things half way through a project, asking for something programmers had previously worked on to be altered or removed entirely. Peter requested we always try and keep to the design documents as much as possible to save programmers and artists extra work; something I’ll definitely keep in mind for the future.
Following this, Peter listed lots of different areas of a games design team and stated their roles and what software they use. Obviously, programming was Peter’s strong point here- though it still remained very interesting to hear his views on all of the different areas of a team. Find below Peter’s information given for designers;
Designer;
- Has the overall vision of the project.
- The ‘go to’ person for features.
- The main cause of frustration! (for programmers.)
- Has the overall vision of the project.
- The ‘go to’ person for features.
- The main cause of frustration! (for programmers.)
Finally, to end the lecture Peter gave some advice on staying healthy while working within industry. As programmers and designers generally tend to spend a lot of time in the office both day and night, it’s important not to slip into the habit of buying takeaways every night and to keep both a healthy body and mind. Peter suggested taking ‘rest days’ when needed and if any overtime is performed on free will, make sure to do the fun stuff while out of work hours. It’s also good to keep healthy snacks around desk areas, such as either fruit or nuts.
I felt the lecture today was both informative and fun, with seeming both a generally nice guy and a hard worker both in and out of industry hours. The most important quote I’d like to take away from the lecture would be the following;
“Remember, if you implement a feature badly people will notice. If you don’t implement a feature at all, no-one will know. Make sure features are polished before adding in more!”
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