From Then till Now

I have now entered my seventh year working in games. I would still say I am a far cry away from being a veteran, but I have definitely learnt a few things along the way. So, what can I say about the games industry after all this time?

To start I need to go back to early 2000. I was going through a period in my life when I desperately needed a change. I was bored with what I was doing and looking for a way out. In the midst of contemplating what I should do, I paid a visit to an old school friends leaving party. She had landed a financial job in Hong Kong and was off for the foreseeable future. The party was a collection of old friends and people’s who’s names I had heard mentioned by never met, all converging for farewell drinks in a central London bar. It was while doing my best to mingle, with a beer in hand that I get talking to my soon to be boss. This was my first major lesson learned in getting into the Games Industry. Timing is everything, and don’t be afraid to take that leap. The job I was offered to apply for was a Junior Design position. I was an avid gamer, but knew nothing about working in the industry. The job was paying less than I was earning in my current job, but it sounded like the opportunity of a lifetime so I went for it. I pulled off the interview and began life as a Junior Designer…

I think over the last few years on my journey from Junior Designer to the now not so auspicious Lead Designer, that there were some key periods of learning and understanding. The first lesson, which was my favourite I think, was when I was discussing a design idea with my then Lead, Chun Wah Kong, and he calmly sat and took my design to pieces. He did this, in by no means a malicious way, but just by simply pointing out the many flaws, and repeating those fateful words “what would happen here, if the Player did this…” Learning that being able to come up with a “cool” idea is one thing, making it interesting, fun and above all airtight, that’s something else entirely.

There are definitely moments in your career when you think you have attained a level of understanding, perhaps not to the point where you believe you know it all, but where you think you could do better than those around you, or think you are ready to move up in the world. This certainly happened to me. Once I had spent several months, putting my soul into a project, I was quickly becoming tired with the menial tasks that often make up a junior’s life. Once those months had become a year I believed I was overdue to be promoted to Designer. It was only about a year later, after I had only just been promoted to Designer that I thought, looking back, that I really had no idea what I was thinking before. The experience that I had gone through that brought this new found wisdom, was going through crunch and shipping a product. Having spent days and nights on end, month after month, in the mad scramble to finish a game, you appreciate what it is to become a Designer, or an Artist, Programmer or Animator for that matter. Its really not until you have had those feverish moments at 3am where people just start running around the office laughing insanely, that you really get what it means to make a game. When you truly know that you couldn’t have done anything else to make it better. Of course at that stage, you believe you can do anything…

Well, needless to say, once I had finished that project, and begun working on the next I thought I had it all down cold. Looking back now, what I learnt finishing a second big title, and then switching companies to become a Senior and finally a Lead was tremendous. I never really appreciated dealing with bureaucracy, the scheduling, making those calls on what can and can’t be done until I had taken those next steps, and every time I took a step forward I realised that I still had so much to learn. I think I have reached the stage now where I appreciate every cog in the wheel, from the newbie just walking through the door, to the guy that’s sat in the chair asking for another million dollars to keep the company going.

If ever I had any advice to anyone wishing to, or just starting out in the industry, I would say, have patience, learn to not mouth off before you have taken the time to consider what you are about to say, remember that you are a privileged individual working in an career that has so much creative potential and that to make the most of that potential, you have to push yourself as far as you can go.