Just got an invite from Lainy Allison at Contemporary Arts Dunfermline, to submit work for their upcoming exhibition. It's open to everyone, and all disciplines. Thought there might be a few people on the Design and Market module who could benefit from this. Check out their website for more info:
http://www.thisiscad.org/
Tuesday 21 February 2012
Monday 20 February 2012
Internship!
Another important part of this module, and in preparation for joining the industry, is to gain work experience on an internship/placement either during term time or over the summer holidays. I fortuitously stumbled across a company a couple of weeks ago, who were remaking old Sierra adventure games, upgrading the graphics from the earlier EGA, to the VGA quality and style of their later releases, and producing some original work too. I sent them an email and was invited to join their forums where I became an intern, and after a few sample projects was promoted to a full team member. As the company is made up of people from all over the world, they operate online so we can all work from home, at the hours convenient to us, interacting through the forum. The perk of this, is that not only do I see what goes on in my own department, but all the work being done everywhere else to make the game, from programming, to music, to branding and marketing. So far, it has been a very fun job to do, and has given me great experience of working in a team, adapting to different styles and increasing the speed at which I work.
Progress so far!
To briefly explain the purpose and nature of this blog, I am currently in my 3rd year of Animation at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, and one of our modules is called Design and the Market. This involves researching and interviewing creative people in the industry we have most interest in, or hope to work in. My team chose to concentrate on the games industry. Computer games, from their actual game-play to their design, have always been a passion of mine and it has been very enlightening so far finding out how others got into game development and made a success of it. The first outcome of this module is to give a 20 minute group presentation on our findings and insights.
Our first order of business was to meet as a group (a rather large group, of 6 students!) and make a list of the games companies we were aware of that might suit our needs, research them a little and narrow those down to a shortlist to contact. What we were looking for was a degree of success in the industry, innovative practices, and a creative approach to branding, marketing and design. We selected companies who stood out from the crowd for one or more of these reasons and sent out emails, made phone calls, pulled favours with our contacts, in the hope of securing interviews with their staff. We were equally interested in speaking both to artists within the companies; for info on their personal experiences getting into and working in the industry; and company directors who could give us more insight into how they made their company a success, through effective recruitment, market research, advertising and unique style.
We were lucky enough to secure interviews with two professionals who could give us both those sides, one by email and one in person, which also allowed us the opportunity to see their working environment. After going over what we learned from the interviews, and selecting areas of interest, we have split up the topics to further research between us in preparation for the presentation this Friday.
Our first order of business was to meet as a group (a rather large group, of 6 students!) and make a list of the games companies we were aware of that might suit our needs, research them a little and narrow those down to a shortlist to contact. What we were looking for was a degree of success in the industry, innovative practices, and a creative approach to branding, marketing and design. We selected companies who stood out from the crowd for one or more of these reasons and sent out emails, made phone calls, pulled favours with our contacts, in the hope of securing interviews with their staff. We were equally interested in speaking both to artists within the companies; for info on their personal experiences getting into and working in the industry; and company directors who could give us more insight into how they made their company a success, through effective recruitment, market research, advertising and unique style.
We were lucky enough to secure interviews with two professionals who could give us both those sides, one by email and one in person, which also allowed us the opportunity to see their working environment. After going over what we learned from the interviews, and selecting areas of interest, we have split up the topics to further research between us in preparation for the presentation this Friday.
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