Industry Portfolio Development Blog - Joel McIvor

During this week’s Lab Activity I was tasked with finding 5 game jobs that would match my area of specialisation within the United Kingdom.

I documented what they were looking for in terms of essential skills/qualifications and desirable skills. I looked at studios such as Travelers Tales, Double Eleven, and Super Massive Games.

Essential Skills

In particular the one key skill all the listings had was having clear and concise communication skills. This refers not just through general conversation with colleagues in other disciplines, but also in design documents.

Iteration was also a key skill as games naturally need assessed and reworked to refine qualities and remove flaws.

Knowledge of Unreal Engine was a common skill as was knowledge on player psychology to ensure a solid design mentality that will challenge and reward the player according to the game genre.

Desired Skills

The unified skill all the listings considered “Desirable” was a genuine passion for games under the specific studio’s theme/genre e.g. Travelers Tales make the Lego Star Wars games, therefore having a passion for family friendly games that focus on fun will probably be more desired.   

How I will showcase these skills

When it comes to showcasing these skills in my artefact I will emphasise the planning and pre-production stage; sourcing my inspirations in detail to show a clear pipeline of research, planning, implementing, and refining. 

I will also document how I implemented the level in detail as this will show off my knowledge of Unreal Engine 4.

Finally, I will discuss in detail my creative decisions to show my passion for the artefact and game development in general.

This week was focused on getting a solid concept of my disciplinary. I have decided to design and implement a level set on a moody beach; inspired from the coastlines of Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands.

I have visited the coastlines of Northern Ireland and Scotland over the years and have consistently been mesmerised by their beauty and scale. Specifically with Giant’s Causeway and it’s unique rock formations that are called Basalt Hexagons:

I think they would add a unique visual style to the level and would be easy to block-out using a simple hexagon model.

I think considering the environment it would be appropriate to make the game genre a third person adventure game with puzzle elements to add a bit of relaxing gameplay. A slower pace would also allow the player to take in the sights of the beach more.

In general atmosphere would be a major factor to this level. 

For a better visualisation of the level I have made a mood board, with one or two photos I took myself when visiting Ireland and Scotland.

The following blog entries will detail my journey throughout the university module: Industry Portfolio Development.

It will focus on defining my specialisation in the computer games industry, along with preparing myself for a future career in said industry.

I am working to become a games designer, therefore the following blog entries will focus on game design work.