Mikial Jonas L3 UAL Games Design & Animation: Unit 3

Unit 3 - Professional Practice

Tuesday 30th October 2018

Jobs Of The Gaming Industry

In today's lesson, we studied about the different job roles in the game industry and how they are all split into different categories.

After a class discussion about it, we made our own diagrams/tables displaying all the jobs that we learned about.

We then made a graph that represents the hierarchy to reflect on what is the highest paying jobs, as well as the lower paying, but still important, jobs that they branch off to.

Two Jobs I'm interested in are a Concept Artist and a Game Designer. As a part of the research for it, I and my class spoke to an experienced game designer call David Jaffe, who is known for creating the concept of the Twisted Metal and God of War franchises. While most of us were asking questions, he gave a lot of advice for people being interested to be a Game Designer. He stated how its good to start as a QA tester as it will get you informed on the different types of games and may get you noticed by someone in the hierarchy. He also says its good to make your own games and scripts and try to get them seen as it can show you have good ideas.

I also asked about being a freelanced Concept Artist to a former student in my course. He stated how the job has its ups and downs, such as; you are able to choose your own work times which allows you to work in your own convenience, you can decide what work you want to do this you can do the ones that you enjoy the most and thus makes freelance more fun. However, he also told me how it's a risky job, as freelance jobs don't have a stable income. Meaning there may be times where you won't have as much money. And it depends on the number of requests you get and how much they are willing to pay.

H/W Detailed Research On Job Roles

We were tasked, for homework, to research job roles in the gaming industry in detail.

Scriptwriter

Scriptwriters are a very important part of pre-production. Sometimes they are the author of the game. Their main priority is to write out the plot of the game and the dialogue of the characters. Because they write all of that down, they have a part in character creation, world building and the game's plot (if they didn't make it themselves).

There aren't any set requirements, although it is useful and recommended you take a course in scriptwriting and/or creative writing. Important key skills are:

1) Having an outstanding imagination and creativity. This will be useful if you are writing the plot as it will allow you to create a very appealing creation

2) Great writing skills. This is a very important skill needed, as writing out plots and dialogue needs excellent writing in order to make it in order to create a cohesive and story and understanding a dramatic structure.

3) Accepting rejection and deprecation from others. As sometimes your work may not be as approved as you want it to be. And if you find it hard to accept, it may affect your performance in the work and will make it more difficult to work with others.

4) You need to be able to present your work. As even if your work is well done, if you can present it well you may not appeal many people.

Scriptwriters don't really have any set working hours or salary, due to them being freelance workers. So, they chose their own hours and their pay depends on what jobs they get and how much they do.

Voice Actor

A voice actor is someone who does the ADR in a game. They voice all the dialogue with the characters and narrators from a script.

There are no set requirements however a course in acting would be useful. But important key skills to be one are:

1) Being able to speak in different accents and portray different moods

2) Having good warming up skills, as when doing multiple roles, you risk voice strain

3) Accepting doing multiple sessions and retakes, as there may be a way the line must be performed, and it may take a lot of tries.

4) Dealing with inconsistent work takes. As there may be times that you have to work that you weren’t expecting. Though this can be managed with call sheets.

Voice actors don't have set hours. Rather, they tend to be called in at whatever time. Their salary depends on what jobs they take and how big the role was in the game.

Concept Artists

A Concept Artist is someone who draws out all the different ideas of how the characters, environment and objects will be designed. They bring the idea of a character’s appearance to life and the one that is chosen will be the basis used to design the characters through the game. Key skills they need are

1) Professional Artistic Skills. Due to having the responsibility to draw out various things, Concept artists need to be very practised in their art and it helps to be able to use different styles

2) Computer Skills. Most Concept Artists use different artistic soft where this requires some knowledge of using them and operating the PC itself.

3) Dealing with collaborative work. Since the rest of the design team must use the concept art, you must consistently talk with your team and make sure everyone is updated and are happy with the art.

4) Attention to detail. When designing art for games, small but detail allows them to pop out and become something more real

Concept Artists earn 53,582 per year on average and their work time can vary.

Brand Manager

Brand Manages work in the marketing team. They help create a rememberable and appealing identity of the product to help improve people’s attraction to it and thus increase sales. They keep up to date with trends and various things that are getting people’s attention and uses that to help advertise the product better. Key skills are

1) Be good and analysing things, as determine what will attract people the most will take a lot of planning and researching

2) Have enthusiasm with the product you're branding. As the more strive you must sell a product, the better your activity will be when trying to do so

3) Outstanding Communication Skills. As you need to be able to communicate about the product and make it appear as something many people will listen and be interested in

4) Being able to think about the future of products. As it’s always good and beneficial to plan.

Bran Managers tend to work 9am-5pm from Mondays to Friday. Though they may have to do extra to meet deadlines and they also travel a lot of exhibitions and meetings ext. Salaries range from £19,500 to £29,500 for a junior or assistant brand manager, up to £50,000 or more for a senior brand manager.

Bibliography

National Careers Service. (23 Oct 2016 ). Screenwriter. Available: https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/job-profiles/screenwriter#. Last accessed 2/11/2018.
JobHero . (8 Jul 2018). Concept Artist Job Description. Available: https://www.jobhero.com/concept-artist-job-description/. Last accessed 03/11/18.

Creativepool. (04/08/2015 ). Job Description: Brand Manager. Available: https://creativepool.com/articles/jobdescriptions/brand-manager-job-description. Last accessed 04/11/18.

Tuesday 30th October 2018

We were set homework to create 2 Job Description Adverts.

Job Description Adverts are adverts that are used to promote a job that a company, shop or anyone needs someone for and the Job Description Adverts explains the jobs, requirements, pay and working hours.

I made one form 2 different job categories:

1

Skills Audit

After learning about the job roles in the game industry, I made a chart of all the skills I would like to have and that might be helpful with my goals

Currently, the job I'm interested in is a freelance Concept Artists. The skills that I need to improve are my art skills, as in order to catch companies and people's eyes, It has to be professional. I'm practising drawing every day to help build up this skill. I also have to develop management skills, as if I am freelance, I'm going to get my work noticed I will have to manage it. I will learn this while in my Game Design And Animation course and I will train further after.

Wednesday 31th October 2018

Understanding Creative Media Companies
Today, we learned about the different company types as well as Vertical and Horizontal integration.

We also learned 2 words that relate to corporations:

Subsidiary: When a company is just a part of a parent company. Like how Sony Interactive Entertainment is a part of Sony.

Synergy: When subsidiaries of a company work together to produce or advertise a product. Like if Sony Computer Entertainment works with Sony Music to make or license the music in their games.

Company Types
In the industry, there are 3 company types:

1)Developers

Developers are the people who create and develop the game

2)Publisher
The Publishers are responsible for getting the game released and also are responsible for marketing the game.
3)Distributors
Distributors are the people who sell the game

Vertical Integration

When companies own more than 1 company types. They either have developers, publishers and/or distributors. All of them are separate but can produce their own products but overall work together to satisfy a common need. This can be shown in a vertical flow chart.

Horizontal Integration

When a corporation has many different mediums, such as film production, music production and video game production. A company can expand like this by internal expansion or merging with other companies.

Internal expansion is when a company grows and expands internally. This is also called organic growth. An example is when the land of a company increases in price.