13 minute read
Ins and Outs
Ins and Outs: Industry hires and moves
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After seven questionable years at Indigo Pearl (his words, not ours), ROBBIE PATERSON (1) has joined Devolver Digital as their new marketing manager. Paterson stated: “I’ll miss everyone at Indigo Pearl, but I feel lucky to have made such brilliant friends. Please keep being nice to them all, they’re the best!”
RIC COWLEY (2) is the new editor of PocketGamer.biz. Cowley has been in the industry for four years, having previously worked as PocketGamer’s news editor. “It’s great having Ric back on board,” said Dave Bradley, COO of PocketGamer.biz publisher Steel Media. “Mobile is the most interesting space in the games scene at the moment and few people know it like Ric.”
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EMILY SHORT (3) has joined Failbetter Games as their new creative director. Across her 20+ year career in games, Short has worked on dozens of games, contributing to award-winning narrative titles such as Where the Water Tastes Like Wine and Sunless Skies. Most recently, she was chief product of cer at Spirit AI.
Sumo Digital have appointed KIRSTIN WHITTLE (4) as their new partnerships director, within the business development team. Whittle stated: “I’ve followed and admired Sumo Digital for many years, so to now be part of such a talented and progressive group of studios is amazing. I am delighted to have the opportunity to work alongside the brilliant leadership team to help shape and support strategic plans.”
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publishing department. I’m looking forward to working with developers from around the world and recruiting a worldclass team.”
DAMIAN BURNS (6) has joined Twitch as its rst ever EMEA MD. Burns joins after ve years at Facebook, where he was senior director of gaming EMEA. Sara Clemens, chief operating of cer at Twitch stated: “Damian’s deep experience in digital advertising, gaming and community services make him the ideal partner to help realize the potential of multiplayer entertainment. Damian brings over 20 years of expertise working with media partners, agencies and content communities.”
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Kwalee has a new head of publishing in the form of SIMON PRYTHERCH (5), who previously worked with CEO David Darling at Codemasters on titles such as LMA Manager, and Pete Sampras Tennis. Prytherch stated: “I’m thrilled to be joining Kwalee and in turn, re-joining colleagues such as David, Jason and many others at such an exciting time in the business. The company had a brilliant 2019, and with Kwalee’s expertise, there’s a great opportunity to grow the Dual Universe developer Novaquark has hired HÖGNI GYLFASON (7) as their chief technology of cer. Gylfason was technical director at CCP, where he lead the DevOps team and implemented games-as-a-service cloud solutions for EVE Online.
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Leeds-based developer Cooperative Innovations has added three new hires. ALEX EARLE (8) has joined as the new community manager, focusing on launching and supporting Spaceteam VR. Earle has been in the games industry for over two years now, largely working freelance for PR and events across Europe representing companies such as Nintendo, Payload Studios/Tentacle Zone and Muse Games. Also, DAVE PRICE (9) has joined as the new game designer. Previously, Price was a junior designer at JAW (Just Add Water), working on Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure. Finally, MARIAN FELIX (10) joins as the new of ce manager. Felix graduated from the University of Hull with a Law and Business degree last July, and is currently undergoing her LPC training.
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After a record-breaking 2019, Jagex has added six new hires to the studio. DAVID BAMBERGER (11) has been appointed as the new head of product marketing for RuneScape. Bamberger previously worked at Tencent America as marketing manager for PUBG Mobile. Alongside David, OUNI KWON (12) has joined Jagex’s publishing powerhouse as head of product marketing for Old School RuneScape. Ouni spent nine years at Wargaming, where he worked on World of Tanks, and Total War: Arena. JOEYRAY HALL (13) has joined Jagex in the new role of creative services director, having spent 23 years at Blizzard Entertainment. MIKE DONATELLI (14) has joined as product director of Old School RuneScape and previously worked on products such as Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer Online and Wildstar. STEWART STANBURY (15) joins as director of business development, having previously worked with clients including Adobe, Dell, Ubisoft, EA and Rockstar. ANNA MOSTYNWILLIAMS (16) has joined Jagex as director of publishing partnerships. Williams has worked for brands such as Discovery Communications and Quantic Dream, as well as launching two technology start-ups. Williams will be leading on Jagex’s outreach and relationships with platform, distribution and marketing partners.
Rising Star
Every month, we pick the brain of an up-and-coming talent
George O’Keeffe, principal environment artist at Rare, Xbox Game Studios
How did you break into games? I entered the weird and wonderful world of game development by a slightly unconventional route. When I was younger I was always a huge fan of video games, but I never really knew a career in games was a possibility – so I studied Architecture at university. Architecture was a logical outlet for my creativity, but there was something missing, so after a few years I packed it all in to try my hand at creating game art. I decided to study a Masters in Environment Art at Escape Studios in London, and I absolutely loved it. I finally felt like I was doing the right thing.
While studying for my Masters, I remember watching a trailer for Sea of Thieves at E3. I remember being completely blown away by the art style and the incredibly immersive environments the game had, and I decided to create a personal project in their style to test my skills. I found some cool concept art for the game online, and decided to create a tavern environment. I really wanted to get as close to their art style as I possibly could. The end result was nowhere near the beauty of Rare’s rendition, but I sent the environment to them to have a look nonetheless. To my surprise, they were impressed and I was offered a position working for them!
What is your proudest achievement so far? I am so incredibly proud of the work everyone at Rare and Xbox Game Studios has put into Sea of Thieves. The game is such a unique experience, and I am so proud to play a part in its creation. We recently announced that we have over 10 million players, and it’s absolutely crazy to think that 10 million people are using the art that I, and the rest of our team creates. It is genuinely a dream come true!
my favourite parts of my job is creating ways of immortalising these amazing community members in the world of Sea of Thieves. Whenever someone in our community does something cool or different, we try to celebrate that person in the game. Sometimes that is comedic skeletal remains sticking into the sand with the player’s name engraved on a rock beside them, sometimes it’s a painting of amazing real world cosplayers hanging in a tavern in game, or recreations of a young fan’s drawings scattered around the Sea of Thieves world. I love our community, and I love that our team is able to celebrate them in game.
What’s been your biggest challenge so far? I think my biggest challenge is one that many artists experience at first. I have always found it very difficult to show people my artwork, and be proud of the work that I have created. I am incredibly self critical, and always focus on the flaws and imperfections in my own art, and so I was absolutely terrified of showing my artwork to anyone. That fear was pretty quickly challenged when working in the industry, though, because you need to be able to show and discuss your artwork multiple times a day, to people from every department. I am still scared, but definitely less-so!
What do you enjoy most about your job? I love the incredibly positive and friendly community that Sea of Thieves has. One of What’s your biggest ambition in games? My aim is to keep learning. Our industry moves so fast, and evolves so quickly that it is so easy to become complacent. As a result, I really want to keep challenging myself, continue learning as much as I can, and keep producing the best art I possibly can.
What advice would you give to an aspiring environment artist? It may seem impossible to get a job in our industry, but I promise it is not. However, it does require a lot of hard work and persistence. Use every moment, and every opportunity you have to keep learning, progressing and working towards that goal. If you are truly passionate about it, it won’t even seem like work, and the dream job will be totally achievable in no time.
Cherry picked advice to help you reach the next level in your career
Rebecca Ford, live operations and community director at Digital Extremes tells us about working on Warframe, balancing community expectations and the importance of understanding fandom
What is your job role and how would you describe your typical day at work? I am the live operations and community director for Warframe, the online action game that Digital Extremes opened to the public on PC in March 2013 (and in closed beta the year before!) My day begins and ends with ‘what’s on fire’ or ‘what needs to be deployed and when.’ The ‘need’ is identified by two parties – what do the devs need to do to hit their next update, or what does the community need to improve their experience. Then these needs are balanced against our work week, community expectations, and we do our best to hit those goals. My role is relatively unique in that I work with both the Warframe dev team – directly relaying the community’s concerns, ideas, and
suggestions to the development team and with the community at large, creating relationships, setting expectations and putting out fires. My team is a living, breathing conduit for our constantly evolving game.
What qualifications and/or experience do you need to land this job? Generally speaking you need to have a good grasp on game development technologies to be able to do the main part of your job: communicate. You are eternally communicating about the art and science of developing games – and you are directly integrating a community into that process. I am not a programmer, but I can get around the Warframe development tools relatively well; being able to communicate high concepts and paying attention to the details matters. Writing clearly and concisely is key!
If you were interviewing someone for your team, what would you look for? Participation or understanding of any one given fandom is important – the ability to relate the creative process to the consumption process and act as a conduit of that is key. I would look for someone who can speak knowledgeably and objectively on a fandom, backed by a university degree of some kind to support their understanding of media and communication. Technical skills are a plus (our team often dabbles directly in game development tools to further our knowledge!) Having the capacity to work on a team with many fast-moving moving parts and having a can-do attitude, are key qualities we look for in candidates.
What opportunities are there for career progression? In community, we start with coordinators, and then we specialize. You either specialize on a platform, or in a program. It’s a simple divide that creates an extremely knowledgeable and diversely skilled team. You become a leader of a specific platform – like Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, or Xbox One – or you become a leader of a program, such as our usergenerated content program, a program we call TennoGen, that works directly with artists in the community. Coordinators grow into senior coordinators, and eventually managers! The technical folk become community developers and provide support in the game directly.
Iterating for Better
Putting The G Into Gaming’s founder Liz Prince reveals a new programme, Empower-Up, that will help games companies of all sizes to achieve their Diversity & Inclusion pledges
Liz Prince Business Manager, Amiqus
THE launch of Ukie’s Diversity Pledge, plus the ndings of its extensive research into the current state of play within the UK games industry should be welcomed by all. The arrival of the most up to date data on diversity and inclusion is hugely important and, although it shows there is still much work to be done, the introduction of Ukie’s Pledge is a strong signal that the UK games industry is fully committed to supporting enhanced representation at all levels.
For our industry, looking inwards, that is hugely important; we need to ensure that everyone feels included, respected and valued. For those looking into the industry from outside, it’s equally vital; we have skills shortages and we want to attract the very best talent to this exciting industry. We must ensure that it is seen as culturally mature and inclusive – and as forward-thinking about diversity as it is about technology and creativity.
We know that studios are keen to engender diverse teams – they just don’t always know how to start, or simply don’t have the resources. And that’s why G Into Gaming is introducing the Empower-Up programme – designed to make it possible for all studios to prioritise diversity and inclusion of all under-represented groups, and take action. This programme will give guidance and real practical resources to studios of all sizes and act as a focal point to achieve their Pledge goals and make a change for the better.
With so many brilliant studios already committing to the Ukie Pledge, I wanted to give an overview of how Empower-Up can help.
First – the important bit. There’s no nancial commitment to embark on this programme at an entry level. We know that for many smaller studios, resources are limited, and we want Empower-Up to be an option for all, whatever the circumstances. There will be options to ‘level
up,’ dependent on requirements. But taking part in the programme is free of charge – we just ask for your time and commitment.
The programme will be powered by partners specialising in learning and development, as well as diversity and inclusion, which means that everyone who takes part in the programme is guaranteed the best practical advice on steps to ensure their companies are welcoming, attractive and inclusive to people from all backgrounds, from all underrepresented groups.
We will provide tools to help you to assess current practices across your business, allowing you to identify your areas for improvement. You’ll receive high level guidance to support you in identifying those areas you’d like to focus on, and to help you pick out specific actions that you will commit to. The number of actions and the range of areas you want to focus on will depend on you, your time and resources. Whatever the scale, it’s a commitment to change!
Those studios wishing to take part in the programme will become part of a community. There will be on-going advice from the EmpowerUp team through regular updates and content, in-depth best practice guidance, webinars plus invitations to events to help you achieve your aims. Taking the pledge to become a more diverse and inclusive workplace is a great start. By offering this programme for change, we hope to arm all studios – regardless of size – with the tools to make good on those promises.
If you’re interested in nding out more about Empower-Up, drop me a line – liz.prince@amiqus.com.
Putting The G Into Gaming is a pro bono initiative founded by and in association with recruitment specialist Amiqus. To find out more email G-IntoGaming@amiqus.com or contact liz.prince@amiqus.com.
