Category Archives: Games Artist and Animator

Train2Game News: Student Diaries – 22.11.12

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Amanda Blatch

So this week (I am going to repeat myself from the last time I’m sure) I am still plugging away at the in-game UI. It’s been taking a long time to get it right but it’s starting to get there as everyday we’re finding things that need improving upon or can be done differently. Again, some things that may seem simple… never are. Or they are, but you do them in a million different ways (ok, maybe a dozen then.) to try and find that ‘perfect’ one. Most of the work has now been done for the game art-wise as far as I am aware, it’s just a matter of putting it all together and getting it out there for testing so we can try and ‘break’ the game to find all its weak spots and improve upon those issues.

The new project has been confirmed, however it’s still in the early stages of concept so it’ll probably be another couple weeks or so before any work can be done for it. So far the concepts are looking good and it’s on a subject matter I love! I’m hoping I can stick around here long enough to see that game all the way through and done in a way that has been talked about briefly. Exciting stuff..

Anyways, that’s it from me now.. this diary has taken me nearly four hours to write as I am working at the same time as doing this because… distraction!

Same time next week munchkins.

Craig Moore

We took some major strides this week in the look and feel of the game and it, thankfully, really is coming together. As much as we all learnt from the creation of My Sea Park, I feel that we have learnt even more from this one and it just means the next one is going to be, yet again, even better!

With the game coming together and Art having more free time, work has been going into promotional activities, icons, and the like as we gear up towards early artwork for the next title. The desire is to almost be working on two titles at the same time, as one comes to a close another one starts up so that we are constantly working on something with no downtime; it really is the best use of our time and makes the office like a little beehive.

I have a fun weekend of Train2Game work prepared this weekend, I am pretty much on my final portfolio piece, a behemoth of a document that will take me a few weeks but I am aiming to get it done before Christmas; and then that is me done. It will be weird feeling that I have actually come to the end of the course and hopefully I will pass, maybe more. Fingers crossed my experience here at DR along with my new qualifications should set me up for something bigger!

In yet other news, for those not aware, the Wii-U launches in the states on Sunday. I am incredibly interested in it having not had chance to give it a bash at Eurogamer and am particularly interested in consumer reception of it, particularly certain games like ZombiU.

Till next week!

Craig

Matty Wyett Simmonds

This week has been busy as usual, I’ve been mostly changing and editing the games ‘world’ this week which has been a very heavy job (I made the world myself, just didn’t make it easy to edit). I’ve been remaking and adding a lot of things to improve on the users experience with the game, making some things more obvious for the users where needed. Other than that I can’t really say much, as this is the only thing that’s taken up my entire week. I stayed late on Thursday on my own this time, ordered me some takeaway and blasted music on the sound system. I had to get things done for Friday morning!

I think my week has been pretty quiet to be honest. I’ve had goals to work towards and have been trying my best to get things done as fast as I can. Planetside 2 Beta is now closed and the game is being launched on the 20th! It’s free to play so no one has an excuse not to get it and play the game with me ^^. I’ve enjoyed the game so far and plan to continue playing it. Comparing it to another FPS such as Blacklight for example, I found that Blacklight was easier, people have less health/the guns have more damage than planetside2 and it makes for some pretty epic fights where you won’t die instantly and you won’t be able to kill anyone easily. If you do play the game before to drop me a message first to see what server I’m on ^^

Anyway, that’s all for this week as I need to get back to work now. Plus I’m running out of virtual ink.

MattyWS

Train2Game News: Game Industry Jobs – 21.11.12

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ART

Job Title Artist

Job Category Art / Animation

Skills Required Animator, Character Artist, Environment Artist, 2D / Concept / Texture Artist, UI Artist

Location Dundee

Job Description

We are looking for great artists to join our established art team. Artists with the passion and drive to create amazing, fun, characterful, mass-market games. Games the world wants to play. With the exceptional creative and technical art skills to create fun, addictive games, you will be contributing to the delivery of Outplay’s innovative, engaging and massively enjoyable games across the mobile and social gaming landscape.

What are you waiting for? Is this you?

The Person

• Ability to establish and maintain the creative vision for the next generation of social mobile games, producing concept sketches, illustrations and production artwork/animation in a variety of styles.

• Collaborates well with Art team and other disciplines

• Develops and manages asset pipelines

• Ability to take concept art to finished production level art

• 3D art and animation skills

• Graphic design/UI skills

• Several years of digital illustration, graphic design and/or 2D animation experience

• Demonstrable flexibility in style ranging from cheerful, cartoon illustration to more detailed, grittier artwork

• Solid working knowledge of 2D art production and tools including Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator

• Knowledge of current mobile, Facebook and casual games and passion and vision to help craft the next generation of social mobile games

• Excellent communication and presentation skills

• Ready to adapt in a rapidly changing, fast-paced creative environment

• Able to take direction well and, as required, constructively provide direction and guidance to others

• Able to handle multiple responsibilities, collaborate and excel in small team environments

The Extras

• Experience developing art for online, mobile, casual and/or social games

• Game design and/or creative writing ability

To apply go to: http://www.outplayentertainment.com/jobs/

DEVELOPER

Job Title Tools Programmer – Sumo Digital

Job Category Programming

Skills Required Tools

Location Sheffield, UK & Europe

Job Description Sumo Digital is one of the UK’s most prolific and secure independent game developers.

Since our inception in 2003, we’ve had a string of successful titles across all gaming platforms for partners that include SEGA, Codemasters, Sony, EA, BBC, Konami and many more.

Though most renowned for our action/arcade sensibilities through the success of franchises such as Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, Virtua Tennis and OutRun, Sumo has also garnered much commercial and critical praise for the consistent quality, ambition and playability of its involvement in many other series of games including the F1, Doctor Who, Broken Sword, New International Track and Field, and TOCA titles (as well as numerous PSN/XBLA games).

We are currently working on a number of unannounced but extraordinarily exciting AAA games across all formats and we’re looking for team members with the drive, passion and ambition that will help us make those games the best they can be.

The Role:

The Tools Programmer will be responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining software tools and processes in all disciplines. This may include but is not limited to interactive editor-style visual tools as well as automated pipeline or build system tools.

Essential Job Functions

– Design, implement and maintain software tools for art, design, production and programming.

– Continuously improve the user experience and performance of our tools.

– Create and maintain technical software documentation.

– Work closely with the other disciplines to identify and resolve workflow & pipeline problems.

– Work closely with the tool users to assess and debug problems with our tools.

Knowledge Requirements:

– Minimum 2 years experience in a relevant role

– Experience from outside the games industry or outstanding demos will be considered.

– C++

– MFC or other GUI toolkit experience (wxWndows, Qt, etc..)

– Experience using source control systems (e.g. Perforce, CVS, SVN)

Preferred Knowledge

– C#

– Maya API, MEL, 3dsMax SDK, MaxScript

– Scripting (python/perl/etc…)

– Knowledge of game content creation pipelines and tools

– Strong maths skills, especially in trigonometry and linear algebra

– Knowledge of games systems (3D graphics, animation, camera control, lighting)

– UI design experience

– Any SQL and/or .Net

Demonstrated Ability To:

– Work well/respond to pressure

– Communicate effectively within a large group/multiple project environment

– Think critically and apply analytical skills in resolving complex issues

– Quickly master proprietary tools and development processes

– Debug complex systems.

Email: careers@sumo-digital.com

Website: www.sumo-digital.com/career

DESIGN

Job Type: Permanent

Job Category: Games and Level Design

Region: UK

Area: East Anglia

County: Cambridgeshire

Location: Cambridge

Salary Description: Competitive

Recruiter: Frontier Developments Ltd

Innovative gameplay has been one of Frontier’s core strengths over the years, and is something we continue to focus on in all our developments. Designers have a central role in developing our games, and will work closely with art and programming colleagues on a game project.

We are looking for designers who are full of creative flare and enthusiasm and have a passion for, and extensive knowledge of, games and gameplay. The roles are varied – both original IP and AAA licenses feature in our strong project line-up, spanning a number of game genres, and our reputation for compelling gameplay is achieved by our designers contributing fully at all stages of our game developments, from concept through to final gameplay balance.

After initially influencing the basic design of a game level, designers will use Frontier’s game editor and scripting system to implement their own design concept through to the final gameplay detail, and can expect to be involved in extensive play-testing.

Successful applicants must have a broad experience of playing games, and be able to demonstrate a good understanding of player mentality / psychology and gameplay mechanisms. Successful candidates will also have excellent verbal and written skills, possess the ability to work closely with a team, have excellent communication skills and ideally be educated to degree level. Experienced candidates should have at least one AAA game design to their name.

Experience of game editors (e.g. Unreal Editor, Worldcraft or Quake editors), basic 3D modelling skills and / or experience of scripting systems (e.g Unrealscript etc.) will be an advantage.

Industry experience is important but not essential, as long as you have examples of high quality work that you have done. These do not need to relate to a game, but should show off your talent.

Please apply either by email (including a CV and any showreel/demos) to designerjobs@frontier.co.uk, or by surface mail to the address on the ‘contact us’ page of this website.

QA

Job Type: Permanent

Job Category: QA and Localisation

Region: UK

Area: South East

County: Oxfordshire

Location: Oxford

Salary Description: Competitive

Recruiter: NaturalMotion Games

Role Summary:

NaturalMotion is looking for a tester to work on its upcoming mobile platform titles. This is a full time, contract position with an expected minimum duration of 3 months.

Daily duties will include testing and reporting issues discovered, working to use and improve test cases and working with small, project-based teams to ensure efficient testing throughout a project’s life.

While extensive testing experience is ideal, it is not strictly necessary and a little testing experience combined with enthusiasm and additional transferable skills is welcome and there will be a chance to learn and train with the testing team.

Testing will cover such areas as the user interface, menu items, inspecting the 3D assets for errors, gameplay, progression, and all other non-gameplay areas in addition to the game itself. Diligence and the ability to commit to repetitive tasks will be required in these roles.

Requirements:

– Excellent verbal and written English skills as you will be required to communicate with staff from all disciplines (both technical and non-technical) and to write clear bug reports.

– Self-motivation and enthusiasm.

– Diligence in conducting sometimes-repetitive tests and bug isolation.

– Ability to quickly learn new software tools.

– Knowledge of current generation games and hardware.

– Knowledge and use of mobile platforms (such as iOS and Android)

– Previous experience of software testing (including mobile and/or social games)

Desirable additional Skills/Experience:

– Experience of software testing on several different titles.

– Familiarity with testing on the iOS and Android platforms.

– Experience in using bug-tracking and test management tools.

– Experience testing in an Agile environment.

– Understanding of and design of Test Cases.

-Working knowledge of a programming or scripting language.

You can apply HERE.

Train2Game News: Games Industry Jobs – 14.11.12

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ART

 

3D Environment Artist – Additional Game Content
Art / Animation
Environment Artist
Horsham, West Sussex, UK & Europe
 

Position Overview:
We are looking for an exceptionally skilled and motivated team-player with a proven track record (or serious raw talent). The right candidate should be able to demonstrate excellent creative, technical and visual skill. They will be an accomplished Artist with a passion for creating believable worlds with the ability to produce stunning, high quality, efficient, real time game content for current and future generation consoles. The successful candidate will be working on creating additional game content. The position is for a fixed term contract until August 2013.

Required:
Visual flair and talent
Expert knowledge of Max/Maya
Expert knowledge of Photoshop
Knowledge of games development pipeline/environment/engines
Self motivated, good communicator, positive can do attitude, team-player
Love of visual environment creation

Ideal:
Proven experience implementing game environments
Formal art training
All round art ability
Love of games

 

You can apply HERE.

 

 

DESIGN

 

Designer (Contract)
Game Design
Central London, London
 

My London based client has a proven track record of delivering high quality games across multiple platforms.

They believe in working roles around skilled people rather than placing hires into predetermined jobs. They reward excellence, encourage responsibility and involvement and expect quality and diligence. Great people make great games and that is what they like to hire!

Summary:
Due to increased needs on two of their new projects they are looking for talented & hard working Game Designers to become part of their creative team. The Game Designer role covers a number of areas including scripting of game content, game mechanic and flow design and implementation.

Main Duties:
• Scripting game content
• Designing direction of game content
• Designing and balancing game systems and writing supporting design documentation

Skills:
Essential Skills
• Experienced in game design scripting
• Some experience in written game design
• Patience and a painstaking attitude to their work
• Good written and spoken communication and self management skills.

Desirable Skills
• Experienced at or an interest in writing
• Experience at or interested in traditional or 2D “digital” art.

Please contact Simon Hope to apply via email at: simon@aswift.com

 

 

 

DEVELOPER

 

 

Job Title C# Developer

 

Job Category Programming

 

Location Glasgow

 

Job Description Digimania makes cool, revolutionary and disruptive real-time animation software. We’re best known as the developers of Muvizu – a 3D animation app based on the Unreal 3 Engine.

Muvizu lets anyone make low-cost animations quickly and easily. We’d like you to help us work on our next big project. Digimania is a company of 26 staff and is based at The Lighthouse in Glasgow’s city centre.

We are looking for a brilliant and enthusiastic C# Developer, experienced with WPF (preferably in an MVVM environment) and .NET 4.

The candidate should be keen to learn, and have excellent knowledge of software engineering principles and design patterns and should have at least 2 years experience with .NET and WPF.

Experience with C/C++ and games development would be of benefit, as would a working knowledge of Agile development principles.

Skills required

C# developmentExperience with WPF (preferably in a MVVM environment).NET 4

To apply please send a CV and covering letter to robert.mcmillan@digimania.com

QA

 

 

Job Category:QA and Localisation
Region: UK
Area: South East
County: West Sussex
Location: Horsham
Salary Description: Competitive

Position Overview
– The Games Tester position is a responsible job; reporting bugs and providing quality feedback for our titles in development.
– These fixed term contracts are for our new Alien IP title currently in development. Several additional positions are also needed for our established Total War team during the same period.
– Test games in development for software bugs
– Enter bugs clearly and accurately into our bug database
– Verify and recreate bugs as required
– Report additional balancing, design and accessibility problems
– Specific support and general roles available

Essential
– A clear understanding of QA process
– A keen enthusiasm for gaming
– Good communication and reporting skills
– Driven and flexible approach

Desirable
– A clear understanding of QA process
– A keen enthusiasm for gaming
– Good communication and reporting skills
– Driven and flexible approach
– Experience of testing one full shipped title
– A good understanding of Strategy games (Total War)
– A good knowledge of current generation consoles (Alien IP)
– Games industry related degree (e.g. audio, art, design, etc.) or expertise in a specific game area is an asset (e.g. audio, technical, PC hardware, design or scripting etc.)
– Fluent in one or more of the following languages: French, German, Italian or Spanish
– Strong technical knowledge/skills (e.g. programming, scripting)

You can apply HERE.

Train2Game News: Fiona Stewart radio transcript

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Fiona Stewart spoke to BBC Radio Leeds recently. You can listen to the interview in the link below or read the following transcript.

http://audioboo.fm/boos/1049459-train2game-student-fee-stewart-on-bbc-radio-leeds-8-november

So what to do then if you are a talented budding artist but you hate the smell of paint? Well our next guest has just the answer you decide to start drawing art work for computer games and use a PC as your easel and brush. Fiona Stewart from Holmfirth has become so successful at this that the biggest company in the world has given her financial backing. Hi Fiona

Hello

What happened was it a sudden hatred of paint or had you always had it?

No, after I had the children it became more difficult obviously, with three kids running around the house and the paint drying and things like that, the smell and everything became more and more difficult as the kids were starting to grow up.

And it’s not a natural move then for someone who creates with a canvas say, to someone who designs games. How did that transition happen?

Well a friend of mine made 3D models and she asked if I could texture for her because that’s more sort of drawing and I started doing that then decided I actually wanted to make the 3D models as well and do the whole process.

How fascinating. What sort of things do you actually design now then, what do you work on?

Well I work on video games now, so we make apps, console games, games for 3DS and Android phones things like that.

So does it feel like art in the way it did perhaps pre-kids, when you were doing what most people listening to us would consider conventional art?

I actually think its more artistic. If you look at video games and things, the amount of art work thats in it is a good proportion of the actual game its self. I feel more that I’m contributing in an artistic way perhaps more than I did when I was doing it on canvas.

Of course, probably our best known Bradford artist, David Hockney he does so much of his work on the iPad now, doesn’t he?

Yes he does, yeah.

What about this backing from Microsoft then, how did that come about?

Well I met with Microsoft and showed them the game we have been making from the beginning of January. We did a Game Jam up in Scotland and won various awards and got BAFTA nominated for the New Challenge Award. So I showed him the game and he was very interested in it and it would make a very nice game on the Windows 8 mobile platform. He thought we would do very well, so he has been helping us

That’s rather nice and probably rather different from what most struggling artists experience in terms of funding supplies.

Yes, we have been very lucky really in so much that Microsoft have given us BitSpark programme, which is £30,000 worth of software that we can use and integrate throughout the whole of the team so that we are all using the same platform and various talks with other start ups which is very helpful as a start up.

Well good luck, it’s not the easiest of climates to be heading into any sort of start up business. Can I just ask you finally, do you miss the traditional art stuff or do you ever dabble occasionally?

It’s becoming more and more rare that I do because doing it digitally it’s there instantly, I don’t have to wait for any paints to dry. I am still being incredibly artistic but not having to wait around for things to dry.

Fascinating Fiona, really good to speak to you thanks for your time this afternoon. Fiona Stewart from Holmfirth on BBC Radio Leeds.

 

Fiona was also featured in develop magazine and you can read that in the link below.

Develop Magazine

Very well done Fiona! Good luck with everything.

Train2Game News: Student Diaries – 12.11.12

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Amanda Blatch diary – week 8

Another week, another diary.. I think I may actually be running out of things to talk about. Doesn’t mean the work has stopped, it just means I am still working on the UI and it would seem a little tiresome to just repeat myself about the same thing as last week so I will keep this brief for you guys reading this.

The game itself is getting cleaned up pretty well now and we’re so close to completion, trying to beat the clock and get the game submitted in time for the end of this month for release. Alongside that one of the in-studio artists is starting to work on the concepts for the new project so it’s something we can see it breathed into life in the next week or so, all quite exciting here at DR! We have also seen the departure of one of the T2G students who will be missed in the studio, we wish him the best of luck in the future with his career as an animator!

So apart from that, there isn’t much else to talk about soooo… till next week again.

 

Craig Moore Student Diary – Week 51

This week has been another incredibly busy one, adding polish and “fun” to the game is much more difficult than you would expect when it relies heavily on the balance of numbers as well as a lot of subjective reasoning. It does however feel like it is making some headway and the game inside what we have made is slowly rearing its pretty little head and hopefully it will blossom soon.

Tutorials are probably the bane of my life right now; they are so incredibly hard to get right. This really fine balance between hand holding and making the player feel like they aren’t on a linear path, you just kind of need to say “this is what you need to know to play the game, therefore I need to tell you X,Y,Z”. Balancing that and pacing it seems to be a fine art though…

It is Eze’s last week this week, he has done some awesome work for us while he has been here and it will be a shame to see him go. He has a lot of opportunities ahead of him though and I look forward to seeing what he gets up to in the future.

Time to get back to the grind!

Craig

 

Matty Wyett Simmonds – week 49

This week has been a bit of a bug fixing week for me, no real sprint, more just doing what I can to fix any issues, there is still lots to do though of course! There is always lots to do but never enough time, but now I’ve been given some freedom to work on the things that have been bugging me for a long time ^^.

During the weekend we had a small gathering at hour house to say good bye to Ezekiel who has just left. He’s been here for 6 months which is a long time and a lot of experience, so hopefully he jumps right into another decent job somewhere quickly.

Over the weekend I finally got some free time to do whatever! I played some planetSide 2, some halo 4 and even worked on my own project for a bit which is slowly coming along nicely. I was using GameMaker 8 to make an RTS game called Data Wars, however due to some annoying issues and limitations I jumped ship and have moved to Unity where I need to start from scratch. Nothing is salvageable because they are both very different programs (one being 2D and the other 3D for starters). I moved to unity because although it will be harder to work with, it will give me more freedom and potential features that could not be done in Gamemaker, which seems to be a terrible program for RTS games. 😛

Anyway, more to do at the studio now, till next week!

MattyWS

Train2Game News: Fee Stewart talks to BBC Radio Leeds

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Train2Game Student Fiona Stewart, or Fee The Giraffe on the Train2Game forums, was interviewd by BBC Radio Leeds yesterday.

She discusses her move from traditional art to 3D Modelling and how her dislike of the smell of paint came about. She also explains how she got funding from Microsoft for FormerDroid LTD where she is the Managing Director.

You can listen to the interview by clicking on the picture below

Train2Game News: Student Diaries – 07.11.12

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Matty Wyett Simmonds 5.11.12

Week 48! Not much change going on at the moment, we are edging ever so closer to the release of the current game and things are tightening up here, people are staying later and the game itself is starting to look pretty good. I’ve not been so much making art over the last week, I’ve been doing more putting stuff together which makes a change, and playing more with particle effects which is so much fun! I went crazy and started adding lots of cool stuff like ripples in water and sparks flying about. Not too detailed though but still fun.

My phone recently updated to jellybean (have an SIII) and it’s been awesome! It’s already guessed where my house and work place is and gives me travel times without prompt as well as recommending places to go eat or visit around where I am. It also showed me cute pictures of puppies as I went past a dog kennel, I think it knows me too well.

MattyWS

Craig Moore Student Diary Week 50

So after my “emo” week last week I feel a bit better about everything, having had a chance to talk through things with a couple of the other guys and step back a bit and refocus things feel much clearer and we have been able to iron out some major bumps which is a fantastic feeling.

I suppose it is something that comes only with experience, that ability to pull yourself back from an intense project and try to notice the problems, reassess them and then dive back in correct them and continue on with the same vigour and determination.

Suffice to say it ended up being a good week, we made some major changes and the project is better for it. I still can’t believe how close we are to getting this released but still haven’t announced anything, it feels incredibly covert, but maybe it’s for the better until we have something we are incredibly proud of.

In other news, I managed to get another Portfolio Project done at the weekend, really putting me in good stead for getting the course finished by the end of the year. It leaves me with one more to do before I am done, if it wasn’t absolutely humungous it wouldn’t be too bad.

Anyhow, I have stuff to do and not a lot of time to do it!

Till next week

Craig

Ezekiel Morris – Final Developers Diary

This is my last developer diary, so, what have I learned since starting work experience, well I have learned about production workflow, collaborating with other members of the project team, animation layers in 3d max and maya and also shotcut keys in photoshop.

I feel that all of these new skills will help me in the furutre, my next step is to develop the skills and keep getting better, so my main priority is this, stay focussed and progress, never lose site of what you really want, concentrate and study. I say knowledge is power and with great power requires the right knowledge to keep it, so when I say focus I break up the words.

F -stands for Follow

O – stand for On

C- stands for Course

U – stands for Until

S – stands for Successful

Doing this has been a good experience and I would like to say thank you to everyone for guiding me and also giving me good advice, this experience has opened my eyes.

The experience was stressful but I went thought it and the end result is I finished all of my sprints, so once again thank you Train2Game for arranging this and DR Studios for having me, much appreciated.

Amanda Blatch week 7

Soooooo…. this week’s diary. Not too sure what to say to be honest, I have finally gotten through all the characters that are needed in time for the deadline so far  and have been focusing almost entirely on UI this week. My job has been to clean up and ‘prettify’ it where needed, adding additional bits and bobs that could help improve the gameplay and user navigation. It’s strange how UI isn’t as easy as it would seem, I have a folder load of disused ideas and sketches of UI which wouldn’t make it to game and, still, two days later I can’t come up with the perfect button that can be universally used across the game. Hell, I even have a few versions of a ‘X’ all of which are un useable in-game as it doesn’t really fit in.  UI is not really my strong suit but still good practice and helps work my brain around a different way of thinking. With any luck I could turn that around today and come up with something that makes everyone happy!

Oh and the splash image has been completed and the font bought for the game so now we have something that really fits in and looks good. Hopefully that will be unveiled to you guys very soon. We are so close to the end (and yet feels so far away), some of the DR team are slowly being funnelled across to the next project which is being unveiled to us today so the transition between projects is easy and swift for everyone once this one ends. It’s all quite exciting!

Again, till next week where I will probably have more exciting things to write about for you internet munchkins.

Train2Game News: Game industry jobs – 7.11.12

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Art

 

Jagex Ltd, a World leading independent Online Games Studio, is looking for a highly motivated Junior Web Designer to produce online art assets for our games, including TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE and RuneScape.

Working within our busy in-house design team, you will be responsible for designing a variety of banners, web pages, Facebook campaigns, logos and other art assets. Working with the Lead Designer for each product you will have a great opportunity to learn and improve your skills while gaining valuable industry experience.

This unique and highly rewarding role will suit an up and coming designer with little or no industry experience provided you have a strong online portfolio demonstrating your design talent.

Key Duties Include:
– Working on the company’s products and designing art assets ranging from banners to websites.
– Working from a written brief, from concept to final launch.
– Following a products brand guide.
– Working closely with the Lead designer of each product.
– Working closely with internal clients & product brand managers

Essential Requirements:
– Good working knowledge of Photoshop.
– A strong online portfolio.
– A good eye for colours, typography, design and composition.
– Ability to show good initiative, judgement and excellent attention to detail.
– Good communication skills

Desirable Requirements:
– Working knowledge of Illustrator, InDesign, or Flash.
– Ability to paint with a digital tablet.
– Experience of working within large scale organisations.
– An interest in computer games.

You can apply HERE.

Junior Technical Artist

One of the most exciting and demanding challenges in modern game development is building bridges between increasingly complex art and code. The technical artist provides this vital link and combines an understanding of tools and technologies along with a keen artistic eye.

This Junior Technical Artist role will be for our Research & Development Art Team, prototyping and benchmarking the latest art techniques and supporting all our games in development. The successful applicant is expected to develop in the role and would be provided with the support network to learn all they need to know

Specific requirements for this role:

The following describes the full spectrum of expectations for a technical artist. Junior positions would not be expected to have experience in all of these areas.

Directly reporting to: R&D Art Director

Duties
-The evaluation of art creation pipelines to assess their effectiveness in the studio’s game development processes.
-The creation of tools and scripts to improve art pipelines in the studio. This can include Python, MEL or Z-Scripts and may extend to full tool creation within an applications API or in some cases windows based environments.
-The creation of pixel and vertex shaders for use in R&D and game development.
-The design and implementation of new processes in areas such as lighting, surfacing (shaders and materials), post processing and special effects.
-To document and communicate pipelines and technology updates to all relevant parties.
-Create and iteratively develop game assets from inception to final review on the target hardware within the game engine using appropriate tools (BlitzTech Tools).

Essentials
-A knowledge of applicable content creation applications such as Maya, Photoshop and Zbrush.
-Some knowledge of game development tools and pipelines in such environments as Unreal Engine, CryEngine, Gamebryo or BlitzTech.
-Some knowledge of scripting
-An understanding of techniques to accurately simulate surfaces in game. This may include texture, lighting and shaders.

Traditional Art Skills
-Appreciation and ability to make good fundamental artistic judgements.
-An understanding of the basic principles of lighting.
-Ability to develop and communicate ideas and concepts in a visual manner.

Self Management and Organisation
-Ability and willingness to work to a set brief and to deadlines.

Teamwork and Communication
-To maintain a good level of communication with all relevant parties at all times.
-Ability and willingness to fit into a creative team environment.

Professional attitude and work ethic
-A willingness and ability to learn is essential including the ability to accept constructive feedback.
-A consistent professional approach to naming, filing, backing up and archiving of all work in accordance with company and team policy.

 

You can apply HERE.

Developer

Games Programmer (iOS/Android)
Brighton

My client is looking for smart, energetic, friendly programmers with strong C++ or C# skills to join their growing company. The role will see you working on exciting projects with small team sizes, flexibility is key as the work will be varied – if you love games and technology and enjoy working in an environment where the pace of technological advancement knows no limits this is the role for you!
Required

• 2.1 degree in Maths, Physics, Computer Science or related, or equivalent industry experience
• Excellent knowledge of C# or C++
• Excellent knowledge of algorithms and data structures
• Experience of creating games on desktop or mobile platforms
• Desire to make great games
• Great communication skills (verbal and written)
• Happy to work as part of a team
• Demonstrable love for some area of game technology
• A passion for playing games and solving problems
• Flexible and keen to learn new skills

Great to have

• Knowledge of two or more other programming languages (for example Java, Python, PHP, Clojure)
• 1 or more years of games industry experience
• 1 or more shipped titles on console, desktop or mobile platforms
• Strong knowledge of console, desktop and mobile architectures
• Knowledge of asynchronous engineering techniques
• Experience of Unity, Unreal or XNA
• SQL
• Experience using digital content creation tools (for example Max, Maya, Photoshop)

You can apply HERE.

C++/C# Games Programmer

Ideaworks Game Studio was established in 2005 to develop AAA native C++ based mobile games. Using in-house cross-platform technology developed by parent company Ideaworks3D, the studio was able provide high quality, efficient and rapid development of console games to mobile. We quickly became the cross-platform developer of choice for leading games publishers and developers from all over the world, earning industry awards for our artistry and technical mastery. Some of the games we have brought to the mobile gaming market include original and franchise-based games Metal Gear Solid Mobile, Backbreaker Football, Call of Duty: WaW: Zombies, Call of Duty Black Ops: Zombies and Fable: Coin Golf amongst many others.

 

Job Description
We are seeking talented and capable programmers, with strong technical competence and passion for making mobile games. Candidates will professional development experience, and be capable of working in a collaborative team development environment. Excellent written and ability to articulateyour ideas are key, as are a dedication to quality, and the ability to adapt quickly to new challenges.
– Requirements
– C++, C# is a bonus
– Experience with scripting languages such as Python and Lua
– Ability to rapidly prototype
– Experience with animation, graphics or physics programming
– Familiarity with/ability to rapidly prototype
– Ability to work within a dynamic and collaborate development team
– Self-motivated with a strong work ethic
– Good verbal and written communication skills
– Bachelors degree in Software Engineering or Computer Science, or some work experience with a proven track record

Responsibilities

Candidates will be skilled and passionate developers, with a creative mind-set and a burning enthusiasm for making great games.

– Develop project-independent games technology
– Estimating code tasks and assignments
– Work with other disciplines [Design, Art etc] to plan & execute work
– Ensure that your code is configured to meet a high standard of technical quality
– Maintain a balance between long-term engineering goals and those driven by production realities and delivery constraints to deliver great games
– Contribute to the technical evaluation and resource planning of projects under consideration or under execution,balancing high-level aims (such as staff development and technical quality) against practical development demands.
– Work with other disciplines [Design, Art etc] to plan and execute work

 

You can apply HERE.

QA

Rockstar North is looking for enthusiastic and self-motivated individuals to join our Games Test team in
Edinburgh. You will be expected to play through our latest games looking for problems and reporting errors, to ensure game quality before release. 

Responsibilities

You will be finding and reproducing bugs, errors or problems in-game as directed. The role will require accurate, detailed and complete reporting to the required standards and subsequent revision of those errors or problems.

Qualifications

Successful applicants will have excellent written and verbal communication skills and enjoy working as part of a team. You will have good general computer skills and be a confident learner working with word processing, databases and spreadsheets. You will be able to show consistent attention to detail and have the ability to remain focussed when approaching repetitive tasks. We will be looking for flexibility regarding unsociable and extended working hours to meet the demands of the role.

Additional Information

Candidates must be 18 years of age and above and provide two references. The position will be a full-time fixed term contract. Applicants will preferably be educated to further or higher education standards.

This is a two stage application process. You will first be asked to complete an application pack from which you may be asked to attend an interview.

You can apply HERE.

Train2Game News: Student diaries – 06.11.12

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Amanda Blatch week 6

So for my diary this week. To be honest with you my memory is a little bit shoddy, especially when the cold weather hit and my body seems to have started shutting down into a weird state between wanting to hibernate, and needing to stay functional. However despite needing to do that, in the few minutes it took me to write that opening paragraph in my morning-daze, I have been sipping at my coffee and recollecting my thoughts of the past week.

I do remember finishing off some work from the previous week of a couple of characters who just needed to be cut out, rigged and imported in game. Luckily I was able to finish that lot in an hour or so before moving onto daunting and important piece for the game; The Splash Screen. As most of you know, the splash screen is a pretty bit of artwork that advertises the game and is one of the first points of call for the player when they load their freshly download game from the app store. So to me that is pretty important task as an artist and I, admittedly, often judge a game based on its opening. To me it shows that if developers are putting that much care and attention into an opening sequence and/or image for a game, then the rest of the game would surely receive that sort of treatment as well. So daunting. But I got to work and got a lot of input from everyone in the studio to find that ‘perfect’ medium that would make the majority happy. It took a little while to get right, but we got there in the end and were able to create a splash that seemed to sit well with everyone. And that was pretty much my week! It got rounded off nicely with another bit of character work for our tutorial guide which I managed to get all done in about half a day (whooo setting new records for myself!) to our designer’s standards. But that is about it, so enough of this writing thing for now and back to the work!

Craig Moore

Student Diary

Week 49

Not a great deal has changed since last week; it’s been a heavy week of work and a weekend of T2G coursework, to come, for me.

We had a big push in regards to presentation of the game this week, title screen has gone in and work on the font has happened. I have also begun adding music and sound which helps to make the game more fleshed out and actually feel like a *thing*. The biggest hurdle now is really improving the players experience within the game.

As it currently stands things are a little choppy, there are some key elements missing that enable the player to know what they are doing, where to go, what to do etc.. And these all need going in and making clear and incredibly approachable. The biggest hurdle is making sure everything is represented, and with mobile devices it all needs to be done with little real estate.

Getting this done is a major hurdle for me, I’m really pushing myself to do everything that’s being asked of me and it is incredibly stressful, I don’t want to let anyone down and failing is my worst fear. I just have to try my best not to let it get the best of me and fight through the pressure.

Never Give up

Craig

Ezekiel Morris – Developers Diary

Well this week I’ve been animating again, all of my character animations are complete so

at this point I wasn’t sure if there was any work for me. I have finished my tasks for the week and I thought there was no more animation left to do but that’s a lie because there is more animation and animation always takes time, you can’t rush it.

When you start to see what’s needed it looks simple at first but it’s not, I find it annoying when I’m working on these animations for hours and hours and it looks the perfect in your eyes but you get told that the animation is good but it’s too short so add a bit more or it’s getting there keep working on it, so I pause and do this in my mind Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Rage quit.com. I can’t wait to finish the game particularly can’t wait to relax and chill but hold on I can’t chill I’m working late again yayyy!!!

Finally I found something that will make my life easier and that’s iclone5, it’s a real-time animation program. I want my workflow to be efficient and simple no worries, no stress and doing it in iclone5 is the real deal I don’t use iclone5 at D R Studios and it wouldn’t work for this project, animating it manually is a skill to learn.

Matty WS week 47

Week47 went by very fast, got a lot of work in, and stayed late a few times again. The weeks are merging together now and time flies by, its winter time now essentially! That would make it my second winter here, so I’ve been here a long time now. I think I’ve been exposed to a lot of hard work and late nights and I’ve so far gained a massive insight in to what it’s like to work in the games industry. Even now every single thing I’ve done has been a learning curve, I’ve used many programs that I’ve not used before and I’ve done a lot more 2D work here than I have done in my entire life, albeit that isn’t much. 😛 Either way though I’ve also learned that it’s not an easy job. I also haven’t only worked on games since I’ve been here, there has been a few other projects that weren’t to do with games at all!

Since I started in September last year it’s been a great experience that I hope will continue for a lot longer. I could never go back to working in retail or any other boring/manual labour job after working here, I can only see myself going forward and getting better with every game asset or document I produce, slowly but surely working my way up the ladder of what seems to be my choice of career, chosen when I was still in school. I’d like to think I’ve done rather well considering I haven’t gone to uni and even dropped out of college, and it’s just proof that you can do what you want regardless of official education, it’ll just be harder to get there.

Anyways, I’m gunna go home and play some games. Till next week!

Matty WS

Train2Game News: Dire Consequences for App Store

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After eleven months in development, Derp Studios game has hit the App Store. The game was made for the Make Something Unreal Live contest in April this year.

Following on from the 2011 Game Jam four teams went on to compete in the Make Something Unreal live which took place at The Gadget show in April. The four teams were the winners of the contest, Commando Kiwi, A team I was a part of, Digital Mage, Indigo Jam and Derp Studios.

From January to April the teams worked relentlessly on their games which were based on the Fighting Fantasy IP of Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. The books from the series in particular that were chosen was: The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, Armies Of Death, Deathtrap Dungeon and Citadel of Chaos. The last of these is the book Derp Studios worked on.

The game, Dire Consequences, is a first-person action game by Derp Studios, and sees players take on waves of enemies to collect souls and progress their character for new spells. The game is currently only available for iOS devices.

The Gadget Show Live was a life defining moment for many of the Train2Game students involved, including myself and having to do some research in to the whole event to fill in some gaps in my memory was a lovely journey. I am so pleased one of the teams got their game uploaded as they were all amazing games and the whole event really kick-started our careers.

A massive congratulations to Derp Studios and I urge all those with access to an iOS device to go and download the free game immediately!