Category Archives: job

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: 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: Forsaken Competition

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Forsaken Studios, who employ a few Train2Game students, has announced a new competition. This is the second competition from the studio.

The Embers of Caerus: Frozen Hell’s Crossing competition is very simple. Train2Game student and Forsaken tester Ollie Smith crossed the in game continent of Aaldnarech, he ran from Thaal on the western shore all the way to Nev on the eastern shore. We timed how long it took Ollie to run across the continent.

To win the competition, all you have to do is guess how long it took him in actual running time. The closest guess wins.

The winner will receive a Crucial 256GB M4, 2.5 inch Internal Solid State Drive. You can increase your chance of winning the hard drive by keeping a close eye on the Embers of Caerus social media pages on Facebook and Twitter, for this competition use the Twitter hashtag: #eocfrozenhell. You might get some hints towards the answer.

Forsaken studios is based in Texas, USA and was founded in 2011. It is responsible for the MMO Embers of Caerus.

Send your entry to competition@forsakenstudios.com and have a shot at winning this amazing solid state drive.

 
The competition is open as of now and remains open until 12pm GMT on Saturday the 10th of November 2012. The winner will be announced Sunday 11th of November 2012.

For more information and Terms & Conditions you can visit the site here.

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: Games Industry Jobs – 31.10.12

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Art

2D Marketing Illustrator

Jagex Ltd, in Cambridge, a world leading independent Online Games Studio, is looking for a highly motivated illustrator to produce art work to help market our games, including Transformers Universe and RuneScape.

Working within a team of illustrators, you will be responsible for producing highly polished & large scale pieces of creative fantasy art. Working on a large variety of projects including wallpapers, posters, adverts and websites you would have the creative freedom & time to produce outstanding images you can be proud of.

This highly rewarding & creative role will suit an exceptional illustrator with at least 2-3 years experience looking for a new challenge. The successful candidate should have an exceptional online portfolio demonstrating a large variety of art styles.

Key Duties Include:

  • Producing very high quality illustrations
  • Working on the company’s products and painting art assets for websites, advertising & print.
  • Working from a brief, from concept to final launch.
  • Working closely with the Lead designer and product brand managers.

Essential Requirements:

  • Expert use of Photoshop and other advanced painting tools.
  • Excellent understanding of anatomy.
  • A good understanding of colour, light & composition.
  • A strong sense of vision.
  • Experience of preparing artwork for print & web
  • Ability to show good initiative, judgement and excellent attention to detail
  • Excellent communication skills

Desirable Requirements:

  • An interest in computer games
  • An interest in fantasy art
  • Experience of working within the computer games industry

You can apply HERE.

Design

Game Designer (RuneScape)

Jagex Ltd, in Cambridge, the UK’s largest developer and publisher of online games, is looking for an exceptional individual to play a major role in shaping its world renowned, Guinness World Record holding MMO, RuneScape.

Reporting to the Lead Designer & Design Manager, the successful candidate will be responsible for the design of key game features; guiding the production of their systems and content from original concept, to creation & prototyping, through final polish and community feedback.

This amazing opportunity to be a key contributor to a world class MMO from a successful and stable developer/publisher demands the highest levels of expertise, experience, passion and commitment.

Key Duties:

  • Channel the lead designer’s creative vision and management’s product strategy into everyday project development.
  • Design systems, features and game content. Create and maintain high quality documentation.
  • Set project aims, use collaborative design and feedback to ensure all projects achieve the best quality, stay within scope and are coherent with the wider game.
  • Coordinate across development disciplines to design and refine game features.
  • Be a champion of design practice, have a solid knowledge of RuneScape and maintain awareness of the games industry, the online games market and monetisation strategies.
  • Collaborate with the Lead Designer and Monetisation Manager in the creation and maintenance of RuneScape’s commercial strategy.

 Requirements:

  • Proven and demonstrable expertise in game systems design, including creativity, technical aptitude, commercial awareness and MMO genre knowledge.
  • Must have sound creative judgment and a solid understanding of broad design principles including social design, commercial design, economics, interface design, usability, balancing, monetisation and analytics.
  • An understanding of monetization principles and commercial dynamics.
  • Strong communication & people skills. Able to work effectively with a diverse team, to give insightful feedback, to be able to write design specifications to high standard and able to verbally articulate ideas with passion, clarity and confidence.
  • A good general technical proficiency with game construction. Experience in game scripting, coding or development tools is also very beneficial.
  • Driven, organized and reliable. A positive attitude, steady under pressure, adapts to constructive feedback. Works in a thorough, timely and considerate manner.
  • A love of games & design, a broad knowledge of gameplay styles and an expansive yet insightful understanding of game mechanics.

You can apply HERE.

Developer

Games Programmer

Dubit make Virtual Worlds, Casual MMOs and Games for kids.
We’ve created many successful titles built on our own Platform for Cartoon Network, BBC, Dorothy of Oz, Diesel, Monty Python and many more.
We are currently working on a number of exciting projects for 2012 and 2013 and we’re looking for team members with the drive, passion and ambition that will help us make those projects the best they can be.
The Role:
We have opportunities currently for talented Programmers with a passion for games. You will be proficient in object oriented programming and have an eye for detail with experience of working from game design and wireframe documentation and user interface designs. You will also be expected to work on associated gaming websites.
Essential Job Functions: (You should have experience in one of more of the following)

  • Action Script 3 and Flex.
  • Unity
  • Java and Java Script.
  • Node.js
  • RoR (HTML, CSS, PHP)
  • HTML5
  • C# / C++

Knowledge Requirements:

  • Experience in games or a strong desire to move into games after strong experience gained in another field.
  • Familiarity with concurrent programming standards.
  • Awareness of Open Source tools and developments around them.
  • Any familiarity with the Spring Framework would be exceedingly useful.
  • Understanding of MVC architecture.
  • Knowledge of OO design patterns and best practice techniques.
  • Working with game-ready assets for use in user interfaces, such as textures, icons, and fonts.
  • Working closely with Design direction to ensure clear communication of essential information to the player.
  • Working closely with UI designers to ensure correct functionality and visual fidelity.

Demonstrated Ability To:

  • Deliver highly creative Games and be able to demonstrate work from a variety of media and platforms.
  • Communicate ideas through unique and inspired ideas.
  • Harness a broad range of influences and think laterally to bring different perspectives to tackle a brief.
  • Show a ‘can do’ attitude and relish new technical and creative challenges.
  • Work to individual and team deadlines.
  • Effectively communicate within a large group/multiple project environment.
  • Be passionate about good programming techniques and have a love of computer games.

About Us:

We offer competitive salaries, excellent benefits and a generous holiday entitlement. The environment itself is relaxed, friendly and built upon the basis of every team member having ownership and a realisable input into the games we create.

We are located in Leeds, just off the M621.

If you have a passion for making and playing games, have excellent skills and experience, dedication and, most importantly, the talent we need – then we really want to hear from you.

You can apply HERE.

Train2Game News: Train2Game Radio talks to Jonny Robinson

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You can listen to the interview at

http://audioboo.fm/boos/1030916-train2game-student-talks-to-mark-kingdon-on-t2g-student-radio

or read the transcript below:

 

Hello, I am here with Jonny Robinson from Milton Keynes, how you doing Jonny?

I’m doing very well thanks how is yourself?

I’m very good thank you, Could you tell me what course you’re on?

I’m on the Games designer course.

What is the most dramatic or exciting thing you have done in your life?

Winning the Gadget Show, that was quite cool, the Make Something Unreal Live 2012. Pretty exciting times with Epic!

What is your reason for getting in to the gaming industry and how will the gaming industry, change your life?

I wanted to get in the gaming industry when I was very young, it’s one of those things that I explain a lot to my friends that when I was young I used to put the gaming industry on a pedestal. You know you kind of worship it, you want it so bad but then you realise, I don’t know if I can do that so you kind of dismiss it for years. I then saw this course advertised in the news paper and I thought, you know what – I’ll give it a shot, it’s an online course I can do it in my own spare time and when I actually did the course I felt a lot more confident in myself. I felt I should share my experience with people so I did a lot of Train2Game promoting for the design course because it helped me a lot with my confidence and so really I would say it is one of the best decisions I have ever made so far.

After you earn your Train2Game diploma, what would be your greatest ambition in the industry?

Obviously get a full time job. I am also working with my team, the Commando Kiwi team, on a new project. I’ll chuck that out there as well, it’s the first time I’ve mentioned it. We are going to put something up on our Facebook very soon. We made a game for the Gadget Show which was “The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain” on the iOS and now we are taking a further step into the industry with the Unreal Engine, as that’s what we won at the Gadget Show. I can’t really say to much but we are on the fronts of making this new game.

What platform is the game going to be on?

At the moment we are going to stick to our current market and go with iOS but there has been hints with the team for Steam as well.

What genre is it going to be?

That’s stuff I am keeping reserved, I will let you know the scoop when I am ready to release the information.

What is your story, what are the past experiences that have shaped your life to who you are today?

Being where I am at the right time I suppose and just keep on striving for success, keep your head up and just keep going. I wouldn’t say anything has altered me, I would just say it’s the path I have been led on, you know, by destiny or whatever you want to call it but so far, if it is so called destiny, it has led me down a fine route, I have met some really interesting people.

I also know you have a blog to help fledgling designers get in to the industry, what inspired you to start that?

I have been doing video diaries for a long time and I know there are a lot of blogs out there like Gamasutra, they make some really incredible articles. I realised that there are not many from a student point of view that’s actually been in the industry and tasted that addiction as I like to call it. You know once your in the industry you kind of feel like an over whelming sense of adrenaline and I just feel like if I need to keep blurting my mind out there to people saying you need to get in this industry, it’s amazing! I’m doing whatever I can as it’s not programming or art its more design and it is a very niche market. I can guarantee you, you ask any designer and you say, what does it mean to be a game designer? What skill sets do you have? Every designer will tell you something completely different and that’s what I am trying to get across in my blogs. You have to be really open minded to be a designer and really blend your key skills to the actual studio themselves.

That leads me quite nicely on to my last point, what advice would you give to someone looking to get in to the games industry?

First of all, attend Game Jams, that’s the first one. I know Train2Game just did one with Microsoft and I attended one last year that was with Epic. The second I would recommend is trying to talk to people in the community, go on the Train2Game Forums and just generally create games. No one ever says in the industry who have you worked for, they say what experience have you got?

If people want to read more about it, where can people find your blog?

My website is www.ironcore1.wordpress,com

Thank you very much Jonny and keep us updated on all things Commando Kiwi

No problem, thank you very much for your time Mark, Ta-ra!

Train2Game News: Games Industry Jobs – 24.10.12

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ART

Creative Assembly

Job Title Animator
Skills Required Animator
Location UK & Europe
Job Description Position Overview:The animator will need to create and deliver top-quality animation from in-game content to in-game cinematics. With the focus on quality, the candidate will need to use various techniques from hand-keyed animation to motion capture to deliver the desired results as set by the animation and project leads. The right candidate will need to be exceptionally skilled and it’s important that they are a motivated team player.

Key responsibilities:

  • Full responsibility of producing high quality animation for in-game animations and cinematics as set by the animation lead.
  • Deliver work in the required time.
  • Make sure all work is implemented correctly, providing feedback to other members of the production team so all issues are driven to closure.
  • Reports to the Lead Animator

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

  • Have an excellent understanding of animation principles – timing, weight and staging
  • Must be self-motivated, enthusiastic and a team player
  • Good knowledge of a 3D package (Motionbuilder, Maya, Max, XSI)
  • Good knowledge of human and animal anatomy
  • A strong passion and enthusiasm for animation and video games
  • Critical analysis and problem solving

You can apply HERE.

Developer

Jagex

Job Title Content Developer – (Games Studio) – Cambridge
Skills Required Lead Programmer, Java / Browser, Gameplay, Graphics / Engine, Build Engineer, Core Technology
Location Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (CB1), Cambridge
Job Description CONTENT DEVELOPER – (GAMES STUDIO) – CAMBRIDGEWe are seeking a Content Developer to brainstorm and create new MMO game element ideas (quests, mini-games, skills etc.) for one of world’s largest independent Online Games Studios.

With 3 Guinness world records; a Queen’s Award for Enterprise (2011) a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 (2010); a Sunday Times Top 100 company to work for (2008) and countless other awards to their name, this multi-award winning business employ over 450 people and sit at the very forefront of the online games industry, developing and publishing mini games and leading titles interacted by millions worldwide!

Pivotal in creating new game element ideas (quests, mini-games, skills, etc.) you will work with graphic artists, testers and other professionals to produce the best content possible.  You should be the type of Content Developer who can write high quality code (using an internal scripting language), communicate complex ideas effectively and cope with the thrilling challenges of releasing new game elements several times per month.

In short, this role would suit a passionate gamer (ideally role playing games) with strong creative skills and a deep motivation to create games.

To qualify… We are seeking a Content Developer who can demonstrate:

  • Good programming or game scripting skills (basic C++ or Java or game scripting).
  • Proven track record of content development within the games industry.
  • Good creative writing skills and imaginative storyline ideas.
  • Clear understanding of game design terminology and realistic game design ideas.
  • Very strong and proven communication skills.
  • Experience of working to deadlines and in a project based environment.
  • Keen interest in role playing games.

Prior experience of writing quests (levels) for RPGs, MUDs or similar is advantageous, as is experience of multiple MMORPGs/online games and a technical degree, however this isn’t essential if good programming and/or scripting skills can be demonstrated.

Joining a team of talented and enthusiastic people you will get to work with one of the largest independent games Studios in the World so expect a great working environment and superb benefits to match, including: Bonuses, private healthcare, flexible working, gym membership and loads more.

You can apply HERE.

Feral Interactive

Job Title Junior Developer
Skills Required Gameplay, Graduate Programmer, Mac / OSX
Location South East
Job Description Feral Interactive, a publisher and developer of “Triple-A” Macintosh Games are in the process of expanding their internal development team for both Mac and iPhone based games.As part of this recruitment, we are seeking a number of new and recent graduates to fill several development roles. Joining a small and agile international company, the successful candidates will quickly become key members of our team.

Full training and support will be provided for what will be an exciting, rewarding and varied career in the games industry.

Requirements

  • A new or recent graduate
  • Achieved or projected to achieve a 1st class or an upper second class degree in a technical discipline
  • Strong C/C++ skills
  • Up to 3 years software development experience
  • Can demonstrate a strong work ethic and ability to be productive without direct supervision
  • Good problem solving ability
  • Resourcefulness
  • Good written and verbal communication skills
  • Ability to work as part of a growing team
  • Well organized and self disciplined

Also advantageous

  • 3D programming skills
  • Macintosh experience
  • Objective C and C#
  • An interest in gaming

You can apply by emailing a CV to recruiting@feralinteractive.com

QA

Creative Assembly

Job Title Games Tester
Skills Required QA Tester
Location UK & Europe
Job Description 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 established Total Warteam, testing our project currently in development.

  • 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)
  • 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.