Train2Game radio this week spoke to Train2Game Art & Animation student Laurence Gee. Laurence tells us how he got his job at Brain In A Jar and the exciting new project he is working on which is moments away from going on to Kickstarter!
http://www.braininajar.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/BraininaJarGames
https://twitter.com/openwheelgame
https://twitter.com/Braininatweet
You can listen to the interview here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1267348-train2game-student-laurence-gee-talks-to-t2g-radio
or read the transcript below:
Hi my name’s Laurence Gee, I’m from Birkenhead and I’m on the art course.
Hiya Laurence, how you doing mate?
I’m not to bad, how about you Mark?
I’m excellent cheers mate. So then let’s start this off. So what’s your story? What are the past experiences that have shaped your life?
Basically, starting from School to College I basically focused my skills on Art and endeavor to get better and better at my art and try to focus on moving from the traditional art to the computer based art that I do now.
Excellent, so what do you currently do for a living?
I work as a 3D artist here at Brain In A Jar games development.
Excellent, how did you end up working there?
It was through placement. Train2Game got me a placement here, which I’m very grateful for, and I worked here for the placement and when the placement was over I was kindly offered the job.
Very nice and how long have you worked there?
2 years actually, just recently became 2 years.
Still enjoying it I assume?
I love it here, yeah!
So, what are you currently working on with the company if I can ask?
You can! We are literally about to release a Kickstarter any time soon, a game called Open Wheel. Kickstarter is a crowd-funding system. There’s a website you can go to and there are loads of different projects you can support. The actual users and the people that actually give them money are actually people of the world and basically Kickstarters a crowd-funding system where people actually get to judge the game themselves or the item it’s self that go on there.
So what we’ve done is we are putting a project on there called Open Wheel. An online racing game that we’ve designed and developed our selves. It’s pretty special because it features unique game connection system. There are no log in screens what so ever, when you want to race you can just drop straight into a game, in to any running server. No lobby’s means more time spent racing. You can customize the cars and drivers, loads of stats to track, on track celebrations, race teams, leagues. There’s lots to go in there.
So what drew you and the company to Kickstarter?
Kickstarter is a great way, for small independent developers like ourselves, to fund projects, especially ones we really care about. If people like what we are trying to do then they can back us and help us out with the funding and stuff. The finances we need will make the game happen with a huge boost and we can make the game really really great!
What is your personal reason for getting into the gaming industry in the first place?
Do you remember Lemmings?
I do indeed, yeah!
I’m thinking back when I was at a really young age and I played my first game. Back from old PC games or modern consoles, I played computer games for a really long time. I was really intrigued by what went into a game, I wasn’t always intrigued about playing the game its self, but I spent a lot of time playing a game to figure who it was made and what made it work. That’s really what pulled me in.
Right is that what drew you to it was it, was that what drew you to the Art in particular or did that come from things in school?
What drew me to Art was that I’ve always done it. I’ve always been drawing and painted. I love to paint, I’m a very traditional artist and I decided I wanted to move in to the art in games because I wanted to see how they did it. When I discovered how they did it I thought it was quite interesting and I decided to take my traditional skills in to computer based skills.
So, how’s Train2Game helped you get to where you are now?
Well I started the course nearly three years ago now, very near the end of it, and I basically started the art course. I was frozen at the point where I had a basic job working in a shop and Train2Game contacted me to let me know they’d accepted me on the Art course and so I accepted, got on with the course, started doing the coursework and basically it was the placement that really helped me get to where I was.
Very nice. So finally then, where can people find out more about the project you’re working on?
Of course, that’s the main part! You can check out our Facebook page, Brain In A Jar, a twitter – we’ve got @Openwheel game and also @Braininatweets check out there – and also go to our website which is, www.braininajar.co.uk
Well thank you very much Laurence!
No worries! Thank you very much
I’ll talk to you again, bye!
Take it easy, bye!
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