Guest Lecturer: David Bramhall, Vicky Rowley (Sony Evolution Studios)

Today's talk was conducted by two members from two different areas of Evolution Studios; David Bramhall (Experienced Q&A now Designer) and Vicky Rowley (Human Resources). David has worked in the industry for a while and has been lucky enough to experience working for two very recognised games companies (Travellers Tales and Sony Evolution Studios) and has worked on a range of titles such as WRC and Lego Indiana Jones II.

Currently working on Motorstorm's third installment "Apocalypse", he has been in the industry 5 years so his advice would be useful; as well as him also being a University of Bolton graduate. He followed up with how various department are split up into sub-departments such as there being more than one type of designer.

My Targeted Career Path in Departments

Q&A Testing > Jnr Designer > Snr Designer > Design Lead > Producer

Develoment Cycle for a "AAA Title"

High Level Concept > Prototype > Pre-Production > Production > 

>Alpha Phase > Beta Phase > Gold Master > Shelf

They both also enforced Nicholas Rathbone's warning about using agencies as a path into the industry and stated the same reason why to be cautious. Applying direct seems to be the best way in which to get hired. David mentioning that friends already at a company increases employment chances; he himself got one of his jobs the same way. Some bullet points on HOW to prepare for an interview ranging from before and during:

• Always remember to RELAX
• Eye contact and a smile is always a bonus
• Expect competency or situation questions so....
• DO YOUR HOMEWORK be prepared to answer and ASK questions
• Display enthusiasm, show them your passion
• Sell your best qualities
• ............Be yourself.

To wrap up Vicky mentioned the benefits of joining a major company like sony. Positives such as: Pension, Health/Income/Life Insurance, Discount, Complimentary Gifts from the company and stock are all offered to employees.

.

Guest Lecturer: Thomas Hulvershorn (I-Play, Oberon Media)

Although I-Play is a worldly recognised company for the games they make, I was still very much looking forward to their talk today. They conduct a large amount of testing and speaking to us today was Thomas Hulvershorn who is a lead tester at I-Play (owned by Oberon Media). He currently works with social networking applications and manages team milestones in order to ensure the games are tested thoroughly before release.

Due to other testing commitments, I was unable to conduct the testing for I-Play so I was very keen to see the different types of testing conducted as well as his opinion on the social networking market. He opened with different testing types carried on a variety of I-Play's games. He continued to define the various types:

      -Black Box Testing
      -White Box Testing
      -Functional and Non-Functional Testing
      -Regression Testing
      -Re-testing

A lot of what he spoke about related to two aspects of my team project work with a milestone of testing upon myself and the team. Another aspect that related to team project was the mention of project methodologies such as Agile and Scrumm, which is something we as a team looked into. He moved onto Facebook games and how they "were services, not games" and how they have a long way to grow as a gaming platform.

Concluding on the lecture, a lot of it was very familiar to me due to the work I'm currently doing. I identified with it and took a lot things into consideration as testing is the first step on a path to a design role.

Guest Lecturer: Nicholas Rathbone (Codemasters)

A successful graduate from the University of Bolton. He is now currently a games designer for Codemasters UK, specialising in the creation of driving games, he has a very respectable career path so far. He has previously worked on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and is now a designer on the Colin McRae games. With such a good work C.V. and being a graduate from the university he was now guest speaking at, the advice he shared with the class proved to be invaluable for preparing to go into the industry.

As assumed the lecture was very informative for me considering I finish in January, he told us crucial tips on how to stand out with our job applications. He stated the importance for the C.V.'s quality and always reminded us that it was our "sales pitch" to the employers. Things like cover letters accompanying the C.V. when applying for a position; were really good pointers that gives the applicants a chance to express a desire to work there. In the C.V. we were told to show relevant experience in the position applied for; as well as to not to waffle to much and drown out any important information.

Nick warned against the dangers of applying through some agencies as he mentioned that some can send your C.V. to irrelevant positions or take a percentage of your salary; the best way is to go direct to a company. After getting recognised comes the interview, with a combination of positivity and advanced preparation an interview can be a breeze. We were informed to "be prepared to be tested" by interviewers as the want to know what makes you tick and why you think you'd be good for the company, ultimately sell yourself. Having prepared questions after the interview is another bonus to aiding a successful application

I identified with him a lot when he was at University studying along with balancing a job which is my current situation at the moment. During the Q/A session I asked him about the difficulty along with the benefits as my aim is to save up so I can afford to move to a preferred job. That was also his plan and how he managed to get his first job which was a critical confidence boost.

Overall a lot of food for thought given to the entire class, we were told to be individual in everything we do as uniqueness gets recognised which has made me re think my website plan and start a fresh based on what was said today