Interview: Video Game Designer

By Sam Prescott

Interview with a Kiwi Video Game Designer.

What is Vancouver, British Columbia, best known for? Skiing? Sure it is. It’s also quite leafy. And the climate is fairly mild, compared to central Canada, at least. It’s the western-most province in western-Canada and it’s also known for its schools – some of which offer classes in video game art and design.

In fact, Vancouver schools pump fresh fodder for the video game machine into the industry with every graduating class. There’s more than one of them. There are, it’s fair to say, a lot of them. These are schools where you actually learn about video games. Imagine that! Learning. About video games. You’d have paid attention if you could do that at your school, right?

Unfortunately, New Zealand is very low on locations where you can pick up a qualification that will aid you in securing a job in this booming industry. Canada, however, site of a number of big-business video game giants (EA, for example) has a bunch, and the grads from the courses offered often have a host of opportunities available when they walk out with their diplomas.

To give you all a bit of an idea about what these schools are like and some of the options available to those interested in cracking the industry internationally, a close friend of mine let me bend his ear about his recent experiences at the Art Institute of Vancouver (AiV).

Jason Matus is twenty-six, a dual New Zealand and Canadian citizen and one hundred percent loco for video games. He cut his teeth early, finding his way to the NES in Canada and bringing his addiction with him to New Zealand in early 90s, playing all the classics of the Big N. What did he want to be when he grew up? A fireman? No. He wanted to be a video game designer, so he could give something back into an industry that continues to give him (and millions like him, worldwide) so much joy.

In October 2006, Jason started a Diploma in Video Game Art and Design at AiV, graduating on 17 March 2008. While at the school, he and his class mates were expected to attend a range of classes and were kept busy with a mix of course work. The students who take the Diploma have usually graduated from high school (which is a kind of unofficial pre-requisite), but Jason says, “AiV appreciates passion and talent as well.” It reflects well on AiV if they turn out grads who are passionate about games and have the goods to get them into decent jobs. A basic knowledge of computer hardware and web design is a bit of a leg up at AiV, but not necessary.

Technical knowledge aside, Jason realized the importance of communication – “Going into design specifically is all about documentation and communication. You need to be able to meticulously document game play mechanics and be able to explain the reasons behind your choices. Designers frequently talk to artists and programmers and need to be able to explain how things work and react in different situations. You could be an amazing designer, but if you can’t communicate your choices in writing or orally you’ll never get a job.”

The list of classes reads unlike any other curriculum you’ll see. Students will take Colour Theory, Fundamentals of (graphic) Design, Life Drawing and Interactive Storytelling. They will learn how to model and animate in Maya and texture in Photoshop. Two semesters are set aside for Level Design using the Unreal engine. Jason picks Level Design as his favourite class, where he was able to see the fruits of his labour in a working, playable output. He cites Colour Theory as a bit of a drag – mixing paints gets a little tedious – but even this was important in the overall scheme and valuable for students in getting to where they want to be.

In the last six months at AiV, the students enter into GPW – Game Prototype Workshop – classes, where, as a team, they are expected to produce a workable game in a simulated industry environment. In GPW students must work very closely together, writing and producing their game as they would working for an actual company and the classes are designed to give the nearly-grads a true concept of what it’s like to make fake worlds in the real world.

Apart from learning a skill set that will enable you to work in the games industry, schools like AiV will help with your networking, which is extremely important. Between your professors, fellow students and the people you meet and greet at a number of events the schools recommend you attend, you’ll slowly build a contact base that might help you get a foot in the door come graduation. Jason says, “Marketing yourself correctly helps a lot when you’re looking for a job. You have to make sure that you’re appealing to what they’re looking for. You could be a legendary designer, but if your demo reel doesn’t show off your ability to see things through from concept to completion it’s going to be a lot harder to get a job.”

His hardest time at AiV was the six-month GPW intensive, where Jason was picked as Lead Designer on his team. This made for all nighters and a significant amount of stress, but he claims to have “loved every minute of it.” As Lead Designer, it was his job to co-ordinate all the artists and programmers in order to pull together a finished result. In GPW he needed to call on all of the skills he had picked up in the course to that point, and saw just what it was to work in such a high-pressure environment. Video game design school, it seems, isn’t all about playing games and goofing off. That said, among the vast student body you’re bound to find plenty of like-minded people there who’ll be willing to challenge you to pretty much any game out.

If you have ideas for games that you’d love to see on screen, or even if your dream is to warm a Swiss ball at a desk at EA, then it could be you need to start searching the net to see what’s out there. The AiV website is packed with info at www.artinstitutes.edu/vancouver/ and for an idea of the location of some of the companies who design and produce your electronic addictions, check out www.gamedevmap.com.

If you have specific questions for Jason about his time at video game design school, you’ll find him on our forums as sketchturner – send him a PM and he’ll do what he can to answer your queries or provide additional info. Also, his website’s up at http://pixelhawker.com where you can find examples of some of the work he did at AiV as well as his demo reel.

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