Adrian Kulinski
Y2 Games Development
Project 2
Identifying a Specialism
Following my successful placement on Quantum Loop’s Fast Track Development Programme, I have been asked to reflect on my progress and the diverse range of skills I’ve developed across several disciplines, including Games Design (Level Design), 3D Art and Animation, Programming, and Audio Development.
During the programme, I explored various industry-standard tools, creative processes, and production workflows, producing a range of experimental outcomes that demonstrate my growing technical and creative abilities. I also researched the work of leading practitioners in the field, using these insights to inform my own practice and to better understand the variety of professional roles within the games industry.
As Quantum Loop moves into the next phase of its talent development initiative, I will now take part in a process designed to help me identify and pursue a specialist pathway. To do this, I will critically reflect on my experiences so far, evaluate my strengths and interests, and decide which area I want to develop further.
Throughout this project, I will carry out a deeper investigation into my chosen field, building on my previous experimentation to develop a more focused understanding of my specialism. The project will conclude with the creation of a professional personal statement and an industry-standard CV, both tailored to a specific specialist role I aim to apply for in an upcoming group project at Quantum Loop.
These materials will not only form part of my formal application for the group project role but can also be used to support my future progression goals, such as UCAS applications, university interviews, or entry into industry-focused higher education courses.
Task 1
Selecting a Specialism
Industry Skill Comparison
I decided to make a radar chart to analyse my skills and lack thereof as a means to determine what areas I may need to improve in accordance with how important they would be relating to my specialist area (programming). Evaluating myself this way allows me to visualise key weaknesses and focus on how to mitigate them to my best interest.
My highest-scoring skills were teamwork and basic design principles, with programming in third place and communication in fourth. These show me that I have a well-established understanding of working on a group project in my preferred specialist role. I believe that these skills being my highest are due to a range of factors, such as my personal preference for programming in place of something like 2D art, alongside my amicable circle of friends, improving my communicative skills through daily.
Task 2
Specialism Research
Tools, Software, and Materials
3D Software
In terms of software used to create media in a three-dimensional space, two specific programs are used quite prominently in the scene.
On one hand, there’s Blender, developed by the Blender Foundation, which can be used for a range of things pertaining to mostly 3D modelling, but also able to be used for projects that don’t necessarily have to be 3D, such as video editing.
On the other hand, you have Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, which is much more specialised in games development, catering to a more specific audience compared to the one-size-fits-all software that Blender is.
Whilst some may view this as a limiting factor and be turned away, that’s an incorrect view if you ask me. Rather, the two programs are incomparable due to, at their cores, serving different purposes. Comparing the two would be equal to comparing gnocchi and pasta. Whilst, yes, the two are somewhat in the same niche, they fundamentally serve different purposes when it comes to practical usage.
Blender
Blender’s ease of use proves useful for a handful of popular developers, such as Gameloft, Wube Software and Infinity Ward, whilst also being used by animation studios such as Goodbye Kansas, who use the software to make detailed, AAA-quality animation rather than modelling for a video game like the aforementioned companies.
Unreal Engine
Games that use the Unreal Engine include the likes of the long-anticipated Dead Island 2, Gears of War 4 and 5, The Culling and even games such as Azur Lane or Crash Bandicoot 4, showcasing the sheer variety available for developers if they were to use Unreal Engine.
Production Pipelines
https://gdkeys.com/game-development-process/
Conception Phase
The author believes that the chaos and unpredictability of the conception phase makes it hard to properly define a timeframe for it (possibly taking "a few weeks" if done quickly or "several years" on the higher end), especially for bigger companies that have more than one game ongoing at one given moment, which helps with exploring many ideas without committing to one for the next few years.
Pre-Production
The author believes that the three tenets of pre-production are to "confirm your team has the technical, artistic and workload capabilities" to follow through with the project, "prove that your game's vision and core loop are valid" in order to ensure the entertainment factor of the game and finally "define the scope of your game's production" as to make sure that the project is able to be completed in the projected timeframe. Teams could become stagnant in their progress if they allow the pre-production phase to become an "early production phase" as the team wouldn't be sure of their own capabilities, instead rushing in without a plan and eventually letting the project outgrow them, especially if it's a project with different teams all working on it; if one team decides to let the project creep on them whilst the other teams are working on pre-production, then the entire project would be out of sync.
Production
The main threat during the production phase is scope creep, where new developments that weren't considered in the pre-production phase are able to be made for the betterment of the game. This, however, would obviously add some time to the production of the game. This should be properly balanced by, instead of 'adding' these new developments, replacing planned features for the new ones. This helps with ensuring your timeframe for the production phase is still relevant whilst ensuring that you're being considerate of what features are actually being added to the game. This was especially shown in Naughty Dog's The Last of Us II, which had been planned to have an online mode as well as the main game. Unfortunately, this was cancelled due to Naughty Dog believing it too ambitious, turning their focus entirely to the narrative-based main game.
Polish
Teams rarely respect the need for a substantial polish phase, preferring to use the phase to keep iterating upon content in the production phase rather than using it to polish the already produced content. This runs the risk of leaving bugs in your game on release, making for a mediocre launch and needing to scramble in order to appease players.
Conclusion
Overall, even solo developers benefit from a structured pipeline due to having a mindful development built on strong bases, one stage at a time and allowing for clarity should issues arise. A pipeline supports creation, and isn't against it. Each stage helps the developer get closer to the release of their game, which is the end goal. That being said, enough time to polish is key to ensuring the game's release has the potential to be well-received. Understanding the pipeline is essential for me as a programmer, as I need to be able to understand scope creep in order to ensure that games I work on are well-made, rather than being rushed during the polishing phase.
Investigate Career Progression
How to get a job as a game programmer | GamesIndustry.biz
What educational paths do industry professionals recommend for aspiring game programmers?
In terms of education, industry professionals suggest that aspiring game programmers attempt to pursue traditional educational approaches in computer science or engineering, along with some recommending self-teaching. Getting a first job in the programming field is less about job experience, and more so about having a portfolio of work that is able to show your best work to potential employers. Moreover, there is also the option of building small games or programs to release to the public, which could catch the eye of employers who have already had experience with your work and already wish to engage with you further. Upon finally making it into your first industry job, there are two prospects for progression - either managing more junior programmers in some sort of managerial role or continuing to program yourself in the position of a senior programmer. Some skills that would help with working in the games industry as a programmer would include communication, teamwork, problem solving (in the case of bugs) and, unsurprisingly, technical abilities (in the case of knowing programming languages). Some advice from industry professionals includes avoiding specialising too early, making sure to be confident in your skills (by not excessively comparing yourself to your peers) and making sure to just practice coding as much as you can, without caring what the actual code itself does as long as it works.
Task 3
Applying for a Specialist Role
Analysing my skills
During my first year, I believe that my strengths lied in the programming side of the course, where I was drawn to the more logical side rather than the creative as it simply made more sense to me.
Having said this, I do feel as if my 3D modelling left some things to be desired last year. This year, I hope to improve my modelling and generally become better in the creative side of the course.
Upon finishing my course, I believe that I'll be able to use the time management skills that I have managed to develop throughout the duration of this course. Alongside this, I believe that this course has made me more personable .
University Research
University courses comparison
If I were to continue on the path of game development in my future, as a career, I would probably study at Anglia Ruskin University (abbr. ARU) due to their proximity, favorable course and it being an accoladed institution.
This includes things such as a gold TEF award in 2023, Times Higher Education University of the Year 2023 and the medicine and health Queen’s Anniversary Award in 2021, which show how innovative, well-performing and friendly the institution as a whole is. This draws my interest since I was already interested in their game programming course before knowing how prestigious they were due to the modules including game engines, programming and even software development, to name a few, which aligns well with my goal of specialising in the programming field for my second year at USP college.
However, a more general course could also be of some benefit, such as the University of Creative Arts (abbr. UCA) with their games development course, which offers some similar modules that includes game engines, scripting, programming but also sets some time aside for 3D modelling, meaning that it wouldn’t be as specialised as the aforementioned ARU course. This could either be a positive or negative, depending on the extent you want to specialise in the code part of the industry.
Since I would prefer to focus solely on coding, game engines and the general programming part of the gaming industry, I do believe that ARU would be more suited to my tastes than UCA’s games development course.
Identifying Key Skills
Industry Skills
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Basic knowledge of probably like 3 programming languages
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Knowledge of how to use an IDE
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Specialised knowledge of one programming language
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Good memory
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Bug fixing
Employability Skills
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Punctuality
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Ability to speak english
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Ability to work in a team
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Level head
Exploring Junior Roles
Senior Programmer
https://uk.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=541500d14887371e&from=shareddesktop
Alongside this, the role is said to have responsibility over development and execution of gameplay code, collaboration with team members, resolution of complex bugs, addressing performance concerns, adhere to strict coding standards, participation in code reviews, offering of constructive criticisms and progression reports via Jira (a project management site).
In terms of necessary skills, the employer asks the applicant to be proficient in C/C++ programming, have professional experience with one published game, experience in creating multi-threaded code and familiarity with project scheduling. Of these skills, I believe that I only possess the one regarding to project scheduling, as I have never dabbled with C (or any of its derivatives), nor have I participated in the creation of a published game.
Senior game developer
https://uk.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=47f7021edc564827&from=shareddesktop
The listed skills include an expertise in PixiJS, experience with commercial JavaScript/TypeScript game development, a portfolio demonstrating high-performance web game projects, experience with Git/Agile/Scrum and the ability to tackle complex problems. I believe that, of these skills, I have only somewhat began to dabble with Git, which ended up being pointless (likely due to my lack of experience).
Intern game developer
https://uk.linkedin.com/jobs/view/game-client-development-intern-at-tencent-4314820901
The skills necessary are said to include familiarity with C++, a good understanding of algorithms, strong skills within mathematics (particularly linear algebra and calculus), good communicative skills and an ability to read papers and implement the code in existing engines like UE or Unity. Of these skills, I believe that my mathematical understandings are up to par, as well as my communication and literary skills.
Junior game developer
https://devitjobs.uk/jobs/Unify-Talent-UK-Junior-Game-Developer
This role is more likely to attract developers who are just starting out in the industry and lack experience in the industry, which we can infer from the adjective "junior" paired with the description including "assist(ing) with testing across platforms" and "support (of) the implementation of learning mechanics". Moreover, the tasks asked by the listing include development of VR technology, iteration rapidly based on feedback, identification of bugs, optimisation of performance and maintenance of clean code.