Dave Blewitt came in to talk to us from Sumo Digital and even though he showed us a presentation from ages ago (lol) he still was the best speaker we've had in our three years at Leeds College of Art.
He started by explaining what it was like to be part of Sumo Digital. How they save money, what its like to work for an independent games company as a whole.
Basically Sumo Digital save money by having a studio in India, here obviously everything costs less and the people that work there get paid less, sad but true. Sumo digital do not make games themselves, they are hired by other companies to do work, such as Sega hired them one year to work on an all stars racing game.
He talked about how as a company they can get messed around a lot as clients can change there minds at the last minute or managers can completely scrap ideas suddenly.
Here's some pointers i got from the talk overall
- You have to start at the bottom to get to the top, it's ok.
- There are gonna be picky arse holes
- Things are gonna be thrown away
- You are going to be told to do things again, deal with it and breathe
- technical thinking is key
- Optimisation
- Poly counts are key and that kind of thought process
- You can't make something that just looks good, it has to run good too
- You will have to compromise sometimes, learn to not have everything your own way
- Professionalism
- Team spirit
- Patience
- Effort
- You will work long hours but if you love what you do this shouldn't be a problem
- Be realistic, use your budget and skills to create the best thing you can with logic.
As you can see from the pointers this talk was very informative and he spoke about what he looks for in people and what others would look for too, such as people that dive in and make a real effort with things, people who aren't scared to be the first one in and the last to leave. It's all about being flexible and calm, make something that looks good but also more importantly that runs smooth too, you need to focus on the technical aspect of poly counts etc and be able to do this is such a way that doesn't take up too much time. Figure out a working pattern that works for you and realistically know when you will have things done by and how long it should take. Another key point is professionalism, can you be trusted to talk to publishing staff with confidence and manners? You will have to compromises with these people so having people skills is a definite plus.
Here's a link to their website if you would like to check them out some more -
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