Who am I?
My name's Mark and Im a Junior Game Designer looking to break into the industry currently looking for freelance work or a full time position within a studio.
Ive been an avid gamer from a young age finding joy, comfort, and solace in the games I played, an escape from the typical day to day that gave me a wide variety of experiences from fear and joy to suspense and anticipation, experiencing a story unfold or fighting zombies and enemies, living the life of a roman soldier or an average farmer. These experiences made me who I am and made me want to create these same experiences for other people.
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I enjoy playing all sorts of games from rpg's to farming sims, puzzles to strategy games, etc. And even board games and table top rpg's like D&D. Beyond playing games I enjoy learning about history and various crafts such as blacksmithing and woodworking, and enjoy cooking and watching a variety of shows/movies or reading books.
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My skills include level and games design using Unreal Engine and Unity (to a lesser extent) ,programming in Java, C++ and BVS (The Unreal Engines Visual Scripting system), 3D asset development using Maya or Blender, and simple graphical art using Photoshop or Krita. I also have experience of the Unity game engine.
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In regard to design I do feel that games like Skyrim, Dragon Age, and the Witcher tend to inspire my own work more often than others. These games tend towards high detailed levels with the aim of representing a setting that can draw a player in and make them believe in the world they are playing in and this is something which I feel is important in modern games; that the player truly believes they are a part of the games world.
My Journey Into Games
My journey into games started when I first entered high school and discovered the school had a club dedicated to making small games, although we mainly used scratch at the time, I was hooked on the idea that I could create experiences that bring other people the same joy I've experienced from the games Ive played all my life.
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I started taking computing classes and enjoyed programming and at thirst thought that would be the way I would go, coding in games and at the end of high school I applied for my bachelors course in computer games development.
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When I entered university I was immediately exposed to lots of different avenues of development I hadnt considered from design and 3d art to music production and animation. I especially enjoyed the game design and level design courses and that put me on track for focusing on design. I originally was particularly keen on level design and explored this in my Honours project, exploring how different levels of detail can affect an open world. Beyond this I also found a passion in world building creating fantastical new worlds from the ground up.
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After completing my Bachelors I considered focusing on level design and positioned myself as such applying for jobs doing level design and practicing it in my free time. After a year I decided to go back and get some more experience and did my masters in 3D Design for Virtual Environments looking to explore more aspects of design for video games. From this I learned more in depth 3D art skills and explored modular design to a further extent with my final project focusing on granularity of modular level design.
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Finally after leaving university with my Master's degree I began searching for jobs again, after some struggling I had decided to take my passion in world building and game design and push that to be my focus going forth, planning games from ideation through design and prototyping aspects of parts of some, and more recently starting a personal 7 working day design and prototype challenge to see how much I can accomplish in a game jam like fashion.
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I got my first jump into the industry at the start of 2024 in the form of a 2 month mentorship with Game Design Consultancy as a Junior Game Designer helping prototype a pre-production project they're working on as well as helping communicate with various potential clients that had contacted them.
And now, Im here pushing myself forward working to be the best designer I can be.
Experience
Jan 2024 - April 2024
Junior Game Designer - Mentorship
Game Design Consultancy
I Helped develop and design a prototype of a pre-production concept, including procedural level design aspects and cross asset functionality. Communicated with clients on project proposals and design workshops.
Education
2014-2018 - BSc (1st class Hnrs)
Computer Games Development
University of the West of Scotland
Developing Computer games development skills through various modules including; Games Design, 3D Level Design and Serious Games. modules passed include 3D Level Design, Serious Games, Computing Project, Research Methods in Computing, Creative Technologies Professionalism, Games Design, and Collaborative Virtual Environments.
2019-2021 - MSc
3D Design for Virtual Environments
Glasgow Caledonian University
Briefly describe your degree and any other highlights about your studies you want to share. Be sure to include relevant skills you gained, accomplishments you achieved or milestones you reached during your education.