A little bit of guidance goes a long way

During Pre-Production and Production along side seeking guidance from my tutors i was fortunate to get to know someone within our building at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe in Wavertree. His name is John Dwyer and throughout my course i would be attending regular meetings with him to show him my work. In these meetings John would give me valuable information on where i was going wrong and also to help me rectify problems that may occur through the Production process.

I also had 2 other people who work within the Sony development team and i would also seek their opinions on my work in progress on a regular basis here is a brief history about them all:

John Dwyer - Senior Artist

Johns Role:

Everything

How long in the Industry:

John has been in the Industry for 18 years

Titles worked on:

John has worked on various formats these include PC, MegaDrive, N64, MegaCD, PS 1, 2 3. Various games such as:

WipeOutHD
F1 ChampionShip
John Cannot advertise current title he is working on for obvious security reasons

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nick Sadler - Lead Artist

Nicks Role:

Nicks role involves assuming creative responsibilities for the work of the people in my team. He leads a team of 9, including animators, designers, and Visual effects artists. The business of leading these people is about marshalling the creative input, and to some degree managing their day-to-day tasks, getting estimates, chairing meetings, brainstorming, and holding design-discussions about features of the game.

How long in the industry:

Nick has been in the computer games industry for almost 7 years now.

Titles worked on within the 7 years:

Nick has worked on the concept/prototype phase of 3 games that weren't announced or released.
- The released titles he has been credited on are:
F1 2004 - PS2
F1 2005 - PS2
F1 2006 - PS2, PSP
F1: Championship Edition - PS3
Wipeout HD - PSN/PS3
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
Wipeout HD: Fury - PSN/PS3
Unannounced project for release in 2011.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob Hannah - Designer

Rob's Role: Robs role involves the design, implementation and tuning of numerous aspects of the game, from defining 'what the game is' and simple gameplay mechanics, through to defining values of, for example, handling of vehicles, number of bullets a weapon can carry, number of hits to kill an opponent. Not forgetting standard features such as controls, menu system, online matchmaking systems. Its an almost endless list that can vary quite a lot depending on the game.

How long in the Industry:

Rob started in the industry in QA six years ago, moving onto development a little over 2 years ago. As an amateur though said he has been designing games since the 80's :)

Titles worked on:

To date the only released title Rob has worked on is Motorstorm: Pacific Rift. Since working on that, he has been involved in prototyping various concepts, and is currently in production on an unannounced title.

I would just like to thank John,Nick and Rob for taking time out of their busy schedules and for giving me such vital feedback that not many other people would have access to.