#dd2000

As the essay is focused on sexism in video games, the focus of research fell onto examples of games which have sexist themes or obvious underlying sexism within their designs. In terms of the initial research, I began by looking up key examples such as dating sims, GTA, Duke Nukem 3D, Ride to Hell and the Witcher 3, before decomposing them into seeing how they were sexist and what caused them to be seen portrayed this way.

 The next piece of research concerned gender representation in video games, which often focuses on a few key points of how men and women are depicted differently:  whether through frequency and playability (ability to play a male character versus a female character), physical abilities, role in the game, and physical representation (in terms of body, attire, etc). I found that male and females are portrayed differently in games in terms of women tend to have to look human when they are created to be sexualised, whereas male characters do not need to have this.

 The research then turned towards how this sexism affects the players who are viewing it. For this section, I was going to write references towards the correlation between violence in games and sexism, however, this is branching into a whole different area which could be the topic for its own essay.  I then began to look towards how sexism was beginning to be removed from the games industry, using examples such as Don Bradman’s Cricket, Call of Duty and FIFA, all of which have begun placing more female characters into their games.

One thing which I struggled with whilst researching this topic was finding quotes direct from the developers and designers themselves. I feel that the reasoning for this was due to the fact that it is an extremely sensitive topic to discuss and companies/ brands could be affected in the process if one of their designers begin telling the public that they have over sexualised one of their characters as a conscious decision without a good reason as to why they are doing it, it will look bad on them and the company, an example being when a Ubisoft employee told the world that Ubisoft did not have many female characters as they were ‘harder to animate’, a quote which sparked a lot of attention from other designers and fans.

 A lot of secondary research, i.e. articles from outside sources who have spoken to designers have been used instead, which is still a reputable source to get information from, just not as effective at backing up points as quotes from the people who made those decisions in the first place.  The reason for this is that these outside sources can just be speculating certain design decision, whereas the designers themselves know exactly why they made those certain design decisions and can give a clearer picture to the public into why they made them.

 Finally, another section of research which I conducted was through looking at how other cultures deal with the same issue. The reason for this is that is interesting to compare the same issues between 2 different parts of the world to see how the different cultures have set themselves up for their public to deal with sexism.

Other research which I found links for but were not implemented into the essay were topic such as marketing strategies, how different types of design are affected by sexism, for example interior designers and fashion industries, the link between violence and sexism in video games and female armour in comparison to males, as they are designed completely differently to do the exact same job… protecting the vital body parts of the wearer and as such, should not be modified as to show more skin on the females armour.  

 The main research blog which I used to create the essay plan can be found using the link below:

Key Designer – Eric Barone

Eric Barone the Sole Creator of the hit game, Stardew Valley had a very interesting path to the games industry as the first prototypes of the game were created as practice for Barones programming skills. (Ligman, 2016)

As a child Barone Fondly Remembers the game Harvest moon, he adored how it favoured domestic tasks instead of violent mechanics. Harvest Moon allowed the player to have social and even romantic relationships with the townsfolk which isn’t a feature that many games offered. Barone described this as “making the experience much more personal” (White, 2018) although at first he was discouraged from the games industry after often reading about its underpaid overworked culture. Based on this his career took a turn and he chose to instead study computer science believing this could provide him with more financial stability.

After graduating he tried to get a normal job where he could support both him and his partner. However after several attempts of failing to get an entry level programming job he applied for he decided that he had a better shot at a one of these positions if he improved upon his programming skills, he began doing this by learning how to program video games as he decided it was a creative way to teach himself and would keep him interested longer.

When he started he didn’t have a plan, but he was always focused on the player experience throughout the development of the game. Starting with player movement and navigation and slowly working his way up through different farming mechanics. Barone kept iterating and going back to previous mechanics and reworked or completely started fresh with them in order to create something he was happy with.

During the games 4 and a half year development process Barone never asked for help and did all testing himself until the final stages of the game. Towards the end of development those close to him including his long term girlfriend urged him to compromise the quality because otherwise she believed he would have never released the game, but actually caring about the details and being meticulous with the game is what Barone feels made it a great game.

Finn Brice the founder of Chucklefish made Barone an offer. 10% of Stardew Valley profits would go to Chucklefish and in return Chucklefish would act as a de-facto publisher for Barone’s game also helping him with some of the more tedious aspects of games development such as public relations and legal documents. Barone felt this was a good deal because if a larger publisher had approached him first they might have asked for 60-70% of the profit. (Chucklefish, 2018)

   Key Designer- Sean Valesco

Sean Valesco and 4 of his friends worked at Wayforward making games quickly for popular IP’s and Shantae Series , however at the end of each project the staff would be shuffled around, this meant that seas Valesco would be split up from his friends during the work day so they all started to meet up at Valesco’s house after work and at the weekends and work on smaller projects. After some time doing this they started to discuss making a Nintendo inspired 2d platformer that could capture the nostalgia of the Nintendo Entertainment System and its games but with smoother animations and a much better quality. (Wayforward, 2018)

Valesco and his team decided to create this game with no large publishers as to avoid releasing a game that was in his eyes only 90% finished. The team decided to set up a Kickstarter for the game as it meant they would have creative freedom but would still be working towards a promised deadline.

Shortly after this the team left Wayforward so they could work full time on their iconic 2d platformer Shovel Knight. Their funding goal was set at seventy-five thousand dollars. At this time the teams problems were that nobody knew about the game they were making or their Kickstarter so they started to prepare for PAX where they would be able to showcase their game, they began working tirelessly on a demo to show off at PAX, although while they were there the game did not receive much attention they met some other developers who had also funded projects using Kickstarter and they were given 2 good pieces of advice, number 1 being update the Kickstarter every day and the other being to send your demos out to YouTube creators and Twitch streamers.

When the team returned from PAX they took the advice and started posting to their Kickstarter daily, interacting, posting updates and hosting art competitions. Doing this and as well as sending copies of the demo for the game to YouTube and twitch streamers started to create a fan base for the game so by the time their Kickstarter campaign ended on April 13th 2013 they had surpassed their funding goal of $75,000 and managed to raise $311,502. (Yacht Club, 2014)

This project was going to require a lot of crunch time in order to finish it on time while also trying to create a great game. Towards the end of their deadline Valesco pushed it back and although this meant the team digging into their own savings to get by, they pushed through and finished the game releasing it June 26th 2016 and selling 75000 copies in the first week.

Although this was not a wild success, as the stretch goal promised boss knight campaigns were added in they sold more copies of the game and the fan base grew until they were getting contacted by publishers asking for the game to be ported to other consoles, eventually leading to shovel knight getting its own Amiibo figure which was the first of its kind not being from one of Nintendo’s own IP’s.

Key Companies

Team 17 is a video company based in Wakefield UK, the company was founded in December of 1990 through the merging of 17Bit Software and Team 7 who was originally based in Sweden. There are many benefits in working for team 17, they are as follows according to the team 17 website

Career     progression at all levels – it’s up to you to shine!

Varied     projects – we publish games across many different platforms and use a     variety of middleware

Training     workshops for both tech and soft skills

Competetive     salaries

Bonuses

Regular     social events

Health     Care & Life Insurance

Subsidised     gym membership

The staff reviews written on Glassdoor about the working environments are generally positive, with some complaints about overtime, however this seems to be a common issue with most game development company’s as ‘crunching’ near a games release date is a common occurrence within the industry.

The salary for Artists According to the team17 Glassdoor page is £24,000

 Rockstar is a large AAA games company which has a reputation for creating immersive open world games, Rockstar is an international company with many different branches, one of them located in Leeds UK Which is local enough for a daily commute. However according to Glassdoor the pro’s of working within this company are very few the main Pro being that you get to work on some of the most coveted games. However the cons are abundant including, low Salary, Poor management, an outdated overtime pay structure and little to no intrest in employee development.

 Job Prospects

There are many ways in which someone can join the games industry the first of which being, working at a AAA games company this has advantages such as a chance to learn from others more experienced than yourself as well as a stable income for the duration of the employment contract.

My specialism is 3d Art which means the roles that I will be looking for in the games industry are either A Prop Artist or an Environment Artist, however since I will not have work experience when I leave university I am required to search for an entry role job as a Junior Environment/Prop Artist

According to (Glassdoor, 2018) the average wage of a 3d artist is 30k per year although this is not the case for the junior entry level position. Entry level positions usually pay between 20-25k per year depending on the size of the company you work for, for example as a junior environment artist at Ubisoft earns only 19k per year however the same position at Splash Damage offers 24k per year because often working for a smaller company means you will be a larger part of the team and will therefore need a more broad understanding of the development process.

According to a job advertisement posted for a trainee environment artist at SEGA the required skills for this position are “

·         Visual flare and talent

·         Skilled in 3DS Max/Maya/Modo

·         Experience with ZBrush and Photoshop

·         Knowledge of games development pipeline/environment/engines

·         Self-motivated, good communicator, positive can-do attitude, team-player

·         Love of visual environment creation” (GlassDoor, 2018)

The skills listed are attainable by all undergraduates studying games design, however one of the ways that you can help yourself stand out from the rest is with a portfolio which shows you demonstrating these skills, portfolios show employers you’re artistic and sometimes your technical ability, this is why it is important to keep updating and improving your portfolio.

Portfolio

A portfolio is the most important tool for a 3D artist as it shows potential employers what your capabilities are, it is your responsibility to make sure that your portfolio shows that you have a wide range of skills and talents and to keep it updated and relevant.

To stay relevant in today’s job market an artist’s portfolio must be online, the best options for 3d artists are Artstation and sketchfab. Artstation is the more popular option amongst professionals because it allows viewers to get a more technical view of the artists models separating the different texture maps, this can give a valuable insight into someone’s technical skill.

As is often the case quality is preferred to quantity which means that it is better to have 3 pieces that show your talents well than 9 that offer no insight into your artistic ability, as there is a lot of competition it is best to have your portfolio stand out, according to (Mon, 2017)

“Competition is hard and you have to stick out from the mass of artists trying to get their first job. Creativity and unique art samples help you do that. Metal barrels, wooden crates, concrete or brick textures are not exactly assets that will blow anybody away anymore. Try to come up with something refreshing and unique when building props or an environment.”

One of the ways to do this is to show that you can use different styles in your work for example an artist who shows they can recreate a cartoon style and realism shows a wider set of skills than someone who has only produced art in One of those styles. However all work in your portfolio should be of the same quality so if you feel one piece stands out as worse than others then work on it until it becomes of the same quality or create a new piece.

Key Games

One of the games I believe had influenced subsequent design the most is the classic SEGA Dreamcast hit Jet set Radio which was the first game to incorporate Cel Shading which is an art style in which 3d art appears as 2d art to mimic that of a comic book or cartoon, this style has gone on to inspire other artists to recreate and improve the style for their games. Games such as The Legend Of Zelda Windwaker and The Wolf Among Us and over 250 other titles. (Wyss)

 Cuphead’s Art style has been one of the most unique in recent years using the style of a 1930’s cartoon incorporating hand drawn 2D animations into an extremely difficult run and gun game. The artist Chad Moldenhauer although this game has been released too recently to influence any other game which has been released, the style is mimicked and adapted from 1930’s cartoons and includes effects which give the illusion it is being played on a CRT television which makes it one of the most unique looking games on the market.

Another game that heavily influenced subsequent design was Space Invaders a popular arcade game created in 1978 by Tomohiro Nishikado was the first Pixel art game used in the apast because of the capabilities of technology at the time but many Indie developers have used it in recent years for many different reasons, some use it because it is quick to produce and others use it to create a feeling of nostalgia in gamers.

 I believe my route to the games industry from this point is to increase and develop my skillset in order to create a variety of art styles also to use an online portfolio to display my skills and artistic techniques to potential employers and to keep increasing the size and quality of the portfolio throughout a position as a Junior Environment/ Prop artist.

Bibliography  

Chucklefish.  (2018, June 26). Chucklefish Home. Retrieved from Chucklefish Blog:  https://blog.chucklefish.org/

GlassDoor. (2018,  August 5th). Environment Artist Jobs. Retrieved from Glassdoor:  https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Job/environment-artist-jobs-SRCH_KO0,18.htm?srs=TAB_OVER_SALARY_SEARCH

Glassdoor. (2018,  August 5th). Environment Artist Salaries. Retrieved from Glassdoor:  https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/environment-artist-salary-SRCH_KO0,18.htm

Ligman, K. (2016,  March 9). Stardew Valley developer says there were times when he almost quit.  Ready Set, p. 1.

Mon, S. (2017,  March 17). Everything You Need to Know to Become a Game Environment  Artist. Retrieved from Artstation : https://magazine.artstation.com/2017/03/game-environment-artist/

Wayforward.  (2018). Wayforward Home. Retrieved from Wayforward:  https://wayforward.com/

White, S. (2018,  March 20). Valley Forged: How One Man Made the Indie Video Game Sensation  Stardew Valley. GQ.

Wyss, J. (n.d.). The  Wolf Among Us. Retrieved from Wikipedia :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf_Among_Us

From graduation to industry although a large step is one all graduates must take, In this proposal I will exploring my role and chosen path to the industry. My strength in games lies in design is 3D modelling and texturing, the entry role positions that require those skills are prop artist / environment artist. For these roles other skills may be required such as experience with animation and particle systems and their accompanying software packages, while these skills certainly increase the likelihood of attaining an interview/ job they are not mandatory in all 3D modelling jobs.

When starting out as a junior environment / prop artist, with large companies like EA and Ubisoft you can expect salaries between 19k and 21k per year, although working at a slightly smaller company like splash damage you can expect a higher salary of 24k to 26k per year. However this is not the only advantage in working for a smaller company rather than a larger conglomerate. The Other advantages of being part of a smaller company makes it easier to be noticed for excellent work which makes a promotion more likely in a shorter time span. However with this larger salary and smaller ranks comes with less job security as one poorly managed project could bankrupt a small company in a volatile industry such as this.

Although all companies do have their advantages according to a recent (GAMEBIZ) study 52% of game developers are offered extra training which helps them to advance in said field, 73% are given the option of flexible working hours and 28% are given more than the standard maternity / paternity pay. Other perks include bonus pay, healthcare, pensions, meal tickets, gym memberships, company smartphones and revenue reward schemes.

Another popular option for breaking into the industry is to go freelance. Success in this practice depends on your networking skills, this can be done by regularly updating your portfolio and interacting with others and commenting on their work on sites like Artstation and Sketchfab where you can establish yourself as a creative professional and you can advertise your services. Often others will undervalue your work or ask you to work for free, you can also do this to yourself by rounding down the hours you spent on a project which is a common mistake made. Both of these are easy to avoid if you know how much your services are worth and keep track of your time spent working on any project.

More and more people are joining the games industry every year and people are often getting together in groups of 2-12 forming micro studios and creating indie games, these studios are often funded by crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter or patron, however these micro companies can run into trouble using this method because the deliverables they set are unachievable and without allowances for complications, this leaves the company unable to develop the game fully. Some developers use personal finances to fund the rest of the development. Often leaving them with nothing if the game doesn’t create enough revenue.

Emails

I did attempt to email a few people for feedback and advice for this presentation, namely I emailed people at White Paper Games and Santo Campo but unfortunately I was either met with nothing but silence or a reply telling me that they couldn't help me at this time so unfortunately I am unable to relay much more info on the subject here i'm afraid.

Working Environment

In terms of what I’d like for a working environment I am quite flexible I wouldn't mind working for smaller teams or bigger triple A companies, my only preference for location would be somewhere that can speak english but other than that I would be willing ot travel and move in order to find a job, and if a good enough job presented itself even in a foreign speaking country I’d be willing to take it if the company provided lessons to learn the new language for example, CD Projekt Red provide polish speaking lessons for non polish employees.

How to get in

The next thing to ask would be how do I exactly plan on getting into the industry myself, well from what I have found online I’d best start in smaller indie studios until I have the necessary qualification and experience required to go for a more triple A based company

This kind of way into the industry is corroborated by Neil Druckmann who says the best thing to do is just get into the industry anyway you can and earn enough of a reputation to be able to side step into your desired career path, he also recommends starting with indie studios to build up a reputation, Ninja Theory’s site also states that new developers should start in the indie section as a means of acquiring the necessary skills to make into the triple A industry

Portfolio

The main thing I’ll need to do is build up my portfolio, currently all I have to show for my portfolio is work that I have done at uni. This is something I’d definitely need to change going forward, I plan to do a lot more in terms of individual based projects on my own time, this was also recommended by Todd Howard as a great way to prove your passionate about developing games, as it shows your so passionate that you are willing to do your own workin you spare time

Specific area I would need to improve in though would be programming and scripting of all kinds and languages, this was one of the more prominent demands for those going into level design or narrative design based fields but it's also probably my weakest area in terms of developer based skills

John Gonzalez:

John Gonzalez started as a writer for lesser known games or games that weren't even released at the studio Outrage entertainment where he did all the writing, story, characters and dialogue as well as helped with scripting the cutscenes but moved onto be the lead narrative designer at Ubisoft Shanghai on a game in the Tom Clancy series, Tom Clancy’s End War, his primary role being the writing and scripting for dialogue systems that worked with the use of AI but also worked extensively with all the other fields such as design based roles, audio and the tech roles.

It was after this however that he scored a place on what was his first role of note, Fallout: New Vegas, at Obsidian Entertainment were he worked as lead creative designer and the lead writer as well as being the narrative designer for all four of its downloadable content packs

After development has ended on Fallout: New Vegas he moved to Warner Bros Games were he was one of the lead designer for Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor also working on the writing and story for the game too, after the release of that game he settles in as the lead writer at Guerrilla Games until finally earning the position of Narrative Director on Horizon: Zero Dawn, which is the role closest to what I would like to achieve

Ninja Theory:

Ninja Theory are a british based company the have quite a variety of titles to their name, they've worked on well received story based fighting games such as Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West but perhaps their most well received work was the Indie/AAA game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, a very narrative based game that aimed to tackle subject matter usually not tackled in the games industry.

Their push for more mid tier games to return allows for a wealth of new opportunities for the up and coming developers of the industry to try and earn a place higher than just indie and perhaps even work their way up to the triple A portion of the industry.

I researched companies that I’d like to work for as well as inspirational designers that are in story based game design roles and how they specifically made it into the industry.

Neil Druckmann:

I find Neil Druckmann to be on of my most inspirational developers because of the kinds of games he makes with The Last of Us being one of my favorite games.

It was interesting to note the Druckmann didn’t start off in a narrative based role or a design based role but in fact a programmer, he studied programming in college specifically as a way to get into the industry and when he finally landed himself a job at Naughty Dog, one of the companies that I would most like to work for, he quickly worked his way up from being a programming intern until sidestepped into the role of a designer after proving he had a solid understanding of design to his boss at time Jasin Rubin, he worked on the Uncharted series were he worked his way up further the design chain until he got involved with the writing process as well, until finally he worked his way up to being the creative director and writer on the Last of Us

He continued to work in this role though acclaimed release, Uncharted 4 and through most of the unreleased The Last of Us Part 2 until he was finally made vice president of Naughty Dog Itself.

Todd Howard:

Todd howard started with a more humble beginning having tried to earn a role at Bethesda Game Studios since high school he settled for doing small work until he had earned enough recognition to be able to earn a spot a Bethesda Game Studios while they were still a relatively small company, where he worked on a few lesser known Terminator games before moving onto the Elder Scrolls Series with The Elder Scrolls Daggerfall, he was given the roll of lead on the Elder Scrolls spin off game, Redguard until he was made made the lead for the mainline Elder Scrolls games as the games Director

I’ve looked into a few select games that reflect what I wish to create when I’m in the industry, and the different narrative techniques they use to invest the player.

Fallout

The Fallout series is known for giving its players the freedom to progress and play however they see fit and while this open nature somewhat prevents it from telling a more deeper gripping narrative, it also makes it incredibly immersive for fans of western role playing games as the amount of options afforded to them makes player feel as if they can do anything and create their own narrative.

The Last of Us

The Last of Us offers a completely different experience, a linear narrative experience, it does offer some freedoms in its moment to moment gameplay but overall everything is leading the player to the same events and the same conclusion with the same characters in the same setting, but while this sounds like a negative the Last of Us actually uses its gameplay to draw the player into its story and characters and make them relatable in a way non interactive media just can't.

Its less about giving the player a sandbox to make their own story in and more about letting the player experience someone else's story.

Mass Effect/The Witcher

There are also games that offer somewhat of a middleground for this, mass effect for example allows you to create your own character to an extent, but aspects of that character is always set such as the characters voice, which also limits the amount of personalities the player can act out in game. But it still affords enough freedom of choice in its story and the dialogue that can be uttered by the player avatar