PERSONAL PROFILE

I am dedicated, hardworking and extremely passionate about Game Design, specifically modular workflow.

Currently a 4th year student at Staffordshire University, studying BSc Computer Games Design, having completed a placement year towards my course from September 2023 to April 2024. The placement was a great opportunity to work as part of a cohesive team and develop skills and confidence in the workplace. I was also encouraged to develop an idea from conception and through various development stages. Being given a blank canvas was both challenging but extremely rewarding.

My coursework to date has allowed me to display a variety of capabilities that are relevant to the industry.

My varied work experience illustrates my ability to work well in a team, working well under pressure to meet tight deadlines.

I can bring a good team working ethos, good communication skills, a solid technical capability and a dedication to any task I am given.

TRANSFERRABLE SKILLS - TEAM ENVIRONMENT

I have experience in a team environment in a number of roles, most recently from my placement year but also through my time in the hospitality industry, in a marquee installation company and, for 3 months, as a kitchen porter. These experiences have helped me gain transferrable skills that can be applied to any team orientated industry. There have also been instances where I have needed to work on my own, take initiative, and train new members of the team. I successfully achieved this and demonstrated independent initiative, adaptability, open mindedness and curiosity when needed.

More recently the placement and Junior Collaborative Game Development & Testing module in Year 2 at university gave me my first “Gaming” team environment experience for the whole gaming process allowing me to develop and build the skills I had gained from my previous work experience in other industries.

The Senior Collaborative Game Development module taking place in my last semester in my fourth year at Staffordshire will give me further experience.

ACHIEVEMENTS

GAMES DESIGN RELATED:

Year 3 - Placement - Achieved FIRST/Distinction

Year 2 - 3D Games Design & Development assignment – achieved FIRST/ Distinction 

Year 1 - Narratology assignment – achieved FIRST/ Distinction

Year 1 - 3D Engines assignment – achieved FIRST/ Distinction

OTHER:

PADI Advanced Open Water Diver & Boat, Night and Peak Performance & Buoyancy diver

RELEVANT SKILLS

Unreal Engine 5, Unreal Engine Blueprint, Photoshop, 3DS Max , MagicaVoxel , Microsoft Office

WORK EXPERIENCE

STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY PLACEMENT YEAR September 2023 to April 2024

  • Student Placement Officer, School of Justice for 7 months – for the first 2 months I mainly focused on creating graphics for the faculty and finding placement opportunities for its students. During this time I thought of ways to develop my role using my degree skills in such a way to aid the faculty and the students. I pitched my concept and was allowed to work on designing and developing an educational interview gaming app - in the same vein as Duolingo.

  • Developing the app resulted in learning how to use a 3rd party server plugin call Lootlocker. For example, allowing the developer to store the user’s information separately to the user’s device. I also learnt the basics of animation, so that I could make small 2D animation for my game. For example, the loading screen when the user first loads up the game. I became more adept with blueprints in Unreal Engine, specifically UI blueprints.

  • In order to secure an extension for my placement I had to present my game concept and development to the placement team at Staffordshire University via an in-person presentation. The two-way process gave me the ability to then refine the game concept with feedback provided.

  • Whilst being at the university during my placement year, I also took the opportunity to take an additional course covering Coding C++. The knowledge gained from this course is extremely beneficial now I am in my final year. It allows me to add functionally to Unreal Engine using Jetbrains Rider.

GAMES DESIGN RELATED:

  • M-XR Summer 2023 Internship for 4 months - The Company works in the area of scanning 2D, and 3D swatches paired with machine learning. At the time of my internship, M-XR worked closely with Epic Games, Quixel and Adobe. My role included scanning over 800 swatches, processing and cataloguing the samples, as well as gaining an insight into what it was like to work at a startup on the forefront of new technologies, and seeing how software, hardware and machine learning collectively was used to further the company’s objectives. I was part of a small team and was included in the weekly planning meetings. The experience gave me a great experience of a start-up company’s culture, teamwork and worth ethic.

  • ARUP - 3D Modelling & Game Design Departments (Intern: Summer 2019) – work included using Rhino software on a number of existing projects.

OTHER:

  • Petrol Forecourt/ Shop Assistant & Domino’s In Store Team Member (Both jobs June - September 2024)

  • Hospitality Industry–Marque installation company (May/June 2022), Kitchen Porter, Cuppa Club Haslemere (mid-June - Sept 2022)

  • Gardening work - Volunteered for local rural landscaping project - creation of scenic footpath & Ad hoc Gardening work (summer 2020)

  • Hospitality Industry-waiter at local wedding venue, bar work and car parking duties (summers 2017-19, & 2021)

  • Attended a number of computer Game festivals/conferences including:

    Bournemouth - BFX Festival (2019) & London – EGX (2019)

EDUCATION

STAFFORD UNIVERSITY

(BSc) Hons - Computer Games Design

October 2021 - Present

The course I am studying focuses on delivering industry standard knowledge on game design, such as 3D games engines, Modelling software, documentation of narrative theories.

 Examples of the skills/ knowledge I have developed through my module options to date are:

  • Tool Development for Technical Designers – given me a deeper understanding of Unreal Engine and modular work flow

  • Game Interface Design & Implementation - over the course of the year I was able to learn about game user interface (UI) and learn how to make UI assets in Photoshop, import them into Unreal Engine for the visual implementation of the UI.

  • Junior Collaborative Game Development & Testing – during my second year at Staffordshire I participated in junior collaboration and worked with a team to go through the complete process of designing a game. Even though our team had to redesign the Games Design Document (GDD) a number of times, we were able to produce a polished game by listening to the Team Leader and work through the challenges encountered.

  • 3D Games Design & Development - during my second year I had the opportunity to use a framework as a base to build upon and create a Games Design Document (GDD) for the final game I would produce. Through this module I learnt about the importance of not over scoping and making sure the final product would be ready by the deadline date.

BTECS (Summer 2021)

Games Production – BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate

(equivalent to one A Level) - Distinction

3D Design – BTEC Level 3 National Diploma

(equivalent to two A Levels)  - Double Distinction

AS Level (Summer 2021)

Core Maths – A

_______________________

GCSE’s/ BTECs – Summer 2019

GCSEs

  Maths, English Language,  English Literature, Combined Science, Religious Studies

BTECs

Hospitality, Design Technology, Creative Media

INTERESTS

I lived for five years in the Middle East and as part of this I was exposed extensively to other cultures and customs and developed good cross cultural communication skills interacting with others who are different from me. I was exposed to a diverse range of international film genres and storytelling, for example Parasite, Enter the Void, The Human Condition. This has led me adopting a more cinematic style in my game design concepts.

Other interests include: Reading, Films, Drawing, Music, Scuba Diving