Employees of our Redwood Shores studio showcased their school spirit during our NCAA Beer Bash celebrating the launch of NCAA 11 last week.  As you can see we have alumni from a variety universities across the US. 

Who do you think is going to dominate the Pac-10 Conference this season?

NCAA Football 11 available now.

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

EA Tiburon Volunteers transformed the Amberville Rooms at Give Kids the World Village, into a hip, cool EA game lounge which has quickly become the hottest spot for family fun!  The effort involved a total remake of both rooms, to include paint, millwork, furnishings, game and sound systems.   Play areas include a Rock Band Theater, arcade games, an entertainment lounge with x360 and Wii systems, pool table and bar style seating and counters.  EA Tiburon COO, Daryl Holt,  had the honors of cutting the ribbon at the opening ceremony and has committed to keeping the game room refreshed and with new EA games as they are released. 

Give Kids the World Village is a non-profit organization that exist only to fulfill the wishes of all children with life-threatening illnesses and their families around the world to experience a memorable, joyful, cost-free visit to the Central Florida attractions. http://www.gktw.org/

I hope you agree this is very cool.  Nice work.  EArl

Some more pics to give an insight into the day…….

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Lance Duby is a 14 year old phenomenal game designer in the making! He has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and has dreamed of making a video games for as long as he can remember. In April, Lance was granted his “wish” through the Make-A-Wish Foundation B.C. where he chose to come to EA to pitch his own game idea. Thanks to the kindness and generous spirit of various Creative Directors from EA Burnaby, Lance’s wish came true. He met with a team of designers to help create his pitch and over all concept. With the help and guidance of “Team Lance” (see photo), he put together a stellar presentation and couldn’t wait to share it with the Leadership Team. His team was so impressed with Lance’s vision and concept, they worked with him for an additional two days, creating posters, box cover art and a voice over for his game trailer. On presentation day, he blew everyone away and some said it was one of the best pitches they’ve seen. And that’s only the beginning. Lance was recently made an honorary member of a design team, and will be returning to EA several times over the next year as a consultant, to help shape the design of one of our new Triple A titles. Now how cool is that?

For more information on“Make-A-Wish Foundation B.C.”  Click Here

EArl

Answer:  When the CEO personally makes time in in a busy diary and spends quality time with the new graduates.

Yes, EA CEO John Riccitiello is a man who is devoted to ensuring EA hires the best talent and for him that includes putting Graduates on the centre stage.  He recognises they are the future business leaders.

Yesterday, he gathered a group of new Grads, interns and co-ops together and spent time discussing EA, the future, business models, competition, latest games and then held a great Q&A so the grads could ask him about anything.  And that they did!…….

All involved left feeling inspired…..and that included JR.

How cool is that?      EArl

 A couple of extra shots for you.  Look carefully at the audience amongst the grads and you can see Gabrielle Toledano EA’s EVP of HR and Cindy Nicola, the VP who heads up Recruitment.  Very cool.

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

EA is very proud to be a member of Skillset in the UK.  

What is Skillset?  Well, Skillset is the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for Creative Media which comprises TV, film, radio, interactive media, animation, computer games, facilities, photo imaging, publishing, advertising and fashion and textiles. Their aim is to support improvements to the productivity of our industry to ensure that it remains globally competitive. They do this by influencing and leading; developing skills, training and education policy; and through opening up the industries to the UK’s pool of diverse talent.  Skillset conducts consultation work with industry, publishes research and strategic documents, run funding schemes and project work, and provide information about the challenges that face the industry and what we need to do to overcome them.  Lastly they also provide impartial media careers resources for aspiring new entrants and established industry professionals online and over the phone. Whether a freelancer looking for training information, a student furthering knowledge of industries or a public agency partner, Skillset aim to provide all with easy access to the information required.  To learn more, click here. 

Leading the way for the videogame sector in the UK is Executive Chair, Industry Statesman Ian Livingstone who presides over a prestigious council with representatives from EA, Sony, Microsoft, ELSPA and TIGA amongst others. 

Many students in the UK are confused by the explosive growth in degrees, particularly those focusing on videogames.  What should they study?  Where should they study?  Are some Degrees ‘worth more’ than others?  What are the Degrees to avoid!Through a very thorough review process, Skillset accredits the best Gaming Degrees in the UK, (with Industry support).  This is a key guide for students as games degrees have received a bad rap and some have been hastily put together. The goal….to help students best decide.

Skillset have again been at the forefront of the skills agenda.  At a recent event they brought together some of the most talented animation graduates from the UK’s most industry-savvy courses together under one roof in Soho for industry to meet.  Even better is that they filtered the best of the current crop too- into the best new breed of 3D, 2D, and stop frame animators!  As well as a great conference, Skillset arranged for an informal exhibition space allowing the best graduating students from Skillset Accredited degree and postgraduate courses to showcase their innovative and inspiring work. A new addition for the 2010 showcase was a screening room to view selected student work.

 To give an idea of who attended and spoke at the Conference, here’s the agenda.

EA supported the Animation day…..

EA keynoted the event via Matthew Jeffery of the recruitment team who presented on the 12 principles of animation and what EA look for.  Matthew detailed what EA looks for in a showreel and gave an overview of the 12 principles of Animation.  This advice has been provided on this blog previously.  In particular take a look at :

-     The principles of animation  Click here

-     How to put together a killer showreel   Click here

-     How to put together a great cv   Click here

-     Advice to students and graduates   Click here

-     How to maximise your chances in getting a job     Click here

Signing off the 40 minute presentation Matthew inspirationally reminded the Graduates and Professors to aim high and to never give up on their dreams.  The likes of Walt Disney, John Lasseter, Steven Spielberg, Will Wright all had their dreams and through their unshaking dedication to these dreams, lost blood, sweat and tears to ensure they brought joy to millions of people across the world through their ability to entertain.

Keep up the great work Skillset.     EArl

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Hey all.  Exciting news in from Animation 10.  The judging over, the awards have been given and it is a privilege to give readers an insight into one of the most prestigious Animation competitions across the world.

Credit to Manchester University for driving this great initiative in the UK.  Underpinning this competition is the desire to ensure that school children gain confidence with using computers and essentially learn how to have fun with technology.  Of course, the end product is the creation of compelling animated shorts.  Due to these great aims, EA is proud to be a title Sponsor, (thanks to EA’s Kate Booth of the Outreach team for driving EA participation). 

So what is Animation 10 all about?   UK schoolchildren aged 7-19 are invited to create an animated film using their computer, and submit it to the competition.  Entries can be from individuals, or groups (of up to 4 members) and should be about a minute long.  Animation 10 only accepts animations created using one of the following approved packages: Alice, Scratch, Greenfoot, Flash(includes pre-Adobe Macromedia Flash), or Serif.

To ensure all have a chance of being recognised against peers of similiar groups, different age categories are applied, including the following 8 categories:

• Age 7-11 (Key Stage 2) – individual or team
• Age 11-14 (Key Stage 3) – individual or team
• Age 14-16 (Key Stage 4) – individual or team
• Age 16-19 (studying in sixth form/college) – individual or team

After the closing date of the competition, each category & each entry was reviewed anonymously by the competition organisers, who award points based on the following criteria:

• Originality
• Creativity
• Technical quality, use of animation software features
• Relevance to the taught curriculum
• Overall directorial quality as a movie

Toby Howard, the excellent host of the day and driving force of the competition from Manchester University

So last week, the prestigious Lowry Centre in Manchester was packed full of excited schoolchildren, teachers and parents, eargerly awaiting to hear who had won.  To ensure a great day out for all, Manchester University provided a range of activities for the schoolchildren to enjoy and to ensure they embraced technology.

Eager schoolchildren await to hear the winners

 The agenda for the day was packed, with the awards in the morning and a fun afternoon of informative, engaging, interactive sessions. 

Morning Schedule

• 0900-1000: Registration
• 1000: Welcome
• 1015: Film Festival of winning animations, and prize-giving, part 1
• 1115: Morning break
• 1130: Matthew Jeffery, EA, ‘The Importance of Education’
• 11.40 Film Festival of winning animations, and prize-giving, part 2
• 1230: Lunch break (please bring your own packed lunch)

Afternoon Schedule

• 1315: Computer Science activities:
  • Computers and Brains, an inspirational talk by Prof. Steve Furber, CBE. (suitable for 11-19 year-olds).
  • Hands-on Computer Science workshop (suitable for all ages) including:
    • Enter new worlds with the BBC’s “green-screen” video technology
    • Find out and 3D, stereo computer graphics and how to make computers see
    • Fly your own plane in The University of Manchester’s Flight Simulator
    • Explore digital memories with Tales of Things
    • Find out about the magic of Computer Science with cs4fn’s Paul Curzon
    • Race your phone against “The Manchester Baby” – the world’s first computer
    • Experience the weird world of Augmented Reality
    • Virtual robot racing with Sodarace.
• 1530 – 1600 Finish

Matthew Jeffery of EA’s Global Recruitment team spoke on the importance of education to the audience.  Key points he stressed included reminding everyone how far the games industry had come in 25 years, from the graphical and animated simplicity of Pong, Pac-man and Space Invaders to the graphical and immersive mastery of games like FIFA, Medal of Honour and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit.  Critically, Jeffery stressed that technology never stands still but neither should learning and education.  Inspiring the audience he informed them that some of the nation’s finest young animators were in the presentation room today.  Reiterating the aims of Manchester University, (whom he paid tribute to as one of the World’s finest Universities in the field of computing), he stressed EA’s involvement and support of Animation 10 was due to encouraging children of all ages to gain familiarity and not be scared of technology and to have fun with computers.

For Jeffery, fun and entertainment went hand in hand and he reminded the audience of a great quote from John Lasseter of Pixar:  ’‘Whether it is generated by hand or by computer, the first goal of the animator is to entertain.  The animator must have two things: a clear concept of exactly what will entertain the audience; and the tools and skills to put those across clearly.  Tools, in the sense of hardware and software, are simply not enough’.

To a buzz of excitement, Jeffery then asked the audience to look at the person sitting next to them and those around them and stated that the next Walt Disney, John Lasseter, Steven Spielberg, Will Wright or Miyamoto could be in the room today.  This resonated in the message, ‘Never give up on your dreams, always aim to touch the sky’.

Importantly for the audience, Jeffery stated that to be the best took hard work and hard effort at school.  He stressed the importance of core subjects like maths, english, computer science.  For those in the room coming up to select their Degree, a simple message was delivered: ‘There are so many degrees to choose from.  Some many be very appealing.  they may be fun subjects.  They may seem easy.  But choose your degree wisely.  It is the most important choice of your early years.  Never lose sight of the importance of core subjects’.  Jeffery cited the example of the video games industry in the UK which has seen many Universities clamouring to create courses based on video games but many were poorly thought through and did not set students up for the best success.  He concluded that students needed to consider what was the purpose of a Degree.  And concluded, it was to put the student in the best possible position of competing to get a great job and build a career.

You win!!!

The list of the winners can be found here on the Animation 10 site.  Look out over the next few days as all photos, winning videos and information is uploaded.  Very cool.

EA has two special Awards at the ceremony…….

As a title sponsor, EA had the priviledge to have two special awards.

The first award:  EA’s ‘One to Watch’.  This was targetted at the best animation from schoolchildren aged 12 and under, (Key Stage 2 ie 7-12).  This was won by the superb video, ‘The School Trip’ by Harvey Rothman and Sam Futcher ,who both won Nintendo DSi’s plus a game.  Here’s Harvey holding his prize and certificate with EA’s Matthew Jeffery.  Nice work Harvey & Sam.  A bright future lies ahead in animation

The other EA sponsered prize was the EA ‘Hollywood Beckons’ Award.  This went to the animation which was deemed the best of the whole show.  This was won by Hal Coley for his short ‘Success’.  Hal won a Playstation 3 and a copy of FIFA World Cup2010.  Congratulations to Hal….look forward to seeing your entry next year.

Winners then went on for a VIP lunch to meet with other competition winners and organisers/special guests.

Completing this great day, after lunch, schoolchildren attended great talks and a room full of activities to inspire them in the future of technology and stimulate their hunger to learn.

Congratulations again to Manchester University, all the winners, all the entrants, Kate Booth and too many names to list here….so all involved.  Animation 11 looks to be even bigger, bolder and better.

EArl

Here’s a montage of activities that Manchester University laid on for the schoolchildren to enjoy. 

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Our staff across the world have really been getting into this year’s FIFA World Cup but none as much as our team in Spain.  The office has been beset with big rivalries as many different nationalities work there.  Hence you can imagine the atmosphere in the office with so many different teams being cheered for.  It is true to say that the Spanish office has been infected this past month with World Cup fever.

It’s great to share some pictures of the team having fun showing off their team’s colours and allegiances.

Obviously today many in the office will still be celebrating their victory in the World Cup Final.  Viva Espania!

Congrats also to South Africa for putting on a great World Cup and bringing the Vuvuzela to the World!!! 

Roll on the next World Cup in Brazil.   EArl

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

In the spirit of the World Cup and on one of the most beautiful summer days we’ve had at EA Redwood Shores,  we had the honor of one of our local Major League Soccer teams The San Jose Earthquakes practice out on our great lawn.  After practice they hung out and watched the Brazil/Chile match with some EA Employees and they also made time to meet and greet our littlest EA team members.

Here are some pics of the event.  Very cool….!

 © 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

This is a very cool story and one it is a pleasure to report on.

Dan,(who works for EA in Guildford),  and Vicky Holman from Reigate, Surrey ran in the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 25 April 2010 in aid of Make-A-Wish Foundation^®UK, the leading wish granting charity that grants magical wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening illnesses.  There are 20,000 children living in the UK with a life-threatening illness and Make-A-Wish believes that every one of these children deserves to experience the magic of a Make-A-Wish wish. Make-A-Wish needs to raise at least £5 million this year in order to grant the wishes of the 1,000 children who will turn to the charity in 2010.  Granting all these magical wishes relies solely on the generous donations of the public and fundraising challenges like the Virgin London Marathon.  Dan and Vicky have certainly played there part in helping…..as we will see.

Well done Dan & Vicky.  People like you truly make a difference.

This is Dan’s story in his own words.

“Yes – we did it!

The 5 months of training, come rain or shine and plenty of snow too worked out for us on what was our first marathon run together or individually for that matter. There were definitely times when we questioned our own sanity through the dark winter months training. This all washed away yesterday as we made our way round London.

We had some technical issues to overcome before we even crossed the start line. Like how to smuggle Vicky into the Red start zone when she should have been in Blue – this proved simpler then we thought and our cleverly hatched plans of posing as a blind runner and guide were not needed as the age old “whats that over there and point technique” seemed to do the trick with security as she ran by undetected.

We donned our expensive and hi-tech sports jackets to keep the rain off (see picture) so much for the sunshine that the BBC promised! Then joined the Incredible Hulk, Rhino, Batman & Robin, Thomas the Tank Engine and 30,000 other fools in a very ordily British queue for a run.

Our timing plan went out of the window after 5 mins when I realised in chatting to some nurses I’d become distracted and managed to stop my watch.  Well we were never going to break any records so we just relaxed and got into it, enjoying the crowds shouting your names out – go Vicky, go Den – Bloody Den, can’t they read! High fiving various kids, some that looked like they may nick my i-pod if I got to close and taking Jelly Babies from the well wishes – at least that’s what I think they were, some of them had just fallen out of local nightclubs…

We only stopped for the loo once, in hindsight should have done again as running when you need to go is not fun for 16 miles. Running all the way to mile 21 before we had to adopt a walk 5 mins and run to the next mile marker to see us home on the 26.2 mile course. We actually crossed the finish line together on 5hr 20mins, both to knackered and emotional for any last minute high jinks to cross the line first.

So in rounding up, we have had a terrific journey of highs and lows over the past 5 months. All of which was made so worthwhile with yesterdays incredible experience. Thanks to all our family, friends, colleagues and some people we have never met but were touched by a good cause for all your support along the way, it really meant the world to us. You have given so generously to Make-A-Wish and we thanks you for helping us smash our target and making wishes come true for children that are fighting life threatening disease”.

Dan & Vicky

“Marathon Runners”

Obviously we love working at EA.  But we are biased.  It is always great to receive external recognition about EA being a great place to work.

Let’s take a look at some different awards announced recently.

First up at the prestigious ‘Recruiter Awards’, EA was delighted to be awarded the recognition ‘Highly Commended’ for the most effective Employee Brand development.  What makes this special is that the recognition comes in a category that included hundreds of applicants across different industries eg financial services, pharmaceutical, public sector, retail, consumer goods etc.

Every year, Universum surveys students and asks them questions about their career expectations, how they perceive companies as employers and what they associate to those employers. Universum asks students to pick the employers they would consider working for and then choose the employers they would most like to work for, that is the companies that they perceive as being “Ideal”.

The Universum Top 100 Ideal Employer Rankings reflect the frequency with which these employers were selected as being ideal by the students who participated in the surveys. The Universum Top 100 essentially measures the level of employer attractiveness that a company/organization has on the recruitment market vis-à-vis other competing employers. In other words, how many students perceive you as a “best place to work” company or organization and where do you stand in the crowd of all those employers needing top talent.

The Universum American Student IT Survey results are out.

And……..

EA are in the Top 10….at number 8!!!

Very cool.

Now what makes this exciting is that this is the opinion of students…some 56,900 were polled from 345 leading US Universities.

Other Universum results have also been announced.

In the UK, some 11,637 students from 65 leading Universities were polled and EA were ranked at number 15in the Engineering / IT Sector.

And in Sweden, 16,791 University Students were polled from 34 leading Universities.  DICE, (an EA Company), were voted in at number 5.

These votes mean a great deal for us at EA.  Especially as they are voted by students.  Thank you.

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

You can sense the excited tension at Animation 09 as schoolchildren wait to see if they are a winner

Hey all.

Just back from judging Animation 10.  Wow the standard is high this year.  There is no shortage of animation talent lining up for jobs in the years ahead.

As EA are title sponsors again, we are very proud of this event and the effort that Manchester University goes to in ensuring it is a great success. 

596 schools registered from all  across the UK – from Cornwall to Shetland, with 1234 entries. A total of 36 prizes awarded to 28 winners.

As a reminder of what Animation 10 is all about:

-   UK schoolchildren aged 7-19 are invited to create an animated film using their computer, and submit it to the competition.

-   Entries can be from individuals, or groups (of up to 4 members).

-   All entrants receive certificates, and winners will receive prizes ranging from laptops to gift vouchers.

-   Winners will be invited to the exciting Animation Festival and Prize Giving day at The Lowry, Salford Quays, Manchester.

-   Entries are submitted in 4 age categories (KS2, KS3, KS4 and 16-plus).

-   The maximum duration of an entry is one minute.

-   Animations must not be interactive – they must run as standalone animations.

-   Entries must be created using one of the following programs: Alice, Scratch, Adobe Flash, Serif, and Greenfoot.

As you can see the goal is to ensure that schoolchildren see that using computers can be fun.  Manchester University has the vision that capturing children’s imagination through competitions like this, will result in more children wanting to study Computer Science at University in the years head.  This is a primary reason for EA’s involvement in this great competition. 

Well, all the winners are now picked.  But I am sworn to secrecy.  But what I can say is that it is great to see so many children, particularly at Key Stage 1 and 2, really flourishing in the course of a year.  That really gives a great deal of confidence about talent in the future.

So what happens next?  The Awards…….

EA have two major awards this year:

-    ”Hollywood beckons” ie Overall Best Animated Film

-    ‘The one to watch’ ie Best Junior entry (under 12)

Matthew Jeffery of EA Speaking on the future of Animation at Animation 09

So what does Awards day look like?

After an eventful day of festivities hosted at the Museum Of Science and Industry in Manchester (MOSI) in 2009, the Animation10 Awards Festival and Computer Science Day promises to be yet another activity-packed event at The Lowry, Salford Quays, Manchester, on Friday 9 July 2010.

In the morning, all winning animations will be featured in the Animation10 Film Show followed by the Awards Ceremony, at which the winners receive their prizes. Last year 42 awards were won by both groups and individuals. See the 2009 winners in the Animation09 Winners Gallery.

In the afternoon, there’ll be exciting hand-on activities to inspire children about Computer Science (see below for details).

All Animation10 prize-winners will be invited, and may bring their teachers, family and friends.

The event is also open, free of charge, to all schools, subject to space. An on-line booking form will be available shortly.

What’s happening on the day?

In the morning:

• - 0900-1000: Registration opens
• - 1015: Film Festival of winning animations, and prize-giving
• - 1115: Morning break
• - 1130: Film Festival of winning animations, and prize-giving
• - 1230: Lunch break (please bring your own packed lunch)

In the afternoon:

• - 1315: “Computers and Brains”, an inspirational talk by Prof. Steve Furber, CBE (suitable for 11-19 year-olds)
• - 1315: Hands-on Computer Science activities workshop (suitable for all ages), including: BBC-21CC green-screen technology; meet RoboThespian; University of Manchester Flight Simulator; cs4fn presents “Computer Science and magic”; Tales of Things; Augmented Reality.
• - 1415: The above two activities are repeated, so everyone has the opportunity to attend both activities.
• - 1445: Finish

 EArl

Have you checked in to Playfish latest sensation ‘Hotel City’?  It is taking the web by storm, as you can see from the screen shot above from ‘Inside Social Games’ insight into web traffic.

Congrats to the team at Playfish who are on fire with creativity at the moment, (and yes they are recruiting for the very best talent now…. www.jobs.ea.com).

There is a real buzz surrounding Social Gaming, not just about its tremendous growth and success to date but also about its bright future, rich with lots of unrealised potential….and this means shed loads of fun for games players across the world.  The adrenaline is really flowing at Playfish as they unleash their creative talent and their employees do what they are best at….creating fun for all.

Social gaming has been spurred by the spread of social networking, faster Internet connections and powerful mobile devices, which mean that game makers are experimenting with a host of innovations that drastically improve online play.  The internet itself has ballooned in growth from 16 million users to 1.8 billion users in the last 15 years, driven by lower barriers of entry. Facebook is by far the largest Social Network with 400m unique users, with 200m of them playing games on the platform.

So far Playfish have created 12 online games, with over 61 million loyal fans who play their games worldwide.  But what gives them real heart and energy for the future is an appreciation that they are at the start of a journey, with so much more to achieve.  Look at the growth of Social Networks, particularly Facebook.  The statistics below in the previous blog story really underline the breathtaking potential to reach out to new gamers across the world. 

Social gaming is fundamentally changing the way the games industry does business.  Gaming is moving from being a product-driven industry to being a service-driven industry, with the significant change in economics that comes along with that.  The internet is really driving major evolutions in how games are made and distributed: they’re changing from physical to digital, from products to services, from standalone experiences to social experiences, and from upfront payments to ongoing payments. That is a radical overhauling of the traditional business model.   

Social gaming is also a change in the way people traditionally play games.  Social games can be about things like cooperation and competition – arguably those are far more compelling reasons to play than the journey through some solitary quest a game designer has written, even if it’s written very well.

That core ability has created an entirely new discipline of game design, which takes game design out of the experience inside the game itself.  Rather, designers now must ask themselves, “How do we create an experience where people will want to talk outside of the game about what’s going on in the game, and bring other people into the game?” 

This means that Playfish is able to bring games to where people hang out, and not ask them to identify as gamers. It’s a huge difference to a barrier of adoption, as witnessed by 200 million uniques right now. This sense of reaching ‘friends,’ not ‘gamers,’ is critical.  This leads to a sense of “social adoption” in games. Rather than finding games through specialist game stores or dedicated game portals, you find games through friends.

Playfish has real energy about the future……..we will certainly bring you the latest news direct from the fishes mouth!

So let’s learn more about latest sensation ‘Hotel City’.  Even better, click on the link below and go play it…..

So what is Hotel City all about?

Imagine you and your friends had your very own city where the streets were lined with hotels large and small, grand and humble. Imagine if you could start a hotel in the city and call it your own, choosing exactly what size and shape the hotel should be, where the guest rooms should be, where the restaurant should go and who should work there. Imagine if you could employ your own friends as staff, setting Mike to work as a cleaner and Mary to work as a cook. Imagine if you could decorate every room exactly how you wanted it, from the wallpaper to the light fittings to the floors.

Imagine if you could choose from an ever growing list of different furniture to add to your rooms just how you like them to make your guests comfortable and work your way up to being a certified 5 star hotel.

Imagine taking your hotel from humble beginnings to being the greatest hotel in the city… in the whole world.

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Hello all.

I have been spending some time looking at the great Social Media site Mashable.  Scanning through the articles I pulled together some fascinating statistics. 

All those gamers out there who wonder why companies like Playfish are so passionate about their future potential only need look at the growth of Facebook for example.

We truly do live in an interconnected instant communication society.

Blogs

-       15% of bloggers spend 10 or more hours a week blogging, according to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere.

-       70% of bloggers are organically talking about brands on their blog

-       38% of bloggers post brand or product reviews

Facebook

-       Second largest site on the web

-       400 million active global users

-       50% of active users log into the site each day. This equates to at least 175m users every 24 hours.

-       More than 35m Facebook users update their status each day.

-       Photo uploads have increased by more than 100% – Today there are 2.5bn uploads each month

-       Back in 2009, the average user had 120 friends within Facebook. This is now around 130.

-       There are more than 3.5bn pieces of content shared each week on Facebook.

-       More than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook.

-       Purpose-built Facebook pages have created more than 5.3bn fans.

-       About 70% of Facebook users are outside the USA.

-       There are more than 70 translations available

-       More than 250 Facebook applications have over a million combined users each month.

-       More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since December 2008 and more than 60m Facebook users engage with it across these external sites each month.

-       Mobile is even bigger than before for Facebook, with more than 65m users accessing the site through mobile-based devices

YouTube

-       Third largest Site on the Internet

-       Largest video site on the web

-       1 billion views per day (that’s 11,574 per second, 694,444 per minute, or 41,666,667 per hours)

-       10 billion videos uploaded per month

-       More than 200 million minutes of video (or 34, 560 hours), is now uploaded onto YouTube per day

-       24 Hours of video uploaded every minute  

-       Lady GaGa first online Artist with 1 billion video views

LinkedIn

-       LinkedIn has over 64m members worldwide.

-       There are now 11m LinkedIn users across Europe.

-       India is currently the fastest-growing country to use LinkedIn, with around 3m total users.

Twitter

-       Twitter now has 75m user accounts, but only around 15m are active users on a regular basis. It’s still a fair increase from the estimated 6-10m global users from a few months ago.

-       Towards the end of last year, the average number of tweets per day was over 27.3 million.

-       The average number of tweets per hour was around 1.3m.

-       At the current rate, Twitter will process almost 10bn tweets in a single year.

Wikipedia

-       Wikipedia currently has in excess of 14m articles, meaning that its 85,000 contributors have written nearly a million new posts in six months. It is the most up to date encyclopaedia in the world.

Truly outstanding!

And don’t forget, the links on the side will take you direct to our communities on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube.  Have your say about EA…..others are!

So you want to be an artist?

I thought it cool to share a presentation on art careers in EA, the different art disciplines, (eg animator, modeller, VFX, Concept artist etc), the skills and experience we look for each role and a definition of ‘what good looks like’.  This will give you a great insight into what recruiters look at and how they take decisions.

Take a look at the presentation.  (For those reading the news letter you will need to view this HTML on the site).

 So let’s continue our focus on art with an interview by our sister site www.ea.com.  Lucian Tucker met with Emma Toyonaga a Concept Artist.  Over to you Lucian.

Imagine designing a game character from scratch. Sure, you’re given some design parameters like “make sure it’s cute,” or “appeal to kids,” but even so, the look of the character is in your control. You’re the one with the blank sheet of 11 x 17 paper on your desk and what you draw will be molded, and animated, and will end up on screens all over the world.

If you’re interested in working in the game industry and love to draw, I’m sure you’ve dreamed of being a Concept Artist like my interviewee this week Emmy Toyonaga (see self-portrait on left). She’s responsible for creating the look of the MySims characters. Before that, she was responsible for changing the colors of couches on The Sims from brown to black. Have to start somewhere I suppose.

Can you tell me your name, job title, and what you do at EA?

Emmy Toyonaga. Lead Character Artist for The Sims Label, though currently I’m doing concept art and character art direction.

So really you have two jobs.

What I do isn’t really typical here. I guess you can do more than what is in your job description when you work on small teams.

I’m also a special case since I came up with the look for the characters in MySims and created the base 3D meshes, so I function as a style guide for the franchise.

Tell me about that. When you created the MySims characters, where did you start?

Everything starts from design. The lead designer wanted characters that appealed to the Nintendo market and the game was to be more light hearted and approachable, so I tried to create something that would appeal to that market.

I referenced current Nintendo games and looked at urban vinyl toys as reference. The small characters resonated well with the team so we went with that. Also, in games and animation, I found that more cartoon-like, squat characters are used in light-hearted situations, and realistic and gritty characters work better for serious situations. Since the Sims characters have always been more realistic in style, I thought a lighter hearted version of the Sims should have characters that are small and cute, like toys coming alive.

And when you go to actually design them, do you start with pencil and paper, or something else? How does that process begin?

Pencil and paper back then. Now I have a Wacom Intuos (pen tablet) that allows me to draw directly onto the screen. Pencil and paper is still the best though. You just scan the drawings, open them in Photoshop, and edit them there.

What happens after you finish the concept art?

Concept art in gaming has multiple purposes. For characters, like on the Sims series, you draw the character and the clothing and get approval from design and management. It’s kind of like drafting out a building design before you build it. You make changes in the drawing so you don’t spend time fixing it while you’re building it.

The concept art then goes to the 3D Modeler, who makes the character out of the drawing. On MySims 1, in the beginning of the project, I was both the concept artist and the character modeler so I performed both tasks.

Are they similar at all? Or easy to go from one to the other?

Modeling and concept art? Concept art involves visualizing and projecting information that Design would like to see onto paper. Concept artists are the idea guys responsible for creating reference art for the 3D modelers.

For 3D modeling, you take concept art and build out the information, whether it is a level, character, or object-almost like molding clay, in the computer. 3D artists are basically the sculptors.

So we have Emmy the Concept Artist and Emmy the Modeler. What about the Character Art Direction side?

That’s where I’m the style guide. I help other artists understand what makes a MySim look like a MySim.

Ah, because you’re the person who created it and you know it best.

Yes. Art tends to be subjective-it’s important to have a point person that can make decision of whether or not looks good within a set style. Of course, the director has to be flexible enough to incorporate other artist’s ideas and input. I think this can be said for other jobs as well.

It’s a lot of pressure sometimes though, since you have to believe in your choices and trust that they are correct.

How long have you been at EA?

[She checks] November 14^th, 2003 is my start date-around 9 years I guess. Wow, that long? I worked at Maxis before were merged into EA Headquarters.

Back in 2003 did you join Maxis as a Concept Artist or something else?

I actually came on as an Object Modeler/Texture Artist. It was a very boring job in the beginning, but you have to start somewhere.

[Laughter] I would take a brown chair, and make a black version, and a green version. Or fix bad outsourced art. Ah, the memories.

So I want to go forward a little, and then backwards. Going forwards, where did you go after making black couches?

[Laughter] I kept on nagging people to let me work on characters and they gave me an opportunity. After proving that I’m capable, I was moved on to the Sims 2 character team. I got to work on both character concept and 3D modeling, which was great. If you are passionate and persistent a team will normally let you try out different tasks that may not necessarily be what you were hired for.

So for all aspiring concept artist out there, the key to moving up is to nag everyone, according to Emmy Toyonaga.

[Laughter] I think you have to be passionate and willing as a concept artist. If you stay in your corner and just draw whatever, it’s harder for people to recognize you. If you outwardly tell people what you’re interested and aspire to, they’ll remember what you told them and give you a heads up when there’s an opportunity. For example, let’s say you’re interested in becoming a cook. If you just stay at home and cook and not tell anyone, no one will know. But, if you let tons of people know you may find an opportunity. A friend might find an opening as a chef’s assistant or find some good class you may be able to take.

Sorry, that metaphor sucked.

[Laughter] No, it was good. Nice and simple. Makes perfect sense.

My advice to people interested in getting into the game industry as a concept artist is this: put your artwork online. But, make sure it’s safe and won’t get stolen. Watermark it and keep the resolution low. That’s how I got in. One of my first big freelance jobs was thanks to my website. I got a job doing spot art for Playstation Magazine and Dreamcast Magazine. One of the editors liked the stuff they saw on my website and decided to contact me.

As for my first game job, I got in contact with other online artists and formed a network with them. One of the artists was a lead character artist at Midway who ended up hiring me.

I got my art on to the net pretty early when the internet was just happening so I was lucky too. It’s funny, but I had a fan art site, a forum, a whiteboard, and an IRC chat channel. It’s really cool seeing MySims fan art on Deviant Art and such since I used to do the same thing-draw characters from games I liked.

I also recommend artists to go to conferences such as GDC (Game Developers Conference). Try to socialize and get to know other artists. Even something simple as joining forums like CG Talk and posting art will help.

Did you go to school for art?

I went to Sheridan College in Canada. I took Illustration there. Some people think I can only draw MySims but I can do pretty cool nude paintings too [Laughter]. I have so many life drawing stories.

I did a little nude drawing in college using just a Wacom, but I didn’t do it enough to be great.

Wow, a Wacom? That must be tricky! I love working with conte (chalk type material) and manilla paper. I suggest working with big paper and use your whole arm when drawing.

Let me know! But let’s get back on topic. You’re in California now, you went to school in Canada, and I know you’re Japanese. Were you born in Japan, or Canada, or somewhere else?

I’m weird. I was born in Canada and was shipped to Japan when I was 1-years-old. I grew up in Okinawa and went to an American school. When I was 18, I felt like checking out the place I was born at so I went to school in Canada.

It was cold.

I can imagine. And then you graduated and went to Midway?

At some point. I worked at an advertising company for a bit, but that didn’t work out, so I went to Midway after that. The advertising thing is a painful story.

Ah. Sorry bringing up bad memories…

[Laughter] It’s alright. You learn from hardships and it makes you stronger. I used to be very, very timid. Moving out to Canada was a very good thing for me.

Just a few more questions if you don’t mind. I like talking to you. You’re the first creative person I’ve interviewed!

Aw, thank you! You’re very nice to chat to as well!

So, are you a gamer?

Oh yeah, huge one. I just stayed up till 3:00am yesterday playing Might and Magic DS. I was pretty casual during the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) days though, mainly since I didn’t have money to buy many games. My love for games grew more since I entered the industry. Now I know how much effort it takes to make a good game-it’s just crazy. Some of those AAA titles out there, just the teamwork, leadership, and everything that it takes to make a game like that is amazing.

Was working in this industry always a goal?

I always liked games but I was trying to become a freelance illustrator at first. It was by chance that I stepped into this industry but I’m happy I did. My goal once I entered the industry was to become a lead character artist so I was totally stoked when I was able to do MySims. I was dancing on my bed on the first day I was told I can design the characters.

Oh yeah, and another tip for beginner artists is that this industry is all about connections. Also, it’s also beneficial to go to art school and use internship programs to get your foot in.

Any advice for females? Do you find it hard being a female in a mostly male industry?

Sometimes, when you come across that rare guy that treats you unfairly just because you’re a woman, yes. It’s not that bad. I think as long as you really like making games and you’re passionate about it, it resonates with people that want to do the same. If you don’t care about games I don’t recommend this industry though. It’s a lot of work.

What other games do you play? Any first person shooters?

I love Halo. Gears of War was okay. I’m more of a cooperative FPS player. I don’t have the patience to play capture the flag and such. I’d spawn, get shot in the head, then respawn, get shot in the back. It’s hard to get into when you play with good players [Laughter]. It’s like “Hey guys… Bam!”

What games do you play mostly then?

Hm. My favorite games of all time are the Zelda series. Genre wise, I like adventure and RPG’s. I like many games. I like anything from Katamari Damacy, to Plants vs. Zombies, to the Myst series, to Bayonetta. Bayonetta is awesome crazy.

What consoles do you use?

Any console. I love them all [Laughter]. I can’t choose. There are both good and bad games for all the consoles. I also like crap-tastic games too. What do you like playing?

Mostly shooters like Halo and Call of Duty. Also action adventure games like Assassins Creed and Uncharted.

Uncharted 2 was pretty cool. Haven’t played Assassins Creed yet. I’m not a good “sneaker” so I figure I’d suck at that game. Like in Metal Gear I’d be Rambo and get killed. I do like the cardboard box though. I liked the open ended story of Shadow of the Colossus too.

I actually don’t play online though. It’s weird, no? I avoid it because I’ll get addicted. I put in 600 hours over one summer on Phantasy Star Online, and I thought I probably shouldn’t play online anymore if possible. That’s why I’m avoiding WOW (World of Warcraft) like the plague. I even got hooked on to Restaurant City.

So yeah, I guess I get hooked to things.

I’m the same way, but I don’t hold back. I just prioritize. I just think to myself, “I’ll do this first, and then play all the games I want.

I’ll be like “OK, I’ll just play online for 2 hours and then sleep,” and next thing I know it’ll be morning. I’d have my mind set to stop but… the game… it sucks me in… [Laughter]. I must learn to be like you.

Well with that, I think we’re done. It was good talking to you.

Alright. Thanks!

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Just as I promised the other day, let’s travel today to EA’s Head Office in San Francisco.

© 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners