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

Fancy being a Producer on Spore?

Next up in our Career Paths series is…..a Producer.

An EA Producer is responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of a game to a high creative standard. Producers oversee the whole lifecycle of the game from concept to launch. Their role is to ensure that Game Designers clearly define the game concept (i.e., its ‘X’ or the unique idea that makes it stand out from other games), and the market positioning of the game (including defining the target audience). The Producer must then ensure the game stays on target throughout the whole development process. Producers provide the link and liaise between the development studio and the marketing and sales departments. They work with marketing to ensure the maximisation of the game’s marketing and advertising strategy and budget. Producers also co-ordinate the release of screenshots and demo discs with the game’s marketing manager, coordinate the outsourcing of audio, cutscenes, and language localization, and oversee focus tests on early versions of the game.

So take a look at this video from Matthew Jeffery, Head of Global talent Brand, giving an insight into the role of a Producer, what skills and experience EA look for…and a great definition of what a great Producer looks like.

Again, if this interests you….and you want to explore a career as a Producer….EA is hiring across the globe today…take a look at www.jobs.ea.com

EArl

© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Think you could project manage the Skate 2 team?

The Project Manager (PM), also called Development Director (DD) at EA, is a critical role and responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of a game, on time and within budget. Prior to production they carry out a detailed analysis of the game design and work out the project ‘milestones’ (specific targets that have to be met by certain dates), agreeing upon these with the key technical and creative managers, such as the Game Designer, Art Director and Lead Programmer. The PM/DD then works out a schedule for the project and decides the personnel and equipment needed. They control the financial resources and negotiate all contracts with suppliers and contractors. Once development is underway, the PM/DD monitors the team’s progress against the schedule. They must be able to prioritize when production deadlines are a concern, manage risks, and plan for contingencies. Finally, the PM / DD is responsible for all people management on the team and entasked with motivating and developing all staff under their management and develop their career.

For more information watch this EA Career Paths insight video on Project Management by Matthew Jeffery, Global Head of Talent Brand……if this interests you, take a look now at www.jobs.ea.com and look at the latest Project Management vacancies across the globe today.

EArl

© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Film & Games Careers:  Your choice

Career choice is not easy.  Global Head of Talent Brand, Matthew Jeffery, provides us with an insight into the tough choice many face…working in film or games.

Let me know your views on what he has to say.

EArl

Opinion Piece: Matthew Jeffery…….’Career Choice: Working in games or film’?

Look back a few years.  Gaming was seen as the awkward cousin of film.  Like the spotty geek sitting at the corner of the school disco, waiting to be asked to dance.  Film & film production was seen as the career destination of choice for top creative talent, the hot mover of the disco.  People in film looked at the games industry and were frustrated that they could not bring their creative spark across into the industry without being limited by the technology at their disposal.  Working on a PS2 or Xbox, challenged creative talent but not in ways they wanted as memory limitations really curtailed what they could bring to the party.  Work in film on cutting VFX productions or come into gaming with block text & graphics.  Easy choice.  Fast forward that to today and how things have changed.

Just consider for one minute how far the games industry has come and the innovations that we have already seen.  Look back to the 1970′s when gamers were feasting on the likes of Pong, Space Invaders and Pacman, simple games visually but albeit with fun gameplay.  Now fast forward to today when we look forward to graphical tour de force games like Crysis 2, NFS Shift and Dante’s Inferno.  That’s a stunning achievement and testament to how far the games industry has come.  But this is not just about visuals.  Games are interactive, running in real time, with complex AI, physics engines all running online for millions of gamers to play and enjoy….but more of that later!

Only last week the games industry had another WOW moment with the announcement of Project Natal by Microsoft.  The idea of playing games with no controllers but based on body scanning technology that records your movement in real time and comprises of voice recognition technology.  That’s a WOW moment.  Imagine playing football with no controller or driving a car hands free…all now stunning realisations about to be brought to the market.  Watching the promo video by Peter Molyneux of Milo was also stunning.  Imagine a computer character that you can interact with, that can identify basic emotions and hold conversation with you.  WOW.  Now imagine working on that technology, making new games incorporating it?  Now that’s a fun, creative and intellectual challenge…..and imagine the possibilities of what this technology can create.  And this is only one form of technological advancement in gaming, not even mentioning the new games in development with real 3d! 

Let’s contrast that briefly with film.  There are many WOW moments across the history of film.  Who can forget Ray Harryhausen’s ‘Clash of the Titans’ and the stop go motion of those beasts from the deep; ‘Tron’ with the first incorporation of CG…the stunning lightcycle chases; the inspiring effects from ‘Star Wars’ and those mesmerising space battles; ’Terminator 2′ and the liquid nitrogen effects of the Terminator chasing Arnie through the hospital and morphing through the iron bars..then getting his gun stuck; Spielberg’s classic, ‘Jurassic Park’, with Dinosaurs that really did feel real; ‘Toy Story’ the first full length CG animated feature, to this day still stunning.  All WOW moments that had us on the edge of our cinema seats in awe and mouthing ’How did they do that’?

But in some ways, the immense trickery and visual brilliance of the VFX houses have anaesthetised audiences, as we are now used to their brilliance.  In fact we come to expect it.  Take ‘Transformers’, a superb film.  But seeing Megatron or Optimus Prime transform is mightily impressive, but we are used to grand VFX and we expect to see it and almost demand more and more effects when we watch a film.  Hence, currently, the WOW effects in film feel like they have hit the pause button. 

Interaction is a huge bonus for the games industry.  In film the film director takes you on a journey, they take you through a roller coaster of emotions, all on their linear ride.  They control what you see.  In games, YOU control, what you see, what you do, how you interact, the camera angles.  Developers are even happy to provide you with the tools to create your own games, like Spore and Sony Classics like LittleBigPlanet.  This all involves a lot of technical challenges for creative talent. 

So when you sit down to make that career choice, think of the future….think of how much you want to be challenged in your career and where the games industry has come from and where it could be in another 20 years!  Who knows.  Virtual Reality?  Full 3D?  Neural Gaming?  What we do know that we will have great fun pushing the limits of technology to their limits and beyond as we continue to entertain millions of people.  One final thought to leave this discussion on…………….

Burnout Paradise sees the release of Big Surf Island DLC this week…that’s a whole brand new island for the game.  Now consider this.  Criterion Games, the developers behind this game, are recruiting now, take a look at www.jobs.ea.com  Think of the technical challenges they face behind this game including; running the game at 60 frames per second, real time physics, full car deformation & splintering, taking the game online, with 8 gamers racing together, lag free.  Wowsers, that some challenges and that is just scraping the surface.

Captured your attention?  Join us in a career in gaming…………………..

© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

EArl believes that there is no tougher decision for a student than choosing which University to study at and what degree they should choose.  This is the 2^nd reflection point of the day, (to kick the series off, and goes in depth).  Students are faced with a multitude of choices.  Often selecting a career to go into after University is not at the forefront of a student’s thoughts.  Many don’t know what they want to do exactly and hence further study at University delays their career choice.  What the video games industry is witnessing is that there is a huge, growing undercurrent of people wanting to work in gaming, and why not?  Gaming is the fastest growing media segment, it is holding up well in a recession, the sector is earning more in revenues than the Hollywood box office, games are becoming more and more recognised as a great form of entertainment, and those in technical roles see the HUGE challenges that working in games provides. And students can see that the games industry is maturing with competitive compensation and benefits, training & development and solid career structures.

The allure of gaming is interestingly having a number of effects.  Firstly that Universities are recognising the appeal that students have for wanting to work in gaming.  Hence they are reacting.  Universities themselves are facing challenges.  Trends are starting to emerge that traditional degrees are becoming less and less popular.  Degrees like Maths, Physics, Computer Science, Business Studies, English are seeing, in some cases, seeing year on year falls in applicants at degree level of 10-15%.  That is a lot.  Why is that?  Well students are faced by growing choices—hundreds of new courses to choose from.  Thus, Universities, have to compete to attract students and hence offer more and more courses.  More students, means more funding for their University.  Hence, like any business would do, they have to ensure they have a solid mass of student numbers to maximise revenue for their budgets.  Unpopular Universities get less money.

Given the huge interest in gaming, Universities have started offering a range of games degrees courses and specialist courses like game design.  Many at EA have spoken out on this issue, including Matthew Jeffery, the Global Head of Talent Brand.  Here he discusses with Phil Elliott the Editor of GamesIndsutry.biz, concerns over education http://tiny.cc/6UyR1 a year back.

Now, given the huge proliferation of courses, over 150 in the UK alone, how does a student know which courses to select from?  How can they spot the quality courses from the hastily organised?  This is a critical question.  What is clear is that senior figures in the games industry are concerned at the quality of some of these courses and hence for the future of the students on these courses. There are many great games courses, particularly in the USA, but key to this blog is saying to students….please think, research and understand the University & course choice you have made.

What is also a concern is that game design courses are spiralling.  Game design is the hardest discipline to recruit for a games company, quite literally because a great game designer came come from anywhere.  A games programmer will generally have a maths/physics/computer science background and can easily be assessed though a programming test.  An artist can be assessed by the strength of their showreel.  A game designer?  Well they could come via Quality Assurance, (ie games testing), and through their passion of gaming and understanding the dynamics of a game, move on into design.  They could be an artist, a programmer, a producer, a marketer.  Game Design comprises of natural skills, like creativity.  Now consider that a game team recruits externally for very few game designers, (especially given the HUGE competition for the role internally).  How many game designers do you see being recruited in the industry at any given time…..very few.  In Matthew’s interview he points to the previous 300 hires, only 3 were entry level game designers.  And that is for EA a large employer of talent. 

Also, important to remember, as you look at game design courses is new ways that game designers are being spotted and recruited into the industry.  With games possessing more and more potential for User Generated Content, gamers can show off their creating skills and levels they built to potential recruiters.  Microsoft XNA has helped a whole community of games see the light of day on the Xbox Live Community.  So, students remember, studying for a Game Design degree does not necessarily place you at the front of the queue for a job.

So there is a very real danger of a flood of game design graduates coming on to the market and them not being able to get a job in games.  How transferrable is a Games Design Degree into other industries? (already recruiting at low levels due to the recession).  Not highly transferable as it is quite a niche course.  So, if a graduate can’t get a job in gaming and it is hard to transfer into other job markets, what do they do?  The prospect of unemployment for a graduate is frightening but a very real one.  Not what any one wants to see.

As you will see from the interview with Matthew, EA has a lot of success with Graduates from traditional degrees, (maths, physics, computer science, English, Business Studies), as students have the grounding to understand how things work, feel happy getting into the detail generally and are highly inquisitive.  Several games degree courses teach specifics like the history of gaming or look at programming one technology eg EA has interviewed students recently that were taught to program the PS2, (when PS3 been in market for a couple of years already).  The speed of the development of the games industry, leaves technologies quickly feeling dated, hence teaching core traditional skills helps the student adapt than focusing on teaching current technology or system specific information.  Also, arguably, possessing a traditional degree leaves more options open to the graduate….eg they can apply for jobs and stand a greater chance of success in different sectors.

So what advice can EArl give on choosing your degree?  Tough call for a student.  In the UK Skillset started off accrediting key recommended Universities and awarding specific courses its seal of recommendation.  However, given Skillset have nominated only a few courses and not one as yet comes from outside of a games degree course, students don’t have a definitive place to look for recommended courses. 

EArl’s advice for any student wanting to work in games is to ask a number of key questions when selecting their degree to their University of choice….

-           How many former students have gone on to work in the games industry?

-           What percentage of candidates end up working in games?

-           What companies have they gone on to work for (look at the names and make a judgement on their quality)

-           What history of success do former students have in being promoted?  (any industry superstars?)

-           Which games companies do the University partner with on advice for academic course curricula?

-           Do any games companies come and speak at their University?

-           What careers have students gone onto who were not employed into games?

Hopefully, you get the idea……….

Given that, in the UK, the average student leaves University with a personal debt of approaching £20,000, choosing the best course to build a career is vital.

Love to hear your views on this contentious subject.

EArl    

© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Back in December, Edge Magazine published an interesting interview with Matthew Jeffery, (Global Head of Talent Brand).  Given the interest in recruitment, following Paul Bolman’s great blog piece earlier in the week, EArl thought it a good time to revisit this Edge interview, which covers many interesting areas…..take a look at…. http://tinyurl.com/r5o2cz

This interview is pretty wide ranging and covers thought provoking topics including:   Is there a recruitment crisis?   Salaries in the the games industry.   How to get into the games industry.   EA’s attitude to graduates.  Games degrees.  User Generated Content & recruitment.  The legacy of ‘EA Spouse’ and working hours in gaming.  EA & ‘sequelitus’.  Growth of Asia & it’s impact.

Take a look….and let us know your views……..

If you have any questions for Matthew, I will ensure he comes to this site and answers them directly.

Thanks, EArl

© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.