Krischan Ramdeo – Reflections on the Let’s Talk Games Conference

Leamington, nicknamed ‘Silicone Spa’, is known for pioneering innovation and development in the video game industry. As a testament to that, the lineup of names that regularly attend the spa for talks feature heavy hitters such as Rebellion, Meta, SEGA, Codemasters, Kwalee, Ubisoft and many more. Loading onto the long, comfortable coach for an AUB arranged day trip is always a far cry from the yellow school buses that threatened to launch me through the ceiling at the smallest bump in the road, and yet, in other ways it wasn’t too different at all. Discussing our most anticipated game releases, arguing about who makes the best fighting games and bobbing our heads to Spotify mixes of varying quality – the camaraderie between our course hearkened the unmistakable light-heartedness of those days where every decision seemed to carry less weight, but now it served as a backdrop to our constant progression into an industry that every one of us shared our passion for.

Upon getting to the Leamington Spa we shuffled in amongst the crowd of like minded enthusiasts and immediately were taken off guard by the various stalls giving out trinkets related to the studios set to perform. Stickers, tote bags, pamphlets and pens – branded with recognisable logos such as Ubisoft, Unreal Engine, and Playground Games. We hurriedly shoved the items into our bags with glee as we continued on to the multi-storey theatre at which the show would be held. On stage there stood a speaker with two Playstation Move controllers clutched in either hand, the orbs atop their alien design illuminated with a turquoise glow as the massive projection screen behind his head showed a few primitive shapes that contorted and duplicated at the will of the vibrant motion controllers.

Peter Field, a game designer with credits under recognisable studios such as Naughty Dog, Ninja Theory and Wildflower, was presenting to us his preferred method for conceptualising level design. Peter explained how the 2020 SIE-published Dreams game creation software served as an fast, easily digestible alternative to mapping out concepts in a more complicated 3D software such as Blender, allowing a clear vision to be established for the artists to use as reference going into latter stages of design.

Peter demonstrated that in as short a time as half an hour, he could mould together an interactable scene that could be moved around in, to test how it would interact with the player, allowing both artistic vision and practicality in his designs before he sends them off for approval and expansion. Because of Dreams' more streamlined design process, adjustments can then be made on the fly, or even whole new scenes depending on the feedback given. It is important to note, however, that this unique conceptualisation strategy serves as a rough beginning stage to concept art alone, as Dreams ended service without ever incorporating a feature to export scenes to other game engines for continued work.

Another interesting presentation was brought to us by Robin A. Greenwood and Fabio Ferreira as part of Ubisoft Leamington. Their talk went over the synergy present in the workplace between 3D artists and character designers throughout a project that came into being specifically for the purpose of this talk. Robin described to us a concept for a game that blends the genres of modern military combat and magical fantasy, designing multiple military adjacent character sheets with intricately thought out details on every inch of the draping and decorated uniforms. These reflected the world around them, such as witch bells affixed on the torso to ward off evil spirits, or face coverings resembling the Danish Frogman Corps to counter such entities as Fae who gain power from learning a person's name.

Emphasising the often stark disconnect between an artist's wild ambitions and a modeller's grounded understanding of what can and cannot be done, we were shown the stages of development and constant revision that stemmed from back-and-forth dialogue between Robin and Fabio. Ornamental and decorative pieces could cause problems when a model was rigged, sometimes even as simple as fabric over the shoulders or an open jacket could cause clipping or physics issues. Eventually, once compromises were made on both sides, we were shown the final models and character sheets that allowed for the project to move forward with two happy parties. This insight into industry workflow, technical limitations and good communication gave us a peek behind the scenes that we usually wouldn’t get.

Coming away from Let’s Talk Games there was a shared feeling on all our minds that we had boundless room to grow. Though, rather than being discouraged by how far ahead the hard working leaders in the industry clearly were, there was a universal echoing sentiment of excitement. There was no clear, fenced road ahead – even our progression as creatives was a great branching expanse of possibility and undiscovered passions. Whether it's designing characters, modelling, level design, or simply management and teamwork, there were too many things left undiscovered for us to not endlessly run our mouths on the coach back of all the things we wanted to try next. After a day of learning, camaraderie and reignited vigour for the craft we have all dedicated ourselves to, we came back to our studies as usual with an undeniable second wind.