Task 7- career development materials- CV

Cameron Chapman

Blackley

Manchester

6 Fotherby Drive

M9 6PD

Tel: 07467 029382

Email: cameronchapman29@gmail.com

Below is my CV I use to get jobs.

Profile:

I am 16 years old and I am at Futureskills College studying Level 3 Extended Diploma in Games Design.

My GCSE grades are:

ICT- B

English Language - B

English Literature – B

R.E- A

Maths - C

History- C

Core Science - B

Additional Science - C

P.E- C

Spanish- C

Skills:

• ·         I work well as part of a team but am equally comfortable working on my own.
• ·         Strong communicator and quick learner
• ·         Punctual ensuring time to prepare for my day ahead
• ·         Have a hands-on approach which enables me to get involved as much or a little as is required
• ·         Hard worker, flexible, reliable and conscientious with a strong work ethic (proven by reviews for my school work and placements)
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Work Experience:

Co-operative building – Angel Square Manchester – IT assistant (2015)

Assisted with:  Shutting down inactive servers, day to day technical support.

Shadowing an IT professional to gain an understanding of the implications of IT in business and how it is used throughout different business functions.  Broadening my knowledge of IT in general and visited the datacentre to see where the data is stored and how IT supports the company.

Dealing with day to day support also helped me improve my people skills as I was having to deal with various types of people and learnt that you need to deal with each person differently dependent upon their personality and responses, and deliver a solution in both a calm and professional manner.

Voluntary work experience – ongoing:

I currently write video game reviews for an indie game website called Orange Bison (www.orangebison.com) where you can find work I have published.  This is a voluntary job but I enjoy doing it in my spare time not only because I enjoy writing reviews but also because this can help me with my future career. I talk to games developers on a regular basis and I get to see an inside in the games industry, which can help with my knowledge, also with my work being published it makes me a published video games journalist.

I am also currently doing journalism for an American Esports team, called Sigma Gaming, I write articles for them based on competitive gaming. The team has professional teams which compete in various major competitions across the world.

Hobbies:

As I intend of studying gaming design at college I spend some of my spare time researching different games within the industry and write reviews as explained above. 

However, I enjoy quite a varied routine in my down time like reading as I believe in continually trying to better yourself and this helps with knowledge as well as vocabulary and if find it relaxing.  Or I may go into town with friends to watch films or help my dad work his dogs (springer spaniels) or go mountain biking.

Thank you for taking your time to read this and I look forwards to hearing back from you soon.

Below is an example CV - Page 19 for the CV I chose.
http://faculty.mu.edu.sa/public/uploads/1341774313.8592app-Sample_CVs.pdf
The good points of this CV is that it is providing the information needed for a job in journalism such as previous jobs and education. It also shows references at the bottom for the employer to look at and contact. As well as this it shows work experience it various jobs. However, even though a CV is supposed to be short and snappy, this one doesn't show much information and only touches on certain things rather than giving extended information on that topic.

Task 6- Project managment techniques

Define the following management documents and describe how you have and used them in your own work:


Recce report
A recce report is when you send a person to "scout" an area to point out all of the pros and cons of filming in that area. This is usually used if you don't want to move your equipment to a new location but without having to move the equipment continuously if the area is bad.  After the area has been inspected and all of the pros and cons have been noted, then a risk assessment will be made on that area. Think of the recce report as a prequel to a risk assessment. Here I have a recce report for Haiti http://supersites.earthobservations.org/Haiti_Reconnaissance.pdf. The most noticeable pro about this is that the information is highly detailed and allows the person in need of this report to get as much information as possible as well as pictures. However, if you were filming you would need a less detailed report on the place and would only need bits of important info. Also, another con is that the author might not be trustworthy and could provide wrong information.

Risk assessment
A risk assessment in usually a document that has to be checked to ensure that certain hazards can be avoided in both a physical way and in a production factor. Physically it can be to ensure that there are no wires left lying around that someone can be tripped over. Also in a production factor, it is to make sure that you back up your data so that you have no data loss in the process. These risk assessments can be done by someone in the production, usually a manager or the head of the production. However, there might be a specialist who will come to your workplace and check you have met certain criteria. Here is an example of a risk assessment done by an observer http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/casestudies/pdf/officecleaning.pdf. A positive part of this risk assessment is that it clearly shows all the information that has been observed and it specifies who needs to do the certain task or if anyone can do it. Much like the contract below, the only problem with this risk assessment is that it is meant to be completed online (due to the hyperlinks) which can result in someone editing it if they didn't meet certain criteria.

Contracts
Contracts are usually to protect a company from someone stealing their ideas or from being unethical towards the company. Some contracts will protect a whole company or an individual, usually, these will be signed by another company/publisher for protection. Also, these contracts can be for employees to make sure that they will stay under their employment for a certain amount of time. Here is the link to a contract of employment http://panet.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Sample-contract-of-employment1.pdf. The good thing about this contract is that it specifies all of the information in quick and easy to read paragraphs, among the contract as short as possible so that the reader reads it all rather than skipping bits. However, a negative side of this contract is that it is made to be done on the internet, this means the person signing it could change some information within the contract to suit them and this could lead to court cases if it effects the company itself, such as hourly pay etc.

Games Design Documents
These are documents which are highly detailed on the actual design of the game itself, this includes the narrative, mechanics and other features in the game. These documents are usually given to the development team so that they get detailed information on what is to be included in the game as well as for them to organise what they need to do for the game.
Here is a link to one of these documents http://www.cs.tufts.edu/comp/150CIS/AnAntsLife/AnAntsLife-GameDesignDocument.pdf
The good thing about this document is that it is well organised with links to each page on the contents page, this allows the user to navigate to each section with ease and without having to scroll through the whole document. Another good thing is that it is a PDF file, so that in the work place rather than people having paper everywhere and possibly losing the document then they have it stored digitally and it can be accessed from everywhere. The bad thing about this document is that all of the information is generalised, the introduction, for example, wasn't highly detailed and only covered the topics by giving a general idea rather than in-depth information.

In my work I have used a contract, this protects a production team and people of the public by the team needing consent to film members of the public. Also, it protects the team from their content being stolen from outsourcing companies. As well as this I created a recce report and a risk assessment for when I was filming the documentary so I met criteria for safety. In the future, I could use these again because I want to get into Journalism so when I do freelance jobs I need to make sure I get paid before they publish the work, I also need to know my work area is safe to work in if I am in the public. Below you will see what I have used:

Task 2

Task 2
Creative Development

• Game Designer- a games designer is the person or people who apply aesthetics as well as design to a game, to make the interaction between the player and the game less complex. They are tasked with helping develop the rules of the game, the story and how it develops, the setting, characters, weapons and other in-game assets. Games Designers usually work with everyone in the company to develop what they need to develop. For example, they would work with an artist with the characters by offering the backstory to the character while the artist will design the appearance of it. This job is useful in the industry because in development the designer helps create the game itself such as the background story and descriptions for the artists.
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• Level Editor- A level editor is an architect in the games industry, they create buildings, objects and the general landscape in the game. They are linked to Games Designers because they use the character elements as well as the story. Even though they work with the game designers they are not restricted, actually, they have a huge amount of freedom with the general aesthetics of the level and the feel of it. This job is useful because these people design the layout of each level, this is useful for many reasons. For the campaign, it offers places to put secret rooms allow for more exploration, for multiplayer the level editor can help make competitive games more interesting. For example, on Call Of Duty, the best types of competitive maps go by a "three-lane" system where there are 3 main areas on the map which allows for more strategy and fast paced combat.
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• Lead Artist- The lead artist is the person who is responsible for the look of the entire game. They work with the lead programmer and Game Designer as well. Lead Artist directs the entire visual material throughout the game, with the help of the Lead programmer and Games Designer. These are important in the industry because they create the visual aspect of the game, which appeals most to players when they first see the game, increasing sales of the game by making them appeal to their audience.
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• Technical Artist- These people act as a link between both the artists and programmers who are working on the game. They keep the realism in the art making sure it can be compatible with the chosen platform by not exceeding the platform's limits and also allowing the asset to be implemented without getting rid of any of the artistic vision. This job is now becoming more valuable as time goes on due to hardware in PC's becoming more complex as well as the hardware in consoles. These are extremely useful in the industry because without these people, games would take longer to make due to deadlines not being met and nonrealistic projects being pursued.
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• Artist- An artist is someone who will create visual aspects in the game such as characters, surface textures, and scenery, they also will create any concept art for the game and help propose visual aid in the pre-production phase by offering storyboards. Without these people, we would have badly drawn characters and if we had bad looking characters it would mean the game would be less intriguing for us, especially when the appearance of the character has a backstory.
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• Animator- An animator is responsible for the movement and behaviors of the characters. For example how the characters walk or interact with certain objects. They can also be responsible for small animations in the game such as the grass moving or the behavior of the grass when you walk through it. This job is extremely important because it is adding the realism and the most important bits to the game.
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• Audio Engineer- The audio engineer creates the soundtrack for the actual game, meaning that they create all the sounds for the game, not just the soundtrack that is available to the public but they are responsible for sound effects, background noises such as crowds. This job can vary in size depending on the company but will sometimes only contain a couple of people working hard for long hours. An example of what they might do is known as Foley Sounds, which is useful because it adds realism to the game, and on horror games, it adds a more of a fear factor to the game.
• Technical Development
• Image result for lines of code
• Game Programmer- These people work at the center of the game development, they are basically the core of the game. They write the code for the game and how it runs as well as how it controls, adapting to changes along the way as well as producing custom code whenever it is required. Being able to write custom code is useful in the industry because if there is any issue with their existing code or if there is needed new code to be creating, then it can be done near enough instantly.
• Lead Game Programmer- This is the team that is responsible for writing all of the code that needs to be included within the game. These people can specialize in various aspects to writing the code for, an example is AI which would be code for bots in the game, like Call Of Duty. This is useful because certain games are based off AI, such as an upcoming game where the AI is so intelligent it learns how you play
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• Project Implementation
• Project Manager/Producer- A producer is the overseer of the development as well as the funding of the game. They keep the development on track and make sure any goal is realistic to achieve, this can sometimes mean getting rid of ideas and introducing new ones. The producer plays a very important part in the industry as they make sure any contracts are signed and that whatever is signed isn't going to have a negative impact on the company or the game.
• Assistant Producer- An assistant producer makes sure that any deadline is met with the highest quality product possible. They will usually act as a bridge for communications in the company as well as between the developer and producer for managing outsourcing products. This job is available in both developer and publisher companies. This is useful in the industry because it speeds up communication between developers and publishers rather than wasting time, also the communication, therefore, becomes more effective when more information is passed along.
• External Producer- These producers are near enough always employed by the publishers to help manage the delivery of the actual game, making sure it is both successful and meets the deadline given. This producer will work with the developer's producer to help tackle broader issues with the game. They help with giving advice and other help to the developer rather than dealing with the smaller details that can happen during the day, which is a job for the internal producer. Finally, they help make the game commercially successful, such as when to release demos and which screenshots to use to intrigue the audience. This is useful in the industry because it will help increase sales of the game.
• Creative Director- A creative director is another overseer of the game, even though they oversee any game changing decisions such as how the game itself plays or its appearance. This job can contain a lot of pressure as you are in control of decisions that will either make or break a game's feel. This job is fairly recent in the industry, before this, we only had the producers even though their role has become more of a management role now.  The directors also work closely with the Lead Programmer, Lead Artist, and the Designers ensuring everything is correct and complete. For example checking that code can be used and checking that a playable version of the game, like a demo, is a high enough quality to be released to the public. Meanwhile, when the director isn't in the development team, they are trying to promote the game to outsourcing companies for marketing to get the game out there. Creative Directors are useful because they can improve upon bad ideas, which potentially affect sales.Image result for creative director
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• Quality Assurance
• Image result for QA Tester
• QA Tester- A QA tester is someone who tests the game itself, debugging and tuning the game. they can suggest what to do to improve the game whether it is taking away bugs or anything to do to improve the gameplay and feel for the game. QA testers are usually only temporary jobs, you will work for the company when the final game is being made so they can test the quality of the game and be assured that the game is ready for final release to the public with minimal bugs or glitches within the game. QA testers are useful because without them broken games will be released that are full of bugs due to the fact the developers don't have time to bug test.
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• Business Development
• Image result for marketing graphs
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• Public Relations Manager- PR manager is someone who handles the social aspect of the games, they will help organize forums and keep the public entertained with the game. They will also handle any legal problems, for example, Hello Games are under investigation for false advertisement, they would need a PR person to defend them in this situation, they can be described as a "lawyer" of some sorts. As well as this, any forums the game has will be run by PR so it is official rather than being fan run, also any feedback that has been given in the forum will be sent through the PR and to the developers. The reason for using a PR as someone who manages the social aspect because it allows the developers to be more in touch with their community and receive more feedback on their game. In the legal side of PR, they are also useful because they handle all of the legal requirements that some people might not be aware they need.
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• Product Manager- These help with the marketing of the game to the public, trying to gain more sales for the game. These people support the senior managers within marketing, as well as get directly involved with the development such as decisions like scenarios as well as characters in the game and other "products". And they will give feedback on the game towards the end of development and critical advice which could improve the game. Product managers are useful because they can help on sales and improve certain ideas. This is beneficial for the developers/publishers because this will then bring more profit for them due to increased game sales.
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• Marketing Executive- A marketing executive is responsible for many things, they should investigate the competition for your game (another first person shooter for example) and the price the other people are selling their game at, the reason for this is because they can see what the opposition are doing wrong in their game and they will improve on it. As well as compiling financial statistics, such as a budget for the game and how much money is being spent developing the game. They are also responsible for managing campaigns on social media that can help promote the game, which is useful for the industry because they help increase sales.
• Marketing Manager- A marketing manager will help monitor the progress of the game, just like a producer. They also create marketing strategies to help promote the game to the public, such as which ways to advertise or where to advertise. For example, an effective advertising method would be to have trailers before YouTube videos so more people will view them or advertise the game on billboards. Marketing managers are useful because with their advertising they can bring in various audiences for the job.

Bibliography:

To help me with getting information for these job roles I have used the following sites;

http://www.totaljobs.com/careers-advice/job-profile/marketing-advertising-pr-jobs/marketing-manager-job-description

http://creativeskillset.org/

Any information I have used from these sources has not been plagiarised.

Task 1- Structure- The Value Chain

Task 1- Structure- The Value Chain
Profile each of the main sectors within the industry:

Developers
Publishers
Console Manufacturers/First Party Publishers
Distribution and Retail
Outsourcing Companies
Press and Media

Each sector has an influence on the type of games that are produced.


You are aiming to comprehensively explain organisational structures in the games industry with reference to elucidated examples. You should be using subject terminology consistently and correctly.



Developers are people who create the game. They work on the actual game and it can be a company ranging from 1 person to over 500 employees. Someone who develops the game solo will work on the graphic, programming and all the other bits, these are known as indie developers. Even though an indie developer can be interpreted differently, some indie companies get funding from a publisher (such as hello games got funding from Sony for No Man's Sky), hello games will no longer be classed as an indie company to some people. Bigger companies who create AAA games such as Treyarch will contain over 200 employees, for example, these employees will include specialists in each department working on the game. For example, they could have 10 people working on concept art for the game, while you would have another 10 levels designers, and so on. Developers can also include lawyers and financial people, even though they are not designing the game they are still in the company helping out wherever they are needed. There can be multiple developers working on a game (detailed further on), such as sister companies (for Treyarch it is Infinity Ward) or an outsourcing company, which will be mentioned later on in more depth. Many of the top developers are renowned for their work, Treyarch state on their website "We employ the greatest engineering, design and creative talent" which shows how the expectations of AAA employees are higher compared to an indie developer.


Sometimes a game can contain multiple developers working on it, for example, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 contained two developers. These were Sledgehammer Games and Infinity Ward, each of these developers worked on a separate part of the game; Sledgehammer Games worked on the Multiplayer and Infinity Ward had worked on the campaign. In the industry, developers play more of an important part than we think, for example, Mojang (the developers of Mojang) created a new type of game, combine adventure with an open world in which we would play in a  computer generated world, none are the same. These worlds would allow us to create structures from castles to theme parks. Mojang allowed the player to use their imagination as a key part of the game, this was a new type of game in the industry and had shaped the future for some games. For example, some developers have made zombie games inspired by Minecraft. As well as this GMOD (Garry's mod) which has various mods for it has a Minecraft mod allowing people to use GMOD's mechanics in a Minecraft clone. Furthermore, today Minecraft has got a new game for the story mode, developed by TellTale series and there is still updates going to be released in the future for Minecraft so the future of the industry can still be impacted by these updates depending on what will be released.


Image result for activisionPublishers are people who help with the funding of the game and sometimes publishers do own the development company. Publishers can sometimes contribute to the marketing of the game (other times it can be done separately). Publishers are also responsible for guiding the product in the right way, so the developers can meet realistic deadlines as well as the manufacturing of the game. Usually, indie games don't get help from a publisher due to them having to pay the publishers for their help and indie games are usually run on a low budget like I said before there are occasions where indie games do have help from a publisher. Publishers such as Bethesda are also developers themselves, making it possible for them to fund and publish their own games, even though it is rare this happens. Activision, which is most commonly known for being Publishers of the Call Of Duty series, are also usually experienced within the development of games as well and they are known as parenting companies to developers, meaning they own them. This doesn't mean that every game Activision publishes is by a developer they own, and it also doesn't mean that Activision control the companies they own because some developers/publishers can work in various ways, also the companies will be bound b by a contract for a set amount of time before it expires and/or renews. For example, Valve doesn't have a hierarchy system because they believe that everyone should have equal jobs and be able for anyone to convey their ideas but some companies will use the hierarchy because it is an effective and organised method, especially when having a huge amount of employees.

However, there are some Publishers such as EA who are notorious for buying developers and then destroying the company, there are many victims to EA's methods of working. This is has affected the industry in various ways, such as for EA many people don't trust them, so the games they produce are known to be bad so this could result in less profit for the game, which can affect the future of EA and any company they have bought out. However, companies such as DICE who are a part of EA are not failing and actually developing/producing one of the best FPS series' we have seen (Battlefield) and Battlefield 1 had over 13 million players, making it the biggest beta in gaming history. So EA aren't all bad are they? In my opinion, publishers need to start to listen to the community, just like developers are doing, this will help the marketing of the game and the profit the company gets due to the fact of people buying the game.


Image result for SonyConsole Manufacturers/First Party Publishers are companies that manufacture the consoles and this same company can be a first party publisher. What is a first party publisher? A console manufacturer is simple to understand and so is a first party publisher. A first party publisher is a company such as Sony or Microsoft who make the console but also will hire a developer to make a game for them, these games are usually known as console exclusives. For example, a console exclusive for Xbox is Halo, which is now developed by 343 Industries but was created by Bungie (who have recently made destiny alongside Activision). But for PlayStation, we have exclusives such as God Of War and Little Big Planet, which are published by Sony. Most of the time when a console is released by a manufacturer they will hire a developer to release an exclusive for the first game on the console, for example, the PS4 had Knack as their console exclusive, it was also the first game to allow control of the touchpad on the controller. These first party games are massive in the industry, this is because like I said the first game on each console is an exclusive, depending on how good the game (or games) look can depend on how many people buy the console for the game. So these first party publishers which are also the manufacturers can have an effect on how many sales their console gets due to the quality of the exclusives they offer at release. Consoles such as Nintendo have most of their games produced by Nintendo, which is a first party publisher, this can affect the sales of the console because if no one likes Nintendo games such as Mario then no one will buy the console or on the other hand if an audience really likes Nintendo games then it will encourage more people to buy the console, increasing sales. As well as this, some of the very few games that are released on a console are by the company as a way to send the console off. The Last Of Us being one of the most iconic exclusives was one of the last games on the PS3 and one of the first remasters on the PS4, boosting the sales of both consoles.

Distribution and Retail are how the game is sold and where it is sold, whether it be digital or disc copies of the game, possibly both. Many modern games are selling their games as both digital and disc sales because as we progress through the times more and more of our physical items are becoming digital such as music and obviously games. Many companies such as steam, only sell digital games for PC's which can be seen as both good and bad. The advantage is that it stops you buying the discs, basically, if you are someone who buys games frequently having disc copies would take up a lot of space, but when you have the digital copies you can have them stored on hard-drives or Class 10 SD cards. Even though there are Platforms such as PlayStation and Xbox who have both digital and physical games available, for me this is better because I prefer the physical copies of the game because you have something to show for your money rather than just game files. Also with digital copies unless there is a sale on the games will most likely stay the original price for a long time, meanwhile physical copies can drop the price over time. In terms of retail, more and more general supermarkets are starting to sell games, rather than you having to travel to your local Game you can travel to Tesco or Asda which are usually closer depending on where you live. Also, retail shops are now getting specific exclusive DLC to the game. Usually, personalization packs are available for certain shop exclusives. However, Amazon who sell both digital and physical copies of the games, their exclusives can be different cases such as steel books. This means that distribution of games in the future could be focused more towards physical retail because of the exclusive DLC of the games, this appeals more to a wider audience. Tesco, advertise many games online as well which aren't in their shops, stating on their website "discover our huge range of games", also an article from Eurogamer also states that Tesco is buying second-hand games.
Image result for modern warfare 3

Outsourcing Companies are companies that are hired by a developer to do work that they are unable to do, either before the deadline of the game development or because they can't do it well. For example, a company could hire a company to do 3D modelling for them or to do the marketing of the game. A well-known example of an outsourcing company is Sledgehammer games, even though they have developed their own games, their introduction to the Call Of Duty franchise was via outsourcing for Modern Warfare 3, where they were hired to work on the multiplayer of the game. Even though there are some examples of companies who specialise in outsourcing, such as Polygone Studios who are available for many areas of the industry such as Programming, motion capture, games design, as well as 2D and 3D design. This is great for the industry because it means that one company isn't feeling pressured to do all the work, they could hire these outsourcing companies to help them out. Furthermore, this could really affect the industry in the future, we could see more outsourcing companies coming out into the open, this means it could be a company of specialists who are able to be hired by game companies rather than them just working on a game themselves. Even though this could affect the industry in a negative way because then more and more developers will be spending money on outsourcing companies rather than spending more money on the game.

Press and Media are everything from YouTube to the indie company I write for, it is anything that involves the game itself being written about or played. Many games are now being played by Youtubers such as PewDiePie, when these games are played it makes the game more well known in the gaming community. A big example of this Outlast, this is actually an indie game which was made as big it is by PewDiePie and other Youtubers playing it, gaining popularity to the game itself. So now thanks to that there is a second Outlast being in development which is getting the same amount of hype as an AAA game. Also if the game is viewed as a bad game through social media, such as YouTube, this can negatively affect the sales because fewer people will want to buy it and this can decrease your sales. For example, Infinite Warfare is one of the most disliked videos on YouTube, even though tey will still earn a lot of money from the sales but it does give the game bad publicity. Furthermore, there are websites (like the one I work for) which do reviews and news articles for games. This can give people information on the game itself as well as the good and bad points about the game. For example, the company I work for (Orange Bison) has a system where at the end you rate the game out of 10 and give pros and cons about the game. This system is seen throughout review sites such as IGN, this is good because it gives a summarised but precise points on the game. This form of press is found in magazines which can give news articles on the games but can also give reviews on upcoming games. Even though magazines are becoming less common as time goes on because most sites are internet based. However, the only problem with review companies is if they are trustworthy, some companies such as IGN have had claims against them saying that they are paid to give a good review of the game. Another example is PewDiePie who was paid to give a good review on Shadow Of Mordor, this makes the reviewer less trustworthy and can affect the industry itself. it will affect the industry because then people will lose trust in that company as well as the development and publisher companies because we know they will pay for a good review. this represents the lack of faith they have in their own game because they need to pay for a good review but will also affect the sales of their future games because people won't trust them.
Bibliography:
I mainly used my own knowledge for this task, especially within the press and media part but I did use Google Definitions to get quick definitions for the actual header and I also used
http://www.game-focus.net/news/over-13-million-people-played-battlefield-1-beta-355
http://www.treyarch.com/about.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-08-20-tesco-buying-used-games-nationwide
http://www.tesco.com/direct/gaming/games/cat3376217.cat
orangebison.com/author/cameron_chapman/page/2/
http://www.polygonestudios.com/
http://uk.ign.com/