Get Started with Games Design: The Prince's Trust in Partnership with NextGen Skills Academy and Sony

From the 15th - 19th March I took part in a week long Games Design course with the Prince's Trust in partnership with NextGen Skills Acadeny and SONY. This was such as great opportunity to learn about what goes into making games and how the pipeline differs to film (the area of animation my degree focused on). This was also a great opportunity to meet people who for years have and are still working in games.

DAY 1:

Monday we were given the brief to create a pitch for a simulation game for console and PC. A simulation game is any game that puts you in control of a certain role - i.e. Zoo Tycoon/Planet Zoo puts you in the role of owning and managing a zoo. We will be presenting our pitches to SONY at the end of the week on Friday. 

We also went over game ideation and what features and mechanics can be found in simulation games, i.e. time management, rewards, consequences, objectives, skills etc.

• A game feature is a distinctive trait / attribute. Such as an element in the game i.e. PVP or something visual like character customisation.
• A game mechanic is how the thing works / the rules around it and is something that effects gameplay. i.e. Re-spawn.

DAY 2:

Tuesday we went over what goes in a games design pitch and looked at different audience categories focusing on the group that simulation games appeal to most. 

We were later joined by a Games Designer from Playstation London who spoke about his journey into games and how he uses experiences outside of games to design.

In the afternoon, we were digitally put into groups to share and discuss our individual initial ideas. Some of us also began to fill out a few parts of the pitch, (X-Statements, moodboards, mechanics, features etc), ready to share with our group again on day 3.

DAY 3:

Wednesday we had a lecture about what goes into producing a game, lookin at game design documents, the production pipeline, alpha and beta testing and launching/marketing. 

We were then joined by an associate producer at Playstation who talked about her route into the industry and had great advice to share.

In the afternoon we went back into our groups to share our x-statements and to review where we are with our pitches, we were all given feedback to work on ready for day 4.

DAY 4:

Thursday morning we has a lecture about Marketing for games and everything that goes into it - also we were shown an example of a games pitch and what a more indepth one would look like if this course were longer than 5 days. We then had a few people practice their pitches with the group for feedback until lunch time.

In the afternoon, we were joined by a panel from Playstation who spoke about their career routes into the industry, interview advice, about some of the games they've worked on and what they love about working in the industry! The rest of the day was spent going through our pitches in our smaller groups.

DAY 5:

Friday was the final day of the course where we presented our pitches to a group from PlayStation! It went so well, not just for me but for everyone else too! Everyone seemed to love my idea which was a panda simulator game! (It’s basically a combination of Goat Simulator and “Never Say No To Panda Advert” series). Anyone who knows me shouldn’t be so surprised by this.

This entire week has been such a great experience and I’ve loved every minute of it! I’m so grateful to everyone involved.