WHO?
Andrea Fryer
WHAT?
RedLynx – a Ubisoft studio, Senior Art & UI designer, for 4 months;
Digital Chocolate, 2D artist, for 6.5 years;
Before that: Nokia Mobile Phones, Senior Graphic Designer (UI).
QUICK! WHAT DO THESE BRING TO YOUR MIND?
Mikrobitti – Retro
Tekes-funding – Opportunities
Creative vs. business – Conflict
Good vs. bad team – It is relative. It depends on the point of view of the person. A lot.
F2P – Good thing if done correctly
Game I play now – Guild Wars 2
HOW DID YOU END UP IN GAMES BUSINESS?
I’ve always been a passionate gamer. As a kid in Canada I went to the arcade a lot. There was a strong arcade culture back then! Whenever me and my friends got pocket money, my friends would buy candy or toys. But not me! I’d head straight for the arcade instead! My favorites were Pacman, Frogger and Galaga. Man, I spent every quarter! Gaming is in my blood.
The first time I worked on a game was in 1992. I met some Finnish guys and teamed up with them. How we met was purely by chance! Me and my boyfriend had just bought our first PC, but it didn’t have a sound card. I was the family geek, so I installed one. It came with some confusing audio freeware that I couldn’t figure out. Luckily the credits revealed the creators to be Finns, so I called them on the phone for help. We ended up talking for hours! It turned out they were making a game and had a full crew but were just missing an artist. They asked if I was interested. And was I ever! We worked on it for a couple of years and showed it around at Assembly in 1994, hell – even Pelit-lehti made an article about it. But we never did find a publisher.
In the 90’s I didn’t join the game industry yet. It wasn’t really offering things like day jobs with salaries. The turning point was in 2005 when Nokia sent me to GDC. When I got there I was like, “These are my people! This is where I belong!”. As soon as I got back, I started watching for open art jobs. “Is there anything out there?” Eventually Digital Chocolate advertised a pixel artist position. They posted it in the Finnish IGDA chapter forum. That’s where game companies used to advertise openings. I applied and was ecstatic to be hired! In fact I worked there happily for almost 7 years.
YOU’VE BEEN TO THE INDUSTRY FOR A LONG WHILE AND EVEN AT NOKIA. IN ADDITION TO NEW PLATFORMS, WHAT’S CHANGED?
The biggest change in the Finnish game industry is clearly Rovio’s amazing success. I think before that, the industry growth was rather gradual. There was still lots of hope for it’s future. However, the world’s interest towards the Finnish game industry was pretty weak. Now Rovio and Supercell have radically changed that. Big players are finally taking interest! Some are even setting up shop, like EA. In fact they just started a studio here in Helsinki! Who knows where we’ll be in a year. These are epic times and I couldn’t think of a better place to be a game developer than right now in Finland!
But growth demands more and more talent. The reality is that lots of young hopefuls apply but face a wall because the requirements of the companies are really demanding! This could be a heritage thing, because earlier, it was kind of a rare treat to get into the industry. I guess the companies could afford to be picky. It’s a shame that they seem to prefer senior developers. If only they could see that many of these younger people are diamonds in the rough. In fact some of the best people I know are recent graduates. They come from schools like Metropolia and KAJAK and already know a lot. They’ve worked in teams, learned SVN and Jira, used the tools etc. They know the drill. You can put them straight to work!
More senior people have their advantages too though. Like versatility! They’ve done all kinds of things like characters, backgrounds and UI’s. They are Jacks-of-all-trades because the companies used to be so much smaller. These new people on the other hand are often specialized. Someone like a character artist cannot be put straight into making user interfaces! At least without proper guidance first.
OVER SEVEN YEARS IN THE BUSINESS! YOU ARE ALREADY MENTORING PEOPLE, AND MANY ARTISTS WITH YOUR EXPERIENCE HAVE ENDED UP IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS, LIKE ART DIRECTORS. WHAT’S HOLDING YOU BACK?
I simply love making art! Ever since I was a little girl. I even do it in my free time. I’m not really the AD type. That’s all about managing people, meetings, higher level planning. Whereas I want to work with my hands! Draw and paint! There have been some projects where I had the lead artist role, but it was not something I wanted to do officially. I preferred the expert development track over the management or lead one. I wanted to avoid stress since I had small children. I had to save my emotional energy for my family.
The downside has been that “mere” artists don’t always have as much influence in the creative design process. That’s what leads and AD’s are for…. So it’s a sacrifice you make… Some people who don’t get a chance to be very involved in the creative side, feel much more compelled to do it in their private time. This is not necessarily a good thing for employers – for the person’s efforts are being channelled in two directions. If they were more involved, their efforts would be pooled into their actual day work instead. This would keep both employer and employee happier!
I’m no stranger to leadership though. I play MMOs and ran quite a large guild for 4 years. Up until last fall actually. I decided to step down and delegate the Guild Master role to other folks. It was to reserve my energy and time for my art projects and the new job I started. You know, leading the guild, even if it was virtual, was still demanding. It’s taught me lots about dealing with people. For instance, you have to have a pretty thick skin. Sort of like a psychologist! If a patient rages, the psychologist doesn’t take that personally do they? It’s the same being a GM. So who knows? You may see me in management one of these days after all!
* Note: interviews are done in Finnish and translated directly to English, so some minor edits get done after the publishing now and then *
* EDITED 26 April 2013 for links and consistent outlook *
how i begame me *---(^_^)---* 