Staff Spotlight - David '#' Bridle

[Lionhead Studios]

Staff Spotlight - David '#' Bridle

Hello! I’m David (AKA Bridle), and I'm a Content Designer at Lionhead Studios. I've been here for the past two and a half years and for my job I have the pleasure of being able to work on Fable Legends; designing levels, building gameplay mechanics and implementing narrative into our quests. In May 2010, I became unemployed. When you go to work every day you have to hope that you either love your job, or that you’re being paid enough to make it worthwhile. As neither were true for me, I realised that it was time to re-assess what on earth I was doing. This starts with a simple question – “What do I love?”. The answer was easy (SPOILER: it’s video games). The problem was, I didn’t have much to sell myself. I was handsome, sure, but had no real special skill that made me burn a little brighter than the person standing next to me. The only tool to my belt was a healthy love of gaming, but I knew with a bit of hard work and determination anything would be possible. Right, no one panic!!! I clearly did make it… Eventually. I had a plan. I was going to start a blog! That’s right, a blog (like what you’re reading now). I needed focus, a routine, a way to get myself skilled up and ready to rise to the top of the gaming world; a blog would help me do just that. So, I made a ridiculously unrealistic promise to myself – to design and make something new, every week, for one whole year (that’s 52 designs!!!). Then I was going to post what I made online. It was, in essence, going to become my portfolio. With direction, feeling fired up, and a tonne of free downloaded software, I sat myself down at my bedroom desk and began the next 12 months of my life… …which is a big story in itself. It’s way too big to go into detail, but it can probably be summarised by saying “go to this website“. It was the culmination of my work. During that time, I trawled the internet for free game engines, software packages, tutorials, design essays etc. Anything that would give me the inspiration to help build my own things. Playmaker, the Unreal Developer Kit, Unity, a map editor for Warcraft 3, some weird RPG maker software. I used them all! The internet not only contains a multitude of free (and legal) software, but also hundreds of tutorials breaking down the steps as to how to create the building blocks of a basic game. You don't have to be a master, you just need to be willing to learn. There are now almost no excuses for getting your hands dirty. And that’s the trick. Writing a letter, sending an email, smiling and being polite - these things will only get you so far. You want to make games? Then you need to show you understand how they’re built. The best way to do that, is to go and make something! And when you’ve built it, be proud, appreciate you’re always learning and aim to better yourself the next time. I can say, hand on my heart, that period of unemployment was an amazing time of my life. Getting up early, working through to the late hours, it was an incredibly fulfilling time for me; a fact that proved to me that I was going in the right career direction. As an added bonus my bedroom was also my office, which gave me the luxury of being able to wear nothing but the most minimal clothing. During mid-summer I lived in a glass ceilinged warehouse that functioned more like a green house, however I was able to relax at my computer designing game related things in only my boxer shorts. I think this freedom even freed my mind a little, allowing me to design things to a higher standard (that’s just a handy, top tip to anyone interested in game design). So after much work (and nudity), sleepless nights, and emailing my CV and portfolio around to recruiters, I eventually got a phone call asking me to pop into Lionhead for an interview. Using all I had learnt in that past year, I built a demo for them to play and showed it off during the interview… and here I am now. Like getting into any industry, it’s not an instantaneous process. It takes hard work. But if you’re passionate and give a damn about what you want to do, then all that effort won’t feel like actual ‘work’. It’s why I now look forward to Sunday nights. It means I get to go into work the next morning. Thanks for reading! #BridleDiscuss this on our forums

http://www.lionhead.com/blog/rss/blog/2 ... spotlight/