Industry Week 2022 reached new heights on day four, with more great guest talks, jams and workshops. Take a look at some of the highlights below!
Kevin Cheung – Freelance Esports Broadcast Production
Kevin kicked off day 4 with an esports masterclass. He started with a talk where he filled students in on his background, having first arrived on the esports scene as a League of Legends player, team captain and coach. Kevin and his team competed semi-professionally and even had their own sponsor whilst he was studying at Staffordshire University, this led him to other roles in on-air talent before joining Riot Games as an in-game observer.
Kevin unpacked the kind of careers that exist in the esports industry, from games, to players, team organisations, on air-talent, events, and competitions. He challenged students to think more broadly about the type of jobs you can do in esports, incorporating roles from all different industries like law, business, events production, events management, marketing, journalism and technical engineering.
Kevin explained that you needn’t specialise in esports if you already have something else in mind, but you can still “dabble” in the industry, particularly if esports is something you enjoy. For example an esports team organisation might need a social media manager, or a game developer might need a writer or a composer for their game, and competitions always need tech crews, camera operators, events managers etc. There’s also a ton of different attributes transferable to esports, from leadership to communication skills, being a good team player, story telling, networking, content creation, and of course, esports industry knowledge. Kevin is based out of Berlin with Riot Games and gets to travel on a regular basis due to his job, he recommended working in esports if you’d like to see the world, meet lots of great people and be part of a great team – with Riot, Kevin has already travelled to places like Hong Kong, Spain and Poland.
After his talk, Kevin did a Q&A responding to questions from our students before giving a masterclass in esports observing, which Kevin defined as “directing”. He took students through a League of Legends game from an observer’s point of view, including doing replays – it was explained that during a live event there are often two to three observers, one of which will have a delayed screen who will play back at certain points when there’s a good kill, or a player has done something particularly skilful.
First year Audio and Music Technology student, Jordan Heyes, attended the session, she said:
“As well as being interested in music as a hobby, I’m also an avid gamer. I want to combine the game audio, music tech side and gaming all together, and so getting an insight into esports gaming was just very interesting to know what I can and can’t do.”
We picked out some top tips from Kevin’s session, check them out:
- Stay ahead of the curve, be one step ahead… don’t play catch-up.
- Experiment here, be creative here, take the opportunity to mess up and make mistakes… take advantage of Confetti as a safe space… I’m jealous if anything.
- Talk to everyone, ask them what they do, ask them ‘can you teach me how this works?’ Listen and take opportunities to pick up new skills and knowledge.
Novation Synth Workshop: Synthesis
This session was an in-depth introduction into the world of synthesisers, the practical uses of them, how to get started and how to integrate them into your DAW (digital audio workstation). Our guests were Novation Digital Music Systems, part of the Focusrite family, they are a music technology manufacturer, specialising in electronic music creation. The workshop was delivered by product specialist for Novation, Chris Calcutt (AKA -CALC-). Calc covered the basics before demonstrating some of the incredible noises these machines can make using Novation’s flagship synthesiser Summit, and the legendary Bass Station II.
NUSIC: Everything a musician needs in 2022
Our friends from NUSIC returned for IW22 and this time they brought three BBC hosts with them. The team gave advice on how to get your music noticed and played, they also detailed some dos and don’ts for sending out your music to people in the industry. NUSIC touched on the effects of the pandemic and how it has proven that relationships in the industry can still blossom online. They took lots of questions as part of the session and followed-up with a ‘Spread the Love’ segment, where students could big themselves up, taking time to speak on what they are doing, or do a call out for support with their music. One student requested support from aspiring producers in the room, another let people know that he and his band are seeking a bassist and that those interested should get in touch after the session to discuss the opportunity.
The team were full of great advice for anyone who wants to make it in the world of music, here’s a couple of their top tips:
“BBC Introducing is a great platform but to get genuine feedback on your music, also ask fellow artists that you trust. Also send to anyone in the industry, not just the obvious ones.”
“When promoting your music on social media, remember that each platform is different so use them differently. Learn what your audience likes, put the feelers out and work from that. Don’t hate social media, have fun with it.”
Games Expo
Students could attend our annual Games Expo on day 4 in the Venue, Metronome, with a number of developers, designers and manufacturers in attendance from local tabletop games companies, Warlord Games, Stone Sword Games, and Mantic Games. The venue was jam packed with a selection of their board games, card games, and fantasy mass battle games featuring hand-painted miniatures. Titles included the Judge Dredd miniature game, Hogs of War, Bolt Action, Hell Boy the board game, and lots more great stuff! Stone Sword Games even brought down their new Senjutsu Japanese samurai game, they recently raised close to £1million with their Kickstarter campaign in support of that game, check out our recent news story to find out more on this.
Our industry experts networked with students throughout the day, chatting about their projects, demoing games and inviting them to join in. Students were encouraged to bring along their own board and card games to the dedicated ‘Bring & Play’ zone, with chairs and tables set up for playing old favourites and trying something new. We also had a representative down from local gaming chair company, Komodo Chairs, he shared with students what they should be looking for in a supportive, comfortable chair when gaming for hours at a time… We also got to try out the chairs… soo comfy!
There were several talks lined up throughout the day featuring each of the different companies, we’ve summarised below some of their top tips to students looking to enter the tabletop games industry:
- Just try making something – try re-making your favourite game and see if you can make it better.
- If you’re trying to pursue a specific role, do it every day – hone your craft.
- After you’ve created something, don’t be afraid to show it to other people.
- Take all criticism on board but don’t take it too personally.
- Make 12 miniatures, throw them all in the bin and the 13th will be good!
- When writing rules, less is more. Gaming mechanics should be simple and fun, but informed by the source material and capture the spirit of the game, whether it’s samurai, World War 2 etc.
“The reason I came along was that there were a couple of games I was interested in; Senjutsu is one that peaked my interest because I’m interested in Japanese samurai culture. I also think Kings of War is great, I like its style with its medieval and fantasy characters, I liked the variety of designs from the giants to the demons and the elves, they each had very unique aesthetics. I dropped in for about half an hour and whilst I didn’t speak to anyone from the companies, it was nice to know that I could if I wanted to, and I liked that I was allowed to wander, have a look round and touch the miniatures to get a feel for the artwork.” – Oliver Stacey, BTEC Level 3 Games Art, 3rd Year
Andy Rogers: Live Lounge Session
During this interactive workshop, students found out how BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra Live Lounge sessions get recorded. Senior producer for live music at Radio 1, Andy Rogers, walked and talked students through the process of getting the best performances from the artist under time constraints. Students got the chance to ask lots of burning questions and hear some of Andy’s incredible stories about working with the biggest names in the music industry.
Are you interested in attending events like Industry Week as part of your studies? Book onto an open day to find out more about our offer at Confetti.
