Confetti Degree Showcase 2017
About Alex
Joining Confetti was an interesting experience. I went straight from my Sixth Form college, studying pretty average subjects to something I’d wanted to do since I was very young; making video games. I learned a lot during my first few months at Confetti, and it opened my eyes to areas of the Games Industry that I hadn’t even considered before and the assignments gave me the chance to experience those positions, which was informative.
During my second year, it was more self-driven, but the tutors still offered support. The modules all fitted together nicely and this cumulated in a FMP (final major project) of a game sequence of my choosing, directed completely by myself with only one restriction, it had to include a puzzle. Having this freedom allowed me to bring out the best of myself in terms of creativity and it was a lot of fun being able to have free reign to design and build my dream game.
BSc Games Production
Fortunately, Confetti began talks to set up a third (top-up) BSc course in Games Production which I signed up for as soon as it was available. The modules focused on smaller pieces or “packs” for a specific market that were completely self-driven and gave complete freedom. We needed to build a 1:1 replica of an existing building in 3D and through this I learnt even more skills within 3DS Max, such as uniform scale and Maxscripting. Having free reign meant that I could cater the projects to my skillset. We also had to write a dissertation, a technical document trying to prove a theory of your design, which was supported fully.
Alex’s Degree Showcase Work
For the Degree Showcase, I chose to exhibit my 1:1 3D model of an existing building, alongside a game I had completed for The British Library in 2015, titled Alice: Underground Adventure a light-hearted “Choose Your Own Adventure” game that plays like an interactive comic book, with humourous interactions with many of Wonderland’s inhabitants. I chose these two pieces because I felt that my building was accurate and showed my 3D proficiency while the game allowed people to play a product that I am proud of working on and that is acting as the foundation of my portfolio.
Alex’s Final Word
Confetti has been an overall positive experience, and without it I wouldn’t have had the opportunities to meet some very talented individuals that would form the foundation for my Indie company to-be, but it also allowed me to meet industry professionals and have them sit down and play my work, laugh and enjoy themselves and give me feedback on how to improve the products and myself, which was just an impossible dream prior to coming.
