Job Title:
Senior Technical Artist
One Sentence To Describe Work Role:
Art Hacker who understands both creative and technical aspects of game production.
Number Of Years Dedicated To This Field Of Work or Lifestyle:
13
Category Of Work:
Employment – Paid Work
Country / Area of Work:
Philippines, England and Poland
Industry:
Arts/Entertainment/Publishing
Type:
Employment
Key Skills For The Job:
Passion, resourcefulness, innovation, experience in breaking and fixing things first so everyone else doesn’t.
Vital Key Skill:
Unrelenting drive to push the industry forward in new ways.
Your Personal Experience Of Entering This Role:
Higher Education Level
It gets you a first job but further experience and proving yourself in the industry is more important. Diploma’s just a formality and a catalyst really. My grades were terrible on minor subjects as I found my strengths and focus on them.
Tips For Undertaking This Work:
There are two paths to Technical Directorship. The fix it, and the setup.
Fix it observes patterns, learned and proven knowledge and applies them, soaks up information from all sources. Some try to specialise in something and stick with it.
Setup uses all his/her knowledge and experience to come up with new solutions. It’s riskier but someone has to carve a fresh path and this will take you places nobody’s ever been before. A good setup TD gets things up and running and easy to follow for anyone who’s willing to take it up. Always ready to share all his knowledge and experience as he pushes for newer, bigger things.
Future Progression Or Developments:
Strive to be the setup TD. Better progression and challenges. When you struggle to find references for doing something, you know you’re on the right track to something new. It’s rare and hard to find so a lot less competition for a reason. It’s not for the faint of heart. You’re not working for yourself. You’re working for everyone around you on a support role and you can’t point much of anything in the game that you’ve done personally.
The industry’s very competitive and you will fail a lot, slow progression if you’re safe. That’s a fact. Learn and experience as much as you can from all you encounter even from other areas in your life and apply it. Become the hacker.
What Are The ‘tools of the trade’ Used Daily:
C#, C++, Python, Maya, Great social skills to communicate with anyone you meet.
A Typical Day’s Duties:
Talk to the Art & Code departments. Figure out needs and specs, develop and deliver. A tool that can save 15 minutes adds up.
15 mins x 300 people x 20 weekdays a month
used x 5 a day = 7500 man hours or 312.5 days of work.
Imagine how much an entire toolchain could accomplish.
Discuss, Design, Develop, Refine, Repeat.
Is Travelling A Regularly Part Of This Work:
Depends on how many branches the company has but with this line of work, I travel for fun.
Weekly Working Hours:
Full Time
Type Of Hours Arrangement:
Fixed Working Week, Semi-Flexible.
If you manage your time well, no need to go over the usual 8 hours on weekdays. I only do overtime if I don’t want to think about it after I leave work and I leave work in the office. Playing games is research so I go outdoors and keep myself occupied with other hobbies. 
The Best Thing About The Work You Do:
I make games. It’s a dream job for a lot of people. It’s never boring and you’re surrounded by crazy geeks. What more could I ask for in my career?
Your Least Favorite Thing About The Work You Do:
Like many industries, there will always be people who are hard to deal with and massive egos. If your social skills are good, you’ll be fine. Keep it real. You’ll never please everyone.
Any Duties You Hadn’t Anticipated Prior To Undertaking The Work:
I knew with my Programming side of my background that I’d have to eventually face what I tried to avoid by going into entertainment.. Databases. It ended up being fun though. Also having to talk to people with different mindsets and getting to understand the natural flow of the studio. It’s like being a facilitator on the flow of Chi in the workplace. When one thing’s done, it goes to someone else and it has to be a smooth transition. Focus on the systems, not the tools.
The Top Perks Of The Work:
More holidays, more pay, fun people with crazy hobbies, seeing youtubers swear and get frustrated playing the games you helped develop, travel, being part of great games people enjoy and grow up in.. Less competition. We’re super rare.. And many others.
Other Work In The Same Sector:
Before focusing on AAA game development I’ve been in Animation, Movies, VFX, Advertising, Mostly Art related but I make and share tools so right now I’m at my element.
Additional Info You Wish To Share:
Focus on the systems. People waste a lot of time doing easy things you can offload to computers and techniques you can share to make their lives easier. Less overtime for everyone to enjoy life. Also being open to share what you’ve learned gives people a chance to progress and grow while motivating you to the next big things.
