Jamie Blacknell

University Student to Developer

Left college at 18 after studying compsci and media
Landed on this course!!
Graduated in 2021
Landed an industry role 1 year later, as a Junior Unity Developer
Got a house, engaged, and then redundant!!!!
New job in January 2025 yay

In Uni created Portage, a game about walking through a forest and being present. It’s a calm, relaxing, 2D game with pixel art and fluid animation.

Once out of Uni, worked on a branch at Meta, making virtual experiences with voice communication. Stayed there for 3 years, but unfortunately was made redundant due to layoffs.

Following this, worked on a project with a friend about a rocket to boost the portfolio.

Works at Play360 now, working on a project called Game City (similar to Jackbox, but family friendly). They work with existing IPs like Chase, CatchPhase, Deal or No Deal, plenty of daytime TV shows.Embracing technology around AI.

Grown from a generalist to a middleweight dev who takes leadership roles
Works with a larger team now, and works beyond Unity development
- Web devlopment
- Multiplayer servers
- API and Databases

Being a Developer:

Was the only in house dev, so had to take on a lot of extra responsibility
- Roles included marketing, sound, art, distribution
Got to grow a variety of skills, to learn and grow what roles you fit and what roles you don’t fit

What has Changed?

Works in a more rigid structure, but is able to specialise
Gaining a deeper understanding
Working with a bigger team creates more difficult communication
Able to refine and hone particular skills

How did Uni Prepare Me?

Work across the whole dev pipeline
Self-starting instincts, teaches you proactivity
Can work independently and in teams
Access to a variety of tools!
This all helps with employability!!!

Communication

Collaboration is IMPORTANT!! Learn to communicate in a variety of ways to a variety of people!
- How would you talk to your direct senior?
  - Use correct technical language
  - Be direct
  - Try to understand the problem and research before coming to them with a problem.
- How would you talk to someone who doesn’t share your discipline?
  - Be specific about the desired outcome, and why this is, rather than how to do their job
  - If they want something from you, communicate how long it will take, or why some other work is required first. and learn how to gently say no
  - A certain amount of translation is involved
  - Seek understanding. Learn their area. Close the gap of translation
- How would you talk to your project manager, CEO, or boss?
  - A lot of translation. Don’t care about technical jargon, they want to know you’re on target, or why you’re missing your target

Uni prepares you for this by giving us opportunities to collaborate!

Portfolios

Do NOT just use the uni one
BE ON LINKEDIN!!
Also have other platforms, eg;
- Artstation
- Github
- Blog
- Instagram page
- LINK THEM TOGETHER!!

Dev Portfolio

HAVE A GITHUB and publish your work. Everyone uses it, it’s easy to update and manage
Showcase your source code in a nice format
Document, document, document.
Make sure it’s accessible!!
Make sure you understand your code and can explain it back to a hiring manager.
As well as a Github, have a more informal blog to talk about achievements, post gifs and snippets, be a bit more personable.
Show you understand good code practice:
- OOP, understand
- unit Testing
- Version Control
- Debugging

Networking:

Linkedin has been flooded with AI. Speak and connect with real people, meet them, stand out!!

Take part in game jams, community services, join discord servers, be an active member of the community. You’re competing against slop AI, but at least competing against slop AI is easy because it’s all slop.

Connect to BIG people in the industry. Know who you want to target. Show them your work, ask them questions, climb the fucking ladderrrr.

3D Artist Portfolio

Use Artstation!! You’re among other artists, but there’s a lot more competition. Lots of good stuff, but a lot of AI slop. Make sure everything you upload is QUALITY
Showcase you can draw to a competant level. You should be able to get ideas across through sketches, moodboards, or photo-bashing. Demonstate you can take a concept and follow through.
- Technical art, like blueprints, are good. Annotate!!
Show experience with a lot of software.
Show you understand the modelling pipeline; modelling to UV to textures:
- SHOW WIREFRAMES
- SHOW POLY COUNTS, TEXTURE SIZES, PIXEL DENSITY
- Understand how to optimise, like LODs and Mipmap. Know how to get something from a modelling software to a game engine
  - Show your model in an ENGINE with different lighting configs and camera angles (Unreal, Unity)
- Show your maps (normal, texture, roughness, emission, etc)
- Trim sheets and decal sheets
- BAKING!!! Very important. You must learn to bake. DFuckk i hate baking
- Attention to detail
  - Don’t add detail just for the sake of it. Think about how it fits with the overall piece
  - So think about the context of your model. What does it NEED? Keeping your design princiiples is important, don’t try to look more impressive than what the model requires.

Passion pieces

Don’t “fill up” your portfolio with meaningless stuff
QUALITY over QUANTITY
Present professionally, don’t plagarise
The interviewer wants to see you enjoying your work 🙂

Courses:

Youtube a blessing and a curse. Can be useful, can be slop
Plenty of professional courses out there. But you’ll have to pay 🙁

Learn the Software:

3DS Max and Maya (check)
ZBrush (check)
Substance Painter (soft of check)
Photoshop (lol no)

Soft Skills:

“I’m never gonna ever get employed” NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At junior level, soft skills are equally important as technical stuff. They can train you, but they can’t train your attitude
What makes you employable:
- Good communication
- Being willing to try
- Push yourself out of your comfort zone
- Show dedication to hard work
- Know how to collaborate with people
- Take direction and criticism well
- Show improvement
- LISTEN!!!
Less desirable:
- Poor time management
- Lack of ambition or motivation
- Reactive and defensive reactions to criticism
- Unprofessional attitude
- Speaking like you’re on social media

Interviews:

Be on time
Dress appropriately
Come prepared with examples of work
Eye contact
Engage with the interviewer

Hard Truths:

It’s a tough industry
Deadlines are tough, communities can be unforgiving
- Don’t complain about not having a job. Stay positive, and showcase your projects
Scope creep is real, pivots can happen

But games are so rewarding!! Watching commuities play your game is awesome!! You get to work with interesting, creative people!!

Q&A:

How can we compete with our general knowledge against specialised stuff
- Fit the company culture, esp at Junior levels. Get along with people 🙂
How generalised should we be?
- Keep your focus, but know a range of other things too.
Elaborate on the technical task they ask you in the application
- They give you a couple days to complete it. Jamie was given two assets and told to make it multiplayer.
- Second test: can you get a unity project running on a TV
- It’s a technical task but they want you to be reflective
Does the company give you time to learn, or do you learn on your own time?
- Both!! You learn as you go, but you also do a lot of independent research.
How do you navigate imposter syndrome?
- You wouldn’t be there if you weren’t good enough
- Communicate your worries. A good manager will be able to navigate that
Do you still feel like you’re learning?
- Every day you learn something new!!
How much maneuverability is there in the Game Industry?
- Depends on how specialised you are ig. Game projects are collaborative by nature :3
- Esp when you’re at junior level, esp if you’re at a big company, you can pivot

Playtrial games

Ustwo games

Solo video games dev launched in Southampton. GO and MEET PEOPLE!!!

Adam Mould (artstation, linkedin)

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