Rare Life: Associate Producer
It’s been a while since we did our last batch, but with the games business having blossomed into a hotbed of ongoing recruitment, it seems like a peachy time to bring back Rare’s in-house staff profiles. Hopefully these will prove informative for those hoping to get into a particular line of work, but also entertaining enough to be worth a read for anyone interested in Rare or a general industry career.
In this edition: Mike Wilson, Associate Producer. Produce this, Wilson! Whatever that means.
Rare: What’s your background and how did you arrive at Rare?
Mike Wilson: Arrived at Rare in a car. Drove down from the North of England not long after I finished university where I obtained a degree in Business. As part of my studies, I worked at a cool internet startup in Germany that gave me plenty of community/web experience and helped me secure an initial six-month contract supporting the launch of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise. That was five years, two contract extensions and one FTE contract ago, and I haven’t looked back since.
Have you found yourself doing the job you always thought you’d do?
At college I saw myself becoming an Engineer, but two years of Computing convinced me that wasn’t my path into the gaming industry. Working with the community on Nuts & Bolts and Kinect Sports was great, but I was keen to become part of the Production team so when the opportunity arose to move on to Season Two, it was too good to turn down.
What are your main responsibilities on the average game?
Since becoming an Associate Producer, I’ve been focused on defining what features will be included in our games and ensuring those features are delivered to the highest quality. Day to day that includes defining goals for the upcoming sprint, reviewing new builds and discussing the latest Design thinking.
Apr 2013
Rare Life: Senior Test Lead
It’s been a while since we did our last batch, but with the games business having blossomed into a hotbed of ongoing recruitment, it seems like a peachy time to bring back Rare’s in-house staff profiles. Hopefully these will prove informative for those hoping to get into a particular line of work, but also entertaining enough to be worth a read for anyone interested in Rare or a general industry career.
In this edition: David Wong, Senior Test Lead. Testing testing, one two.
Rare: What’s your background and how did you arrive at Rare?
David Wong: When I was at college, I used to make a detour to the local amusement arcade every day rather than actually go to college – I skipped so many lessons that on the day I actually turned up, my lecturer turned round and said “who is that?”.
I’ve always been better at playing video games than doing anything else. My brother actually worked for Rare as an Engineer, and he told me one day that they were hiring Testers. I grabbed the next train down from Scotland and got an interview. My interviewer asked what I thought of a racing game he currently loved, and I basically spent the interview telling him how rubbish I thought it was. That was a very long train journey home as I kicked myself repeatedly for being daft enough to argue with the person trying to give me a job. Miraculously, I still got it, and I’ve been here ever since!
Have you found yourself doing the job you always thought you’d do?
Definitely not. On the one hand, I never dreamed there would be so much work and effort behind getting a video game onto the shelves – it’s pretty crazy actually, and anyone who thinks testers “just play games all day” needs a slap (Easy Dave! – The Management). On the other hand, not ever did I dream that I could be lucky enough to become a Games Tester. I still pinch myself to this day that I’m one of the lucky few doing a job that they really love.
What are your main responsibilities on the average game?
First and foremost, as a Senior Test Lead I’m responsible for making sure new Testers get all the hardware/software/training they need to do their jobs effectively, handling any issues Testers run into that they can’t solve themselves and ensuring everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing, but after that I have a whole bunch of other responsibilities. Sending builds to our Test Teams and User Research; thinking up ways to increase Test efficiency; acting as backup for our Release Manager; liaising with a whole host of internal and external parties that need to be kept in the loop when trying to produce a game; hosting and attending lots of meetings; training up existing Testers on new processes and new Testers on existing processes; I could go on…
Feb 2013
Rare Life: Network Programmer
It’s been a while since we did our last batch, but with the games business having blossomed into a hotbed of ongoing recruitment, it seems like a peachy time to bring back Rare’s in-house staff profiles. Hopefully these will prove informative for those hoping to get into a particular line of work, but also entertaining enough to be worth a read for anyone interested in Rare or a general industry career.
In this edition: Ian Bolton, Network Programmer. If you make sure you’re connected…
Rare: What’s your background and how did you arrive at Rare?
Ian Bolton: I joined Rare as a graduate after studying Computer Science at Bath University. My course was four years with the third year spent on placement at a software company in Bradford-on-Avon. It was here that I gained an interest in network programming after working on client/server C code for communicating with the hardware that tested telephone lines.
Have you found yourself doing the job you always thought you’d do?
I always thought I would be a programmer after gaining an interest in computers from an early age, but I did not think I would specifically be a computer games programmer. Despite my love of games, the games industry looked too difficult to get into and I chose to do Computer Science rather than any of the dedicated game programming courses. When I applied to Rare I thought nothing would probably come of it, so when I was given the offer I immediately accepted over another offer I had for a financial programming job in London.
What are your main responsibilities on the average game?
My main responsibilities are usually to oversee the development of the online multiplayer and Xbox LIVE features on a game. This involves maintaining and developing the network code at the game engine level and working closely with the game teams to help meet their requirements for synchronous play. Xbox LIVE covers a wide area and I am usually involved in most aspects of it, for example the matchmaking, parties, invites, voice and video chat, achievements, leaderboards, and rich presence.
Which Rare games have you worked on, and what’s been your biggest achievement?
I have worked on Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Piñata, Kinect Sports, and Kinect Sports: Season Two. My biggest achievement was implementing the online co-operative mode for PDZ on a codebase that was not designed for online play, and having it done for the launch of the game on a new console.
What do you see as the top perk of working for Rare?
The best perk is being able to show family and friends the latest game you have released and which areas you have worked on at Christmas time. Getting free copies of every first party release and discounted Microsoft products is also a pretty good perk!
Feb 2013
Rare Life: Gameplay Engineer
It’s been a while since we did our last batch, but with the games business having blossomed into a hotbed of ongoing recruitment, it seems like a peachy time to bring back Rare’s in-house staff profiles. Hopefully these will prove informative for those hoping to get into a particular line of work, but also entertaining enough to be worth a read for anyone interested in Rare or a general industry career.
In this edition: James Thomas, Gameplay Engineer. Let’s have it, Trophy Thomas!
Rare: What’s your background and how did you arrive at Rare?
James Thomas: Despite loving videogames from an early age, I got into programming relatively late compared to a lot of others here. I wrote my first “if” during Computing at college and then followed that up with Computer Science at University. Between them they managed to get me up to a decent level, so I was able to put together a ropey FPS demo and send that in to Rare. Although it only ran at four frames per second and featured enemies no more threatening than a series of white triangles, it managed to get me past security and I’ve been here for just over ten years.
Have you found yourself doing the job you always thought you’d do?
Yes. And no. Being completely honest, I wasn’t 100% sure what games programmers did when I first set my heart on cracking the industry. So whilst I have achieved my dream job, it’s been so varied during my time here that I don’t think I could have predicted that.
What are your main responsibilities on the average game?
On my last couple of projects I’ve been involved at a lot of the early planning. This is an honour and a privilege but what it boils down to is a lot of architectural design, pouring thought into large UML diagrams and flow charts that describe just how we will build the game and how all its constituent parts work together. Whilst this may not sound very attractive, it’s extremely beneficial and gives a great insight into what the next few months will contain.
After that initial phase, it’s time to get my hands dirty. My duties lie mainly on the gameplay side of things – sitting above all the system level code and actually coding up the fun bits. For Kinect Sports: Season Two‘s Tennis this involved getting things like the AI and the ball up and running, but also getting a whole mini-game to myself, all of it spent working closely with a Designer to ensure that everything was what had been expected.
Finally, and this goes for everyone: bugs. No matter how well you think you’ve programmed, there will be errors and the last stage of any project is squashing them good and hard so they don’t come back.
Which Rare games have you worked on, and what’s been your biggest achievement?
So far my CV reads: Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Viva Piñata, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise and Kinect Sports: Season Two.
Jan 2013
The Tepid Seat: Kinect Sports
For various reasons, some beyond our control and some within our control but involving dangerous wild animals, it’s been a long time coming back. But today, finally, it is upon us. You submitted the questions, we got Rare folks to sit down and answer them. Or, technically, answer them while running around emitting a high-pitched whine and trying to do two dozen other things at the same time.
In this edition: Kinect Sports team designers Travis Ryan and Paul Collins. Knowledge dropped!
Jump up, and down, this question’s passed, around.
I’ve always wondered what the process was like for Kinect Sports when it came to implementing an idea into the game. Obviously there’s the set sports that come with the disc that have their own origins, but it’s the creative fodder added to the DLC packs that must be interesting to see the development pan out around the studio. Is one employee sitting at a table when he suddenly jumps up and starts impersonating Blazing Banana, or is it more of a team thing where the entire studio undergoes a stage of sports ideas before carrying it off to their own field of expertise?
Flumpet Flavor of the month,
Steve aka Lerako
TR: Herding new ideas is a tricky process, not dissimilar to herding kittens with wool. There are usually so many ideas pinging around the office that we have to wear protective gear. When developing full sports we home in on those with high popularity, fan requests and things that just sound plain fun to play! As we’re talking about Kinect, we then try to get a feel for it before a single finger taps the keyboard. You can get a feel for a sport pretty quickly and establish whether the core interaction is fun to perform, fun for others to watch and so on.
When we get to the slightly sillier activities we always take the core elements of a sport and throw fun stuff at it until it sticks. See our Prize Driver golfing game show and Darts shenanigans fending off hungry zombies…
I have your game Kinect Sports, is still the best of all games I’ve played. But one thing bothers me. Why is Bowling for up to four players? Often I meet with friends more, and then we wonder who will play. You will not issue a patch that would extend the possibility of players? Thank you for your reply and sorry for my English.
Peter Neveril
TR: Blimey, I bet you make the girls blush with such a generous portion of friends. Technically we limit it to four players for a number of reasons, mainly to keep the offline/online player synched up and in line with restrictions on the number of active profiles available on the box.
How about a tiddlywinks league, pro rules, to determine the participating four?
PC: It’s great that you want to get more players involved – my advice would be to set up your own mini-tournament when you have a large group playing Kinect Sports Bowling. That way everyone can feel involved even when it isn’t their turn!
Dec 2012
Rare Life: Designer
It’s been a while since we did our last batch, but with the games business having blossomed into a hotbed of ongoing recruitment, it seems like a peachy time to bring back Rare’s in-house staff profiles. Hopefully these will prove informative for those hoping to get into a particular line of work, but also entertaining enough to be worth a read for anyone interested in Rare or a general industry career.
In this edition: Gavin Price, Designer. Bear witness to the inner workings of the Gavster’s mind.
Rare: What’s your background and how did you arrive at Rare?
Gavin Price: My background was just being a huge games enthusiast. I knew from a young age I loved videogames and as I grew older the thought of making them really appealed. I was on a programming course at college before fate intervened and I applied and took a testing/QA role at Rare back in ’99. 18 months later I went down the design route and haven’t looked back since (though I’d like to finish that college course one day)…
Have you found yourself doing the job you always thought you’d do?
Yes and no. I tried not to define how I’d be making games early on – even though I was on a programming course it was mainly to get a foot in the door. When I started in QA, over time I figured out what role I thought best suited me and worked at it from there.
What are your main responsibilities on the average game?
Early on – ideas! Then planning and implementation, as designers here can turn their hand to anything (levels, control mechanics, systems, UI – it’s really fun and diverse), followed up by polishing (UR and fixing bugs). Some would also say that bringing in cake from a much-loved local cake-making business is in there too.
Which Rare games have you worked on, and what’s been your biggest achievement?
Loads – my first job was testing Jet Force Gemini on N64 (and then all of our other releases in the 18 months or so that followed). Design-wise I’ve worked on Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Viva Piñata, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Kinect Sports 1 & 2 and the current secret project. Also one or two prototypes that didn’t make it into production.
Biggest achievement… hmm, the BAFTAs for KS 1 & 2 are amazing, but on a personal level I’m still proud of not going crazy from editing a bazillion Piñata assets around their various behaviours and rules. And naming things in a classic Rare fashion, be it Piñata names that HAD to sound like chocolates/snacks/candy or coming up with fun names for activities in KS2. I love doing that stuff!
Nov 2012
Rare Life: Character Artist
It’s been a while since we did our last batch, but with the games business having blossomed into a hotbed of ongoing recruitment, it seems like a peachy time to bring back Rare’s in-house staff profiles. Hopefully these will prove informative for those hoping to get into a particular line of work, but also entertaining enough to be worth a read for anyone interested in Rare or a general industry career.
In this edition: Steve Mayles, Character Artist. Open up, Steve. Guh-huh!
Rare: What’s your background and how did you arrive at Rare?
Steve Mayles: I was in my last year at sixth form when I was interviewed by Tim and Chris Stamper for a role as a Trainee Graphics Engineer. There were no computer art/animation courses in those days (1992!) and I was adamant that was what I wanted to do as a job. So I turned up in my bad suit with mullet-style hair, showed some of my A-level artwork and a few images I had slaved over in Deluxe Paint on the Amiga 500.
Have you found yourself doing the job you always thought you’d do?
Pretty much, yes. I specialise in character work now, but when I started I just wanted to do graphics. My first job was finishing off the character and animation work on Battletoads Double Dragon for the NES, which looking back was a pretty cool first project! After that it was characters and animation for the next 10 years or so, then recently concentrating on characters, as jobs have become more and more specialised.
What are your main responsibilities on the average game?
Responsibilities will change depending on what stage the product has reached. Early on, it might be more about exploring concepts in 3D to nail a style, maybe some research into different ways of doing things and deciding the right approach for the game. Later in production, when everyone knows what they’re doing, it’ll be more about creating specific assets to go into the finished game and giving feedback, especially if outsourcing assets. Towards the end, bug fixing and trying not to break the game! Throughout development there will be various asks for promotional renders; these really ramp up close to the end.
Which Rare games have you worked on, and what’s been your biggest achievement?
*Takes a deep breath* Battletoads Double Dragon for NES and SNES, Donkey Kong Country and Diddy’s Kong Quest for SNES, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie and DK64 for N64, Grabbed by the Ghoulies for Xbox, Viva Piñata, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Kinect Sports and Kinect Sports: Season Two for Xbox 360.
Oct 2012
Rare Life: Tools Engineer
It’s been a while since we did our last batch, but with the games business having blossomed into a hotbed of ongoing recruitment, it seems like a peachy time to bring back Rare’s in-house staff profiles. Hopefully these will prove informative for those hoping to get into a particular line of work, but also entertaining enough to be worth a read for anyone interested in Rare or a general industry career.
To kick us off: Rich Nguyen, Tools Engineer. Take it away, Rich!
Rare: What’s your background and how did you arrive at Rare?
Rich Nguyen: I began working at Rare pretty soon after finishing my Computer Science masters at York University. All my course mates were jumping into business jobs in London. I was sure I’d enjoy my career most if I did something I was really passionate about, so I looked into games programming rather than the FTSE 100.
Have you found yourself doing the job you always thought you’d do?
No! I had assumed that I would have been part of a games team, but my time at Rare has been far more organic than that. I have always had an interest in audio, and when my team picked up on this I was given work developing audio software for Banjo-Kazooie N&B. It was a brilliant way to focus on core technology whilst contributing to Rare’s latest title. Since then I’ve naturally grown into a tools engineer.
Which Rare games have you worked on, and what’s been your biggest achievement?
My first game was Banjo-Kazooie N&B, then I was part of the tools team for the duration of Kinect Sports and Season Two. I learnt a lot about the runtime during the first one, and was ready to take on some more engine and tools work for Season Two. But there was a need to for someone to take care of the audio asset pipeline in Season Two, and that turned out to be a full-time job for me! I had to create a bunch of new tools and systems for Season Two that allowed us to work effectively with our partner studio in Canada. I’m proud of the final transatlantic audio workflow we ended up with, so that’s my biggest achievement.
Sep 2012
