STAFF PROFILE: GEORGE, GAME DESIGNER (cont.)
As I was slowly making my way to the door, the publisher then barked, "but we have another position that we think you'll be perfect for". It was for a new game magazine that hadn't even been given a name yet, that was supposed to appeal to young adults and wouldn't try to patronise its readership, that could so easily be strangled at birth if it didn't deliver all of the above. "Perfect," I said, "I like a challenge", and accepted the job. I've always liked taking calculated risks but this was a big one as it concerned my future. A few months later, the 'dummy' copy of Edge magazine was unveiled to the publisher and potential advertisers. Thankfully, it went down very well.
Working on Edge was everything I thought it would be. After one and a half years I decided I'd learned all I could about magazines and thought seriously again about knocking on the doors of game developers. I had made plenty of contacts during my visits and I felt the time was right to try again. My time on the magazine made me even more determined to become part of a development team - it really fuelled my fire.
How did you get to work at Rare?
I left Future and began sending out my CV to several game companies. I took a fill-in job at HMV in London as a 'games buyer' while waiting. I even sent my 'new' CV to companies that turned me down previously. This time success. Every one of them now wanted to interview me. Of the seven interviews, I was eventually offered six game design jobs from various London-based companies and one offer of game tester. Having looked at all the possibilities, I felt it was time for another calculated risk. So I took the job of game tester. That job was with Rare Ltd. I knew that I wanted to affiliate myself with a progressive-thinking company and thought if I could prove myself here then I'd have done well. Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct had just been released and I really wanted to learn from what was (and still is) considered to be one of the best software development houses in the world.
After a few months working in Testing (DKC3, Killer Instinct Gold, Blast Corps, GoldenEye) I was moved into an assistant design position. Since then I've worked on Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64 and just finished Kameo: Elements of Power. |
