Daniel P. Wright

I’m very excited to announce a set of talks that have been in the works for a while, namely the upcoming alumni day at the University of Teesside on February 25th. I’ve kept pretty quiet (read: silent) about this while it’s been in planning because I haven’t known whether we’ll get the numbers / be able to book the room / and so forth, but finally it’s all been confirmed!

The idea behind the event is that alumni from the University of Teesside return to give talks on topics they’ve learned about since leaving the University and entering the world of professional games development. Unlike the typical, “This is my experience of the games industry after my first few months there” talk (one of which I gave back in in May), this offers the chance for alumni to talk about a topic that matters to them – whether it’s the particular aspect of games development they’ve been involved with, or a technology they’ve explored or developed, or a particular approach to design. And, of course, it gives students an insight into aspects of games development they wouldn’t usually encounter as part of their course. The planned talks this time round are:

• Me, talking about multi-platform asset and build management using make and other UNIX tools.
• Peter J. B. Lewis, talking about working as a programmer in middleware, based on his experience at Geomerics in Cambridge.
• Luke Nockles, covering a variety of aspects of design, including game design, level design, and HUD and UI design.
• Steve Lee, talking about the role of design, getting a job in the industry, the meaning and value of elegance, and games as education / art.

There’ll also be a panel at the end which will likely focus on our early experiences in the industry but will be pretty open, so we’ll just go in whichever direction questions take us.

I’m really excited about this event and I hope that, if it’s a success, it can become an annual affair. Naturally I’ll be putting my slides up on this website once I’ve given the talk, so anyone who makes it should be able to find them on the portfolio page.