To get a better insight into a professional working games studio, our Game Development: Programming students went straight to the source and paid a visit to local indie studio, White Paper Games.
If you've not heard of White Paper Games before, it's likely you've played one of their titles. Founded in 2011 and responsible for first-person narrative games Ether One, The Occupation and Conway: Disappearance at Dhalia View, the studio has built a strong foothold in the indie game space.
Creating titles across for Playstation, Xbox, Switch and PC, their expertise and knowledge of game development is invaluable. We caught up Game Development: Programming module leader William Sawyerr to find out more about the field trip.
"We sat down with Pete Bottomley, the Studio Head of White Paper Games, to discuss a number of things and help the students gain an insight into game development in the real world. We began the discussion with some game pitches from the students and Pete engaged them with some questions and feedback. It was great to get them chatting with a professional of Pete's calibre in such an open and relaxed setting.
"Pete then kindly indulged us in a little Q&A session, sharing his insights on working in the industry right now, and giving a unique perspective on what it means to be an independent developer in 2024.
"The trip was a fantastic opportunity for the students to hear from a plurality of voices in the industry, giving them real-world insight into game development practices, as well as developing their communication and pitching skills.
"Looking back on the visit, our biggest takeaway is how much AI is going to transform gaming for the better in terms of automating mundane or repetitive tasks and how that will improve productivity. For a small, independent team such as White Paper Games, this will make game development more accessible for smaller teams. AI in games is a hot topic right now, and not one without controversy, so it was interesting to hear this perspective, especially when Pete referred to such AI tools as Quality of Life Tools - essentially, ones that improve the game developer’s experience."
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Do you want to work in the games industry? Check out our BA (Hons) Game Art and BA (Hons) Game Development: Programming degrees.