3 Design Lessons From The Game Industry
💎 Don’t miss these design lessons from the game industry brought to you by a game designer at Riot Games! Watch the video to the end to learn how to improve the work you do as a game designer.
📼 Press play to get 3 design lessons for a game industry career from Candace Thomas, Principal Game Designer at Riot Games, who will share with you the insights that she has learned throughout her successful 15-year career.
📼 Design Lessons From The Game Industry - Tip #1: Check In With Yourself. How are you feeling? Are you having some anxiety? Are you stressed about a deadline? Are you afraid that someone's going to reject your idea? Do you not even know where to start in the first place? If so, that's okay. Take a deep breath and don't shame yourself for it. It's natural. Instead, work to reduce your anxiety. Do things like ping your ideas off of your coworkers to gain confidence. Talk to your manager or your stakeholder about what's expected of you, the timeline, and all of your concerns. This will help you build some confidence, or it may even allow you to push back the date in a way that makes you feel more confident in what you're doing.
📼 Design Lessons From The Game Industry - Tip #2: Make Lists. Candace's advice is to start by making a list of all the things that excite you about the project that you’re working on, to get yourself hyped and enthused about it. Having these things handy and taking stock of what you appreciate about what you’re working on will help you power through any roadblocks or slumps in your creative process. The next one is a list of the goals that you're trying to achieve by the end of your project. Think about what message you're trying to send, and the audience that you're trying to send it to. The last list that Candace advises to do is one of your support group. First, add the people that you know you’ll have to collaborate with to finish your project. Candace also likes to include the people that she knows can inspire or encourage her along the way. Having a support group is going to be helpful when you get roadblocked. And if you spend some cycles thinking about how these people like to communicate and how they collaborate most effectively, it might remove that small barrier that you have to reach out for help when you need it.
Design Lessons From The Game Industry - Tip #3: Fill In The Details
This is the stage where you’ll fill out the content of your project or your game design. It sounds simple, but this is the actual hard part, right? At least, now you're primed for success! For one, you've made a list of all the people that you need to collaborate with, and a list of people that you know you can bounce ideas off of if you get roadblocked. Second, you've shed all of the negative emotion that you might have brought into the space, and you have lots of confidence in what you're doing. And lastly, you have a list of goals ready for you to check back in with, to make sure that your project is still running smoothly.
📨 Are you interested in joining Riot Games? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Candace
Candace is an AAA game content creation specialist. She’s a designer for single and multiplayer combat, Enemy Design and AI, game modes, and narrative. She’s a creative powerhouse and a mentor! If you are interested in a career at Riot Games, you can connect with Candace Thomas on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About Riot Games
Riot Games was founded in 2006 to change how video games are developed, published, and supported by players. In 2009, Riot released its debut title, League of Legends, to worldwide acclaim. League has gone on to be the most-played PC game globally and a vital driver of the explosive growth of esports. Players are the foundation of Riot's community and it’s for them that Riot continues to evolve the League experience, in-game and beyond.
Prepare For Your Interview! Meet Nacelle And The Company’s Core Values
💎Want to learn more about the company’s core values and how to align with them? Listen to Nacelle’s team members share some valuable insights. Watch the video to the end to make sure you don’t miss the interview tips that can help you land a job at Nacelle!
📼 Get ready to hear about Nacelle’s culture and the company’s core values, shared by their own team! Meet Madelyn Louipenn, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Nacelle; Drew Clements, Front-end Engineer at Nacelle; Courtney True, Product Designer at Nacelle and Elizabeth Harris, Senior Manager of Professional Services Team at Nacelle. Together, they will share everything you need to know to stand out in the interview process.
📼 The first of the company’s core values is continuous learning. The team at Nacelle is formed by curious individuals, who are often encouraging each other to step outside of their comfort zone and learn a new concept. Every Nacelle employee gets access to an online learning platform, whether it's learning a new programming language or expanding your knowledge in product marketing. There are endless opportunities for their employees to learn something new. As Courtney says, she’s worn so many hats at Nacelle that she’s gotten to see the company itself grow, which led her to a career path to also grow in as an individual.
📼To continue with the core values, the company’s team members stress the importance of strong teamwork skills. This is what has allowed the team at Nacelle to move fast, to hit their aggressive goals, and to allow for an extremely collaborative workspace, even while in a remote environment. Another important skill to strengthen teamwork is the ability to give feedback: giving kudos to your fellow teammates, and creating the space to express gratitude to them is a priority at Nacelle.
Ownership And Honesty Are The Company’s Final Core Values
Nacelle often empowers its employees to take ownership over their work, step outside their comfort zone, try something new and build something that they're passionate about.
Everyone at Nacelle brings a high level of honesty and integrity into everything they do. They hold themselves accountable, keep their word, and most importantly, they show up to work as their authentic selves, knowing that they can be honest with one another. During his interview process, Drew said, “I know what I’m doing, I just don’t interview well." He let the interviewers know ahead of time that he was going to be a nervous wreck, and they were very receptive!
Your interviews are a great time to ask more questions about the role and its expectations, and also to learn about your interviewers and their experience working at the company. That will allow you to understand how you fit into the larger Nacelle picture.
🧑💼 Are you interested in joining Nacelle? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Madelyn, Drew, Courtney, and Elizabeth
With a degree in Psychology, one of Madelyn Louipenn’s biggest passions is helping others develop an understanding of their mental processes and guiding them to overcome blockers. Drew Clements’ passion is his job and he takes every project as an opportunity to learn and grow as creative. Courtney True has crafted websites and brands with visionaries in the social impact spaces such as energy & environment, health & wellness, social justice, scientific progress, arts & culture, education, and philanthropy. If you are interested in a career at Nacelle, you can connect with Madelyn, Drew, Courtney, and Elizabeth on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About Nacelle
Nacelle was built for technology-forward merchants drawn to the benefits of a headless architecture but dissatisfied with the costs and complexity associated with adoption. Leaders at FTD.com, Boll & Branch, and Thinx use Nacelle to eliminate the typical maintenance costs and infrastructure complexities related to going headless while accelerating their time-to-market. Unlike traditional commerce solutions, their product is built on event-driven and elastic core technology optimized for flexibility, performance, and customization.
Watch Our Virtual Talk with MINDBODY's India-Based Leaders
Attention India technologists! MINDBODY, the cloud-based platform that powers wellness bookings, partnered with PowerToFly, a women-run community that connects skilled professionals with each other and fast-growing companies, for a virtual night of tech talks and networking featuring MINDBODY's women tech leaders.
Speakers from MINDBODY included:
- Bhalchandra Namjoshi, Managing Director and Head of India Operations
- Ekta Kamdar, Lead Product Manager
- Pallavi Kulkarni, Manager, People & Culture
- Namrata Kulkarni, Senior Manager, Software Engineering
- Isha Samant, Technical Program Manager
