Posts by TheOnlyDoubleF

Voilà le lien vers le podcast : https://open.spotify.com/show/6nyuHat61…iT22MZz_6pZHiYA

I would not hesitate if the French Government was giving away houses in the countryside ahahah.

I had some sort of alternative idea too. When I left ubisoft, my plan was to build a place outside of a big city where I could have a small game dev team but also space to have additionnal people working there like local freelancers, etc. A coworking place next to our game dev studio, and possibly welcoming some kind of game art residence there in greenlands. Sure the place would have a common food forest and a crop garden for people working there.

I burned out too while working on Riders Republic at Ubisoft Annecy last year. I can rely and say that not having a full time job is nice ahah. I've had kind of the same recovery moment after the burnout, covid madness and political insanity in France, climate change depression, breaking out with my girlfriend, family member's illness.... Life shit.

But it's cool, I took time to build new courses for my level design lectures, I finished to write my game career book and signed a contract with a french book editor, I have time to read (I read the Ants trilogy from Bernard Werber, Karl Marx's misery of philosophy (and soon others), and bought many other things like Proust, Balzac and more classics) and exercices more. More importantly, I ride around France during two months by bike, visiting, riding and camping, meeting new people and way of living. That was a energizing adventures for sure. Will do again.

Now, I have regular lectures in game schools for level design, I've started again my interview podcast of game devs (only in French sorry). The main question now is what do I do? Do I take a new job in a company? There are plenty of opportunities for technical design positions. Or do I go freelance as my heart is telling to? Am I able to work remotely? Am I not already too lonely? Should I live in a big city to benefit of culture and plenty of chicks? Or should I go and live in the countryside to get the garden I need, green lands and space for a dog? Wouldn't I be too lonely ?

I'm really fighting with myself on those questions. My heart would like to work a third of my time on freelance mission, a third on lectures, and a third doing what I want but the impostor syndrome is challenging my ability to build a freelancing business on level design and tech design. Yet, I have an int for a potential client working on serious games and requesting assistance on UE4 stuff, may be that could be a good start and try for this way of life.

I'm having a very fun and addictive time trying to build a scandinavian empire in Crusader King's 3

Hey, I played your game yesterday and I wanted to say I find it pretty cool.

I would suggest to handle the level progression with a bit more a rational design 'cause there is no obvious theme in each round of level and I found it hard to understand the learning curve.

Hey guys,

Some of you may have seen my post in the "How to break in the games industry" thread that I was working on a book to gather advices and experience to explain to juniors how to improve their application profile.

Well, I'm now launching a Kickstarter campaign to help me fund a proper translation from French to English to share the book worldwide.

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/lsACqat.jpg]

It's useless for the seniors and veterans to get this book (unless you want to be really nice and back the project) as the book is really aiming newbies. Yet, I'd gladly take your sharing abilities to spread the word about the campaign that is ending on the 1rst of April.

If you know people that ask tons of questions about the gaming industry, teenagers that wonder how to break in, that's for them.

Here is the link to the Kickstarter page!

Comments and suggestions are welcomed

See you!

Hey guys, to add on to this thread, I worte a broke that should be out soon aabout this same topic:

http://franckfitrzyk.com/index.php/2020…fe-and-my-book/

Quote from Radu

On 1/27/2020 at 8:26 AM, Radu said: Had enough of Steep eh?

I had enough of the production* of Steep which is different.

Quote from blackdog

On 1/27/2020 at 11:57 AM, blackdog said: Back in the indie train or shopping around?

Well I announced yesterday that I wrote a book called "Starting your career in the video game industry" so I have to finish this and it's done, I'd like to get some tech design freelance missions and travel for a bit.

http://franckfitrzyk.com/index.php/2020…fe-and-my-book/

I'm not working at Ubisoft Annecy anymore. Cool project but I need some fresh air.

Hey boys,

I haven't share many things lately to the community ('cause I didn't much. (Harsh years at work). More info soon)

But i've participated to the Epic Games' Megajam this week.

I ended up making this game alone: https://itch.io/jam/2019-epic-megajam/rate/521019

You are a good doggo and you have to get to gather the sheeps in the white circle.

I'm quite proud because it's the first time I make something "good" during a game jam alone. ?

Please, share comments and feedback. (yeah I know, the AI is extremely silly)

Quote from [HP]

On 4/25/2019 at 10:49 PM, [HP] said: Holy sweet wall of text, ahah.

A lot of those problems can be solved with something very simple yet it's extremly rare in the games industry (or any other industry for that matter) good leadership and vision. Someone who makes sure the team stays true to the vision and is not afraid to call the shots, confidence from leadership trickles down very well, leaders that assert themselves more and compromise less. People love working for confident leaders that know how to say "no" and that have the ability of knowing when the team starts to get off track. Such leaders, ironically also let you be more proactive, and let you own your work. Such leaders know that when it's yours, it's yours to loose. You are more motivated, more creative, more alive.

Look, here's the reality that no one talks about, 20% of people do 80% of the work, specially in todays bloated games industry, there's a lot of people that take cover behind blahblahblah, meetings and other superfluous shit. Just make sure you're inside the 20%, look inward. I've learned that It's not the number of hours you put into it, but the intensity and consistent effort you bring to your project, regardless if you're doing it alone or in a AAA team.

Amen to this

Quote from Radu

13 hours ago, Radu said: @TheOnlyDoubleF what software did you have them use?

UE4 ofc. Simple clear and easy. I prepared them a Platform-FPS ish to make level like the training level of call of duty modern warfare where you just move and shoot at targets. Already a loooooot to learn from there and it was pretty cool. Honestly, they did go.

I just spent 3 days giving Level design lessons for the first time in my life... and it was super fun!

I gave them 3 hours of macro theroy about level design and flow. We spent the rest of the time doing their first level creationf from paper to 3D. It was super cool. I'm a exhausted ahah I didn't thought it would be that intense.

In the end they said that it was the best lesson they got this year! So I'm happy

Hey @JamesThomas

Thanks for sharing your portfolio with us.

There are three key things I would say at the moment:

- first, the "case studies" and "game modes" are not clickable so we can't access the content

- When we are not on your landing page / home page, we never see your name or you role. That is an information that should always be at the top of your portfolio.

- you should make the "more details" links more obvious 'cause if I hadn't looked at it twice, I would have said that it was lacking of explaination in your work( which is not the case). So, find something to make this more obvious, make a big colored square with a "CLICK HERE", I don't know, whatever.

- Stay consistant! If you're trying to find a job as a junior, why do I see a "Lead design at whatever" in the about me section? Stay consistency in what you say to people, 'cause that's the kind of things people through a "Ew" at. Or precise it is a personnal student project or community thing, whatever.

- No Resume link? May be you are super junior and you think you have nothing to prepare a CV, but actually, companies will request one so you should try to make one that sells you as a junior level designer and potential good team player.

- Personnally, I would not put a link to my Facebook profil. This has nothing to do with work. Would put a LinkedIn link there.

It's not clear neither if you did also the visuals of your dodge ball levels or not. If not, the work with level artist could be appreciated if you think it could be interested.

Super interesting to see information about playtests!

Still, good job, that's a very good basis to build upon

Who's down to play it a bit ?

You can add me TheOnlyDoubleF on Origin.

Very very cool.

This only thing to me that is not suepr clear about the project is if they are student projects or online community or whatever.

The rest of it is super super nice, the descriptions, screenshots, work explanations. Good content. Keep it up and you'll get a job in the industry for sure

Hello Uruzawa

When we arrive on you site, the overall looks cool but after few clicks and a very quick digging, here are the issues to me:

Visually:

On your home/landing page, I think the color choice of the text boxes are wrong. I had a very bad time trying to read those text. May be these are colors that go well together, but for text, the contrast is not strong enough to make it easy to read.

It took me several minutes to understand the separation between the left column and the right one. I thought the left column was the titles of the sentences on the left. This is not clear at all. I think would be better to clearly separate this information.

[Blocked Image: https://i.gyazo.com/17185b476dba73355d25ea51903d710f.png]

Content:

I don't really understand why you have so many categories. In the "game design" content, you have level design things and management things; in the level design section, you only have only few screenshots that show nothing at all; the "experience" is not clear at not, why not just call it Resume.

On each page, I don't a lot of interesting information on what you did on each project. Still, you wrote long sentences. I would propose going for bullet points but with an exhaustive list of tasks and responsabilities you had and that you want to show off. Sell you achievements and learnings!

In Mars Life, You put this under "Game Design" section, and the first thing you describe is doing Level design and project management. That makes no sense. This is a big issue in how you present things dude. Try to be clearer.

Same for Arcade journey, It's in "Game Design", it's said your role was Level designer (in the left column) and that you too were a game designer (in the center description) that took care of the level design [Blocked Image: https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/mind-blown.gif?w=580&h=435]

Plus ofr this project, only screenshots is useless. I need a build to test what you did if I want to or at least a video to see what the game is about.

And last, in level design section, Noctis Labyrinthus. I have no fucking what this is about and you start like that, assuming I should know: "Since we had decided to give players the double jumping ability during the mid-late phase of the game, there are certain points of this level that cannot be reached the rst time the player gets there."

I have no idea what you are talking, I don't have any explication of the game, no video to see the gameplay, how am I supposed to get this? To me, you really have to rework the way you talk about your work, what you want to sell, what you want to do to know who you want to talk to.

@General Vivi Oooh I love this kind of stuff

Hello guys,

We are looking for a lot of people design and art here in Ubisoft Annecy, France. Probably the Ubisoft studio with the most amazing view on the mountains you can have from your desk!

There is a lot to be and everything happening here atm is super exciting.

Design

[Blocked Image: https://i.gyazo.com/44918b36686aabfc34033cd5ce199e22.png]

Technical Game designer: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/careers/search.aspx#sr-post-id=743999680981094&is-redirect=true Economic Game Designer: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/careers/search.aspx#sr-post-id=743999680819719&is-redirect=true Technical Level Designer : https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/careers/search.aspx#sr-post-id=743999677313149&is-redirect=true Level Designer: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/careers/search.aspx#sr-post-id=743999676721672&is-redirect=true

Art

[Blocked Image: https://i.gyazo.com/bdaea38ffb409288f732407424d27759.png]

Artistic Director: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/careers/search.aspx#sr-post-id=743999681040267&is-redirect=true Technical Artist: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/careers/search.aspx#sr-post-id=743999681026838&is-redirect=true Level Artist: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/careers/search.aspx#sr-post-id=743999680337392&is-redirect=true 3D Environment / Nature Artist : https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/careers/search.aspx#sr-post-id=743999677191956&is-redirect=true Senior Level Artist: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/careers/search.aspx#sr-post-id=743999676721483&is-redirect=true Lead 3D Environment Artist: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-US/careers/search.aspx#sr-post-id=743999676720681&is-redirect=true

Don't hesitate to ping me if you find something interesting and I'll see if I can help.

Quote from Vilham

On 1/9/2019 at 1:58 PM, Vilham said: Yeah, what exactly is the portfolio for?

+1

Hey guys, it's been a while since I posted here (in May or so ?). I've been following a bit the activities on the forum. So many cool maps created!

I wanted to give some news of what happened those last few months.

Still at Ubisoft Annecy but I got a permanent contract now ? I've been assigned many technical tasks, working on improving pipepline through tools. This shit is super exciting! Super good feedback for management, tasks are fun and atmosphere is very friendly (btw we're still looking for level designers and level artists here )

For the french speakers, I've launched a podcast called Meet The Dev in which I interview people working in the game industry (if french speakers are interested to participate, contact me!)

I'm also writing a book! It is a book about how to get a job in the industry where I talk about speciliazed schools, Cv, portfolio but also professionnal attitude, application, networking etc. I try to cover everything to create the master "guide" (i don't like to say guide). I hope it will be interesting for people willing to get into the industry. I've been willing to do that for a long time and i'm very happy I finally started to do it. It's a big retropecctive on what have happen in my life for the past years I've been reading many books about personal developement lately and as i'm starting to work with schools, I thought it would be a super good tool to make a universal book about game industry's "secrets' and hidden truths about recruitment. there are big parts of "Open your eyes!" for newbies.

Yeah I said it, I'm getting in touch with game schools in France to make some lessons. Normally I'll be starting that beginning of next year ! I'm super happy about that too! It's mainly a personal goal but i'll may be under the ubisoft flags for few lessons.

Oh and those personal development books... man it has changed my life. Honestly, reading those has been a big change of perspective on how to achieve objective. The best two i've read are "The 7 habits of highly efficient people" and "the Magic of seeing big". It has put me in an amazingly good mood and I'm doing averything to keep on with like that. I can only recommend to read them!

And last but not least, I've been training to get into the real estate investment. I'm planning to buy my first appartment next year to rent it. I'll do good quality flats don't worry. I'm not a fucker that rent shit.

Wow, didn't expect to write that much ahah ?