It has been an incredible week with four of the Games industry’s creative leaders visiting the NFTS this week to tutor students on the Games Design and Development course.
Concept artist Andrew Wildman, who created the VFX sequence storyboards for Doctor Who and the artwork for the Transformer comics, Tech Crunch blogger Tadhg Kelly who has worked on games production and design for Microsoft and Sky, Director and Virtual Performance Specialist John Dower (pictured above right with Games student) and Chris Solarski, an artist game designer and author of Drawing Basics and Video Game Art: Classic to Cutting Edge Art Techniques for Winning Video Game Design have been inspiring students working on an Interactive Dramatic Scenes Moments of Consequence. This is a first project brief in which games specialists collaborate with counterparts from the Screenwriting, Producing and Production Design departments in order to make a series of interactive drama sequences.
Tadhg Kelly says it’s vital that games design students learn their craft in a creative environment like the NFTS: “Games development can be an overly internalised culture so it is important to expose students to a wider range of cultural briefs. It is especially important for people developing narrative technique that they be immersed in a place like the NFTS, with such a rich history of film and television.”
NFTS student Richard Cridford, aged 27, who has been tutored by Tadhg, said: “Having visiting tutors is the reason why I chose to study at the NFTS – it’s a valuable way to meet and connect with interesting people from the industry.”
There are still places available on next year’s Games Design and Development course which starts in January, as well as bursary and scholarship opportunities. Contact the NFTS Games department directly via games@nfts.co.uk for more information click here.
NFTS Head of Games Design and Development Jon Weinbren said: “ We are incredibly lucky to have four such talented figures from the games industry and beyond coming to the NFTS to share their knowledge and help our students. This particular project offers a unique opportunity for the students to create highly innovative work and we really needed to hand-pick these specialist tutors to come in and support it. It’s always our aim to give students advanced skills and contacts they need to get ahead in the industry when they graduate.”