Anthony Daniels

On Thursday November 3rd the students at the Entertainment Technology Center Silicon Valley campus had the pleasure of engaging in a discussion with Anthony Daniels,  the actor who played C-3PO in the Star Wars saga. This long time friend of the ETC shared with us his on-set experience and takeaways as well as what makes Star Wars such a powerful Intellectual Property.

Daniels didn’t present at us, he had a conversation with us about his experiences in both Star Wars and life in the entertainment industry. He discussed some of the power Star Wars has for people and how powerful being able to bring that fantasy home with you really is. He recounted the impact Star Wars has on peoples’ lives and observed that it is often a mile marker in the timeline of a fan’s life. He is incredibly grateful to have been able to impact so many people so positively by becoming this memorable character.

He also shared with us some of the less glamorous details of what being C-3PO really entailed (including a full-body plaster, the several hour task of putting the suit on, and having zero peripheral vision once inside) and a few of the special effect tricks the original movies used before CG effects were available. He was fortunate enough to see first-hand the transition from mirror and pulley effects to fully green-screened computer generated effects in the Stars Wars universe.

He shared with us the story of how he first found the role of C-3PO and his first encounter with George Lucas. Though he was hesitant at first, he said the character spoke to him and he knew he needed to play the golden bot. He stands by that you should never turn down a job because you never know what can come out of it. He finally concluded by reminding us that before George Lucas made Star Wars at 20th Century Fox, he was turned down at every other studio he pitched to. Daniels reminded us to never give up on something and to stay persistent throughout our careers.

Producing Class with Anthony Daniels and Shirley Saldamarco

On November 7^th, we had a great time with Shirley Saldamarco and Anthony Daniels sharing their experiences as producers with us.

The talk started with the question dropped by Anthony, “What is the advantage of being a producer?” The students came up with answers like, “know everyone well,” “has an overview of the whole project,” and even “control the project.” However, with more discussions about what is the role of the producer and what are the responsibilities of the producer, we come to the point that a producer is the one who respects and trusts the teammates and makes sure that everyone on the team is doing their creative work. “In the industry, the best producers know what they want and what their clients’ visions are, hire the best people who have the right skills to do that and let them do their job on time,” which is kind of different from most of the current ETC projects that are in the learning process. So we defined a good producer in ETC as a person who is a communicator, leader, motivator, mediator, organizer, respecter, listener, helper and above all a good parent. Because here, in ETC, we must be together and can’t fire each other.

We also discussed about different challenges that producers face and ways to solve a variety of problem situations. “Is the producer the one who makes the decision?” and “How do you understand criticisms and take them?” Shirley shared her experience as a producer. However, she mentioned that different people may have their own styles in producing because everyone has their own personalities and it does not mean that only one particular style works well in this industry.

In the end, we did a little test to turn the number 9 “IX” into the number 6 with one stroke. And now, this problem is given to you. Can you figure that out? Try to think in a different way and have fun!

On Thursday, October 27th, three Game Designers from EA graciously held a Q&A session to provide the class with a glimpse into their careers. They provided brief information on their backgrounds and how they got to where they are, and then shared valuable advice about working as a designer. The three Game Designers were:

Warren – A level designer from Visceral, Warren previously worked for Sony at Naughty Dog (the creators of the famous Uncharted series), where he started out as a quality-assurance tester. Warren commented that even though he wanted to be more than a tester, he took the work seriously and professionally. Furthermore, while testing he built a rapport with the game designers on the project;  when the time came for the design team to fill in new positions, Warren’s professionalism and connection to the designers made him an ideal candidate, and thus Warren became a professional game designer.

Seth – Also a level designer at Visceral, Seth’s experience in becoming a game designer is nearly the opposite of Warren’s: Seth applied to Visceral to work on Dead Space 2 with no experience… and got the job!

Alex – A systems designer for The Sims, Alex got his job as a game designer because he was really good at playing games. As a super awesome League of Legends player, Alex was contacted by Riot Games (the creators of League of Legends) for his opinions on changes to the game. By replying professionally and objectively, Alex secured a position as a sort of “analyst;” before long, Riot hired him to become a systems designer. Eventually, he made contact with EA and moved on to The Sims.

Warren, Seth and Alex

The trio also shared some interesting bits of advice and insight into design:

• Design work is 50% “design,” and 50% “leadership.” That leadership work focuses on convincing the team that the design is good, and explaining how those team members’ work fits into the design. This also includes a lot of listening: every team member has an opinion on the design, and it’s important to listen to it, especially if they have changes in mind. This is important even though you, as a designer, probably won’t actually implement their changes: the fact that they are recommending changes is indicative of a problem that most likely needs solving.
• Due to the highly collaborative nature of building a level in a game, it is very important for level designers to have an understanding of the other disciplines involved (eg. art, coding).
• When applying for a job as a designer, it is helpful to include in your resume/cover letter what type of designer are (or aren’t). That said, the ability to learn quickly and adapt is highly valuable.
• UI is extremely important: if a system cannot be conveyed through the UI, no matter how amazing that system is, it needs to be trashed.
• While designing, avoid the “grand reveal.” In other words, share your designs early and often: it will make them better and avoid wasting work.
• If you’re engineer and a designer, it’s important to be able to completely drop your engineering perspective and look at things purely as a “naive” designer. In other words, you can always cut back later: let your engineers be the ones to tell you “No, that’s just not technically possible.”
• Play lots of games! All kinds of games! Good ones, bad ones, short ones, long ones! Most of all, think about them: think about what makes the good game good, and the bad game bad!