Quentin Delplace Internship Report GDA2quentindelplace.weebly.com/.../internship_report.pdfQuentin Delplace Internship Report GDA2 2 CONTENTS Internship Overview 3 Compagny details

Quentin Delplace Internship Report GDA2

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CONTENTS Internship Overview ........................................................................................... 3

Compagny details ............................................................................................... 4

My role in the compagny ................................................................................... 4

Detail on the mentor .......................................................................................... 5

What did I work on ? .......................................................................................... 5

Feedback of experience :.................................................................................... 6

My interaction with the team, the management and other departments ........ 13

What went right, what went wrong, what I’ve learnt ? .................................... 14

Which software did I used ? ............................................................................. 15

Would I suggest this compagny to another student ? ...................................... 16

What are my plan for the next internship ? ...................................................... 16


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INTERNSHIP OVERVIEW

Student Name: Quentin Delplace

Student Class: Game Design Advance 2

Company Name: Œil pour Œil

Company Location: Lille, France

Company Contact: Philippe Haudegond, Founder & Co-director

[email protected]

Salary: €508,20

Internship Duration: 3 months and a half

Starting Date: 15th June, 2015

Ending date: 25th September, 2015

Official Position: Game Design Intern

Effective Position: Game Designer (Officially)

UI Designer

Assistant Project Manager

mailto:[email protected]


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COMPAGNY DETAILS The company was founded in 1996 by Philippe

Haudegond and some partners and was originally called

An Eye For An Eye. The office is located in the old district

of Lille in northern France. The studio wanted to produce

RPG. The business went right for a while and the

company reached over ninety employee. But in 2001,

they had to dismiss the major part of the employee

because of a crisis. Now reduced to around twenty

employee the company survived during all those years by specializing in

gamification and the production of serious games. Then, they changed the name

of the company, translating it into french: Œil pour Œil.

MY ROLE IN THE COMPAGNY Most of the time I have been working as an intern in game design but I’ve

also asked for taking part in the project management process so I’ve had to assist

the two director in their work on game design and project management: I’ve

been mostly involved in the game balancing and the design of the ergonomy

however also I’ve taken part in the verification process of the developer’s and

artist’s work. I’ve also had to set the story for some of the games and applications

they had created.


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DETAIL ON THE MENTOR The first time I met Philippe it was for an

interview, and I didn’t see a business man nor a

technician video game: I saw a passionate man. Just

before the end of my internship, I asked him for

another interview to discuss about his career.

During this interview he explained to me that he got

fan of puzzles and games in general early in his

teenage, and not only as a player since game’s rules

caught his attention as well. He read a lot of a french

magazines called Hebdologiciel which explained

how to program and recreate code from already

existing games. Later Philippe rather followed the

path of an artist at the beginning his job was comic

book drawer. And during his free time, Philippe is

also game master on several tabletop roleplaying

games.

Philippe during the presentation of Smart’home in Paris

Strong of his artistic knowledge, its experience in game system and

programing, he decided to found with friends and associates the studio An Eye

For An Eye which became a few years later Œil pour Œil.

At the end of the interview, Philippe has confide to me that he has plans for the

company: he would like to develop a center dedicated to the creation of Online

Games. The story of Œil pour Œil will certainly keep going for a while.

WHAT DID I WORK ON? - Game Concept for « Musée de l’Homme » of Paris and sponsorized by

Orange

- Game Design, Documentation, Ergonomy and Level Design for

Smart’home – Smart21

- Game Balancing for Smart28


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- Game Design and Storytelling for a game about vocational guidance for

ENGIE.

- Recette and verification for ProcessApp for Suez Environment and the

revision of the website Japprendslenergie.com.

FEEDBACK OF EXPERIENCE: Game Concept for « Musée de l’Homme » of Paris

When I arrived at Œil pour Œil, they decided to answer a call for tender from

the « Musée de l’Homme » of Paris. We were in competition with another studio

for this project. The museum and the sponsor had some constraints about the

concept: we had to program a tablet application. Orange wanted us to

implement a new technology of location in the museum and we had a list of

statues and various works to use in the game.

The target was children from 8 to 12 who visit the museum. The idea was to

use the statues and the works to guide the children in the museum, they had to

collect clues on the works to solve enigmas on their tablet and progress through

the game.

In this project I participated to the setting of the concept by defining the

kind of game it would be and its goal. I also defined the storyline we presented

to the client.

The goal of the exposition was to make the children think about the human

nature. I set a lore inspired by Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the

Galaxy because in both cases the hero is interested in human nature in a way

that children can understand it (and more especially in Doctor Who).

Unfortunately, our project hasn’t been selected by the client. The other

project was a virtual tour of the museum.


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Game Design, Documentation, Ergonomy and Level Design for Smart’home –

Smart21

Smart’home is a game

for tablet ordered by ENGIE.

This game is about

presenting and learning how

to reduce the emission of

CO2 of a house thanks to a

new system built by ENGIE

called Smarthome. We had

to present the different way

to produce renewable

energy and how to chose the

origin of the energy

consumed by a house. The

game will be presented at

the COP21.

Original Interface

The concept of the game was already set when I arrived. I have worked on

the User Interface which have to be simple enough to be understood by young

children.

The challenge was tough because I had to deal with very difficult concept

that I had to adapt for a young and large audience.


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I also had to

work on the

gameplay to make

the game more

understandable and

challenging for the

player.

The client

requiered a model

for the game to

interract with : so

that once the game

would be over, the

player could send

his result to this

model and see his

choices in motion.

However we

required much time

to produce it. I took

part of its producting a virtuel model of the scene to show the client how the

presentation would look like.


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The presentation in Paris of Smart’home

Game Balancing for Smart28

Smart28 is a game developed for a school of restoration in Paris. This game

would be a part of the student’s year final exam: student have to create and

manage their restaurant. They have to create their menu and concept of

restaurant and submit everything to their jury. It gives to the student a mark

considering the concept’s consistency. Then during all the game, the student are

confronted to several scenario they have to handle, impacting their restaurant

in several ways. In the end, the jury gives them a mark depending on the success

of their restaurant and their management.


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Interface of Smart28

The concept and almost all the programing was already done when I

arrived so I just had some work to do on the modifier provided by the events to

balance the game. Indeed I couldn’t act on everything in the game: some values

were set by the expert hired by the school (cook, restaurant manager, etc.) to

assist us in our development process. The main problem was that the score was

increasing too fast and I had to tweak the values of the modifier to slow it down.

I also had to find some new scenario and new situations for the candidate to

handle.

I worked mostly on Excel


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Game Design and Storytelling for a game about vocational guidance for ENGIE

I had to work on the character design in the game

We started this game at the end of my second month of internship. Œil

pour Œil was hired to produce this serious game for ENGIE. The goal is to

promote the skilled trades in the energy sector.

I participated to define the concept of the game which is a investigation

game. The player will enter in ENGIE as an intern and learn about the different

employee and collect clues to discover a show case about a innovative project

with a stake for the future.

I’ve made a lot of research about the actuality of ENGIE, because I wanted

to showcase a project which will have an impact on the future to show that there

are still a lot of jobs to fill in the energy sector. But the team has choose to keep

using the product Smart’home rather than pick a new one.

It was set in the Game Design Document and the constraints that the fun

had to pass through the environment and the ambiance more than the gameplay

itself. So I worked on the character design to give the Non Playable Characters


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(NPC) a real personality by giving them hobbies and behavior that can be saw in

the interaction that the player will have with them.

The project was still in development when my internship ended.

Recette and verification for ProcessApp for Suez environment and the revision of

the website Japprendslenergie.com

During my internship I asked for some tasks related to project

management. Jean, the co-director gave me some recetting task on two projects.

The first project was a game for Suez Environment about the procedure of

water purification considering several situations. The second verification wasn’t

for a game but for a website that Œil pour Œil designed for GDF-Suez. By the way

this company changed its name and is now called ENGIE. The website needed a

revision to convert every single appearance of GDF Suez in ENGIE.

Here again I worked a lot on Excel

Thus I had to spot all the places where the name GDF Suez appeared and

list them in a document for the developer to modify it and contact the client to

make the same modifications on the outside website and documentation which

can be downloaded.


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It was a little annoying task and very long to perform but nonetheless a

part of the project manager’s role that I have to learn.

I also had to check the developer’s work according to the feedbacks given

by our client. This time we worked for Suez Environment. They took screenshots

to show us where our mistakes were.

An exemple of screenshot for Suez Environment

MY INTERACTION WITH THE TEAM, THE MANAGEMENT AND OTHER DEPARTMENTS Actually I had very few interactions with the team. But as co-worker, we

had a cordial relationship: drinking coffee in the morning before starting work.

During the production process I had mostly contacts with Philippe or the co-

director Jean for everything that regarded the game design and UI. I also had

contacts with the graphists team for the character design and the UI. I saw the

programmers only for the verification process that I had to control.


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WHAT WENT RIGHT, WHAT WENT WRONG, WHAT I’VE LEARNT? What went right?

The ambiance: it was astonishing. None even once people have argued. Even if I

didn’t know the team very well I’ve never been considered as an intern. They

listened and sometimes applied my suggestions during the meetings and the

development process.

Other interns: during my internship I’ve met three other interns. They were

developers and artists from French schools and universities. And it was nice to

not be the only intern in the company. Moreover I heard that they was always

three interns in the company. But I never did a meeting with the other interns,

only with their mentors.

Friendly mentor: even if Philippe was very busy to run the company, sometimes

we discussed about games, cinema and various culture.

Working on serious games: it was a very interesting experience to work with real

data: such constraints cannot be ignored and it forced me to think larger. So I

had to adapt find other solutions especially to balance the game I worked on.

What went wrong?

Loneliness: in the beginning of my internship, especially when I was working on

the game concept for the Musée de l’Homme, I had my own office but I was alone

in the floor. Indeed, the company possesses two floors in the building and they

agreed to rent one for several month to a development team related to Ubisoft.

So they gathered their developers and artists in a same room at the first floor,

leaving the ground floor to the Ubisoft’s team. When I arrived, the ground floor

was empty since just few days and they didn’t have space for me upstairs for the

moment. So I had an office in the ground floor. I could work in quiet but I was

isolated from the rest of the team. I passed three weeks like this before one of

the developer left the company and I could join the rest of the team.


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Feedback: when I submitted my work, I had a lot of positive feedbacks but I felt

like I didn’t received enough constructive critics or advice to improve my work.

No company’s computer for working: They couldn’t lend a computer to me when

I arrived and in the end I used my own computer to work during all the

internship.

Loss of motivation: two weeks after I arrived my mentor and the co-director left

to go in holidays. They gave us for two weeks just some checking tasks. This

affected a lot my motivation for work.

What I’ve learnt?

The experience: thanks to this experience I think I have a better idea of how

works the gaming industry. The relation and constraints related to the client: I

had the chance to participate to the meetings with ENGIE’s experts and

executives.

Confidence: this experience also shown me that even if I’m really new in the

game design I can bring interesting element in the development process. Being

a very anxious person I can tell that is a relief.

WHICH SOFTWARE DID I USED?

Microsoft Word: to write the documentation it was most practical

solution.

Microsoft Excel: I used this software for the game balancing in

Smart28.

Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator: I used these software

to design the interface but also suggesting some

modification in player’s experience.


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Google Drive: the company is currently using it to share the

documentation with all the employee. Beside this, the company is

also using a private server to store all the files related to the

development.

Twine: using twine allowed me to quickly provide a mockup of

experience to the co-director regarding the game on vocational

guidance.

Sketchup: I used Sketchup to create a virtual draft of the model that

we used for Smarty21.

WOULD I SUGGEST THIS COMPAGNY TO ANOTHER STUDENT? Yes I would, not only for the compagny itself but also I would encourage

the other student to make an internship in a studio specialized in the Serious

Gaming because it’s a very hard field to master and it’s a key exercise regarding

the game design.

WHAT ARE MY PLAN FOR THE NEXT INTERNSHIP? For my next internship I wish to have a different experience in the industry

by being candidate for bigger company. Still, I’d rather having an internship in a

company specialized in Open World, roleplaying games or Real Time Strategy

games.

International Company:

Avalanche studios has a very good internship

program where the intern are working as

binomial under the supervision of an

employee. They’re located in Stockholm but

the have another studio in New York which proposes an internship in « World

Builder ». Plus, they are specialized in the design of games in Open World.


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Ubisoft is now well known to have very interesting

management technics. And I am very curious to see

how it is organized.

Lionhead Studios have made very interesting games in the past

years like the Fable Series and Black and White. And these kind of

concept are interesting me greatly.

This studio has great skills in developping

strategy games (Total War Series) but also

others like Alien Isolation.

EA games recently opened a new studio in Montreal called

Motive Studios. Its first mission will be to aid in the development

the Bioware team for Mass Effect : Andromeda. Then, they will

develop an Open World game based on the Star Wars lore.

Small studios:

Located in Bordeaux (France), this studio had

been founded by former employee of Cyanide,

Ubisoft and Blizzard. They decided to develop

only Narrative Roleplaying Games.

Of course, I’ve spotted a lot of small studios that I wish to discover and

work with. But for this second internship, I will prioritize the size of the company.

Documents

Quentin Delplace Internship Report GDA2quentindelplace.weebly.com/.../internship_report.pdfQuentin Delplace Internship Report GDA2 2 CONTENTS Internship Overview 3 Compagny details