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
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
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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.
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