Ellie Smith
Game Designer
I'm a third year at Falmouth University studying BA(Hons) Game Development: Design. I love the design of games and the complex problems, producing excieting and meaningful experiences. In particular I'm interested in UI/UX design and systems that entwine together to emerge moments of surprise and delight.
In general I love loads of different crafts; anything from bookbinding to wooden ring making to pyrography. Additionally I'm really passionate about rock climbing.
Skills
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UE5 / Blueprints
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Unity / C#
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Photoshop
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Learning new software (Learnt Trenchbroom to create a Quake map)
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Creating one page game design docs to outline key systems / gameplay features
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Microsoft Office
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Graphic Design
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Prototyping to figure out how things work / iterating on ideas
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Iterative agile workflows (scrum / standups)
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Paper Prototyping - developing board games
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Organising playtest sessions
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Analysing playtest feedback
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Sprint planning / project management
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Researching industry processes
Achievements
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BAFTA Young Game Desginers is a competition for kids aged 10-18. I entered this competition in 2022 and made it to the finals out of 1000s of entries with my concept for Escape the Engines:
A Steampunk Escape Room Party Game, with the only means of escape being through the players' abilities to communicate and work together before the time runs out.
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What I learnt from doing this:
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- My first independant game dev project. When I applied I didn't tell anyone about it so I had to plan the project, do research for it and carry it out all totally off my own back.
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- Researching The Fundamentals Of A Game. At this time I had no idea what the game development process was so I had to spend time researching what needed to be known to develop a game concept.
I regularly go indoor rock climbing and I've been outdoor climbing.
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I'm always improving my problem solving skills when I'm climbing.
Sometimes routes might have solutions that are hard to read from just observation or the solution might be unintuitive. As a short climber and someone who lacks a lot of strength I often have to figure out solutions that involve working towards my strengths instead of my weaknesses.
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Fear is a major problem that I have to overcome when I'm climbing. Whilst you get more used to being high up there's always something new that might throw you off. Learning strategies to overcome fear is a really key skill you learn as well as learning when its appropriate to push yourself beyond what you feel is comfortable.
