当他加入育碧团队时， 游戏开发 grad Ryan Miller had to choose which of the studio’s two most popular franchises, 看狗狗 or 大不相同他所做的工作.

“I have a personal history of playing the 大不相同 series all the way back to [the original] with my father,他说. “How often do you get a chance in the industry to work on something that's near and dear to you and your family?”

So while working on either of the two games would be an incredible opportunity for any developer, Ryan's personal connection made joining the 大不相同 一个简单的团队. Known for his expertise in technical design, Ryan now had the chance to apply his solution-oriented approach to the development of the highly-anticipated sixth edition of the FPS, 说, “这是一场重要的比赛, 我们从 孤岛惊魂5. There's a lot of legacy there, so how do we improve that? 我们如何让它变得更好? How do we make it easier to make these things?

“A lot of the challenges that I intentionally asked for in my interviews – being senior, I get the privilege of asking a lot of hard questions – would be like, ‘Am I solving a problem that's not been solved already?’ So there are areas of game development I usually don't touch because I feel like it is a relatively solved problem. It's very important, but I don't find it exciting.”

Working on the game’s outposts and checkpoints, the grad’s role included developing tech to ensure level designers could build those aspects of the game. “I had a really great team for my outposts and checkpoints, which it's always tricky because you might have the perfect project. You might have all the compensation and benefits that you like, but the team really is whatever you get because it's a huge, 巨大的群体,瑞恩说。. “It's nice when you get blessed to work with people that are good at what they're doing.”

For Ryan – whose reputation in his field led to his recruitment by Ubisoft – his time spent at 满帆 was invaluable preparation for the video game industry. 在制作他的第一款AAA级游戏时 混乱特工 和Deep Silver Volition, the grad was happy to see the similarities between his time in school and the experience of actually developing a major release.

“What I did at 满帆 was 80% of what I was doing at Volition. 我用的是同样的工具. I was doing the same kind of standards and practices,” he recalls. “很多过程, 比如在小团队中工作, 制定敏捷计划, 有单口相声, those are things that the industry has even today. 所以这真的让我做好了准备.”

Beyond just the technical aspects of game development, Ryan has also found great value in his preparedness to network with other developers and designers thanks to his education. “The amount of times that 满帆 allowed me to actually talk to industry reps really stood out and encouraged me to do what I was doing,他说. “You feel a connection to the industry before you're in it. 这会鼓励你更加努力地工作.”

之后Ryan离开了育碧 孤岛惊魂6 被认证为黄金, and is currently a Senior Technical Gameplay 设计er on an unnamed project in development at virtual reality-focused developer Survios. For those looking to pursue a career similar to Ryan's, 他的建议很简单, “I know a lot of people can get imposter syndrome or kind of feel like they're not actually there. If you're making games, you're a game developer. It doesn't matter if it's getting published or not published. 只做游戏.”