So I really couldn't wait longer to post the second part... I'M SORRY!

PICTURE : My first week in Montreal, where I live now and where UBISOFT is.

So basically I was accepted into that school program out of the blue, because I didn’t expect to get in. Of course I am a “world video game champs” and all but I really never did any studies in gaming, as my main diploma is in architecture. Apparently, it really didn’t matter, as gaming is my passion and everyone in the program was coming from backgrounds like communication, history, design, multimedia, teaching, computer sciences, and so. Nobody had never do any game design before.

My class was mainly oriented for us to be able to work at the end of the year in a game design project in a company. So all we did was work on designs and learn everything about it, and surrounding it. I would suggest to anyone who really wanted to attend a program like that to go for it. You WILL eventually get a job, if you are good. A few years ago, you could be hired as a game designer without any studies but now, it’s mainly REALLY hard, almost impossible. You need a course or some kind of diploma.

Surprisingly too, game design is also about managing a team and working with different personnalities. When the project is started, the game designer mainly takes last minute decisions, makes sure the project is going well, follows everyones problems and try to fix it, deal with the employees and coworkers issues... That is a MUST to be a good game designer and that made me love the job even more, but it could make u like it less if you don't like that kind of stuff.

You also have to know that about 60% of the project you created at the beginning is cut at the end. Did you know that in Assassin's Creed, you were suppose to use the horse everywhere you could, on the roofs, in the cities etc.... but they never managed to get the AI to work well with all the characters... so they kept only a useless part where you are on the horse in between the cities... And from the players view, it really is stupid, so you may thnk "Wow the game designers did so bad blabla", but in a company, so much stuff happen at the same time... and they have to make last minute important decisions... where the designers failed there, it was to make it feel like the horse part WASN'T worthless... just as an example.

So, -mMy school is called University of Montreal, but my program was in collaboration with the Ubisoft Campus (Ubisoft paying for computers and so at the faculty), and so they offered to give everyone a shot to work there. We all got to pass their test (questions about design) and then got a 20 min speed interview. Then, I was one of the lucky ones to receive a positive phone call to get another interview.

This time, it was no joke. It was a one hour interview in English where I was talking non stop! You might say, what’s the big deal, you seem good enough in English… but with the pressure and also 6 people sitting in front of you, asking you questions, it wasn’t that easy if English isn’t your first language! The questions were stuff like "What is a good game design for you", "What would you change in that design", "Tell us about how would you deal with that problem", "How would you talk to the programers about that stuff", "Make a game right now out of this"...

Seems easy if you know gaming a litle but we all knew game design really well in my class and still only 3 out of 16 got the intership (even if some of my mates that were taken are questionnable picks and my friend Sofi, who was really the best of the program for the Game Design part, wasn't taken...). I really think I nailed the interview though and that my resume about pro gaming and my portfolio helped me a lot (THANKS CS, FINALLY paying off LOL). And finally I got THE call saying I had it. I am just so damn lucky and happy!!!!!

So as you can see, I am not only into Counter-Strike, I am mainly a console gamer too. I follow the gaming industry a lot and now that I care about game design, I try to touch at every game there is to see gameplays and innovations and also to have an opinion and be able to talk about it.

I decided to do something on the SK website with it, to give back to the fans and also to open the minds of esports about games in general, because I know a lot of players that only follow the esports scene. What would you think about video game reviews? I am buying almost 200$ of games or gaming related stuff per weeks, so I’m sure some of that could be used for the videos ahah! If the idea is welcomed by yall, I am gonna start soon to do it.

Oh and by the way, I saw the new SK XBOX live icon that is added now in our profile section and I love it! You can see which games I play on my console at the exact same moment I do it! And yes, I bought Trivial Pursuit yesterday and I keep playing it LOL! I got my XBOX only 4 months ago so I don’t have tons of points yet… even if you finish a game, sometimes you only get 200 points… :s getting all the achievements is hard!

So I feel like this blog is way too long and I will only add this about the rest of my life ; my dad asked my mom to marry her (my parents aren’t married but are together since 30 years, I am a child of the devil…….) and ITS JUST PLAIN AMAZING because it makes me believe in loveforever so much, such a good inspiration to me!

So, I will be back in a few days with more blogging!!

See yaaaaxxx =D

harvey ~