Reese Dev - Current Works Blog: 2021

My name is Reese Mills and I have a history in game development with Rockstar, Microsoft and some indie groups.

Currently I am unemployed and looking for work in the games industry again.

I recently left work as an English teacher in Japan for JET, where I was hoping to travel and network. However, covid-19 has ruined my plans and led to me returning to the UK after two years. I am now aiming to find work in the games industry again currently in design, dev support, or QA.

The pandemic has been a great time to learn and play D&D though! I have been a DM for fellow expats and continue to do so weekly online using Roll20. A fantastic hands on game design experience for two games with five players in each.

My Experience:

Rockstar North (3 Years - 2017-2019)

Level Design Support. (GTAV Online/RDR Online)

Content Creation.

Grand Theft Auto Online

Red Dead Redemption Online

Credited on Read Dead Redemption 2.

Rockstar Lincoln (3 Years - 2014-2016)

QA Tester. (SP/MP/Apps)

Compliance Tester. (SONY/MS/Apps/PC/Etc)

Credited on Grand Theft Auto V, working on:

Worked on (Uncredited) for updates or different platform releases:

HCL - Third Party Microsoft Testing Company (2 Weeks -2013)

Xbox One Compliance Tester.

Uncredited on the games released at the launch for the Xbox One console.

VMC - Third Party Microsoft Testing Company (7 Months - 2013)

Xbox 360 Compliance Tester.

Uncredited on numerous titles tested for Microsoft TCR compliance.

Additional work:

Reception work.
Home console MP stress testing work.

Indie Game Groupworks (1 Year - 2012-2013)

Shortly after graduating I started working with a few fellow students in a project group we called Rocket Shark Studios. This is where I managed four team members and we attempted applying for the Digital City Fellowship scheme. This would have given us funding and guidance from the University.

Unluckily we did not succeed with our application, so we continued and created a few animation projects and was working on a game project before the group disbanded.

I then worked with a few project groups after this before starting my career in QA compliance testing for video games.

[Photo from Edge Magazine - During the Journeyman Project]

BA (Hons) Computer Games Design - Teesside University (3 Years 2009-2012)

Graduation grade: 1.1 - First class honors diploma in 2012.

Throughout university I have worked on many different types of projects, but I was more fond of the UI design modules, which was a subject I focused on for a time for Scaleform and Adobe Flash.

University Group Projects:
I worked in two major group projects, which was the fabled Journeyman Project and my final year group project. I have also collaborated with friends and colleges on multiple side projects.

Journeyman
Journeyman was a huge group project where five large teams worked on different levels for a game set by the teachers. The game was combined at the end and I had the opportunity of being the UDK level scripter for Team E. The image above was taken at the end of project, displaying all who participated.

Final Year Group Project
During this project I managed a team of two designers, three artists, two animators and one sound developer. I organised the team, adjusted the schedule, facilitated the team's needs and developed the game UI. The game was not to the scope we wanted, but we achieved making a level on an iPad using UDK, which was a new platform for the engine at that time.

Group Side Project
During this time one side project I found time to collaborate on was for a fictional game demo animation for an Alice in Wonderland point click adventure game for the Nintendo Wii.

University Solo Projects:
I worked a few key projects that involved learning development software techniques and designing art, narrative, characters, UI and game mechanics.

Final Year Project
For my university final year project, I chose to focus my studies in game UI design. With this in mind, I wanted to achieve creating a full RPG demo in Adobe Flash.

Mini-Game UDK Tutorials
I had a module that involved making tutorials, so looking online there are many based on how to use Scaleform for creating game interfaces, but there is a lack of ones on how to use it to make interface mini-games. Therefore I created three tutorials on how to make three commonly seen UI mini-games, being a QTE, Hacking and Progress Bar tutorial for UDK.

Point Click Adventure UI Design
This was a UI module to create a UI demo, so I used Adobe Flash to develop an interface for a fictional point click adventure game with a film noir aesthetic.

Before University (2008)

Before university I would assist a friend on his flash animations, helping with voicework, some artwork and story writing.

I also made the first logo animation for a friend's indie game company Drop Dead Interactive using Adobe Flash.

Abilities:

Skills and Knowledge

Content creation in a triple-A studio game engine.
Knowledge of the game engines UDK and UE4.
Level, mission, event and mode planning and design.
Research and design for modes and content.
Dev support in delegating tasks, helping other departments and preparing content.
Teamwork and communication with teams locally and globally in different departments.
Level/mission/event engine scripting.
Extremely dedicated to be flexible, for overtime, relocation, tasks, and learning.
QA Testing knowledge for SP, MP, apps, peripherals, etc.

Compliance Testing knowledge for Sony, IOS, Microsoft and apps.
Creative writing for animation collaborations. (Alice in Wonderland)
UI design using scaleform in UDK. (Mini-Games)
2D animation in Adobe Flash. (RSS)
Minor 3D animation in 3DS Max.
Audio and video editing.
2D art, digital and traditional.
Game Design. (FYP) (UI Design)
Japanese language learning. (Novice level)
PC building and repair.
IT knowledge.
Gaming knowledge.

Collector of older generation games from PS1 era upwards.
Attended Gamescom three times.
Attended E3 in 2019.
Follower of game news and game press conferences.
Playing games often on console, phone and PC.
Still working my way through retro titles, but also new ones.
Favorite genres include Horror, Adventure, RPGs and Narratively Strong games.
Favorite games: Baldur's Gate, Xenogears, Final Fantasy VII and Silent Hill 1.

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition - Dungeon Master. (JET)

Experience of 2 years, playing 3 games, 2 ongoing.
Voice acting and performing.
Map and token artwork creation.
Level/dungeon/scenario/story design.
I collaborated on an article on how to start D&D 5E as a newbie during covid-19.