Full Name
Title
Location
CV
References
Richard Alexander Braines
Full Functionality Tester
Cambridge
Available on request
About Me
I have been working in the games industry as QA for over 2 years at Frontier Developments. During this time I have helped them to release Elite Dangerous Odyssey and Jurassic World Evolution 2 through a large amount of the games development cycle. Working on both of these games has allowed me to get a better understanding of a game dev cycle. It has also given me greater knowledge of design and the process that developers go through as well as giving me a greater desire to pursue a design focused role. While on the projects I would always give feedback on how to improve the design and balance of the game, to help improve it and make the experience more enjoyable for the players.
Ever since I was little I have wanted a job in the games industry as I wanted to help create games that bring people the same joy that they did for me. Something that I love about games is how varied they are that there is something for nearly everyone. I can go from going on adventure in Pokemon to playing Apex Legends a fast paced fps, to then move onto real time strategy game where I have to take control civilizations in CIV5 and try bring them to victory. Currently one of my most anticipated games of the next year is Baldur's Gate 3 as I loved playing Divinity Original Sin 2 with my friends and am looking forward to seeing what they expand on from that in BG3.
My love for games led to me studying for a degree in Game Design at the University of Central Lancashire. During this time I learned both environment art and level design. In my final year I aimed towards an environment art career. While I was developing my environment art skills in my free time, I was finding myself caring more about how the player will go through the level and the actual design of it more then how the environment looked. This has led me to pursue a career in design and have been developing my design skills while working at Frontier. Having the knowledge of environment art has given me a good understanding of how as a designer I can work with environment artists to create levels.
Experience
Full Functionality Tester - Frontier Developments [March 2020- Current]
Being QA at Frontier has required me to learn a lot more about all aspects of the game making progress from testing and giving feedback to all areas. The testing process has helped me to improve my written and verbal communication as I have to ensure when I am explaining an issue to a developer that it is clear for them to understand. Having worked through two game releases at the company I have also seen how important it is to make sure that you work well in a team, keep organised and maintain the schedule as if something is late it can hold up a lot of other people.
Game Credits:
- Elite Dangerous Odyssey - March 2020 - June 2021/January 2022- Current
- Jurassic Evolution 2 June 2021 - January 2022
Soccer Manager Games tester [1 day November 2017]
This was a day long opportunity given to me while at University where I got to test the latest update to Soccer Manager on phone. Doing this allowed me to get an understanding of a basic test flow as well as an early look on how some of the game pipeline works.
TT - Live Brief [February 2018]
While at university we were given the opportunity to work directly with Travelers Tales on a mock brief for a new Lego game, it required me to work with a group of people to come up with one new mechanics and design a level to fit in the game. At the end of it we then presented the level to TT and they gave us feedback on the level we had created and an inside into how they would take the level further. This brief allowed me to develop my skills at working in a team and presenting my design ideas in a more formal way.
Montague Architects [1 week November 2012 - GCSE work experience]
This was a week long work experience I had while at school where I got to learn about an architect's workflow picking up a few skills. I learned some technical drawing, how they organise planning buildings and what they need to consider when designing a space.
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Level/Environment Design
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Blueprints
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3D Modelling
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Strong Written and verbal communication
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Organisation/time keeping
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Understanding of game pipeline
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Team work
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Basic Post Process effects
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Some Python/coding basics
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Simple Particle effects
Skills
Software
