5th October 2020

Meet the college students levelling up their games design skills

We recently caught up with several of our games design graduates to see what they’ve been doing since finishing at the college and taking up their first roles in the growing digital industry. At the college we offer many courses which enable learners to develop their digital skills, knowledge and expertise with state-of-the-art facilities, to turn what for many people is a hobby into a real, legitimate and prosperous career. In fields such as animation, special effects, games design and concept art, we are extremely proud of what our students are achieving…

Alan Horton – Technical Designer at Lucid Games Ltd

Alan studied with us between 2016 and 2018, on our HNC and HND Games Development Programmes, leaving us to complete his Top Up Degree in Manchester. He recently worked with a small team including another of our graduates, Lee Stockton, on a game design for a ‘Game Jam’ called Jamfuser. Their game, The Last Spark, won the competition and they were given a place in an international game jam tournament. This fantastic achievement gained interest from Liverpool-based developers, Lucid Games, who hired Alan on a permanent basis. You can watch some of The Last Spark below:

Liam Heron – Freelance Games Developer

Liam has just graduated from our BA (Hons) in Game Design and Concept Art. He recently created an asset pack that fellow game designers can use to increase efficiency in their workflows whilst designing levels in Unreal Engine.

Damien Coulson – Teacher at the college

Damien completed his HNC and HND between 2016-18 and discovered during this time that he was interested in teaching. Luckily for us, the college was able to offer Damien the opportunity to cover some lessons at The Arts Centre’s Digital Academy on a part-time basis. Damien took this opportunity brilliantly and the students seemed to really enjoy his lessons. He is now a fully-fledged member of the teaching team, teaching both level 2 and level 3 games design.

Stefan Collins – Freelance Games Developer and volunteer at Draw&Code

Steafan is a graduate of the class of 2020. He came to the college to study his HNC & HND in Games Development in 2017 and then topped up to degree level with a BA in Games Design and Concept Art. Despite completing his final project remotely from home during the coronavirus pandemic, Stefan graduated this year with the highest mark we have on record! He achieved a first-class honours degree and is now establishing himself as a freelancer as well as collaborating with Liverpool-based creative tech studio and software developers, Draw&Code.

You can find out more about Stefan here >

Jack McFarland – 3D Environment Artist at Simbin Studios UK Ltd

Jack previously studied with us at HNC and HND level before we offered the Top Up Degree in Games. He secured employment at newly-formed Simbin Studios in Liverpool, which specialises in creating realistic racing experiences, with his impressive portfolio.

Lewis McDonough – 3D Artist at Skyhook Games

Lewis is another student who studied at the college on our HNC and HND level courses. He now works as a 3D artist at Liverpool-based Skyhook Games, which provides high quality 2D and 3D artwork for the video games industry.

Lee Stockton – Freelance Games Developer and Teacher

Lee graduated from The City of Liverpool College with a very impressive triple distinction performance for our HNC and HND games development programmes and, in his final year, a first-class honours degree in games design. Along with fellow student Alan Horton, Lee was part of the team responsible for creating The Last Spark, which won the Jamfuser games jam competition.

Last year, Lee enrolled onto our one-year PGCE programme to make his journey towards becoming a teacher and started some part-time lecturing with our first-year degree and level 2 games design students. He passed his PGCE and is now developing his portfolio with a view to working freelance and will be returning to the college to continue to teach this September.

We’d like to say a huge well done to all of our games design students and wish them all the best with their future careers in the sector.

If you’re interested in a career in Digital, ICT or Games Development, or would like to find out more about our courses, click here.