Harry Stansfield, the winner of the Best Game Design award for 2024 at ACC Manchester, recently spoke to our team about his time on his Level 3 Games Development course and his future plans for when he leaves college.
Hi Harry, please can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I studied Level 3 Games Development and achieved an overall Distinction*. I was the student rep and ambassador of my course, and I’m going to study Games Development at Staffordshire University this coming September.
How did you get into Games Development?
My aspiration for the games industry grew when I was in Year 11, a lot of developers will talk about wanting to go into games ever since they were 5 years old, but to be honest, although I played video games I never really had aspirations to make one. This was until I found out about ACC and researched the course and had a sudden excitement to join!
What do you like to do in your free time?
I love game development, not just as a future career path but as a hobby. Ever since joining college, it’s been an all-consuming desire to figure out how the games industry ticks, indie and triple A. I like watching Devlogs, reading Devblogs, and listening to podcasts/GDC talks on game development. I love the analytical side of marketing and publishing a game and most of all, I love the whole gaming process of creating complex modular code and turning it into a fully thought-out gameplay system. I love making my visions come to life!
Congratulations on the award! How do you feel about winning?
When applying for the best game design/development award I was in my head about not being good enough. But, it was truly surreal to walk on stage and win the award! It was such a good feeling watching my friends and girlfriend cheer me on stage while the professors were shaking my hands and telling me I deserved it.
How has your time at ACC been?
My time at ACC has been life-changing, the course was so amazing and it gave me a place where I could talk to like-minded people. With game development, it’s often hard to find real-life people who share the same passion you do, but ACC allowed me to meet new people in my class who share common goals. Also, it allowed me to network with some people who I would have never had the chance to meet, such as D3T! My professors, Guy, Niall, Simon, Elliot, Isaac and Rob, although they won’t admit it, are truly amazing artists/programmers/developers respectively and it gives you a sense of the level that you can achieve when studying at ACC.
What is your biggest achievement?
My proudest achievement right now would be taking over as Co-CEO of Boomerang as it is such a huge responsibility as they trust me to direct the game to a professional release, and they also trust me to acquire funding for the game as well. Before this, I worked as a programmer for Slingshot Studios for about 10 months moving from part-time junior programmer up to full-time (hybrid work) senior programmer. Then, up until recently, I was the lead programmer of boomerang games for about 6 months until being offered the Co-CEO position and took over the company with my classmate of the art course and also ACC award winner, Matt Hall.
But I have to say just because that is my proudest achievement doesn’t mean there aren’t others, such as making my first game in my programming classes from start to finish which proved to me that I can pursue game development. Creating a game in a week for a game jam, creating a game in 3 days to show to D3T and finally winning the award for my final major project. And a lot of these proud moments are in my life because of ACC, and because of that I will always be thankful.
What are your plans for the future?
My plans for the future are to start studying at Staffordshire University and network in a new location with a much larger pool of people. ACC has given me such a big opportunity where I can confidently say that I will be massively ahead of my future classmates just because I took this course. Other than studies, I really plan to go all in on Boomerang Games, I want to be able to get funding so that we can make the game into the vision the team sees it as. Being able to market, fund and create a game are all the skills that grew from joining ACC, they gave me the initial stepping stone and confidence to jump headfirst into running and working at an indie studio.
What advice do you have for anyone thinking about joining ACC?
My core advice to those wanting to study at ACC but are on the fence due to the risk of the games industry or what current societal attitudes are to the games industry is this: any opportunity given is an opportunity taken, ACC is a massive stepping stone for entering the games industry but that’s only if you put in the work and effort. Being able to do that in a college which is so supportive and focused on the games industry is an opportunity you’re not going to get anywhere else, so take it!
And finally, the most important thing to remember when about to study or currently studying is that you steer the ship of your life, so if you put the effort and work in you could be the next Dani or Notch or Toby Fox. You could be where I am and be a CEO of an indie studio or you could be 1000x further ahead. It’s how you react to your situation and the opportunities presented to you, so do yourself a favour and take the first step.
Links:
- Manchester Creative Educators and Beyond The Music Collaborate to Boost Grassroots Music - September 30, 2024
- Harry Stansfield – Best Game Design Award 2024 - September 23, 2024
- Yasmin Otsmane – Best Media Student Award 2024 - September 23, 2024