As part of Origins Creatives, UAL Awarding Body will be talking to students from across the UK to learn more about their experiences of working in lockdown and how they have managed to stay motivated and creative during these unprecedented times. UAL Awarding Body caught up with Luke Scott, a Creative Media Production and Technology student at Cambridge Regional College specialising in Games Development.
Tell us about how the pandemic impacted your education this year. Have you managed to stay creative whilst staying at home?
I am very pleased to begin by saying that the pandemic has not halted my education in any way, shape, or form. There are a lot of people that I need to thank for this but most importantly the biggest thank you goes to all the lecturers within the games department at Cambridge Regional College. Who I must say acted swiftly and professionally to make sure that our education could continue from home in the extremely short time they were given to do this. It was thanks to this hard work and dedication that we did not miss any important information during this difficult time. I also very much appreciated the fact that huge considerations were given for people who might not have had the software at home, and they were extremely helpful in finding solutions for a lot of students. For me, this dedication made me want to carry on being the best that I can be.
I found it easy to stay dedicated to my creative side and I also found having the determination to want to not only do myself proud but the department that helped make it possible to achieve this from home.
How do you feel about your work being showcased online instead of at a physical exhibition? Do you think that the future of exhibitions will be digital?
I have had the opportunity to look at my page on the website now and I must say, I am so impressed with all the work that has gone into this. It genuinely shows how proud the teachers are of our achievements. I was gutted when I thought the presentation of my game was not going to happen due to the pandemic. However, I jumped at the opportunity to get my work online. The whole department made sure that the everyone had the chance to put their work online and they followed this up a number of times to make sure everyone was decided before the website was published. After seeing how amazing the website looked. I feel personally that online exhibitions are something that could take over physical exhibits. I found this out as it was easy to send the relevant information to the correct party so that my work could be displayed online. I was also able to see my display instantly when the website went live. Overall, I just feel that it has been an amazing experience, and this is why I feel that online exhibits could become the new normal in the future.
Is the work in your exhibition FMP related, developmental work or work that you created during lockdown?
This is an interesting question and I am happy to say that my page exhibits 2 of my games. One of these products are my FMP and the second one is a project that I have been working on from home to help my marketing page. They are both still in the production phase so having them online is only making me more determined to finish these games so that I can show off my hard work and a finished product for people to look at.
Tell us more about the work in your exhibition – what does it mean to you, how did you create it and what inspired you?
When it comes to inspiration about my products, they are both at 2 different ends of the spectrum. My FMP games is based on a museum about gender equality. This is something that was close to me as when researching this I decided that my product was going to help make change. I thought that even if my product could help educate just one person that this would be an achievement. The reason I got so passionate about this cause is that I have grown up with 3 sisters and I thought about what life would have been like for them if they were born in a different time and this made me realise that we need change and I wanted to help make that happen. My second game comes from a childhood game that I still play today, and this is Pokémon. I decided that I wanted to make a game like this to try and bring something new to a different generation of gamers. However, we will see how the game does when it is ready for its first play test and what the target audience think. I have been doing a lot of work in Unity and I am very pleased with the software and what I have been able to achieve so far I am going to keep working on this to improve my skills and keep making games.
What advice would you give to your peers who may feel discouraged and lack inspiration as a result of the pandemic/lockdown?
The most important thing I would tell anyone is to not think about this as a bad situation. I just want to say before I continue that I am not taking away the seriousness of this pandemic, but the thing is, If we think of it as a bad situation we wont ever move forward. The way to think of this is to use it to your advantage.
The opportunity to be able to solely focus on the things you love is going to be able to help not only improve your skills but your portfolio. The thing about this pandemic is we are going to beat it, the question you need to ask yourself is, where are you going to be once we do?
What are your plans for the future?
I have big plans for the future. I am going to be continuing my education within Cambridge Regional College, this is going to be my final year at college before I apply to go to university. I am also going to carry on the hard work that I am putting into my marketing pages and to start building my audience more. I am going to be making more games and documenting this for everyone to see.
Finally, I am not going to let anything stop me from achieving this and I hope for all my classmates that no one stops you from doing this and achieving your dreams.
Get in touch if you would like to share your college's exhibition or write a blog post for UAL Awarding Body.
