Success Story: Miles Wright

For our next Success story, we’ve got Miles, an Environment Artist working at Downpour Interactive.

What course did you study?

MA Game Art (Full Time)

What are you working on at the moment?

I’ve been at Downpour for around 4 months as an Environment Artist. They’re known for their VR mil-sim Onward and the company is all WFH with employees from a bunch of different places. Pretty much all of the stuff I work on falls in line with what I studied albeit with different software and tools.

What work are you most proud of working on and was/is your most notable achievement?

Probably The Venetian doorway I made after I finished the course, it was nice to consolidate everything I learned during the course. It was tricky during the course to focus on making something you really like since you were constantly learning new stuff, by this point I knew which workflow works for me.

If you had to sum up your time at Escape Studios in one word, what would it be and why?

“Ecco”

The pizza place round the corner gave me some of my fondest memories, their quattro formaggi was really special. The people at escape were a great crowd too.

What lessons have you learnt during your time studying and your time working in Games?

During my studies the biggest lesson was making use of the tutors, they know so many small random things which I still use at work that would not necessarily help me on the course. During my time working in games I’ve learned that putting tonnes of time into something doesn’t make it better, you get quickly diminishing returns to the point where it can actually hurt the quality of your work, my best work has usually been done in an afternoon.

What is your advice for those considering entering the industry?

My best advice is not to get caught up in chasing grades, employers are hiring you as an artist. The priority should be to actually understand what makes a great portfolio (ask people with a successful portfolio) and then take steps to achieve that, the grades will follow.

What’s your favourite game and why?

Aside from the obvious ones (Dark Souls 3, Monster Hunter World), an underrated gem I play is World of Horror, A Roguelite oozing with style and a jammy soundtrack. Go play it if text adventures are your sort of thing.