Zahid Jeelani

Year of Graduation: 2020

  • Course BA Computer Games Design
  • School Wolverhampton School of Art
  • Nationality British
  • Career industry Game Development
  • Current job title Melee Combat Designer
  • Current Company Ninja Theory, Cambridge UK

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.“ Jim Rohn

The lecturers were amazing and supportive and at times gave us real world advice which I believe helped us mature. Faramaz and Paul were especially excellent as they both gave quality feedback and were extremely approachable. The facilities were perfect for the course, the computers, motion capture studio and the sound studio were amazing and helped with modules greatly! Everyone who was on the course has stayed in touch using Discord where we discuss new openings for roles, what everyone's currently working on and general chat. My favourite memory was when we went to Portmeirion in Wales to capture images and analyse the series which took place there, The Prisoner, and translate that into a game.
Computer Game Design was a perfect all round course to give you an insight into everything the game industry has to offer. There is a module for almost everything related to each discipline! During the course my heart was set on level design but as time progressed I began to lean more towards combat and action design.
At Ninja Theory I work with the Combat Director directly on everything from motion capture to implementation of combat. After obtaining the motion capture data, animators would cut and tweak the data accordingly. With those tweaked animations I would begin adding functionality to both the main character and the AI. Melee Combat includes everything from the direction of the strikes to how the enemy reacts, how the enemy behaves, when and where to throw the player and reacting to different states.
After university ended I began working on an independent project called ENENRA. ENENRA is a hack and slash game set in future Japan. I spent three months working on this game before starting at Ninja Theory. I consider this my highlight as I met so many developers, so many new starters and learnt a massive amount about melee combat.
Computer Games Design is a great course if you want to have a taste of each discipline, it will also teach you everything you need to know should you want to create a full game independently. Make connections, use social media to show the world what you're doing and build connections along the way. Once you find the discipline you are interested in, learn everything you can about it. Don't be afraid to fail as each failure is a learning experience and one day you will succeed.