STATS
Name: Sam
Role: Systems Designer
Years at Roll7: 6.5
Favourite classic game: Streets of Rage II
Pets: None, but he likes dogs.Hi Sam!Hello!We’re running a new interview series for the Roll7 blog, so that peoplecan learn more about all the awesome people on our team. Could youtell us a bit about what you do as a Systems Designer?Well, as the name suggests, I design various systems within our games.That checks out. And what does designing systems involve?It’s everything from working out what abilities a player may possess in orderpass a level, deciding what types of loot people will get for completing it,planning what features and game modes may exist for the user, to working outthe logistics of how players will know progress through the game. Essentially, it’sa lot of the metagame rather than designing the actual gameplay - althoughsince we’re still a pretty small team I do often end up involved with that too.When you started at Roll7, you were a QA intern – how did you end upin design?I actually got the initial internship because I turned up to a short playtest sessionand ended up turning in a bunch of super detailed QA notes at the end. Tom,John, and Simon took a look at the bugs I’d found and decided that they neededsomeone doing this a bit more often! They booked me in for an interview and Icame on shortly after. From then until now I came on in a fulltime QA position,got involved with production while making ports with external studios, designingplatform feature content, and by the time we were making Laser League I wasQA Lead. During my time doing QA, I found myself contributing a lot to designdiscussions, and over time I ended up getting more and more involved in ourgames' feature and level design and now... here we are.I guess that’s one of the benefits of a small creative team, right? Youget to be involved in the discussions that interest you, even if they’renot strictly related to your current role.For sure.So, what was it that made you decide to get into a career in games inthe first place?As a kid I was really into playing games – pretty typical for a lot of folks in theindustry I guess – but one thing I was super drawn to was glitches and bugs thatdid cool things. I distinctly remember accidentally coming across ‘MISSINGNO.’when I was about 8 and it blowing my tiny mind a bit – do you know aboutMISSINGNO.?I don’t!Off the top of my head, it’s basically a Pokémon that doesn’t really exist, butwhich could appear in-game because of an oversight the developers made. Youcan encounter it in some of the early games, and people figured out that thisoversight could be used to do things like duplicating items and finding anyPokémon you wanted in that exact area if used correctly. It’s- you should look itup, it’s really interesting to see all the things that have come out of one tinymistake in the creation of the game. But yeah, as a kid I remember seeing thatand having this realisation that games aren’t just made by these faceless distantfigures who can do no wrong – they’re made by people, they have flaws andquirks which can result in all these interesting unintended things that you canfind as a player. And that sort of made me realise that if regular people wereactually out there making games, I could be one of those people someday.So that’s what kind of drew you to QA as a career path initially?Definitely. I guess also, you know, QA is often an entry level sort of position, sothat was part of the appeal too. I haven’t always been super confident in myabilities, so starting from the bottom and working my way up seemed like thebest way to do it. Over time through my career in QA, I’ve also found out whatI'm good at in terms of design work.So what would you say is your proudest achievement to date at Roll7?Probably working on OlliOlli2 – Everyone on the team was super talented and Imade a lot of friends working on that game who I still speak to today. In terms ofachievement. It was amazing to be part of making something that got so muchexposure, as well as it being our most critically acclaimed title to date.What was your role on OlliOlli2?QA mostly, but I ended up getting involved in a bit of design work on that onetoo – I think one of my personal favourite parts was stepping up my designinvolvement and working on the ‘FreeSkate’ mode for the Xbox One version. Ireally got to stretch my legs and design something that was a bit more chill, a bitmore accessible, and a bit more open to new players or casual gamers. I’mpretty proud of what we managed to do with that. I really like the idea of makinga game more accessible, while still having that really high skill ceiling.For sure. And one final question - what’s something interesting aboutthe games industry that people might not know?What, other than the fact that working in the industry doesn’t mean you just getto play games all day?Even in QA?!Even in QA! Jokes aside - I guess the big thing I would say surprised me when Istarted out in games is how friendly people are. I go to a lot of industry events,and while the people there might be working at different companies, it’s not acompetitive atmosphere. Everyone is really invested in everyone else’s success.Yeah, that’s something I’ve really noticed as well, actually. There’s areal community vibe.There is, definitely.Alright Sam, I think that’s all the questions I have for now. Thank you somuch for your time – have a great day!You too!The Roll7 TeamThank you for reading! Follow us on all of your favourite social media consumption devices:

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Roll Call Interview Series - Samuel Brayley (Systems Designer)

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