OSCAR ESCAMILLA PEREZ
GAME DESIGNER
oscar_gdc
Biography

I've been working on the video games industry for 15 years. I witnessed the birth of mobile gaming while working with Nokia, and followed through its infancy with projects developed for the Iphone and Ipad launches. I have worked with several clients, included Disney, Natural Motion, Adidas and Zynga

I started in the games industry as a Quality Assurance tester at Digital Legends Entertainment. There I learned about processes, common development problems and creative ways to solve them. 2 and a half years later, thanks to a sudden shortage of designers at the company, I was promoted to lead designer at Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior, one of the 3 IOS games we were going to develop at the same time (BTW, horrible idea). After nearly 10 years working in a variety of tasks, from level design to Live Ops design, I left the company in pursue of other horizons.

My time working at Social Games Online taught me that all game genres have their little challenges and points of interest, even for a hardcore player/designer like me. The pleasure of building something from the ground up, with a team of motivated and talented workers around you is something that can be achieved even with the simplest of games.

I am currently working on my Unreal 4/5 knowledge, doing prototypes and getting used to the myriad of tools available in the engine. I currently feel very comfortable using it, and I'm looking for a job in a company that uses Unreal, to get even better with the engine. I'm also evaluating the viability of making an entire game on my own. My last project, another Halloween gift to my amazing niece, proved I can do a complete, polished game in a few weeks

I feel fortunate to have been able to work in a wide variety of game genres, even if the industry tends to specialization. During my career I experienced team work, compromises, processes, late night releases, late night pizza, crazy and creative people, bad bosses, good bosses, producers and their funny ways... Game development is fascinating, as the late Spock would say. I can't wait to see what is my next adventure in game development

INFO
INTERESTS

What do I do to decompress? I love trail running; I hang out with my friends; I attend heavy metal shows and pay due respect to the metal gods; I read a lot; I try to catch up with the humongous pile of shame that my game collection has become; I travel from time to time, and try to enjoy the hell out of this analog life we share.

What I'm doing now? Looking for a job, basically. And trying to keep up with this always evolving and fascinating industry

Core Skills

COMBAT DESIGN

I've done a lot of work with animators over several projects. My first 3 projects were fighting games, so I know a bit about timmings and animation feel. In Icebreaker I focused more on the player movement and its relation to the enemy speed. In Respawnables it was all about the tools the player could use to kill each other

SYSTEM DESIGN

I started doing system work on Respawnables, in its Live Events. Things like progression, missions, etc. In Bingo Friends I added economy design to my system work tool set. It's nice to know things, but I enjoy content creation and combat design much more

LEVEL DESIGN

I started doing level design in Split/Second, fixing nav meshes from old tracks and making the new ones better suited to high speed racing and drifting. In Icebreaker I did a lot of work with the layout of gameplay elements and enemy setup in the ice rinks. But it was in Respawnables where I did my first 3D maps. The process is complex and slow, with lots of iteration, but I love the interaction between art and gameplay departments, so I can say it's one of my favourite sides of game dev along with content and combat/gameplay design

Software Skills
UNREAL 4/5

Since the pandemic started I've been laser-focused on doing stuff with Unreal 4/5. Currently I'm quite confident of my blueprint skills, though the learning never ends. I'm working in my own code base, to ease future projects.

UNITY

I used Unity 5 for a few prototypes, and I have kept myself interested on the engine and its developments. I can use it, and I can script in C#, but I am a bit rusty.

CONFLUENCE / JIRA

I used these tools intensively in Respawnables and Afterpulse, and was a mentor for the team in Social Games Online, as they were just integrating them in the team workflow and I had the most experience with them. For live documentation purposes they're great, though I am currently using a mix of Hack 'n Plan and a whiteboard for my own projects.'

PHOTOSHOP

Over the years I have done a lot of work with photoshop, first with digital color for comics, and later doing mockups for game dev.

OTHER TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Office suite, Visio, Google suite, Plastic SCM, Perforce, Audacity, Hack 'n Plan, 3D studio Max


Personal Skills
RESPONSIBLE

I take my job seriously. That includes my interactions with others. I hate conflict, and even if sometimes there are sparks, common ground must be found as soon as possible

CREATIVE

I like to mix and match things, a bit like when I was playing Lego as a child. Combining themes and imagery to shape something exciting. I have learned to identify the best bits of any idea, be it mine or from others. It's a bit like cooking, really.

TEAM PLAYER

I am an introvert. For me game design has been always an uphill fight against my nature. But this has made me appreciate a lot the dynamics between team members. Game dev attracts all kinds of people, and it's always a pleasure finding common ground and new friends. There is no better feel than a tight team working together. When problems arise, and they always arise, the team morale will take a hit, so it's important to keep the band together and go in the same direction

PROBLEM SOLVER

Every single part of game development is a question waiting for an answer. The answer may come from pure creativity. Sometimes that answer exist in other games; others, it surges from the team. It is important to know the problem you're trying to solve in order to get the best of the answers you will find during development. And as I said before, I hate conflict, so it's better if everybody is content and feels their work is being appreciated. In that way answers will appear more proactively, and the team will work as an unit.