Alfred Göthe | Technical Design
About me
I’m employed as a Technical Designer at Chief Rebel in Stockholm, Sweden.
My main tasks are generally to create prototypes of game mechanics in Unreal Engine 5, where I use Unreal's GAS (Gameplay Ability System) a lot. I started my journey at Chief Rebel as an intern on the 20th of August 2022 and got employed on the 11th of April 2023.
Besides working as a Technical Designer I’ve also done Level Design tasks for almost a year as well as Game Design.
In my free time, I spend time with my family, playing various games with my friends, and sporadically writing a fantasy book.
A short story for you who dream of working with games
If you happen to be a person dreaming of working with game development, or anything specific for that matter, I'd like to share a few words that might encourage you to take that first step in the right direction!
I belive that fear is what we do not know, so doing something you never done before might be scary. Taking that first step, like sending an applicaiton to an education or a new job, might feel so overwhelming that you end up leaving it for later, tomorrow or "next time".
But let me tell you something.
If I could make it, so could you!
And here's why:
Before I attended to The Game Assembly I had no experience with either Unity, Unreal Engine or any game engine at all. And at the time I applied to The Game Assembly, I wasn't even sure what it meant to be a Level Designer. I knew that I wanted to work with game development, but I had no clue how a "Top Down" was supposed to look like.
One part of the application to TGA was to make a portfolio that showed some of your creative work that had to do with Level Design.
My class mates showcased scripts in Unreal Engine 4, Level Blockouts and even small games that they've made in previous educations.
But I didn't know anything about Level Design? So I went all in on the aspect of showing my creativity! Acompanied by my daughter, we bought some of her favorite toys outside and made this:
A Short tale in pictures about Lego Barbie on holiday, that gets kidnapped by a witch who wants to eat her, but gets saved by a legendary Pokemon that chases the witch away!
(Yes, the story is a colaboration between me and my daughter).
This might have shown my creative side, it has nothing to do with Level Design. Which probably explains why I got the 16th place in the reserve que to get applied. To give you some context: There was only 16 spots in this class, so I needed the amount of a full class to decline their spot for me to get applied. Things didn't look too bright at this point.
But luck was on my side! Because a few weeks later I got the mail that I was given a spot on the Level Design program starting in the autumn 2020!
So what am I trying to say here?
We all start from somewhere. Maybe you have some experience already as you apply to the dream job or education. Or you're as me: Way off with no experience, shooting my shot and hoping for the best. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that you tried.
If you don't try, you can't succed.
But if you do, you might be lucky as me!
Thanks for reading, and good luck!