Hello my name’s Scott I’m 25, I studied Games Design at South Essex College and this is my story.
My background is in design. I worked a lot doing web design, IT and I had a keen interest in designing levels for video games such as Half Life and Counterstrike which got me into architectural scale, architectural design and the construction of various shapes. I thought I would do a course that included both my interests so I ended up doing games design.
I very much enjoyed my time at the College, I had a superb set of tutors and we went to Japan. I learnt a lot of skills which I have now transferred such as the ins and outs of all the Adobe packages. I learnt 3DMax and various programmes that I wouldn’t have had access to unless I had been to the College.
Since College I have worked in various sectors doing a bit of freelance design, web design, and a plethora of videography but no other jobs resonated with me as much as starting my own business and being my own boss. I now run my own company with my business partner George, called Hide and Shriek.
We design very bespoke odd and weird attractions. We have found our own little niche and we design and develop to increase footfall within shopping centre and leisure destinations. We have done this for the past year and it has gone from strength to strength and it is all based on using the key skills I developed while I was at College. We offer a range of immersive events catering for mostly trying to scare people and making them pay for the privilege. It is a niche but a lot of people enjoy it. We pride ourselves on providing London-level attractions in the Southend area. I am the creative director of the company and in charge of making sure that the design of projects all run to plan and to budget. I will start from the initial concept of what needs to be created, put it into Illustrator or CAD, draw a mock-up of how we want it to look, and then work out what’s required to then carry on and build.
One of the things I enjoyed most about studying at South Essex College was that the tutors worked so closely with industry and also worked in the industry themselves. For example one my tutors spent 25 years working within that sector so he had a very broad understanding of what was required and the College was constantly updating the programmes to progress with the industry.