Welcome to Inside Crytek! In this revamp of the series, we'll be talking to several Crytek developers about their work, life at Crytek and the industry at large. All of the developers in this series were recruited straight from this website, and we hope you find the insight they provide into game development as both a hobby and career useful. For this feature in the series, we'll be talking to Ruan Pearce-Authers, otherwise known on the forums as Cry-Ruan, who is now a community representative at Crytek.
Employee ProfileName: Ruan Pearce-Authers
Crymod Username: Cry-Ruan
Age: 17
Nationality: Cornish
Position: Community Representative
Studio: I like to think of it as Crytek Cornwall, but I work from home.
Time at Crytek: Just over one year.
Previous Mod Teams / Work: Volunteer on the Crymod Staff team.
What is the biggest difference for you going from modder to Crytek employee?
I'd have to say it all comes down to resources and scale. At Crytek you have access to such a huge network of people, all with their own skills; in fact, at first it's quite confusing just to remember who to contact for what!
This line is blurring all the time though, with the prevalence of indie titles and mods.
As a community representative, what is your main role and responsibility?
In terms of day to day tasks, I work with the volunteer team and serve as a liaison between the volunteers and Crytek's community department. I plan our special news features (including this series), and I also manage our social media profiles on Twitter and Facebook.
If I'm not caught up in any of those things, then I'm probably posting here on the forums. Still got a way to go to catch up with Cry-Sam's epic postcount...
How was your first week, month and year at Crytek?
In one word? Amazing! The HR department provide a lot of initial support and from there on in you're always in contact with friendly faces who are happy to help you out with whatever it is you're doing.
The first week was possibly one of the most surreal of my life; as a kid I often had those childish ideas, as everyone does, of working for a game development studio. To have realised that, well, it definitely took some getting used to. On a random note, the weirdest part was actually seeing my name as Cry-Ruan on the forums. Sounds stupid right?
What skills do you think attributed most to your employment at Crytek?
Without a doubt, the time I invested into volunteer work. I tried to help out all the departments where possible, and as the volunteer forum lead for some time, I was provided with invaluable experience into managing teams. People are complex things, and working in an international team brings a whole new dimension of complexity into the equation. Ever tried to organise a conference call with an Australian, a German, a Swede and yourself?
Did you always want to get into the games industry?
Yes and no; like everyone I went through phases during my childhood. I think I've wanted to be an astronaut, a doctor, and everything in between. Working in a community management department was admittedly not something I ever saw myself doing, but I'm really enjoying it. Like I mentioned earlier, I had ideas as a kid about working in the games industry but never anything concrete.
Do you think that modding is the best way into the industry? If so, why? If no, why not?
I'd say this depends entirely on whether the person being asked is an ex-modder or not. :)
I don't know whether it's inherently the best way or not but I'd definitely agree that it's a good way in. I'm not a developer so I'm sure others can explain this better than I can, but it gives you the opportunity to develop your most prized possession as an aspiring dev: your portfolio. From what I've seen, and as a lot of the interviewees in this series will attest to, this seems to be more important than formal education.
Where do you get your ideas / inspiration from?
I try and think back to my experience as a volunteer when managing the team and then put that through the "how would I, were I a volunteer, react to this proposal?" test. Quite cliché and cheesy, but it often works and helps to improve concepts and proposals.
The ideas are generally more often than not responses to certain pieces of feedback that get brought up by the staff and Crytek alike. The team structure is quite flexible which is brilliant as we can revise ideas as we go to make everything work efficiently, as well as making the team a better place to work.
Any advice to aspiring developers?
Get out there and volunteer! There's an entire internet out there just waiting for someone with your skillset.
You'll get tonnes of experience and have a great time in the process. Find somewhere, anywhere, that's relevant to your interests, and keep pushing until you have a position. You might not get accepted first time, but there's plenty of voluntary work out there if you look.
For anyone specifically wanting to enter community management, you need to be well-versed in quite a broad range of things. Don't put too much stock in the fact that you can manage a Twitter account; you're going to be responsible for holding a team together, making, at times, difficult decisions, and above all being the face of whoever you're working for.
If you could start and learn all over again, how would you do it?
However it turned out really, I'm not a fan of planning my life. :)
We hope you enjoyed this interview; watch this space for the next entry in the series! To stay up to the date with the latest Crytek modding news, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
- Crytek Community Team
