Eilidh MacLeod

BA (Hons) Game Design and Production, 2017

What do you get up to in your current job?

I am currently the designer on our title that is being released this summer so my days are very busy, and very mixed! From putting together design specifications for features and systems, designing events and sale bundles for live operations, tweaking our economy all whilst supporting the implementation and content of features. It can be madness, but I love it.

What’s your career journey been like since graduating?

My journey has been an interesting one. I started at Outplay as a QA Engineer just before I graduated. I found out pretty quickly it would be a challenge to get a design role straight away, but I gained invaluable game development experience from QA. I worked really hard as a QA Engineer, all whilst speaking to as many different designers as I could, learning what I could about mobile design, pillars of engagement and retention, feature design and what it means to be an effective designer to your team. – and after 10 months, I managed to get a game design role at Outplay.

From there I was given the chance to work on Angry Birds POP!, a game I loved working on. I created loads of level content for the game, as well as feature design specs and managing some aspects of live ops. This was amazing, but knew I wanted further development opportunities. That lead me to Fortitude Games! Fortitude is a growing studio linked to Mediatonic, working on an unreleased mobile title for a well known IP. They didn’t have a dedicated designer within the studio, and I was hired to

work closely with an ‘on-loan’ senior designer from Mediatonic. Having close mentorship, and continuously working and collaborating with all disciplines in this small studio as it grows, has resulted in myself now being the main designer on the project, having continuous liaison with external publishers and the internal team, and the game comes out this summer!

How important was your degree in helping you pursue your job?

I was very anxious and quiet when I went to university and I left with a confidence I didn’t know I had.

Abertay was massive for me. Abertay’s ties with Outplay speak for themselves. They are very close and I always knew about the company. I think I always knew I was going to go to Outplay because they’re supportive of people moving up into design if they work hard.

The ties between my degree and here are pretty strong, I’d say.

Who or what had the most impact on you at Abertay?

The reason people do so well at Abertay is the lecturers. They’re just so supportive of you if you work hard. The opportunities for you are there – you just need to work for them.

Do you have any advice for current students?

Work as hard as possible. Abertay has so many opportunities and so many connections but you need to work hard to take advantage of them.

I had a lot of opportunities but I didn’t take advantage of nearly as many as I could have.