March 12, 2020 - 1269 views
A games company head who worked on many of the multiple award-winning Lego video games was grilled by Games Development students during a Q&A session at Coleg Llandrillo.
Phil Owen, who is Head of Engineering at d3t in Runcorn, fielded questions from over 60 students at the Rhos-on-Sea campus on a wide range of topics: from developing portfolios, through career opportunities, to how to get themselves known within the gaming industry.
d3t is an award-winning, premium software engineering company and is part of the Keywords Group. The team consists of highly-experienced professional developers with skills covering an array of development activities.
Phil also gave a talk on his career to date - covering 26 years in the gaming industry - as well as explaining what he does on a day-to-day basis, current games in development, interview techniques, an overview of the current industry, as well as providing the students with insider tips.
During his career, Phil has worked on 16 Lego video games as well as a wide range of racing and flight simulation games.
The BAFTA-award winning Lego video games are usually based around different Lego film franchises and follow the stories of the related movies.
After gaining 5 A-levels, Phil secured a place at The University of Salford, graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in 1994. With a love of gaming and a keen eye for detail, Phil began his career the same year as quality assurance at Digital Image Design (DID).
Over the next five years Phil progressed through roles at DID, before moving to Rage Games in 1999 where he stayed for over 3 years, becoming lead programmer.
The next 15 years saw Phil hone his craft and develop his extensive skillset via Warthog, Gizmondo, Juice Games and then TT Fusion, where he worked for 11 years, progressing to head of programming, before taking up his current role at d3t.
Phil said: "I was delighted to be able to visit the students at Coleg Llandrillo. They asked a range of probing questions and I was delighted with both their enthusiasm and breadth of knowledge.
In his spare time Phil is an avid gamer with Dark Souls, GTA and Red Dead Redemption 2 counting amongst his favourites. He also loves football, beards and loud shirts in equal measure.
Coleg Llandrillo Games Development tutor Rob Griffiths said: "This was an extremely valuable visit for our Games Development students. It was a fantastic opportunity to be able to see how the industry works from an insider's point of view".
