At Casual Connect USA, Vincent Martel shared his journey in creating Fated, a VR game by Frima Studios. Throughout the process, leaps and bounds were made but not without mistakes and setbacks. The journey caused the staff at Frima to rethink thier production pipeline. During his presentation, he reflected, “VR is something magical and a brand new medium”. He also suggested to “split your content into manageable chunks” for your audience.
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When you meet Vincent Martel, an executive producer at the Quebec game company, Frima, you might not suspect that he considers his experience working in a kitchen while at school valuable training for work in the games industry. Yet it was there that he learned the importance of teamwork and that everyone has a part to play in reaching success. He emphasizes, “If one element fails, everyone fails.”
Finding a Place in the Games Industry
Vincent began working at Frima seven years ago as a project manager in the Service/Work for Hire Department, right after finishing school. He admits the games industry was completely new to him and he knew nothing about game development. At the time Frima was a young but rapidly growing company and he was able to learn and grow with it. Now as an executive producer in the Intellectual Property Department, he is involved in all elements of development, from conception to release. He is also involved with the financial aspects of the industry, raising funds for his project and marketing.
The games industry is the ideal place for Vincent; he has always enjoyed games and is inspired by being surrounded by intelligent and creative people. He also values the opportunity to use games to touch people emotionally and, in a way, change the world.
There was little in his background other than enjoying games that hinted at his future career. While he was growing up, working in the games industry meant moving to California. Fortunately, that changed over the past ten years until there are now many opportunities in Quebec.
A Team of Brilliant People
One of the most enjoyable things Vincent has found in his job is working with a team of brilliant people, and he now feels confident in the way he leads the team, encouraging them to cooperate as much as possible. As he says, “We win as a team or lose as a team.” But he does hate the times when he must ask them to crunch. He limits overtime as much as possible, but in the games industry extra work is sometimes absolutely essential.
He sees himself as a generalist rather than a specialist and likes to understand things even though he does not become an expert in them. No doubt this is what allows him to see the overall picture and lead the team effectively.
It takes an incredible amount of effort and expertise to build a game, but he reveals that hearing about players enjoying it is incredible satisfying. He particularly enjoys the emails he receives from fans and reading a good review is also very gratifying.
Creating the Games that Explore Emotions
Vincent’s children are a great source of inspiration for him. He points out, “When you have children you would do anything to protect them. It’s a very strong feeling.” And part of Frima’s latest game, FATED, incorporates that feeling.
The game he would choose to create if he had unlimited time and resources would be an experience that puts storytelling and emotions at the forefront. He likes to explore emotions that are not usually found in games, and enjoys the fact that he has been able to do this with FATED to a certain extent.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Vincent always finds new technologies inspiring so he is excited by the possibilities in the future when he expects virtual reality and augmented reality to be huge trends. And he sees this trend moving beyond games to affect science, education, entertainment, health, fitness. In fact, he predicts, “It has the potential to change the way we communicate and interact with our world.”
He is already involved with a virtual reality project and is looking forward to working on augmented reality. He recognizes there are very few specialist in VR and AR, so those who begin working with this technology today can anticipate being in very high demand when it becomes popular.
Vincent’s lecture at Casual Connect USA was his first ever conference. He admits that he was very nervous and that talking to a group of people is not easy for him. Fortunately, he enjoyed this opportunity to share his expertise and now looks forward to repeating the experience.
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