Dylan Radford

What did you do before joining dBs?  

Before working at dBs Institute, I was a Games Design college lecturer. After finishing my Master's, my lecturers told me that I should get into teaching so the first step on that journey was to work at a college. My end goal was to become a university lecturer, but first I needed experience. Within my Master's, I worked on several projects that are on Itch.io for anyone to play. My favourite is called 'Enter the Drunkgeon', which is a play on the game 'Enter the Gungeon', but with a drinking theme based on a brief for Heineken.

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Why did you first get into game art? 

I studied games development at college and I really enjoyed it, but I wasn’t sure what area of games I wanted to do, so I did a games design degree where I would do everything. That includes games design, programming and games art. During this time, I fell in love with 3D modelling and it has taken over my life since. I have always struggled to draw but doing 3D is something that really clicks for me.

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Any special areas of interest?  

My areas are 3D modelling, specifically hard surface modelling. This is the creation of non-organic modelling such as vehicles and weapons. I particularly love 3D scanning real-world objects such as cars and making them game ready - it's incredibly fun to do. I recently did a project where I 3D scanned a Formula 1 car and made it ready and the process was incredibly technical and I loved that aspect.

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What do you love most about what you do?

I love games; I always have. From picking up Pokémon Silver on the Game Boy to playing Warcraft 2 on the PS1, games have taken over my life. Playing games gives you the greatest joy and creating that moment for someone else is very special. Games are an art form, so it allows me to be creative but there is also a technical aspect that just means you’re constantly problem solving, which I really enjoy.

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Tell us about your proudest career moment?

This would be when you take a student who knows nothing about game dev but they are really passionate about it and you teach them how to create a game. Then marking that students work and they get top marks; it’s incredibly rewarding.

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What do you get up to outside of your role at dBs?

I play games and I 3D model, my life is consumed by games. If I’m not playing games I’m making an asset to go into a game and if I'm not doing that I'm watching someone else play games on Twitch or Youtube. Currently I’ve just installed a 'Realm of Thrones' mod on 'Mount & Blade Bannerlord' which is a military sim game.

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Tell us something our students may not know about you?

I failed my second year of University, it was just before lockdown happened and I hadn't been putting enough work into my assignments and I ended up failing them. Looking back it actually really helped me be where I am today as it caused me to really reflect on everything and what I wanted to do. It gave me the motivation I needed to come back and finish and do my Master's.