Speaker 1: Seven Feature.
Speaker 2: Eighteen minutes to two o'clock and I'll take feature for today.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about careers beyond coding, and I
Speaker 2: think this is a big one, especially for young people
Speaker 2: who are really looking at getting into the space. We
Speaker 2: take your calls on audible one double A three h
Speaker 2: seven oh two the WhatsApp line oh seven two seven
Speaker 2: oh two one seven oh two as we are joined
Speaker 2: by Tabotolo, who is the CEO and game designer at
Speaker 2: Space Salid Studios. Tabo, welcome to the show. How are
Speaker 2: you doing good?
Speaker 1: Thanks to yourself.
Speaker 2: Okay, I am doing well. I'm doing well, Tubo. So
Speaker 2: let's get started with what Space Salid Studios does before
Speaker 2: we jump into what careers are there beyond coding.
Speaker 1: So thing, I forgot to say hi to the listeners
Speaker 1: as well, pardon me, but so yeah. Three PET Studios
Speaker 1: is a video games company. We specialize in developing game
Speaker 1: space off of social commentary and we use humor to
Speaker 1: break down some of the complex issues that we see
Speaker 1: in the world. We also create interacts of experiences through
Speaker 1: gamification where we gamify. Basically, we looked at four different
Speaker 1: industries in the events space, digital marketing, education, and training
Speaker 1: as well as the FMCG space, and we create gamification
Speaker 1: tools to create a new experience for your customers or
Speaker 1: your audiences.
Speaker 2: Okay, so let's then talk about other types of careers.
Speaker 2: Let's touch on coding where it's had that it being
Speaker 2: so big, and then moving on to all the other
Speaker 2: different spaces beyond coding.
Speaker 1: Cool. So I guess everybody knows, at least they should
Speaker 1: know what coding is, and I guess it's probably one
Speaker 1: of the key drivers of the four are movement, and
Speaker 1: for a lot of people it's like if you could code,
Speaker 1: you're probably guaranteed to have a long lasting career in
Speaker 1: the Indus four I are in uh in the movement
Speaker 1: that you're currently in right now. But as far as
Speaker 1: like coding outside of thing beyond the text space or
Speaker 1: specifically in my industry, coding is very essential because you
Speaker 1: need a developer to put in the sound and the
Speaker 1: visuals together to develop to the final product, which is
Speaker 1: the game essentially, and without it you probably just have
Speaker 1: like an animated video. But there are a lot of
Speaker 1: opportunities within the text industry as well as the gaming
Speaker 1: industry specifically, where you don't need to be a code
Speaker 1: or you have any experience in coding, and you can
Speaker 1: still build a career for yourself.
Speaker 2: I'm just wondering in terms of skills, I want to
Speaker 2: touch on it a little bit. There are the obvious
Speaker 2: skills that a person would need to have in this industry,
Speaker 2: But what would you say are the skills that would
Speaker 2: be an added bonus if a person also happen to
Speaker 2: have those skills.
Speaker 1: So, as far as gaming is concerned, that I always
Speaker 1: look at the cost three, which is sound, visuals as
Speaker 1: well as the coding. But what we could also extend
Speaker 1: it to is because for example, my company, we are
Speaker 1: running a business. We do need accountants, we do need lawyers,
Speaker 1: you know, we do need writers people that are going
Speaker 1: to come up with amazing stories for our characters. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of roles that you one can consider
Speaker 1: that are needed in the in the in the company
Speaker 1: as well as game testers. You know, you'd be surprised,
Speaker 1: especially in the text space, how badly we need people
Speaker 1: to test our new apps and our new games because
Speaker 1: once we launch, you know, you want to be confident
Speaker 1: that the game that we've developed is good enough for
Speaker 1: the market, and you know, first impressions count, So you
Speaker 1: don't want to release something that is buggy and then
Speaker 1: people automatically associate your brand with you know, low quality stuff.
Speaker 1: So those are like just some of the careers that
Speaker 1: also sorry, the skills that you could potentially have within
Speaker 1: the gaming industry that one might not consider.
Speaker 2: I'm so glad you mentioned the part, you know, for example, accountants,
Speaker 2: because if I think about my industry of TV production,
Speaker 2: it's almost it almost becomes its own specialty to understand
Speaker 2: how to cost certain things, how to balance the books accordingly,
Speaker 2: with the industry being very unique where now you need
Speaker 2: to explain to a person instead of having to explain no,
Speaker 2: when we use this terminology, this is what we're referring to,
Speaker 2: and that's why it's a cost of sales or why
Speaker 2: this is a non a text deductible, whatever the case
Speaker 2: may be. And I think it's it's quite helpful that
Speaker 2: you mentioned that because it means that if there are
Speaker 2: people who are passionate about gaming but happen to find
Speaker 2: themselves even maybe in the legal world, where they might
Speaker 2: be interested in coming into your space. Yes, so sorry,
Speaker 2: go ahead.
Speaker 1: Now just about to add as well, just as much
Speaker 1: as legal is so important because sometimes you do create
Speaker 1: art that might you know, question a certain topic or
Speaker 1: that might highlight like with us we make games based
Speaker 1: on social comment chence. Most of the times. With our
Speaker 1: political landscape, people you might be there's a lot of
Speaker 1: grey areas and you'd like to be sure that the
Speaker 1: content that you're releasing is not offensive to anyone or
Speaker 1: it might not lend you into trouble, you know. So
Speaker 1: those are definitely skills that we need, even like producers
Speaker 1: as well, because we have deadlines ourselves, you know, we
Speaker 1: need to make sure that when we sat a deadline
Speaker 1: or target for the end of the year, we meet
Speaker 1: that target. So just like with I'm glad that you
Speaker 1: mentioned what you do like film and television, some of
Speaker 1: the roles as well to meet you know, the roles
Speaker 1: that you have in informing television, we also have the
Speaker 1: same like if you have we need active you know,
Speaker 1: for if we're using mod chaps for three D animations.
Speaker 1: So those are the types of skills that we also
Speaker 1: need in the industry that are not spoken about or
Speaker 1: not enough.
Speaker 2: At least because also things like voiceover artists and and
Speaker 2: the list goes on.
Speaker 1: Under person per I could I could speak for hours
Speaker 1: and in terms of how many skills that we need
Speaker 1: internally outside of the three core major skills. But I
Speaker 1: don't think I have enough side.
Speaker 2: Talk to me about because there's also room for writers
Speaker 2: in terms of things like putting together storylines and building characters,
Speaker 2: which sounds super fun. And only now as we're talking,
Speaker 2: I'm realizing how similar our industries are. It's almost identical
Speaker 2: except for you. You the player. You have to create
Speaker 2: a world where the players can operate and decide what
Speaker 2: the characters are doing. In terms of in terms of designing,
Speaker 2: let's say in the gamification world, where you have all
Speaker 2: these people from your programmers, to your your designers, to
Speaker 2: your sound designers, your writers, all of those things at
Speaker 2: what like in the in terms of that process, who
Speaker 2: in the pipeline is the one that has the final say,
Speaker 2: the final sign off of like I don't like the
Speaker 2: sound of that gunshot or that sword. Well, I don't
Speaker 2: like the sound when these characters walk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was gaming. It's a collaborative process. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say like somebody has the last call. Obviously we
Speaker 1: do have like our directors or the leads of the
Speaker 1: specific industry that you mentioned where it's the sound where
Speaker 1: the story. So those guys will potentially have the final
Speaker 1: say as to what comes out. But once the product
Speaker 1: comes together, I guess then that the whole team will
Speaker 1: have to come in and give feedback. You know. They
Speaker 1: will then find it as the testers as well, they'll
Speaker 1: say that maybe speed up this it's taking too long
Speaker 1: to get to this point, or maybe this character, we've
Speaker 1: killed the character off too early. Maybe we can keep
Speaker 1: them for him for a longer period of time, because
Speaker 1: we want to get the character arc just right so
Speaker 1: that the player still engages with the game for a
Speaker 1: longer period of time. Because with most gaming, one thing
Speaker 1: you must remember is it's one of the reason why
Speaker 1: it's one of the biggest industries in the world right now,
Speaker 1: is because unlike our unlike existing traditional media, we can
Speaker 1: capture people's attension for a lot longer, you know, and
Speaker 1: we've seen it now when we've tested it out with
Speaker 1: like with the digital marketing, Unlike traditional digital marketing where
Speaker 1: it's like a detic post or a video, with gamification,
Speaker 1: I can keep the audience locked in a lot longer.
Speaker 1: I can also entice the audience to share the game
Speaker 1: with their friends. You know, if there's a leaderboard. I mean,
Speaker 1: if it's like a co op situation where you have
Speaker 1: to play with your friend, you know, and I can
Speaker 1: also capture important data because I've gotten me for this long,
Speaker 1: I can kind of like we've already treated like a
Speaker 1: relationship together. So you're most susceptible to you know, sharing
Speaker 1: some of your data or purchasing a product because you
Speaker 1: now have made some form of connection with the game
Speaker 1: and the message that's been trying that's been portrayed within
Speaker 1: the game.
Speaker 2: You mentioned that the games need to be tested. Share
Speaker 2: with me what that means and what that means for
Speaker 2: the people that would be doing the testing, Like is
Speaker 2: it an actual job or volunteers can come and give
Speaker 2: you feedback, So.
Speaker 1: It is an actual job. Countries like the US have
Speaker 1: like dedicated like people that they hired to test, but
Speaker 1: then there's also volunteers as well, you know, like our
Speaker 1: industry is still starting out, so a lot of you
Speaker 1: rely on a lot of volunteers to come in and
Speaker 1: test the game. And what usually looks like it sounds
Speaker 1: cool at first, I guess in the beginning, it's not
Speaker 1: that fun because it's either you're testing for bugs. So
Speaker 1: if there's like a collation in the code, or if
Speaker 1: the character keeps disappearing or gets stuck, which stares ruin
Speaker 1: the play experience. So that's one of the things. So
Speaker 1: you're probably just walking into walls, you know. That's also
Speaker 1: another way of like another the role of a test
Speaker 1: is if maybe the colliders are in the right place,
Speaker 1: and the collider is like an invisible war that stops
Speaker 1: you from going through the mesh or whatever the world
Speaker 1: that you're living in. So some some testers have to
Speaker 1: walk through different walls, you know, for hours and hours
Speaker 1: at a time.
Speaker 2: But so doing the same thing over and over again
Speaker 2: and basically not having fun because it at some point
Speaker 2: becomes a job, right of like please do it again,
Speaker 2: Please do it again, Please do it again.
Speaker 1: Yes, because because gamer are really smart, they're like they'll
Speaker 1: break your game. They'll like break it and then expose
Speaker 1: you online and say this game, this is how you
Speaker 1: cheat the game or whatever. So we need to really
Speaker 1: make sure that whoever plays our game, it's really difficult
Speaker 1: for them to break it, you know. And that means
Speaker 1: that and also hours, Like I said, engagement is a
Speaker 1: big thing in gaming. So a lot of people be
Speaker 1: spending like eighty hours a day or not eighty hours
Speaker 1: a week, so playing video games, you know, So that's
Speaker 1: like a lot of time dedicated to what's doing one thing,
Speaker 1: and a lot could happen in that in that in
Speaker 1: that in that space. So with tests they really key
Speaker 1: in like the whole development of the of the product,
Speaker 1: because within that they'll know where the where the game
Speaker 1: breaks and then we can fix it as the depths
Speaker 1: and have a proper product.
Speaker 2: Please share with us what are some of the games
Speaker 2: that are accessible right now that the listeners can already
Speaker 2: start to taste out that they can know actually this
Speaker 2: is a soft African game.
Speaker 1: Well, you can I guess for start up some Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can check out our games. You can go to
Speaker 1: our website or go to our social media at space
Speaker 1: Sellers that a and it will link you to our
Speaker 1: website at space seller Studios dot com. Were on Steam.
Speaker 1: We also on the App Store and the Android Android Store.
Speaker 1: We've actually worked on a game with the Pedo where
Speaker 1: you can play the favorite political leader and we justify
Speaker 1: the social ills.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh my gosh, that sounds so cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's called two Weekly. It's an economic point of order. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: check it out. But there's also studios like Free Lives,
Speaker 1: which is one of the biggest. You can get to
Speaker 1: the games on PlayStation Xbox, but those are like complete games.
Speaker 1: But if you want to like become a tester, I
Speaker 1: think you can also reach out to us on our
Speaker 1: social media page and if they are openings, because we
Speaker 1: are we're always working on new games and new products
Speaker 1: and we're looking for people to come in and break
Speaker 1: them so that we can fix them. And that's the
Speaker 1: whole thing with there is you always have to like
Speaker 1: fix things. And yeah, but as well as like our games,
Speaker 1: you can find them our persform. But if they look
Speaker 1: if they want to test, and they can hit us
Speaker 1: up as well on our social media and then we
Speaker 1: can take it from there.
Speaker 2: I'm sure so many people would be absolutely excited to
Speaker 2: come and taste, but they better be EVID gamers so
Speaker 2: that you are able to walk away with what you
Speaker 2: need to Space sellid Studios dot com or space sealid
Speaker 2: z A on all of social media. Table thank you
Speaker 2: for chatting to us on our take feature.