Meet the Team: Elliot Gascoigne
While Elliot is a newer addition to the Turbine Room team, that doesn’t at all mean he doesn’t do some heavy lifting! Quite the opposite in fact — he’s behind much of what you see in Ship Explorer’s UI, menus, and even the random event system. We took the chance to sit down with Elliot and ask him a few questions about his background in game design and his experience working on Ship Explorer. Read on to learn more!!
Hi Elliot! Thanks for agreeing to chat. Do you mind starting off by telling us a little bit about your background in game development, and how you ended up getting started at Turbine Room?
Of course! So my background starts from a very small part of game development. I always had a love for games since I was young, and when I was working in a pub called the Red Lion in England after leaving school, I had a sudden push to leave that behind and pursue 'something' in that field. After going to many different university interviews for different forms of art, I landed on Leeds Arts University doing Animation. Their 'Animation for Game Development' course was cancelled and just 'Animation' took its place, so I spent 3 years learning numerous different forms of animation and finishing with a degree in Animation. During this time, I watched the documentary for how The Last of Us was made, and I wanted nothing more than to do exactly what they were doing. This all didn't lead straight into games though. I instead started a career in product rendering and animation with a constant urge to branch out into the gaming industry. After a number of years I finally broke out and went freelance where I shifted further and further into the gaming industry. I got involved with a small indie studio called Matima Studio where we worked with quite a large number of clients on their dream projects, some small, some big. But during my time with them I was able to stretch my knowledge of game development and every project brought a new avenue to explore and expand my skills in. That then let to an intense motivational leap into my own project which is still under development but spring boarded and solidified my knowledge and skills in a way that I could battle test my theories and apply everything that I had accumulated over the years. I always wanted to stay connected with other creatives and opportunities until something came allong that aligned with my interests and ambitions, and this is where Turbine Room came in! They needed some extra hands on deck to bring their vision to life and having watched many Oceanliner Designs videos in the past and also sharing a fascination with ships and history I was overwhelmed with a feeling of belonging and eagerness to offer my skills to the studio!
So it really sounds like this has been quite a long time in the making for you, and your passion really shows! Your first real project for Turbine Room was working on our new title Ship Explorer. Can you talk a bit about your contributions there and what your experience has been like helping to develop the game?
Absolutely! Due to the diversity of my skills there was a great opportunity to be able to help develop new gameplay systems whilst unifying them and all the other systems in place. It started with all the UI, there was a need for a standardisation of the UI elements and also the functionality behind them, this then naturally branched off into more integral parts of the game which dealt with interactions that the player makes with the world, be that the narrative interactions or other events that happen in the world without the player’s input. If I were to boil it down more concisely, my role is to assist in all areas of the game and help deliver them wrapped up in a bow for the final delivery! My experience has been quite profound actually, in a very good way, because my hobbies and interests align so well with the studio and what Ship Explorer has become. I love to play the game and experience it as a player, not just a developer, to take in all the history and to explore these models and appreciate the attention to detail and the history behind them.
We on the team know all too well how much work you've put into Ship Explorer, and we all agree that your expertise has been such a massive boon to the project! Which one of your contributions to the game are you most proud of?
That's so nice of you to say!! Well I am probably most proud of the random events system, it was a real test of my mathematical skills in unison with my knowledge on optimization and best practices. In a nutshell, because these ships are so huge, I needed to find a way to only make these random events (whales, birds, distant ships etc) spawn under specific conditions, like the player being on the port side of the deck, whilst also looking out to sea. Then only to spawn that event where the player will see it. It was a hugely fun task to work on and solve the issues faced.
Besides that, I really enjoyed working on the UI presentation and implementation, trying to match all elements together whilst thinking about how the player needs to navigate these menus was very fun for me, also creating the assets and animations we need to help unify these elements, I really like exploring different areas of visual design to deliver a unified and pleasant experience ... and to fix all the bugs that comes with it!
And you nailed the brief there - the UI is so crisp and satisfying! I'm sure you've learned many valuable lessons in game development as a result of working on this project, but would you say you've also learned a bit about ships and their design? If so, was there anything you learned that you found particularly interesting or surprising?
Oh that’s for sure! I had a fairly base knowledge when I first started but that very quickly changed thanks to the project and the kind of work I've had the pleasure of doing. I think the thing that surprised me most was the amount of steam that needs to be passed through a ship’s horn for it to make a sound! Especially back in the day, and thats not to mention the sound ... they are truly truly epic.
Hearing those bellowing horns never gets old, it's a kick in the pants every single time! And you're right that these ships had to have an immense amount of power under the hood to do what they did. Truly fascinating things! Are there any 'pipe dream' features for you that you'd love to see implemented in the game in the future? Even if it would only be in a perfect world.
I would love to be able to sail with two ships at once to get a sense of scale in relation to each other, I think that would be pretty awesome!! Also to go even further back in time, back to the tall ship age, to explore the really really old ships, that would be a childhood (and adulthood) dream come true!
Those would both be so cool! The tall ships especially seem plausible, so maybe one day down the line, it might not be so much of a pipe dream after all?
I would finally be able to uninstall Sid Meir's Pirates if that would be the case 😄
What advice would you give to someone booting up Ship Explorer for the first time?
Probably to really take advantage of the weather changer. When you see the ships in different lighting and weather conditions you really get a sense of their grand design and awesomeness! For example the enclosed promenade on the SSUS at sunset is a beauty to behold! Or the Morro Castle during a fog, it’s very inspiring and cool to experience.
Oh yeah, the lighting and weather really changes the entire atmosphere, and combined with the already beautiful ships, you really can create the most gorgeous scenes! Just one last question to wrap things up- which of our announced DLC ships are you most excited for people to experience and why?
I would say the Bismarck! For one the horn is diabolically epic. But also the soundtrack adds to the already awesome atmosphere of the ship, also it has lots of small details I had no idea about regarding warships, stuff I've seen before but never gave much more thought than "thats an interesting shape". Without saying too much ... its great to experience how it functions!! 😄
Having messed with it a bit myself, I'm definitely inclined to agree! Thanks so much for taking the time out to chat! It's been a pleasure!
Its no problem! I’m so happy the community can finally get their hands on it and I hope they have as much fun exploring as we/I have making and playing it!
