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