Queens Park Community School Visit!

Here at Media Molecule, we really want to inspire the next generation of games makers, and we are especially interested in encouraging more girls to get into our industry. When we can find the time, we invite small groups from schools/colleges into the studio to get a first-hand look at how games are made, and hopefully get them interested in doing what we love to do - making games!

Last week, teacher Adam Eldineight brought eight girls from Queens Park Community School in North West London to visit us, all of them currently studying GCSE ICT.

They got to see all around the studio, watch some demos of our work in progress and take part in a Q&A session at the end with a few of the Molecules. Afterwards we asked the girls to write up a piece about their time with us, and what they got from the experience. Here's what Pip , Nour and Octavia had to say about their visit to Mm:

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On Friday 6th June, a small group of girls from our school, interested in IT and Art were invited to Media Molecule, an award winning game company, to help to introduce them to the Gaming Industry. Media Molecule created the popular games Little Big Planet and Tearaway. Needless to say we were really excited!

We caught the train out of London to Guildford in Surrey, with Mr Eldin quizzing us on our gaming knowledge on the way up.

We arrived six minutes early and Mr Eldin refused to enter the building unless we were exactly on time, so we walked around for those six minutes so we could arrive at the agreed hour.

We were greeted by Luci, who led us up three flights of stairs to a pink carpeted corridor. We went through some Pass Access Only doors to another corridor lined with concept art of Sackboy by the original artist. Octavia, Nour and I were completely overwhelmed by the art and creativity surrounding us.

Luci then took us on a tour of the whole game tech floor where basically everything was happening. First we passed a soundproof room where sounds for the games were created and tested. Then we were introduced to a few of the programmers and designers. Luci also showed us some of their walls dedicated to brain storming and scheduling work. It was pretty much an entire wall of Post-It Notes of every colour you can buy them in. Apparently “You can’t run a company without Post-It Notes!”A corner adorned with fanart from people all over the world caught our eye and Luci told us how happy they were that people loved their games enough to dedicate their time to creating these wonderful pieces of work.

We have learned that women are underrepresented in IT and Computing industries. And that was why it was essential that we were introduced to so many of the influential women in the company; Jamie, a level developer and games tester, Siobhan, studio director and co-founder of Media Molecule, Michelle, the producer of Tearaway; Luci, another producer and our lovely tour guide and Amy, a game coder for Little Big Planet.

After being shown how games are tested, we were able to chat with these women on their relaxation floor where the team goes to unwind. With all the comfy sofas, fantastic views, games consoles, long wooden tables, decorative pianos, a rocket made out of card and a full kitchen unit, we were all pretty blown away. As Octavia said, it was “pretty snazzy”.

Siobhan, Luci, Amy, Jamie and Michelle shared their stories on how they entered the gaming industry. Through tales of indecisiveness, dabbling in many different Uni courses and discovering their individual strengths they found jobs that inspire them and keep them happy.

After the trip had ended, we left in high spirits and took a brief tour of Guildford. Then managed to be early for the train.

Nour, Octavia and I left Media Molecule inspired to create a game of our own one day, to the point where we were starting to divide up the work based on our individual skills. It was definitely a trip to remember.

Thank you so very, very much to the kind people of Media Molecule who allowed us to experience such a vibrant company who’s energy was much one of a family unit.

Also a big, massive, humongous thank you to our ICT teacher, Mr Eldin. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have been able to do this in the first place. 

Pip , Nour and Octavia
Queens Park Community School