Hello and welcome everyone.
Thank you very much for taking the time, Whether it be morning, evening or night, Listening to the episode Not only is it my lovely self by someone else who is far more beautiful, far more intellectual than me, coming and joining this channel to talk about his experience, his design, And that is none other than Vladimir.
I'm sorry, Vladimir.
I'm going to absolutely butcher your last name.
I know we just talked it, but Gadineko.
I was closer.
Almost, almost.
I didn't get it.
I know I didn't. uh yeah hello yeah vladimir gaidenko sorry mate sorry uh but it's great to have you here vladimir is that of associate lead descriptor and we're gonna be talking about his journey kind of what you've been through your process of design and your elements from all of this mate so uh i'm very excited to have you here yeah hello thank you for having me and i want to talk about what was it then mate that first got you into games that made you realize this is a career that you could take yeah well games were always part of my life like i've been playing games since i was a kid and actually i'm not certain what was the moment when i decided that yeah i just want to like make games as well besides just playing them so yeah it's been a huge part of my life i've been playing the games i've been As a kid, I was studying how to actually create games, what I can use.
It was like 2000, something like this.
So it wasn't like the era of Unity or Unreal.
So it was a bit more difficult back then.
But yeah, it was always my passion.
And I gradually steadily, was learning all the things I can put my hands on and find, even like online.
Yeah, and that's kind of the root of it.
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No man, and was there any games?
I guess that really stuck with you.
You say you're playing games constantly.
Were there any like three or five games that really just you feel yeah, it's uh.
I guess it's pretty interesting in the topic of like the coming from basically like yeah from uh, eastern europe, from russia.
I think for a lot of people back there it was Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Warcraft 3 Gothic, Elder Scrolls, Morrowind.
It was like all of this.
So yeah, it's basically same for me, like the core of my design approach, design ideas I have, yeah.
That's cool, man.
And what do you think?
I mean, it sounds like there's obviously a lot of fantasy element.
Yeah, I guess.
Do you think that that's something that you're drawn to as well in terms of that style?
Like fantasy as a setting?
Yeah, it's deep bit more comfortable to go for, but i wouldn't say i only look only for fantasy.
Genre of fantasy games like sci-fi is also interesting or even the historical settings are also pretty cool.
Yeah man no, that's awesome.
And then from there then mate, like you said, started to learn a bit more from this where when you figure out kind of what you wanted to go into is there's many different areas of development.
I guess what brought you into more of the design yeah side yeah, for me, what i wanted to like focus on it was hugely game design.
So not like programming or art, but also at the same time, like it's not, like you can just go in the company and say okay, I'm your game designer now.
So yeah, I was looking for places where I can study.
And actually I found one place in St.
Petersburg, where they were preparing not game design per se but directors of multimedia, which was a bit more broader topic, like different kinds of media besides cinema.
So like games, multimedia projects, online projects, so everything and yeah, basically actually getting things from there, which was an interesting experience because it opened up a bit broader picture than just pure like how games are made, but more like what the, how the cinema direction happens for the, like the drama, how you craft the story, even like with all the beats going there.
And yeah, actually it was pretty interesting and helped me kind of verify that.
Yeah, that's definitely what they want to do and proceed in this direction.
And with that there, because you said you introduced your broad style topics.
You mentioned that learning more about story crafting.
I guess what is one of the most interesting things you took away from looking at from multimedia right?
Not just that video games.
Is there anything that stuck with you there?
Yeah, that's actually interesting to say because yeah, it doesn't correlate one to one to what I actually do as a lead scripter.
But it just broadens your horizons and kind of gives you indeed like this perspective from the outside, not purely inside, your craft.
For me, it was more from the, from like cinema kind of perspective.
So, like the visual side, how you do put story which you want to tell not just with words, not the dialogue which usually how we do in RPGs especially.
But through visual element, through cinematic, through different movement on camera, because it was never on my horizon.
Like yeah, I'm thinking of what kind of quests I want to do, what kind of tasks I want to give the player, but not actually how to show it.
That's yeah, that was something interesting.
But again, I'm not doing it for my work.
So just outside perspective to understand better how to work with this.
I think it's always great to have those.
I don't know about yourself, I like to do photography as a hobby.
I'm not any good in it, let's make that clear.
It's something that you said, it just...
It opens up your eyes to seeing things slightly different or respect on how you can use it.
It is a tool regardless.
And I think that's nice.
Is there any hobbies that you find that are useful for giving you a different perspective, mate?
Well, yeah, most of my hobbies are somehow involved in games.
So at the same time I'm just exploring different like themes and cultural kind of things for my own personal projects, but also it serves as inspiration for like more professional experiences, like again history things, or maybe a bit more from the like horror genre, like in general like books movies, all of these.
So, yeah.
Yeah, man, that sounds great.
And I wanted to ask then, because, you know, we talked about different aspects of design and things.
As you said, you're focusing more on the scripting.
I guess, how did you get into the more scripting side versus say, like you know, other aspects of design?
Yeah, indeed.
That was actually pretty a good coincidence because yeah, I was going for more game design approach.
I wanted to like direct the general idea of a game and we were working together with several students in our own personal projects, some kind of like participating game jams in different roles.
So my friend was doing all of the art things, but we had to have somebody who is going to actually put all our cool ideas into the game.
And I was basically the person who had to code things, had to combine everything.
At that time, we already started using Unity.
So, yeah, I was just learning how to do it myself, how to assemble all the pieces.
And at certain point, I just stumbled on like a vacation of a scripter.
And it was pretty interesting.
Like, what is it even like?
Do I? just tried scripts, do I code, what is it?
And, at least in my case, what turned out to be.
It's actually what different companies call different names mission designer or quest designer or technical designer.
So it kind of fitted this indie feel perfectly because In the essence we combine all the moving pieces, all the assets, all the different things together inside the actual final product which players experience.
In my case it's quests in our game.
So I get the idea assets from art, I get story from writing.
We work together with the level designers, with cinematic artists that kind of assemble all of these fragments together in one kind of piece of a medium.
That's pretty cool there because it's interesting you mentioned it as well.
There's two things I wanted to touch on.
The title can range very differently depending on the studio.
I think it's always important for people to read the description, because I've made assumptions sometimes like oh, this role has nothing to do with what I've done, and then You read it and you're like shit.
No, it's the exact same as what I've done, just different title.
People always ask how good or how much scripting knowledge should they have?
Now, you've mentioned you are kind of the linchpin in terms of connecting different aspects.
So I'm curious, on your kind of view, how well versed in scripting should one be?
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it's always nice to have some knowledge in different aspects.
Well, in my context, in scripting like yeah, definitely good to know Lua or Python or like any scripting language, reality is, if you're not going for studio which works in very concrete engine like unreal, which you definitely will be starting then to get into the studio, but they work in on the custom engine, as in our case, we use our own custom languages, scripting languages, so There is basically no opportunity to learn this language until we actually get into the studio.
So at this point, what is way more helpful is to understanding how this sphere in which you want to concentrate works, what is the, the concepts, what are the main kind of core ideas and being able to. grasp them and study yeah yeah because in my experience I wasn't of course knowledgeable in the languages we use so I had to learn all of it but because I was in Unity I already had experience with C sharp or with the they had javascript so kind of just helped because the experience is similar yeah sure languages are different but the logic still kind of goes into this direction the same way yeah that's very cool man and i wanted to ask with moving over from you to being into leadership how has that transition been for you in this yeah it's it's been an experience that's true uh it kind of um it's still a learning process so it's i would say i will never end up like saying like okay now i know everything and now i'm like perfectly so it's always something new and it's always discovering different aspects different assets uh facets of of this role uh for us the general idea is that it's Once you move to leadership, it doesn't mean that you stopped working on a game or at this point now you're a manager, you only should care about managing things.
We do want all our leads to actually be hands-on and actually do the content which our teams are doing.
So this essence didn't change?
Uh, but what uh?
What is additional element now?
Is these uh people factor which yeah uh, it's uh.
For me at least, it's definitely uh.
Like I keep learning every day how to how to be a better communicator, better collaborator, how to help people uh grow in their ways and with different approaches for different person.
My team as well.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
I've uh, I've recently moved into leadership about eight months ago and it has been, as you said, a uh, a learning experience.
And as you mentioned that like communicator.
There's been a couple of times where I've been like, oh, everyone should understand.
I believe I've explained it well.
And then I realized, oh, no, no.
And yeah, it's really changing how I try to better communicate with the team to help.
Yeah, it's uh.
I think it's an interesting one as well that you are still doing the um the work.
I know there's some studios.
Back when i was at ubisoft, the leads weren't allowed to touch the editor.
They didn't want that and, like where i work at, people can fly.
I still make levels alongside leadership similar to how you you carry out your work.
And I think there's something important in that it is, I'm sure.
How do you find firstly balancing the two tasks?
Yeah, same.
Still learn how to balance it.
Actually yeah, I transitioned to this role at the end, almost at the end of the project, so it wasn't the best of times.
The idea is that you spend 70 of your time on making the the stuff your team is doing and 30 on managing the team, but in my case, the reality was that i had to spend 100 on making the game and also, at the same time, 100 percent uh mentioned the team because the team was yeah, with experience, but still quite fresh.
So yeah, it wasn't as flawless as I would have hoped for.
I think that the transitioning is always a hard bit, right?
Because, like I haven't even found the perfect balance of, like you said 50-50, or it's supposed to be 70-30.
It's, I think the, you mentioned it earlier, like each person is different as well.
And communicating with each individual and learning their patterns is again, this takes time before you finally build up a relationship.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I guess I'm curious.
Do you have any tips then you think would be good for anyone who is aspiring to be a lead or recently transitioning towards being a lead?
Ah, interesting.
Not that I can easily think of beside what was already mentioned.
It's indeed like listening to the people in team and kind of helping the team grow not like you yourself as, like I, am the lead.
I'm going to tell everybody how to do things or the other way.
Okay.
My team is doing everything for me.
Now I'm sitting back and just watching them working.
So you keep finding this balance of Both providing for the team, also having your own input, but also at the same time kind of working together as a team.
Yes.
Yeah.
And I was going to say, how did you find like learning to, because you mentioned there, right?
It's not about you sitting back.
But there is also the element of delegating, right?
Like being able to give them finding that balance.
How did you find that?
Yeah, it's still not easy.
There are definitely moments when I just know the answer, that I want to just go and do everything myself.
But, at the same time, you do have to provide opportunity for your people to grow and to to get their own mistakes, to understand why this needs to be done in this specific way and not the other way, and experience and get this experience themselves as well.
Yes yeah no, i agree.
I think that's especially as you mentioned when you joined.
It was right, the end of a deadline.
I think that's the bit that people don't talk about in terms of leadership, because it's not just about you trying to set up a team.
Help them grow.
It's also trying to deliver a project while achieving those other tasks.
And they don't always, you know, go hand in hand at the same time, right?
There are times where you have to focus on the deadlines, times where you get, like you said you mentioned.
You give people a chance to learn and make their own mistakes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's indeed the different phases of production of development or project.
It's a different uh, mindsets and different approaches you have to use.
Like at certain point you just have to make the game and that's it, like you just have to fit these deadlines, to fit these at least, and you don't have windows for exploring, for prototype and doing experiments.
But at the same time, what's actually was a bit curious for me is not that easy to change from this we have to finish the game right now mindset towards more exploratory, where We don't know any questions for any of our answers.
We're exploring things and we just have to go with the flow and see what it will lead to, instead of having concrete answers to all your questions and just following them.
Yeah, i think it's really hard at times to get people uh, on board with that mindset, because especially younger members of teams i tend to find, you know, are looking for the answers rightfully so to help them construct a clearer view of what they're trying to create.
As you mentioned like, Regardless of it, there's always something new.
There's always a reimagining of something, and it's okay just to try.
But yeah, I've struggled sometimes to get people to... take that on board, right?
Really be like, Oh no, it's okay.
You know, we don't have the answers, but the great news is you get to explore.
And from that, we'll find the answers right or wrong.
We will find something that's amazing.
Yeah yeah no, with that mate and then, as you say, with all all this stuff of like uh, balancing and leadership you mentioned earlier about game jams with your friends and stuff do you still find time to do personal projects?
For Game Jam, sadly, not yet.
Although it would have been nice to go back to this kind of.
You have two days, you just have to do a working prototype of something interesting.
Yeah, that's indeed a cool experience.
For personal projects.
I do believe that everybody has to have their own personal projects so they can use it as kind of output for their creative ideas which are way too wild or just doesn't follow what you normally do.
Or even just to learn new skill sets, to kind of explore new possibilities which you normally don't use.
Like doing art, if you're a programmer, as an example.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I always think it's important.
I think, like you said, it's a great creative outlet because you don't have anyone telling you you can't do it.
This is right or wrong.
And I think, as you say, it's pushing your skills.
I also think it's something fun to show and talk about, right?
Like there's so many amazing devs and aspiring devs online.
I think it's always a great talking piece where people want to see that stuff.
People want to learn from one another, which I always think is super cool all in all.
I would say is there anything you know?
We're talking about this because we met a year ago at Gamescom and it's currently Gamescom as we're recording this.
Has anything caught your eye in terms of any games announced?
There were several interesting projects, but they mostly like big projects.
I bet there are definitely good India announcements and I didn't check them yet, but I will be checking afterwards for sure.
No, dude, there's always a lot going on.
It's hard to keep up with everything, right?
There's so many games being announced and releasing these days.
It's amazing, but hard to keep up with.
I will say...
Kronos from Team Blooper.
I'm very excited to see what they do with that from a horror point of view.
That looks really interesting.
And Silent Hill F as well.
I'm very excited to see both of those from a horror perspective.
I say in terms of genres, man, is there any genre you kind of like hope to work on?
You know we touched a little bit on horror there, but is there anything that like, you'd love to try figure out in design?
Actually yeah, it was a fun experience because back during the uni days when we were working on our student projects uh, I was just joking that at some point I just want to create RPGs and like more RPGs.
And we even used it as our name for the team, like just more RPG team.
And yeah, it just turned out that I immediately fit into this genre.
So it kind of, what I like to do and I find everything I want to explore in this genre.
But for personal projects yeah, of course there's way more beyond just RPGs like horror games or strategy games or more narrative experiences, because I usually don't write dialogues or like narrative content myself, so it's always interesting to try your own hand at this.
But in like yeng it free, kind of free for air environment where you just can explore whatever and just go with this, I think that sounds like some interesting ones there.
I'm not going to ask you what the personal projects are, but have you got stuff you're working on as well?
Personal projects, just keeping you entertained.
Yeah well, nothing complete right now.
So yeah, not that i can show, but hopefully definitely in near future.
Yeah, awesome man, awesome.
Okay, I'm conscious of time mate, so I'll wrap this up.
I don't know if you want to share anywhere where people can get in contact with you if they have any questions, or if it's best just to leave that out.
On Twitter is fine, yeah.
Brilliant.
Onyx, yeah.
Brilliant.
I will have your ways to reach out to Vladimir down below if you want to get in contact.
I said, Vladimir is a lovely lad and kind enough to do this show, so I'm sure he's willing to help as well.
If you've got any questions...
If you want to reach out to me, you can do so on X as well, or Blue Sky, which is at MaxPairs.
And just thank you all for listening.
We appreciate it, and we'll catch you all next time.
Thanks for watching!
