Dan Bernardo

27th October 2022

Dan Benardo is the CEO of Playtra, which is an independent game studio based in London. He called us over to talk about things that happen within the gaming industry, from the interview to the company.

About Playtra:

Founded in 2017
Their goal is to "Create Games that define the generation."
Indie Game Company
Consisting from 2-10 employees
Currently working on "Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess", A Grid-Based Tactical Action RPG
Have won multiple awards, such as Gamescon Indie Game Award, Winner for ROKiT Games Global Pitchfest.

His Journey (Summary)

Before becoming the CEO of Playtra, he originally had degrees in Anthropology Graphic Design. Throughout the 17 years, he was working in and out of fields, working with InBev, Lycos, Ecologos and InSkin Media.

He was a designer from Jan 2005 to Aug 2017, working as the Chief Designer for Lodren Studio, as well as a freelancing Senior Designer during Nov 2010 - Dec 2012.

He also worked at Unruly as both a Regular (Apr 2012 - Apr 2016) and Global Creative Director (Apr 2016 - Apr 2017), and Senior Vice President of Global Creative (Apr 2017 - Apr 2019).

The Talk (His Experiences at Work)

Getting to talk to Dan really helped me to understand the ways in which the games industry works, from how the interview works to what sort things you would encounter in the Job. It was the most interesting when he started talking about the encounters he had when he had started building his own indie company - he gave advice on what to do first before going into these sorts of things.

Having portfolio advice was really helpful as well. It will help me to think about how my portfolio is presented, before sending off to workplaces and companies. There were some that stood out to me:

Practise is Key. Doing more practise in our chosen field will help us to develop, as well as show the process that you have gone through. For instance, if it were concept design, then drawing is key to develop that skill. He also added "Keep doing this even if you don't have to".
Be honest about what we think in certain processes. It is good that we have some things in our portfolio which are not our favourite, but it is good to see what we did after it - how we improved on it/ what changes we made to it.
You can have different bullet points of things that you have done, but it may not explain the whole process completely.
Doesn't matter how much you put in your portfolio, it is about quality. He talked about the structure of how our portfolio should be:
- Start off with a strong piece. This should grab the viewers attention, making sure that they want to look more into your work
- The middle section can be your "Not-your-strong" pieces. Viewers may want to see them so that they could have an idea of where your ideas come from, as well as how well you developed
- End off with your best piece. As he said, "End it off with a bang."

In terms of making up ideas, he made good points as well:

It is good to have ideas that are completely original. However, in the real world, it is not always about good ideas but rather if it can sell. Say if you were doing a presentation on a completely original idea, there may be some who may not understand the concept. It would also take some time explaining the idea, and some may lose interest since it was too long.
It is OK is the game doesn't work mechanically (For instance, playing Prototype). Having a game that is well understood and showcases ourselves well is most often looked out for.

All of the other advice he has given out are found in notes.

What I learnt

His advice on idea making has helped me out in many ways, such as making sure that the idea that I am selling attracts players and other people alike, or making sure that the idea isn't too complicated so that it takes me a while to explain. I will be using this advice when it comes to idea making (in general) in order for people to understand and give critic.

Him giving portfolio advice enabled me to think about how I am going to present my work to others - how do I gain their attention from the beginning to the end. Process is also key in making a good portfolio - how you go from one piece to another. It is also good to show variety in my works so that others can see what I am capable of.

With his experiences at work, I am able to know what sorts of obstacles he faced and what he did to resolve it, such as knowing what roles each person is doing, how to make sure that the team does not encounter any conflict. When I do work in a team, I will make sure that we know every ones' working needs so that we know what to do when problems arise.