Sebastian Trelles

MSc in Games. Game Designer at SYBO Games.

WHO?

My name is Sebastian. I’m 29 years old and from Uruguay. I have been living in Europe for four years, three in Denmark. Denmark is very different from my culture. In Uruguay, we have a more Mediterranean culture. It’s cold and dark sometimes here, but people are pretty open. It’s been a cool experience.

There is a very strong games community in the Scandinavian countries. There are so many game-related events, meetings, talks, game jams and so on. There are a lot of things you can get involved in. 

WHERE?

I have been working at SYBO Games for about five months now. After I finished my degree, I worked at ITU as a teaching assistant. Then I worked as a professor in the Royal Academy of Design. One year after I graduated, I found the job at SYBO. To be honest, it can be pretty hard to find a job as a game designer. It is possible, but you need to be passionate, have a good portfolio and perhaps search for a long time.

WHAT?

I work as a meta-game designer. This is a designer who takes care of everything that isn’t direct gameplay. In a free-to-play game, it could be making sure the players return to the game later on, making sure they have goals to accomplish all the time.

Usually when you’re studying, you sometimes feel that you don’t know anything. But when you get into internships or jobs, you realize that you actually do know a lot. It’s a continuous process where you learn a little every day.

WHY?

I always wanted to work in games, but when I was younger the options were limited in Uruguay – that’s why I started out studying software development. That got me closer to game development. 

The ITU degree in games is pretty well known in Europe. It’s a two-year programme, which is rare, and a lot of important people in the industry have studied there. The programme goes into the academic part of games, and this was something I wanted. I thought if I was going to dedicate myself to this, I wanted to have a good framework, in combination with practice.

BEST ADVICE

It’s great to centre on games, but remember to also build a secondary skillset – for instance in programming or visual arts. This is important. The better you can speak with programmers, visual artists and project managers, the better.