Rahul Nath’s Post

Shane is out game designer who started off more as a system designer focused on balancing games but in the last year we challenged him to learn technical design using unreal engine to convey his ideas better and now he is addicted to it . It’s great to see his joy and excitement everytime he discovers something new . Our job is extremely challenging as we want innovation , polish , market fit , timelines and everything in between to work out but with challenge comes gratification of seeing everyone grow and learn together . Not just building a team, building a future.

Another day , another shady startup in Singapore . In other news , water is wet.

The game industry gets a lot of bad rep but I still believe I have met some of the most passionate people is games . Case in point . We are prepping for a big internal demo last week . We test everything one day before the demo . The next morning when I come back one of my engineering friends and colleagues comes up to me and says “ just because we like to keep the anxiety level high at all times I would like to make some modifications before the presentation “. I laugh and say ok knowing fully how this can bite us but I’ll always take a persons passion over someone checking in and out. And yes the anxiety level was high. If you are not great at handling abstracts and anxiety an innovation driven game team may not be the best idea .

Some amazing dome concept art for our VR movie by Mr Jack Kew . Jack is up for grabs for an artist role so if you have an opening don’t miss out on this talent . IMHO the key to working with an artist or programmer as a director is to give direction but also enough space for them to explore styles , concepts that make them feel they are making work that matters . Too many directors turn dictators and while that may still lead to great success it would not lead to versatility in the team . No A.I artists. Just a talented , skillful person who honed his craft over year and years .

Combining mocap data with an animators refinement and touches . Mocap data or face capture data is great to get a head start . But to refine and integrate one still needs skilled animators . We used motion capture here to get our base animation but then got an animator on board for refinement. The workflow Xsens- maya- unreal engine .

Some more great concept art by Jack Kew for our VR experimental movie . This is a project where I’m pretty sure in a ROI sense I’ll lose money but what I’ll gain is tremendous artistic happiness .

We are at Bowl Expo showcasing our variety of games . If you are in the area give it a go !

Welcome back a Max to Singapore and LAI. Max started with us as a 3d art and cinematic intern and we have flown him back in all the way from Perth to join us full time . Max will focus on working with Real Time 3d pipelines within our studio and creating highly engaging cinematic experiences for our games . The creative team at LAI is run like a sports team with no superstars but highly dedicated players moving towards a single goal. They surprise me with their commitment to the craft every week . Maximilian Wright Jonathan Pillai

There are many ways to motivate a team and we try and use quite a few at work but the most effective way I have found is quite simple - saying thank you , sincerely . It is amazing how someone’s face lights up by using these two simple words . And this need not be an announcement , just waking up to a person and thanking them for their work can make their day .

We had a great time hosting Digipen students at our studio and showcasing some of the magic that goes on behind the scenes at LAI Games . Great to host Vuk Krakovic too who I learnt so much from . LAI keeps growing .