A Day in the Life of an Agency Intern - Final

MMORPG.com:

What was your first thought when told that Julia had chosen to intern at SoE Seattle?

Sherry Floyd:

Well, I was out of town the day she arrived and found out that afternoon via email from Sarah Airington (one of our very talented environment artists) that Julia was here and we had full access to her as a resource. I arrived the next day at work and met with Julia; we sat down and reviewed her work as well as her goals for the internship. I was floored by her openness, fantastic attitude and willingness to "get into the trenches". I immediately saw many opportunities for her to contribute to the game at a very high level.

MMORPG.com:

Did you immediately decide "Hooray, I know exactly what she can do!" or was it more of a "Help! I have an intern! What can she do?"

Sherry Floyd:

Definitely Hooray! I was running our outsourcing initiative at that time and saw Julia as an internal creative asset who could benefit from a "soup to nuts" experience. I knew the Club Metamorphosa was the next level to be sorted out and thought we could start there. I set up a review of what we had from design and art to assess what we were missing for development to start. I thought this would be a good project for Julia, to get her involved with the brainstorming process and initiate constructive planning and feedback for the work. She seemed very excited and into the overall creative method. We came out of the meeting with a solid idea of concept, mood, gameplay needs and space requirements. From there I worked closely with Julia to make blueprints of each level of the space and show her the ropes of approvals and iteration. We then went to whitebox phase where she wowed everyone with her speed at picking up our tools and Unreal- she showed no fear and was always open to critique. I had her take her whitebox and do exploratory paintovers for mood and tone then planning for objects to populate the space. She should be very proud of the work she did, we're all very proud of her.

MMORPG.com:

How did you enjoy the experience? Did you have to grade her? Provide weekly feedback?

Sherry Floyd:

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Julia; she'll be a huge asset when she graduates. I never directly had to grade Julia, however I certainly had input.

MMORPG.com:

Were her skills up to par for what you expected of her?

Sherry Floyd:

Julia's skills far exceeded what I would have expected out of a student of her year. Her maturity and professionalism was refreshing as well. She really got along with the team- I know we all will miss her but are excited to see her grow throughout her education.

MMORPG.com:

Would you do it all over again? Hire interns or create an internship program if allowed?

Sherry Floyd:

Absolutely! Send them over! We could always use more agents...elite agents that is.