In the latest Kwalee Quiz, we speak to our new Interactive Designer, Adam Philbin.

What is your first gaming memory?

I remember playing various arcade racing games (Outrun and F1 games in particular) and Rainbow Islands on some magical early gaming system. The first console I owned was an NES, so I’ve always been into Nintendo and SEGA stuff.

What made you want to work in the video game industry?

I like making games and writing about them for fun anyway, so it seemed sensible to make a career out of it! Most of my work has been art & design based. Initially I started out in web design and that leads quite well to user interface design, which I think is incredibly important for games, especially on mobile devices.

What did you study at university?

I studied Computer Animation at the University of Portsmouth. I was undecided between becoming a vet or doing something vaguely related to games or movies. The latter sounded a bit more interesting, so I spent a few years at university working on my 3D modelling/animation and traditional illustration and art skills.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a designer?

If you’ve got a bit of attention deficit disorder and constantly think up new ideas and concepts, that’s a start! Then just learn some practical skills to make use of your ideas – if you’re doing digital or game design, you need to be able to present ideas and visualise concepts. I love working on mobile games, because they’re relatively small scale productions. I can take an idea from the concept stage to production, directly working on the design and artwork to produce the finished product.

What is your favourite video game and why?

I loved Phantasy Star Online and World of Warcraft, as they’re both brilliant action RPGs set in immersive online worlds. I don’t want to think about how many hours I’ve spent on WoW! My relationship with online role playing games is a bit love/hate, as they are essentially made to be incredibly addictive time sinks. My early childhood was a defined by games like Super Mario Bros. and Micro Machines. Most of my GCSEs were spent playing four player GoldenEye, so those are some of my best memories.

What is your gaming pet peeve?

Long loading times and lengthy dialogue sequences which serve no real purpose – especially if it’s a street racing game!

How did you come to work at Kwalee?

I found out about Kwalee a little while after they started up and was really interested knowing that David Darling was behind it, with the Micro Machines guy [Andrew Graham] on board too. It looked like an ideal place to work, and mobile games are in a great place right now. The fact that Kwalee is a start-up, with a lot of creative freedom and room to grow, really drew me here.

What is your favourite thing about working at Kwalee?

The place and the people and the fact that it’s a small start-up. Everyone has a chance to be creative and put their ideas into practice, the company hasn’t got the pre-set restrictions and boundaries of an older company, so there’s a lot of flexibility and creative freedom.