Even though we’re up to our ears working on Dreams at the moment, we’ve kept our Molecule doors as open as possible for work experience opportunities, something which we’re very passionate about indeed. There’s nothing like meeting the next generation of games makers to leave you feeling inspired!

Recently we were visited by Yaseen, a year 10 student who currently going into his GCSE’s studying German, Maths, Triple Science and Philosophy, amongst other things. Yaseen was keen to come to Mm to develop his art and character development skills which we were more than happy to help him with and thanks to Francis, one of our Lead Artists, it sounds like he had a great week here with us!

Take it away Yaseen…

"After playing Media Molecule’s games and loving each one, I was very eager and excited for my week at the company learning art design and struggled to wait for it!

From my first steps into the building I was greeted with a warm and friendly welcome into the studio and a tour. The office was oozing with character and playfulness, from the drawings plastered on the walls to the décor and bright pink carpet, the studio has a light-hearted playful spirit making you enjoy your stay that much more!

The team and staff at Media Molecule is what really makes the company however, every single person at the company is extremely friendly and creates a family-like environment which makes working there very pleasant and enjoyable. The team takes great pride in everything they do; the trophies and awards are proudly showcased towards the entry of the studio and fan art and mail are displayed on the walls across the studio. Throughout my stay it was clear just how hard at work everyone was on Dreams as they were all very passionate about working on the game and seeing it progress forward which is clearly reflected in the quality of each game released by MM.

During my stay at MM I was supervised and mentored by Francis Pang who was excellent at teaching me throughout the week and helping me to achieve and create everything I had.

I began my work experience by sketching existing characters to get myself used to a Wacom Tablet and after playing around for a while we began to design our own characters."

"After we created and developed a unique set of characters that I was proud of, Francis began to teach me the basics of modelling and sculpting within Dreams so I could build my own characters within it. To do this we used the two PlayStation Move controllers and as Francis waved them around the air effortlessly making sculptures in minutes, I was blown away by just how intuitive it appeared. After he showed me the basics of using them I had my own go and I was impressed by just how 1-to-1 the movement was with the controllers. It really feels like you’re reaching into the game. While it was difficult at first, it didn’t take long to get used to them as by the end of the second day I didn’t have to think when using the motion controllers and it had become second nature. The gestures are intuitive and they’re still stuck in my head!"

"When initially drawing and designing my characters, I had no clue how the game functioned but I was still able to easily recreate and sculpt my characters in Dreams and I didn’t have to make any compromises to the designs. This shows how versatile the game is and that you really can create anything you can imagine within Dreams!

By the end of the week I had recreated most of my characters and developed some even further and better than what I had originally designed. I even created an environment for my favourite character and set up lighting to take some rather impressive captures! I was amazed by everything I had done and learnt in just one week as prior to this I had no experience in modelling. By the end of it, with the help of Francis I had created something I was extremely proud of! I’m so thankful to everyone at Media Molecule for giving me an experience I won’t forget and for making it so special, I wish the best to everyone at MM and for the production of Dreams!"