Former PlaygroundSquad students

We just had three amazing former PSQ students who held presentations about their journey after they graduated from PlaygroundSquad. It was really inspiring to hear about. All of our students were welcome to join and get inspired by the former PSQ students' adventures in the game industry!  

Pontus Wåhlin now works as an Artist at Machine Games and went to PSQ 2005. When he was little, he had a dream about developing games and working at Id Software in the USA. A few years later, that happened, but he started his career at Starbreeze. When Machine Games was established, he got recruited to work for them, and a few years later, his boyhood dream turned into reality; he got transferred to Dallas, USA, to work at Id Software. Pontus and his family moved to Dallas for a few years, and they got to live the American life and see parts of the USA.

While he worked at Id Software, he got to be a part of the team that created the game Doom. After a few years in the States, they decided to move back home to Sweden to be closer to their family, and Pontus landed a job as an Artist at Machine Games, where they developed the game Wolfenstein, and that's where he works today! 

It was very inspiring and fun to hear Pontus speak about his years after PlaygroundSquad!

  He had a few tips to give our students:

• Dream and set up goals

• Be curious

• Find a mentor

• Think long term

• Learn the basics

• Build a portfolio

Vidar Rapp also works at Machine Games, but as a Senior Character Artist. He attended PlaygroundSquad in 2004 and was one of the first students at the building where PlaygroundSquad has its headquarters today. Pretty cool! He recognized some of the things here, but a lot has also changed. That was cool to hear! After his years at PSQ, he started working at Avalanche Studios and on the game Just Cause. He learned a lot there and got to take responsibility quickly. After a year or two, he moved over to the UK to try his creative wings there for a while at a Studio, but he missed Sweden, so he moved back and started a career at Starbreeze, where he worked on the game Syndicate.

In 2011, he got recruited to Machine Games and has been there ever since. He has made alot of cool things for the game Wolfenstein and showed the students a bunch of amazing things! The students had alot of questions!

Vidar also had a few tips for our students regarding how to become a great Character Artist:

• Train your anatomy so it becomes awesome

• Work specifically on your shape and form appearance

• Learn scripting

• Render nice vendors

• Think: State of the art!

Sofia Hansson attended PlaygroundSquad 2015 and is now a Junior Character Artist at Stunlock.

She has always been drawing characters, mostly in 2D, but when she started PlaygroundSquad, she began to love 3D and saw all the cool possibilities right in front of her. 

Sofia opened up about hard times during her presentation for the students. She touched subjects like it is okay to ask a lot of questions if you don't understand, and that all of us who work in games are humans too. It was really inspiring to hear her talk about her own road to the job she has today. Nothing is impossible as long as you set your mind to it, but also give yourself time to rest and replenish the energy your body needs. 

She spoke about the importance of keeping an open mind when responding to feedback from others. Feedback is great for developing your skills.

Sofia also had a few tips for our students:

• If you want to make a 3D form, don't use any straight lines. 

• Train your anatomy!

• Listen to the feedback you receive

• Give yourself a break

• Don't live at the office

These three former students of PSQ inspired us alot! We are very glad they took time out of their busy schedules to speak at PlaygroundSquad! 

Thank you, and we hope to see you soon again.