The power of Skills Bootcamps: Thomas White's path to founding World 1-1 Studios

Meet Thomas White , a participant on the recent Graduate Ready Skills Bootcamp from Game Republic and delivered in partnership by NextGen.

He shares his transformative journey over the 12 weeks of the bootcamp, and how the opportunities it gave him helped him build confidence, gain industry knowledge, and start his own company World 1-1 Studios. Thank you to Thomas for sharing your story!

?Could you please introduce yourself??

My name is Thomas White and I'm from Scarborough. I originally studied in York, now living in London, and now I'm moving back to York.

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What first got you interested in games and game design in particular??

I always played a lot of games as a kid, it was a big part of my growing up along with films and books. For me, I love telling stories, games like Dungeons and Dragons were a huge part of my life, it was just a way to tell a story.

When I was going into college it was a decision point for me of what I wanted to do, I felt like I had loads of stories to tell.? I thought that I could do it in the form of a book, but a book's quite limited and you have to tell it from a particular perspective. I looked at animation and film/TV, and that was really interesting. But again, I wanted the user to have an input into this story that I'm almost writing along with them. That led me to games!

For me, it's the best medium for telling a story. You create this world and it's like a joint process where you're writing a story with the player. They're making choices that influence the story, and that story also becomes really personal to them.

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What were you doing before the bootcamp?

I went to York St. John University and studied game design, prior to this I hadn’t made a game or anything. I learned so much during that course and my lecturer, Andy Sandham, was amazing. The way he taught led me down the path to knowing what I wanted to do.

After graduating I did some freelance work and I ended up seeing there was an opening at Imperial College in London. Coming out of university, it can be difficult to get a job in the game industry because you don't have that experience. So I went to Imperial, where I started as a technical artist. I learned a lot on the job and during that time I got promoted to building and managing a team of around eight people. We do everything at Imperial if it involves VR or AR, and I discovered that I really love leading a team. When I was at university, I tried to do everything myself, I modelled everything, I textured everything, I did all the audio, and it was intense and too much for one person.

Through my role I found there's people out there who are so good, why am I even trying to do everything myself? I knew then that I wanted to start a company and I wanted to run the team, but I didn’t know how to start. When thinking about what to do I was recommended a Game Republic event with Barclays, which is where I spoke with Jackie who was organising the bootcamp and I applied straight away.?

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How was your experience on the boot camp?

I really loved it! I think for me there were almost 2 parts. One is the meeting people, there's so much more that happens that you don't realise. I went into it thinking, “I'm going to start my own company”, but there's so many elements I did not realise I needed to do. The bootcamp gave me these opportunities. For example, I would have never spoken to a solicitor, I didn't even know what goes into making a founders agreement. It's these little things that you don't realise you need until you're in there!

It was the experience of talking to people who have done this before and people who are willing to give their time and give you advice. They were once in the same shoes, it was amazing. I know you can go on LinkedIn and try and connect with these people, but it was a safe and comfortable place to do that, and getting all that information was vital.

The other part was being given the opportunity to work in teams of like-minded people who also want to be in the game industry. I'd mainly worked on my university course with technical artists, 3D artists, but there's so much more than that when making a game. That was really interesting because you realise there's language to it. I learned so much about how to communicate with different people, what their needs and wants are. What does the pipeline look like? A lot of people before university have made a game by themselves, but you've never done the whole step-by-step as a team, or know much about it until you go into industry; aspects like community manager or QA, are often overlooked, but are just as important.

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What how has your journey been since the bootcamp?

It's been amazing. I'm moving to York to start my company, so I'm excited. It's also scary. But I know I wouldn't have done it without the bootcamp and without meeting the people there, the mentors, and some of the students who are going through the same thing.

I've had a few people reach out to me who were on the bootcamp, and we’ve been sharing advice, and that's been amazing to just be able to give back to the community. It's only been two months, but it's been intense!

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What are your main takeaways from the bootcamp, both professionally and personally?

That the talent out there is astonishing. I've made so many connections with people on the bootcamp and there's people I want to continue working with. It is a really good start to building a network, expanding your contacts and starting to go to events. That was a really, really big part of it.

Another part is essentially the confidence to stop second guessing myself. Before, a lot of the time I would make a choice and I’d be looking for someone just to say yes to that choice. The bootcamp gave me the tools that I don't have to reach out every time for that reassurance. I know the way I need to go now, so there's a new confidence there.

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Would you recommend the bootcamp to others?

100%. Going into anything is a good start to achieving your goals, the bootcamp is one of those starts. This is an opportunity to get into the games industry, so take it. I'm so glad I did.

I've done a lot of courses and stuff before and I've met a lot of people in industry and one thing I was worried about is those relationships tend to fizzle away, but Marcia Deakin and Gina Jackson OBE on the course have been beyond accommodating.

They've kept contact, they check in on me. They want to know that we're doing well and it's genuine. I've never had that before. I just to say that the people heading it are actually phenomenal and you knew they really, really cared.

I can say that no matter what, the bootcamp is always going to be a big part of my company and what I've done, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

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What advice would you give to people thinking about starting out in games??

I would say, don't be afraid to ask for help. There are so many people out there willing to help and you just have to ask. It's been a learning curve for me because I'm stubborn and I wanted to do everything myself. But there are people who are so much better than you at other things and if you just ask for help, they're willing to give it. People want to see you succeed, so don't be afraid to ask.

Remember you don't have to start off at an AAA studio. If you look at people there and look at their CVs, I bet that the majority didn't have their first job there. They worked up to it. So, any start is a good start.

Just go for it. It's so cliché, but if you want to do something, just do it. There are so many people who talk about doing things, but never do it.

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What are your aspirations for the future?

I will be making amazing stories in the forms of games. I did a masters in VR and AR at York St John and worked as Senior XR Consultant at Imperial College; I want to make games and leverage my experiences in those areas. I want to show that when you make a bespoke thing for VR, it can be great.

My company is called World 1-1. Which came from game designers talking about level design and being asked what's the best level ever made. One said the first level of Super Mario Bros., World 1-1. You won't get better than that, it's the gold standard. I thought to myself if that's the gold standard then I'll start my company off like that. It's a little homage to that history.

With the company, I've got a business partner and we're currently in the final looking for funding stage, then after that we’re looking at hiring. My hope is that in the future when you think of games companies up north, mine's going to be one of the ones that people go to.

There’s a thriving industry in York and I want to be part of that community. There's some amazing VFX and games companies based here, and I want to be there with them learning, exploring, and pushing the boundaries of what we can do.

A final thing is, I was so inspired by the people who talked to us that I hope that when the next group is at the bootcamp I will be there telling them, hey, this is what happened with me. This is where I started.

Thomas was a participant on the Graduate Work Ready Games Industry Skills Bootcamp, delivered by Game Republic and NextGen, and supported by York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership, the Department for Education, and Skills for Life.

You can keep up to date with more Game Republic opportunities, including Skills Bootcamps, training, news, events, and more focused on the games industry in Yorkshire and the North on their website: Game Republic