The Connector
The Connector

By Jeffrey Yu

Blizzard Entertainment representatives, Sumer Ortiz and Choua Her, were at the SCAD Welcome Center on Nov. 5 for a presentation to provide information about the company, and how to get an internship or job there. Blizzard is a video game developer branch of Activision based in Irvine, California. Some of its most notable games are World of Warcraft, Warcraft, Diablo, and Star Craft. Before the lecture started, the representatives gave away a few t-shirts to participants who could answer questions related to several game series created by Blizzard.


Next, Blizzard dazzled the audience with trailers for upcoming games such as Wrath of The Lich King, the expansion pack for the World of War Craft. Fans of Star Craft got a sneak peek of Star Craft II, whereas those of Diablo caught a glimpse of Diablo III. The trailers showed cut scenes and game play that might appear in the series being advertised. The games blizzard has created are of different genres such as the fantasy based World of Warcraft, or the Sci-Fi universe of Star Craft. The quality of the trailers was superb, the animation was smooth, and the graphics were captivating. The most breath taking aspect of the trailers would be ambience created by the lighting and environment design. In the Diablo III trailer, the dark and foreboding mood was set by the heavy shadows and silhouettes. The highly anticipated World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King trailer boasted some of the most impressive environments.


After the trailers, the representatives of Blizzard presented the audience with a slide show of concept art and process videos for the development of their games. Hopefuls for an internship or job at Blizzard received information on how to prepare their portfolio and what is expected of them when they do land a position. The lecturer revealed that for all the games Blizzard had produced, all of their concept designs had been made by only a handful of artists. Concept artists are involved with the creation of characters, environments, props, and vehicles for the games; they would create different versions of a character to find a design that suited its personality and story arch. Then, the designs are given to the department that would animate the characters through processes such as texturing, rendering, rigging, etc. The entire process is extensive and time consuming but when completed, a new game series is released into the gaming world.


One thing to note is how much Blizzard has branched out in terms of “daughter” companies throughout the gaming world. Former employees of Blizzard established Areanet, the company that created Guild Wars, an MMORPG that has recently attracted a large following in the gaming world. Other notable studios that have been founded by former Blizzard employees are Flagship Studios, Ready at Dawn Studios, Red 5 Studios, Castaway Entertainment, Click Entertainment, Carbine Studios, and Turpitude Design. For more information, please visit:General information: www.blizzard.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_EntertainmentInternships: www.blizzard.com/urJobs: www.blizzard.com/jobs. The event was sponsored by the Office of Career Services at SCADcareers@scad.edu.