We catch up with Tag Game Designer, CT Taylor, to learn a little about what it’s like to shape games at Tag.
Interviewer: Will Freeman
CT Taylor, Game Designer
Here at Tag we’re nothing without the individuals that make up our company. With that in mind, we wanted to share some of our team’s journeys through a career in games.
The hope is that these interviews will give you a feel for the people that define our company, as well as a sense of what it is like to work at Tag.
Because we’ve always got career openings available, and one of them may be just right for your next step in the game industry. Or perhaps you just need a little inspiration as you plot out your own game career.
With all that in mind, we started out by catching up with CT Taylor, Game Designer at Tag, keen to learn about what his role entails, and what it’s like to join a game company during a pandemic.
When did you first start to realise you might want to do more than play games, and actually be involved with the industry?
I think the first time I consciously thought “I want to be in this industry” was after playing the first Assassin's Creed. There was something about that game that made it click in my head that there was a place for someone like me to tell a story through the medium. With that said, after a while it dawned on me that the years I had spent meticulously modding games was clearly where it all started. I guess I just never saw that as ‘making games’ because I didn’t yet have an appreciation for what that actually meant.
Before you joined Tag, what route through the game industry did you take?
I took a third-party QA gig and ended up making a good impression at a company we did a contract for, so eventually hopped ship over to them. I did another few years of QA there before getting a shot at a narrative design position internally. This was all back in Canada - after I arrived in the UK I worked freelance for about a year before interviewing at Tag.
And what initially attracted you to a role at Tag?
Truthfully, I was new in the country, hating freelance work, and extremely eager to get a foot in the door in the industry over here. All I really knew about Tag before the interview was that they had good ratings on Glassdoor, had worked on some cool titles, and had kept themselves relevant for a whopping decade in an industry of rapid change. What really sealed the deal was the people I met at the interview and the general attitude they showed. After meeting my potential team, I was sold.
What does your current role mean practically - what might a typical day see you do?
My current role focuses mainly on JSON wrangling and troubleshooting the problems that often come with metadata. But there’s a good portion of work that goes towards putting live events together conceptually and populating them with the right choice of content and flavour. I also spend plenty of time working with UI helping make sure it fits as well.
What about your work at Tag do you find particularly rewarding?
In my current role - as we know ‘game design’ can be many different things - I often find problem-solving some tricky metadata to be the most rewarding. Hilariously, for a game designer, I’m terrible at puzzles, so troubleshooting and resolving issues in my metadata is where I seem to get that sort of satisfaction. Nothing feels better than finding out why your console has spat out an error, or why event content is suddenly missing in-app despite being present in the tool.
Remember the days when we could hang out at work like this? The team chilling out in the Tag canteen, pre-COVID.
And what about the more challenging parts of your work? What really pushes you?
The biggest challenge I face is meeting our (Tag’s) clients demands and making sure I fit into their structure. It can be challenging to feel like you’re working on two teams at once - let alone juggle meetings - but it does mean I get to learn from a very large group of specialists both in-house and with our client.
What is Tag like in terms of collaboration and hierarchy? Are there opportunities for everyone to input outside of their core disciplines?
We’re a bit too tight knit and reliant on each other to not collaborate between disciplines. It’s one of the benefits of a smaller and/or a well-run company; everyone gets a say, everyone’s voice matters, and everyone can bring something to the table.
In terms of people and culture of Tag, what makes it an enjoyable or rewarding place to be a part of?
COVID-19 has made it really tough to get a proper feel for that, sadly. I started right after lockdown kicked in, but between some happy hour e-drinks and getting in touch with some people I’ve gotten closer to, they obviously keep a really good bunch. On a more serious note, they’ve really made an effort to reach out and make sure everyone is doing alright. It’s a level of compassion that was somewhat unexpected, and it’s said a lot about their values.
How do Tag support you, nurture your career and expertise, or otherwise provide more than simply a role and a paycheck?
As I mentioned before, Tag’s really gone above and beyond to make sure we’re doing alright during this extended WFH business - to a frankly impressive degree. I’d say more important than Tag simply listening to what I have to say as a game designer, it’s clear that they take what we say about the company to heart. Marc, our CEO, has clearly responded personally to feedback presented by others. It really makes you feel like you have a stake in something beyond your project tasks - you play a role greater than that of your job title.
What about work life balance? Do you find time to do the other things in life you love, away from work?
Oh man, if there was one thing I’d have written in a neon sign for potential applicants - it would be ‘work-life balance’. Tag has endlessly impressed me with their commitment to maintaining it. It’s the first thing I tell potential applicants that I speak to, because I think we’ve all been in the overtime crunch at some point or another, and I think it speaks volumes about the integrity of the company to stand so rigidly by this value.