Iona Whytock
We haven’t had a staff Q&A blog post is a while so how better to get the ball rolling again than by taking a few minutes to sit down and chat with Iona, one of the newest additions to the Outplay Entertainment family!
Who are you?
Hello there, my name’s Iona and I’m an artist slash animator with a background in traditional animation. I’m relatively new here at Outplay Entertainment and this is my first job in the games industry!
What makes you so awesome?
I’m not sure what makes me awesome, but I can make a pretty spiffing origami dragon. :)
What drew you to joining Outplay?
I’ve always enjoyed playing games so when Outplay started searching for an art intern earlier in the year, I jumped at the chance to apply. I’d previously been working for an animation studio creating hand-drawn animated effects for feature length animated films. Although I enjoyed it, I just felt the need to expand my skill set and try something new and so here I am, fresh faced and raring to go in the games industry!
Who or what are your biggest gaming influences?
I still retain a high level of nostalgia for the games I played on the ZX Spectrum and the Amiga! Dizzy Egg and point-and-click adventures like The Dig, Loom and Monkey Island are at the top of my list. I also love Nintendo, particularly the Zelda games and RPGs like Secret of Mana.
What are your favourite social games?
Idle Worship on Facebook. It’s quite tongue-in-cheek and I love the art style. It reminds me a lot of a cartoony, simplified Black and White.
Is making games @ Outplay fun? And if so what excites you the most?
Making games is still so new to me, but I’m really enjoying it. Games development, compared to feature length animation production, has a much quicker turnaround so it keeps things interesting, and I get to do a bit of everything art wise so I never feel like I’m stagnating. Animating characters is good fun, it always makes me smile seeing a static character concept come to life.
