I think there’s huge potential for growing the video game industry in India: Jodie Azhar, CEO at Teazelcat Games, and BAFTA Breakthrough 2016 finalist

The contributions of the technical artist often go unsung when bringing the visual narrative of a video game together. And for Jodie Azhar, the journey as an artist didn’t stop at just graphics and visual representation.

The 2016 BAFTA Breakthrough finalist had left working for a AAA title to start her own company, Teazelcat Games (named after her pet cat). With the new venture, she hopes to represent those voices in video games that are often overshadowed by “hero stories that fall back on stereotypes.”

In an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda Esports’ Abhishek Mallick, Jodie Azhar opens up about her journey in the video game industry.

She gives her take on BAFTA’s recent launch in India with the global expansion of its Breakthrough Initiative and what she feels to be the future of the nation’s video game industry.

Here is an excerpt of the conversation.

Q. Ma’am, can we begin by having you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started? What got you into video games and made you realize that you want to seek a career path around it?

Jodie Azhar: I’ve always been interested in maths and science, but also enjoyed creative subjects, so, at University, I studied a course that taught programming, maths for computer graphics, as well as 3D modeling and animation.

I’d intended to go into the film or feature animation industry. However, towards the end of my studies, I realized the skills I’d learned were also suited to game development, which was of greater interest to me.

Despite playing video games growing up, I hadn’t been aware of the careers available. It’s the perfect industry for me to combine my love of technical problem solving and creative vision.

Q. You often mention that your career highlight came in 2016 when you were named as one of BAFTA’s Breakthrough Brits. Was the selection something you anticipated?

Jodie Azhar: To be a Breakthrough, I had to submit an application about my achievements and why I thought I should be selected to benefit from the mentoring and support BAFTA had to offer. While I knew I had a chance of being chosen by putting myself forward, I knew there would be other great applicants, so I wasn’t expecting to be selected.

It was fantastic to be part of BAFTA Breakthrough. Just by being chosen, I got the confidence that BAFTA believed I was achieving interesting and noteworthy things and had the potential to continue.

Through the mentoring and connections I made via BAFTA’s network of experts, I learned so much during my time as a Breakthrough, and I doubt I would be where I am in my career without that support.

BAFTA Breakthrough India is open for applications until Monday, February 8th, and I encourage game developers, directors, and producers to apply. Being selected can give you support and opportunities that enable you to take your career to the next level.

Q. You started your career as an animator and then transitioned to the role of a technical artist. What prompted the shift? Can you shed some light on a technical artist's role and the part they play in bringing a game to life?

Jodie Azhar: When I started in the games industry, being a technical artist was a niche role, and finding entry level positions wasn't easy. I have a great love for animation, so I focused on this as my way of getting a job at a games studio.

Once I was working, I could see more of how games are made and what work is involved for different job roles. As an animator, I worked a lot with programmers to solve technical challenges, and my background in programming helped me translate ideas between other animators and the programming team.

I realized that this was a dedicated role that also included building tools and pipelines for animators, creating character rigs, and solving animation problems to ensure motion in the game looked correct and visually appealing.

By moving to a larger studio, I was able to pursue this job role as my full-time position. I later transitioned to become a technical artist. It is a similar job that focuses on problem-solving and improving the different aspects of art in a game, including shaders, 3D models, UI, and VFX, rather than just focusing on animation.

Q. Your role was integral in bringing the Total War franchise to life. Can you shed some light on some of the hurdles you faced when bringing the visual narrative of the games together?

Jodie Azhar: Each game project has different challenges depending on the gameplay and visual requirements. For a game like Total War, where players might have hundreds of animated characters on screen in a battle simultaneously, performance can be a big concern.

The game must run smoothly without lag to ensure the player knows what is happening and look its best and show off the beautiful art and animation. This means that art must be optimized not to display unnecessary detail when it’s far away from the in-game camera but look impressive when close up and appears much larger on-screen.

This is especially important when using art in story moments, such as cinematics. At these points in the game, the art shows off the full details and impressive quality that the artists can achieve.

But throughout the game, the art still needs to have a consistent style and level of quality, ensuring that story characters are recognizable through the different areas of gameplay and maintaining high production values that provide an immersive experience for players.

Q. You launched your company, Teazelcat Games, in 2018 with the vision of working on games that tell stories from the perspective of those factions of society who often go underrepresented in the larger narrative. How are you looking to help the subaltern voices find a larger space in a game’s narrative?

Jodie Azhar: Many large mainstream video games focus on hero stories that fall back on stereotypes and similar-looking protagonists to provide experiences to a proven audience that investors know are already interested in this type of game.

I’m interested in seeing different types of characters in these hero stories. There are also many kinds of stories that can be told through video games, giving players new and different experiences and insights.

As with literature, there are many genres that games can explore, such as slice of life, mystery, satire, romance, etc. I feel that video games are an excellent medium for telling stories in these other genres.

We can create immersive experiences where players must make choices and experience different ideas and perspectives by interacting with them.

I also want to play games made by different people, with varying ideas, cultural and life experiences, and interests. I’m excited to both be able to tell stories that interest me and come from personal experiences, but also work with others who have stories to tell that aren’t yet prevalent in mainstream video games.

Hopefully, this will be of interest to existing game players who want to play different games and new audiences who desire experiences they’ve not yet found in video games.

Q. Raji: An Ancient Epic by Nodding Heads Games was nominated for Best Debut Indie Game in 2020‘s Game Awards and was immensely praised for its unique style of narration and visual representation. What are your thoughts on the potential of the Indian video game industry?

Jodie Azhar: I think there’s enormous potential for growing the video games industry in India. More and more people play games daily, whether on PC, console, or mobile devices.

The value of our industry keeps increasing as well. This means there are opportunities for studios to create games for new audiences and develop fresh ideas for providing new experiences to existing audiences.

Building links between the games industry globally is an opportunity for those already successfully making and investing in games development in places like the UK to support new developers who have different ways of running a studio, different ideas for games, and different ways of engaging with players.

Those in India will be a lot more familiar with what platforms their local communities use to play games, and what types of games are popular within their region. This allows creating experiences that appeal to home audiences, but that may also be something new and exciting that people worldwide will want to play.

Q. What words of advice would you give someone who is just starting in the video game industry?

Jodie Azhar: Game development is complex and takes a range of skills and different job roles to create a finished game that players will enjoy. Hence, it’s vital to think of your work in terms of the end product: how it will look or behave in the finished game and how it will make a better experience for players.

This can mean learning a bit about what other disciplines do to know how your work integrates with the game’s different parts. For example, how code works to control animations, or what level designers need to consider to make levels fun, and how that impacts what’s needed from the art.

You don’t need to know how to make everything in a game to be a valuable part of a game’s development, but the more you understand how your work combines with others’ work, the better you’ll be at creating a great game.