David Cheung - TGA-intern at Rocketpack

David Cheung was among the first who started at The Game Assembly 2008. He was one of the brave ones who dared to invest 2.5 years in our hands even though it was a completely new education.
When I asked how he heard about The Game Assembly, he said he applied to SOFE first but then heard about the TGA and submitted an application to us.
This is not something he regrets, David says, “- I had been drawing a bit before and wanted to go to school with others who had the same interest as me. But with teachers and classmates, it became so much more than what I expected. When I think back on the time in school I think of how we all had something we burned for and we had a lot of fun, sharing ideas and creating concepts for the games.”
Now David makes his internship in Finland at a company called Rocket Pack. He´s making 2D- and 3D-art. Staff from the Rocket Pack is part of The Game Assembly´s network of game developers and they held a Skype-lecture to explain how they work making games. We also met them at the Nordic Game Conference, the largest game conference in Malmo, and there we bonded some more. This ended up in that Rocketpack now have three interns from The Game Assembly, one game artist and two game programmers. You will hear more from them further on in this blog.
David says it is exciting to work in another country where they have a different culture and language. Although there are a lot of people who speaks Swedish, it also works with English. “- Mostly I produce 3D-art, which should appear as 2D and I do a lot of props. There is little difference between the school and to be on a work place. On a work place one needs to take the responsibility to learn on your own, to find answers online, for example, I have learned Blender as good as I can Maya. It was frustrating at first but now it’s easy. At school it was easy to ask the teacher but now I´m more self-driven.”
I asked David what advice he would give to someone who wanted to apply to The Game Assembly. He replies “ – Ask yourself what you want to do. When you know what it is, focuse and work hard to be really good. It´s just two short years and you might as well give it all. Learn from your class mates and ask for feedback. That’s how you make progress. Being a part of the team is also important. Try to be positive and don´t be afraid to ask questions.”
I thank David for his thoughtful advise and wishes him the best in the future.