NYFA’s own Game Design instructor Scott Rogers caught up with Grettir Ólaffson, who recently graduated from the New York Film Academy’s Game Design program, to ask him about life after college and what he’s currently working on.
Scott Rogers (SR): Hey Grettir! I understand you are working in game development after graduating NYFA. Where are you working at these days?
Grettir Ólafsson (GO): I am currently working for Reverge Studios, the creators of the 2D fighting game SkullGirls.
SR: How did your path lead you to working at Reverge Studios?
GO: The CEO of the company had been a teacher at NYFA and we had a great working relationship that eventually led to me joining the team.
SR: What are your current job responsibilities?
GO: I am currently working as a split between designer and programmer
SR: What game are you working on?
GO: I’m currently not at liberty to say what it is.
SR: Mysterious! What have you been working on since leaving NYFA?
GO: I was a game designer for a co-op VR game – Covert – that was initially released on the Oculus GO and later on the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR. It was my first job after finishing NYFA and I joined development when they were perhaps about 15% of the way done.
SR: Covert looks pretty cool! How has what you’ve learned at NYFA helped you as a working game developer?
GO: For me, what I got most out of NYFA was how to work well in a team with many different disciplines. I came in with an undergraduate degree in Software Engineering, so it made the most sense to me to continue using that as much as I could. A lot of my work on Covert involved programming and not just design. So the combination of the two fields of study have benefited me greatly.
SR: It sounds like you got a well-rounded education at NYFA. Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?
GO: I have a pet project in the works but it’s nothing that I want/can talk about publicly at this moment.
SR: I look forward to seeing more about it when you can talk about it! Thank you for catching up with us! It sounds like your game development career is taking off! Congratulations!
GO: Thank you!
For more information on NYFA’s Game Design program offerings, click here