MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Remedy Entertainment’s Eva Kovalainen describes her path into games development to become a character artist at the studio behind Alan Wake and the upcoming Quantum Break.
“I’ve dreamed of creating games ever since I was a little girl and got my first 8-bit Nintendo," she says.
"The English language and USA being close to my heart, I decided to combine my passions and moved to Florida to study at the Full Sail University. It was probably the toughest study period of my life, as I crunched four academic years into two, but it was well worth it.
“After 22 months of hard work I got my bachelor’s degree from Game Art. While being abroad I realised that I yearned to work in Finland. We have plenty of amazing success stories in the gaming industry and I wanted to be part of them. I wrote to Remedy about myself and mentioned that I was working on my demo reel. I got lucky and was asked to create a demo in which I put a lot of effort in and managed to meet the deadline, all this while finishing my degree.
“The call finally came when I landed back in Helsinki and was invited to a job interview – the rest is history. I get
to work in the inspiring company of my dreams, studying new 3D programs and methods. As they say; learning never stops and keeps life interesting. Thankfully my mentor has a lot of talent and patience, and my co-workers are brilliant. I’m happy that I get to help and be part of the team, and also that I’m involved in all these interesting projects already as a trainee.
“I grew up playing games, which means that they’re part of my DNA. Now I get to define the future of gaming, so things couldn’t get better. Making your way into the gaming industry means a lot of work and learning new things every day. It helps if you set yourself a goal and reach for it on a daily basis.
“If you’re willing to put yourself on the line for it, you’ll most likely achieve it.”
