Member Profile: Guy Briggs
1. What do you do, and how long have you been doing it?
I’ve been living my dream job for the last year and a half – getting paid a salary to be the ideas guy at a video game studio. Of course, I wear a lot of hats. I designed and built their website from scratch, I’ve shipped code, created assets and most recently presented a string of workshops to highschoolers where they learnt about the awesome learning tool that is our educational game.
2. What was your first job?
Forget AI – this job could’ve been taken over by a couple of if statements and a pulley. I was packaging superannuation letters for eight hours a day. I wasn’t technically in a basement – but there definitely weren’t any windows. It was at this point in my life I listened to the most podcasts out of anyone on planet Earth.
3. Where did you complete your formal education?
I studied at The University of New South Wales, where I achieved a Distinction in both my B of Design and B of Media. To do so, I had to split my time between the brutalist utopia of the Kensington campus, and the muralled, dyed-hair community of the Paddington campus – I enjoyed my time in both immensely.
4. How did you first get involved with ACM SIGGRAPH?
One of my tutors mentioned the opportunity to volunteer in Daegu in 2022, and despite my anxious brain’s best efforts to dissuade me, I applied, got in and hopped on the plane. It’s one of those sliding doors moments in my life I look back on now with immense joy and gratitude.
5. What is your favorite memory of a SIGGRAPH conference?
The reception dinner in Daegu is unparalleled in my mind – one of my now dear friends, who I of course had met a few days prior, pushed back a circle in the crowd of us dancing, handed me his wallet and keys, and proceeded to deliver a gymnasts performance worth of a gold medal to the applause of the whole ballroom. When he got back to me with a grin you couldn’t wipe off, I knew this was a joyous moment I wouldn’t soon forget.
During the conference itself, this time in Tokyo last year, I had the incredible pleasure of meeting and shaking hands with Ken Perlin – as a video game developer for more of my life than I haven’t been, I was utterly starstruck.
6. Describe a project that you would like to share with the ACM SIGGRAPH community.
As many will agree, I don’t think AI is a fad – it’s integration will get better and better until the idea of “apps” will be as foreign as ticker tape. To that end, it’s at the top of my mind how it will integrate with video games. The most obvious answer is to embed dynamic, natural-language narratives into games, but I think this is only scratching the surface, and we’re truly at the beginning of a new frontier.
7. If you could have dinner with one living or non-living person, who would it be and why?
I’m going to artificially limit the question here and say they have to be living (and in semi-obscurity), because otherwise the list would be almost endless. In which case I’d love to dine with some of the greatest indie game developers of our time, like Edmund McMillen, Eric Barone, or Toby Fox. If you wanted me to choose between these, you’re out of luck.
8. What is something most people don’t know about you?
If I told you, people would know it.
9. From which single individual have you learned the most in your life? What did they teach you?
In my work as a Game Designer, I have to make tough calls on what to prioritise and what to cut every day. To do so, I need very well-honed senses in design, communications and technical skills. Helping me along this journey is the game’s creative director, who I can attribute a lot of my expertise to and has provided me with many mentoring moments that help me to act as a steadfast leader.
10. Is there someone in particular who has influenced your decision to work with ACM SIGGRAPH?
Everyone I’ve met in my time as a Student Volunteer at SIGGRAPH, from the volunteers, to team leaders, to SVSC, to exhibitioners, and conference administrators, continually refresh in my mind how amazing the conference is for everyone who attends. Finally, I’m especially thankful to my tutor June Kim, who introduced me to this wonderful world.
11. What can you point to in your career as your proudest moment?
There are a few moments that have brought me immense joy and pride, but if I had to choose one it would be the moment that I remember being most nervous beforehand. In my mind, that’s when you know there’s something amazing about to happen. When I was given the opportunity to present in front of an auditorium full of students, I was incredibly nervous. When I saw them effortlessly learning the principles of economics, and having fun while doing it, I couldn’t have been prouder of what myself and the team had accomplished. And I most certainly couldn’t have done it without the opportunity, skills and life experience working with ACM SIGGRAPH has afforded me.