Svetoslav Karadjov – student in the Game Dev Advanced program
Svetoslav or Svet, as we call him at the academy, is one of the students in the Game Dev Advanced program. Svet is highly motivated, funny, and inspiring, so we decided to ask him what changed for him almost 9 months after starting the course. In the following, you will find out what it feels like to study at ARC Academy, but you will also learn about all the news and positive changes that have occurred in the daily life of the Svet!
- Introduce yourself in a few sentences. Tell us what you are doing at the moment, your hobbies, and in which program do you study at ARC?
I am Svetoslav Karadzhov, I am 19 years old and just graduated from the Game Dev Advanced program in ARC Academy. Ever since I was very young, like any child, I loved watching cartoons. I still love them. Along with watching cartoons, I started also to draw, and as crazy as it sounds, I knew back then that I wanted to turn this into a career and one day be able to create movies or games for other children to grow up with. For me, drawing is not just a job, but a pleasure, an inspiration, and a way of expression.
- Why did you choose to enroll in the program?
Ooo .. this is an interesting story, Anthony Christov convinced me! I was accepted into a university in England and almost ready to move there. It was about a month before I was going, when my cousin mentioned that Anthony was opening an art academy in Sofia. I arranged a meeting with Mr. Christov not only to see what the academy has to offer, but also because I could not miss the opportunity to meet a person like him. After the meeting, I was very intrigued by what Anthony and Milin told me and decided to inform myself more about the Academy. After comparing the two options, I came to the conclusion that I want to go with the innovative training that ARC offers us and that this is a chance not to be missed. I’m still thinking about how a conversation can turn everything around and instead of being a student in the UK, I’m an intern at Gameloft Sofia and I have the opportunity to work on real projects. In short, if I had to choose again, the choice would still be ARC!
- What lessons does ARC teach you?
In the academy I learned a lot about the game industry and I improved in this field. I realized how invaluable it is to make contacts and how the right mentors can unlock the best in you. I learned that making games is a collaborative process in which each unit is key to creating a high-quality end product! Last but not least, the games, as well as their creation, should be FUN and that’s the ARC motto: “We take our work seriously but don’t take ourselves too seriously”.
- Describe how one of your favorite lectures went.
My favorite lectures are those on Concept art led by Hristo Chukov and on Sets and Character design led by Anthony Christov. Both proceed in a similar way, we start with a theoretical part then we get a practical task and accordingly we have time to complete it.
Once the task is ready, the lecturer reviews our work and tells us how to correct our mistakes, what to emphasize and what is most valuable to me, how to approach the different tasks, asking the right questions. Quite often they paint over our works so that they clearly show us how we can improve them.
- We recently switched to online training. What do you think about him? Do you think that in the future the training will be entirely online?
I was impressed by how quickly the ARC team was able to prepare and launch the online form of education so that our lectures could continue on schedule. I think the option to learn new things in the comfort of your home is a big plus, especially at a time like this, but I personally prefer live contact with the lecturers and immersion entirely in the subject while you are physically in the academy. Definitely in the future online learning will be a plus, but in my opinion, it should not completely replace the regular form of learning.
- What are your fellow students like and how do you work with them?
Most of the people I met and had the pleasure of working with at the academy share my views on the mutual experience and know why they chose ARC as a step for their career development.
