Naughty Dog senior character designer was called ‘delusional’ for wanting to work in games

IN a Twitter thread of artists talking about times they were told they’d never make it, a Naughty Dog developer spoke up about his time in school.

Del Walker, who has created characters in games for 11 years, previously worked for Rocksteady and Respawn.

He has designed 3D characters for major games such as Batman Arkham, Apex Legends, and the upcoming Jedi Survivor.

However, while he is now senior character designer in one of America’s largest studios, it seems not everyone always had faith in him.

Walker studied Game Art Design in the UK, and eventually ended up with a third class degree.

This is one of the worst grades you can get at university level, only slightly above failing.

Walker claims that he was told at university that he had “delusions of making 3D characters for games”, suggesting that they didn’t think he would make it in the industry.

Of course, he has since proved them wrong, and become incredibly successful in that exact field.

Walker also claims that his course didn’t help him to improve his skills and instead compared his work to other students.

He says that students that did well in the class “ignored the lecturers all year” and were often self-taught artists from “YouTube tutorials”.

Walker went to University many years ago, and since then it has become increasingly easier to learn new skills from the internet.

With social media platforms becoming more and more widespread, experts often share their skills in tutorials with their TikTok and YouTube followers.

We are seeing more self-taught writers, singers, and artists appearing in each industry without the need for formal qualifications.

From 2023, the way that students pay back their student loans is changing, meaning that many are reconsidering their choice to go into higher education.

The changes to the repayment system means that the majority of newer students will be paying back more on their student loans.

They will also have to pay off loans for 40 years, much longer than the previous repayment cap.

Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.