Getting to Knowmade: Milan Modhwadia
Milan Modhwadia
QA Release Coordinator
Milan is our marvellous release manager, in charge of herding the cats in QA to get our builds up and running, and with minimal bugs for every time we playtest. His domain is all about merging, and mainlines, and many more technical terms that’re all deeply important. It’s thanks to him the game keeps going strong, and we are so very happy it does!
Milan! What is it you do at Glowmade?
I’m the QA Release Coordinator - essentially I make sure the game is stable and goes out on time. I say "No" to people, with the occasional "Yes" sprinkled in for balance.
Now how would your parent describe your job?
Game testing and stuff?
How did you get to this point in your career?
After a wayward career project managing designer door handles, I found the right path and joined Frontier. I then worked at Two Point Studios and Criterion Games before landing at Glowmade.
What made you want to pursue games?
I think it was a steady engagement with editors provided alongside games - I started out with Warcraft 2 and then Neverwinter Nights 2 - I think it really became clear I wanted to join the games industry when I started to get involved in the Crysis modding scene, running small projects in a great community.
Share something you love doing outside of everything video games.
I really enjoy watching old films and anime, but recently I've gotten really into making terrain for miniature wargames.
Who or what inspires you?
Creation! Anyone who can make anything is always a massive inspiration to me. It's lucky we have so many talented people creating things constantly at Glowmade, in and outside of the office - I'm constantly inspired!
Share something you appreciate about yourself. Give yaself a pat on the back, why don’t ya?
I like to think I'm the fastest gun on Slack - I hate the idea of leaving someone waiting or unanswered!
What game do you wish you could’ve developed?
Ooooh that's a real hard one... Metal Gear Solid? Xenogears? There's just too many!
“You can’t step in the same river twice.”
What's the best thing about working at Glowmade?
I've worked at some really big places where a lot of people are strangers, so it's really nice to work in a place where everyone gets along and knows each other well!
Who on the team inspires you the most? What do they do that's so great?
It's a really tough one! But for me I think it's Mike Green - He works way more than he should, but he's everywhere constantly making sure that the game we're making is as awesome as it can be on all fronts.
What do you want from your career? What goals are you looking forward to vaulting past?
Honestly, I just want to get to the position where I feel comfortable with my role and make sure I'm getting the most out of it, while giving the studio all it needs.
After that who knows? I'm quite happy to try out lots of different things and see where it gets me.
What are your top tips for someone looking to get into games?
There’s never been more resources out there for anyone looking to get into games - so many blogs, Youtube channels and websites dedicated to the craft! My biggest points of advice would be:
- Don't just think a university course will get you the job. Support it with a breadth of knowledge, personal projects and a general passion for consuming news and information about video games.
- Try and make a game! I suck at it, and have yet to make anything tangible, but you learn so much by giving it a go. It's important in the industry to have knowledge outside of your specialty.
- Consider QA. QA has really grown in the last 10 years to be a place where you can really learn and get stuck into the development process. At Glowmade, every single one of our testers is embedded deeply into the development process and gets the chance to contribute outside of testing.
(Now THAT is an answer!)
In your opinion, who is the cutest Glowmade pet?
Tuna - mostly because I've got to play with that lil scamp in real life!
If you had to pick one game to play for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Yet another tough one. A lot of my favourite games are ones that i'd never want to play for that long, so Football Manager, I guess. Anyone who’s ever played it knows it's hard to put down for the next 300 hours (Hence why we try to stay away these days).
What's your guilty pleasure?
Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I need me some of that leather jacket wearing, fake british bleached badboy in my life (who doesn't?)
(Who, indeed?)
There's one biscuit left in the tin and it's your favourite... what is it?
Malted Milk! You're probably thinking "How boring", but keep on thinking - soon you'll realise that the malted milk is always there for you, a sturdy titan of the biscuit world that you can always rely on.
