Iain Compton is a lead systems designer in the gaming industry, and has worked in countries all over Europe and South East Asia for companies on iconic games including virtual realms for Warhammer Odyssey. At the time of this interview, Iain was working for UK games developer and publisher Jagex. With 25 years of experience, Iain has worked in all sectors of the industry from tabletop to triple-A, both on the development and publishing sides. In fact, he started out working for UK high street shop Games Workshop, working with tabletop games including writing rule texts and design.
In this interview, Iain gives insight on a career in gaming, and the kinds of skills and personality traits needed, including the requirement of being a good communicator. Iain didn’t go into the gaming industry from university, but rather used his childhood passion for tabletop gaming to get his first job after sitting his GCSEs. After 4 years there, he moved to the Digital side working for France Telecom on the publishing side for a Triple-A multiplayer game, as an operations manager. Iain is not a programmer, but has still been able to develop in the gaming sector.