Organised by Toonz Media Group, the third day of Animation Masters Summit (AMS) 2020 – Digital Edition was dedicated to the “Master” – Epic Games GM India and SEA Quentin Staes-Polet around his journey in gaming and on Unreal Engine 5, an upcoming project of Epic games.
Polet starts his story with an anecdote on how he is a gaming name now, even though he started in the media and entertainment sector.
Back in 2006, he was part of the team which founded Kreeda Games in India, the country’s first MMO gaming company. The theme of the company’s product revolved around the jovial tunes and moves somewhat symbolic to Bollywood features. At the company he served as the CEO and was on the board of directors of the company as well. Apart from working on its own IPs, the studio provided services to brands in India which needed gaming solutions. He mentioned, “By some miracle, we had a small profit turnout after just a year of existence.”
After a brief hiatus, Polet moved to Singapore and had an epiphany about the emergence of smartphone and mobile gaming. Following the trail, he landed in Japan to understand more about the business paradigm of mobiles and it turned out to be quite an experience for him. He experienced first hand how the industry was different from the PC/Console market, tagged along with strong data-driven operations that the Japanese brands adhered to.
Further to that, the techie tried his hands with a number of technology brands and landed in Unity, one of the fastest growing platforms that time. His stint at the company lasted from 2016 to 2018, where he lead the Unity Technologies team for S.E.A/ANZ/Indian sub continent.
Coming to his latest position, Polet is a part of Epic Games of Unreal Engine and Fortnite fame. He is currently placed as the GM-India and SEA for the brand.
During his session, he explained how Unreal Engine is assisting new-age content creators by giving them cutting edge technology at their disposal. He further explained how the engine is a powerhouse of real-time production and the capabilities of which are not restricted to the gaming sector, hinting the brand’s focus on content at large, be it live-action or animation.
Said he, “The post-production operations have become extremely challenging amid the pandemic, filming at physical locations are the biggest hiccup. Therefore, virtual production has gigantic prospect. This allows the users to leverage Unreal Engine’s power to recreate the environments digitally and reassemble everything right in the camera’s view.
Prior to the lockdown in India, the company was running a training program of the platform at Mumbai’s Famous Studios, now that the lockdown is still in place, he emphasized that a lot of online resources are available for enthusiasts to carry forward.
Recently Epic Games concluded the demo for PlayStation and Polet seemed quite enthusiastic about what potential the launch of Unreal Engine 5 holds for the ecosystem.