From studying Game Development to designing on F1 Manager

For Elliot Griffiths, the Game Development: Art course at Falmouth was where he discovered a love of cross-disciplinary teamwork and began building the portfolio that would land him a job just one week after graduating.

Now a Lead Artist at Frontier Developments, we caught up with him to find out more about his time at Falmouth, what it’s been like working on the F1 Manager series, and the games he enjoys playing in his spare time.

How did you find the Game Development: Art course?

The thing I enjoyed most during my time at Falmouth was working in multi-disciplinary teams from an early stage in the course. It prepared me really well for industry life, where I now work across disciplines daily. The foundations I built at Falmouth have enabled me to collaborate effectively with others.

I chose Falmouth not just for the strength of the course, but also for its stunning location. I spent countless evenings on the beach with housemates – even going for late-night February swims (yes, it was just as cold as it sounds – tropical views, not temperatures!). I loved living in such a beautiful coastal town so much that I’m now trying to move back. 

Nowhere else quite compares once you’ve lived there and made so many memories in a short space of time.

How did you find getting a job after graduating?

I was fortunate to graduate during the 2021 Covid hiring boom, when developers were in high demand. That timing worked in my favour. But I’d also built a strong portfolio during my degree – and perhaps more importantly, I developed the communication skills and confidence to talk about my work with other developers during interviews.

I contacted studios in March 2021, earlier than other graduates might have thought to apply for jobs. This paid off when I received a job offer from Frontier long before graduating, which I gratefully accepted. It meant I could really enjoy the final few months and work even more closely with my final-year project team, allowing us to knuckle down and create a fun and engaging game, knowing I had already secured my place in the industry.

What do you like to draw the most?

I’ve got two 3D environments in progress but they’re not quite ready to share. Hopefully I’ll be uploading one to my ArtStation in the next few weeks.

Can you tell us all about your involvement in the F1 Manager series?

Yes – F1 Manager 2022 was the first project I worked on after joining Frontier Developments as a Graduate 3D Artist in 2021. I was part of the architecture team responsible for recreating the 1:1 replicas of Formula One circuits. I’ve since worked on F1 Manager 2022, 2023 and 2024, progressing from graduate to Full Artist, then to Senior Artist.

In F1 Manager 22, I focused on architectural assets across the 22 tracks, reviewed outsourced content, and supported technical optimisation with the tech art team.

By F1 Manager 23, I’d become more of a generalist, supporting new starters, sharing techniques and managing tasks. One highlight was creating the Eiffel Tower and several of the iconic hotels on the Las Vegas strip – a real privilege.

F1 Manager 24 was when I grew the most. The team had scaled down, so we all worked in more T-shaped roles. That reminded me a lot of my university experience. I collaborated across departments on a new feature – HeliCam – working with code and art direction to develop a tool in UE5 that tracked cars and let artists create a helicopter flight path and zoom curve.

This continued level of independence then led to my promotion to Senior Artist – and I’m now Lead Artist on an unannounced project at Frontier.

What games do you love – and what are you playing at the moment?

Some of my all-time favourites include Baldur's Gate 3, Minecraft, Cyberpunk 2077, Farming Simulator and racing sims. I don’t have loads of time to play these days, but I always come back to Minecraft for a few weeks each year. My friends and I build up a server, then either abandon it or send it into chaos. Besides that, I’m racing weekly in F1 24 and I’m a big fan of iRacing.

External links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-griffiths-1907b9155

https://www.artstation.com/elliotgriffiths