How Games became my Job, Last Part (for now)

Workwise I have never felt better than the day I handed in my resignation with the explanation that I was just not happy within this company anymore and I didn't want to be part of whatever they were doing. I didn't even have a new job at that time and I loved it. The impact for the company probably was super minor, but I felt f***ing awesome about it and that was the only thing that mattered to me.

I was not sure if the games industry was still for me, everything seemed to be an option. I was looking for a new job all over the planet in all kind of industries and I was eager to see what the future had in store for me. I also sent a spontaneous application to a digital agency thinking I would make a great text or creative guy in their company. They invited me for an interview and that exact second I realized that I was not really sure how I should describe the job they were supposed to give me, or answer any other funky questions they would throw at me. So yet again I got a little nervous before the interview and tried to get all my answers about a business I knew next to nothing about together, which in the end was super unnecessary.

In the interview two of my future bosses explained to me that they planned on opening a game studio besides their agency business and that they needed a game designer. That helped, because I went straight into my professional comfort zone and really knew what I was talking about. That plus the openness of my hosts and the fact that the meeting room the interview was in had a bar and fully functioning beer pump made this one of the most relaxed interviews of my life. It went over an hour and only small compact parts were about work related topics, they were more interested in who I really was and if I would fit the family. It was extremely refreshing not to have to answer questions like “If you were stranded on a lonely island, which album,movie, book and computer game would you take along?”. (You know who you are not to be named game company! You still should be ashamed asking me that crap. At least it was on the phone and you couldn't show me the butterfly paintings.) In the end of the interview I felt great for two reasons, first was the realization that an interview can be amazing and relaxing and second was that I was rather confident that I found a place I really want to work at.

Apart from a great first impression there were a few more things which attracted me to this company. The company is run by its owners, so no investors and mindless revenue pressure messing with your product and ideas. Sure at some point money needs to be made, but everybody is involved and there is no one who constantly reminds you that you are just an investment option for them and in reality they don't care what you do if the revenue is ok.

We all agreed on the goal to create games that we all like and want to play ourselves, as well as have a really good time developing them.

Of course no investors also means that there is no huge budget we can use to hire an endless amount of staff to make the next Massive Multiplayer Super 3D Realtime Graphics AAA title for PC and the next-gen consoles.

But that doesn't mean that it it is not an address on this learning and achieving street we are currently on. We are making our first steps in the mobile games market and there is not a single day without learnings and there is a lot to learn when you come from a browser game only background.

I can just say that leaving my safe job behind and going for the great unknown in order to be happy again with what I do was totally worth it. Even though it could have also gone pretty wrong, I was more than lucky to meet the right people at the right time. Right now I have the feeling that I am where great people, opportunity and momentum cross each others way and that is one hell of an awesome place to be.

We have just released two games in two weeks, maybe these two will not be instant world fame and monetary success but they are two more steps to the game that will be.

The End (for now)