Saturday, August 10, 2019

Farewell to an Amazing Job

I have an amazing job. I work as a game developer in the new games studio for one of the leading mobile games companies in the world, experimenting with different game ideas to find the next big hit. While that is awesome, the company also earns an insane amount of money, so I can pretty much get whatever I want, as long as I can motivate it. Could it be better? I don't know, it sure seems pretty good when I put it that way. But still, that apparently isn't enough, because I just resigned. Am I crazy? Yeah, probably. Anyway, as some people have asked, here's my reasoning.

First of all, I've been here for more than five years by now, and as this is my first job in the games industry I'm kind of curious to learn how other companies operating in the same area do it. The new company I'm going to work for is also making mobile games, but they do somewhat different games and they do it in a completely different way. While the game engine is the same as I've been using the last few years, the team size and composition is very different. And I'm really curious to learn what else is different.

Second, while being this successful and having all the money in the world is kind of convenient, it also makes it very hard to really make an impact. Making a new game or a feature that earns a million dollars in a company valued to more than five billion dollars is something else than doing the same in a company valued to 35 million dollars. Also in a less monetary sense, you're a much bigger part of the company when there is less than a hundred employees rather than over two thousand. I'm hoping that will also make the company more personal, with less policies and processes that can't be bent and more space for doing the smart choices.

And third, it come down to the actual games in the making. The company I am joining have a strategy to focus on social multiplayer games, something that is very dear to me. While my current company also have an ambition to do that, it just doesn't seem to really happen. To be fair though, it is more easily done with the games of the new company, where you actually play with others, compared to the primarily single player games we make here and add a social meta layer on.

So, to sum it up, I'm leaving a great place with great people, to learn more, to have a greater opportunity to make a difference, and to make games I can be even more passionate about. I really would like to thank everyone here for this amazing time, and for all the faith you've put in me. It's been a blast!

1 comment:

max robert said...

Thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts, really cool and interesting to get some inside information on the business. Myself am just a lone game dev making my own crazy fun projects. 😄 I wish you all the best in the future.
Cheers!