Andy Ross Podcast

Today's episode is a market update across video games and tech.

It’s been 3 months since my last update where I covered off some of the reasons for a large number of redundancies in the video game industry, why tech firms are operating with smaller teams and how employer expectations of employees have shifted in the last 18 months. 

I’ll be picking up where we left off in December and offering an optimistic outlook on the months ahead as we head into GDC season.

Jace is a solo game developer and content creator. He’s best known in the video games community for his contributions to the team at Coffee Stain Studios where he spent 9 years, initially joining as a programmer before stepping into the community management role for Satisfactory which has gone on to sell in excess of 5 million units. 

I talk to Jace about his journey into the games industry, community management and taking the leap from a steady job to become a solo game dev. 

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Splash Damage are the London based AAA video games studio who are working on the upcoming Transformers:Reactive title. They're best known as the creators of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

They've launched a work experience program for both school age and university students who are curious about working in video games.

Applications are open now so I caught up with Chelsea Ferdinales who created and runs this initiative.

Apply for work experience at Splash Damage

Jason is CEO of Hardball Games. Prior to launching Hardball Jason led a studio through to acquisition by Disney and was part of the founding team at Boss Alien. They delivered CSR racing in a team of 11, a franchise that netted Natural Motion in excess of $500m in IAP's alone. 

I talk to Jason about navigating his career and launching a studio. We recorded this episode shortly after Disney announced a $1.5 billion dollar investment into Epic Games so I also get his immediate take on this. 

Outrage on Steam

Christian is an author and journalist. His work has appeared in New Statesman, Vice and The Guardian. He also authored The Unmapped Mind in 2018 (The Inward Empire for US listeners).

He's best known in the video games industry for his contributions to Edge magazine and Eurogamer. 

I talk to Christian about his journey into the games industry, navigating multiple sclerosis and LSD trips in the forest. 

Today's episode is a market update across video games and tech.

I’m going to be bringing you these episodes every 3 months and I’ll be covering off recent changes in the market, our open searches (jobs my team are actively looking to fill) and any recent news in the sector that may affect hiring. 

I’ll also be answering the most commonly asked questions we’ve had over the last 3 months.

So if you work in tech or games and you’re thinking about changing employers or you’re responsible for hiring and want to know what might be going on outside of your immediate circle then hit subscribe.

Joe is a recruiting leader with over a decade of experience working in tech and games. Most recently, he has worked for Electronic Arts and Epic Games.

He has personally hired hundreds of people in the games industry, from senior leadership to interns, for world class games and products such as Fortnite, Unreal Engine, Rocket League, Need For Speed, Battlefield and Frostbite.

Joe is passionate about sharing his knowledge and helping others enter the games industry. He does through educational content online and visits to schools, colleges and universities throughout North America and the UK.

Graham is an organisational psychologist specialised in the video games industry. 

He studied software engineering, was awarded a PhD in Computer Science and worked as an associate professor in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) at the University of Sussex, a subject to which Graham has contributed over 50 peer-reviewed academic papers and book chapters. He was the founder of Player Research, a highly regarded user research studio that supported the development of over 500 video games. Under Graham's leadership Player Research was acquired by Keywords Studios in 2016.