Nyan Heroes on Recruiting, Retaining & Growing Talent

Introduction

Adrian Garrick, Senior Recruiter at Nyan Heroes: Post A-level studies, I’ve been educated in the school of life and am still constantly learning. I was hired by Nyan Heroes via a recommendation from a good friend and was inspired to join the journey after interviewing with the leadership team.

Work Organization at the Company

Adrian Garrick: We are a fully remote team, with individuals based globally. To help manage and mitigate this our experienced production management organizes and carefully maps meetings, milestones, and deliverables around the various time zones. We all connect up like Voltron once a week to have our show and tell.

Whenever we consider hiring new specialists, we look for individuals with good communication skills, a collaborative approach, and a passion for their craft. Hiring managers reach out to new team members ahead of their start date to make them feel welcome, while our onboarding team helps make sure systems are set up and any assistance or advice is offered too.

Managing Burnout

Adrian Garrick: Our operations team works closely with leadership to ensure teams are given adequate downtime after peak periods of activity. We run a monthly check-in process called 'pulses' that help create a direct channel of communication between team members and leadership. The pulse check-ins allow leadership to gauge happiness and engagement levels across the studio, which helps us to see signs of burnout early and prevent it from happening. We have found pulse check-ins to be critical in helping to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

Creative Freedom at the Company

Adrian Garrick: Creative freedom is something that we feel all artists and designers need to have in order to perform and be at their best. As a newer studio, we've focused on hiring more experienced individuals with AAA backgrounds because those individuals generally prefer having more creative freedom and are comfortable sharing their vision and ideas with leadership. This entire process makes the game stronger and the game development process more enjoyable for all.

Emman Alzaga, Art Lead at Nyan Heroes: We are a start-up studio. So most of the staff are wearing multiple hats. That also means that there is plenty of room for everyone to use their creativity, and we think the ideas with the most potential should be prioritized. Also, this means we have freedom with our tasks. Each of us has the expertise and a good workflow we can provide which came from the experiences we learned from our previous companies.

We are still working on establishing our style and tone for Nyan Heroes. We frequently hold group brainstorming meetings that feedback on the design and production process.

Approach to Education

Adrian Garrick: To date, we've focused our hiring efforts on bringing in more experienced candidates that have a strong professional foundation already. As a result, the training and education that have been offered have been more niche and directed based on each individual's needs. For example, we've provided our engineering team with courses on Unreal Engine 5 and Rust development to support their professional development. 

Emman Alzaga: Since our studio has only been operating for approximately a year and because we are all entirely remote and widely dispersed, we are still all learning the best ways to collaborate. We use a lot of new technology, so that means learning new skills. Additionally, because our team is still small, we rely on its members' capacity to advance their level of expertise and provide results.

Thoughts on Working From Home

Adrian Garrick: Nyan Heroes started out as a remote studio and we will remain remote. It works perfectly well for us. That said, we’ve all experienced the changes to the working setup caused by the pandemic. At Nyan Heroes, we’re rapidly learning what it takes to be successful with a remote team and continue to learn and improve all the time. However, we are mindful that everyone is working from home and allow a degree of flexibility for people to manage both their personal and professional lives. 

Emman Alzaga: The post-COVID reality of game production is what led to the establishment of our studio. Prior to COVID, it was simply impossible to launch a fully remote, globally dispersed AAA startup at scale since the necessary tools, infrastructure, and mindset did not exist. It undoubtedly presents problems, and over the past year, we have gained knowledge in every facet of remote and dispersed working. The option to hire people from all around the world without asking team members to relocate is a huge advantage. It indicates that we have been able to bring on staff talent that would not have been possible otherwise.

The operational challenges of global recruitment are most evident when it comes to logistics and time zone compliance. All leaders and directors of the team must be highly creative.

Tips for Aspiring Artists

Emman Alzaga: The scope of art is wide. Carefully consider which field you will focus on, playing to your strengths. Fundamentally, you need to know the basics of that field. If you aim to become a Character Artist, you should understand anatomy. Even if you are creating Mech, you still really need to have enough knowledge in this area. Or, if you want to be a Weapon Artist and you love to create guns, then you should understand the form and the function of each of the parts. If you want to focus on environments, observe what's around you and how each element relates to one another to tell a story.

Always create art, and in doing so, consider not only the visual aesthetics but also the logic of it and whether it truly is believable. Make use of the art community and ask for feedback from credible people. In addition, you can also check other artists' projects online and analyze how they manage to create such fantastic artworks.

Nyan Heroes' Senior Recruiter, Adrian Garrick, and Art Lead, Emman Alzaga

Interview conducted by Arti Burton