LogInSharkmob's James Dobrowski talked about hiring new specialists at Sharkmob London, shared how the leadership team manages burnout, and told us how the team dynamics have changed in the post-COVID situation.
Sharkmob
I’m James Dobrowski, Managing Director of Sharkmob London. Sharkmob is originally a Swedish game developer based in Malmo, set up in 2017 with the ambition of making the next generation of AAA hardcore action games. The original founders – who had years of experience in AAA game development – wanted to create a culture that provided teams with a high degree of creative freedom and autonomy, a healthy work-life balance, and a lot of fun along the way, all whilst building large, ambitious games. There are currently about 300 people based at the studio in Malmo.
We opened the London Studio in October 2020 with a core management team of four people, and have since grown to nearly 50. Our leadership team is made up of individuals from a broad range of backgrounds – some joining the games industry fresh out of high school, others with previous careers outside of games. Between us, we’ve clocked up experience at studios that include Playground Games, Rockstar North, CCP Games, CD Projekt Red, and Amazon Games Studios. Our new premises are due to open in central London later this year.
As for me, I studied Physics and then Computer Science at Manchester University, and have previously worked at Deloitte (a brief foray into Tech Consulting before deciding to pursue my passion), Playground Games (Senior Producer), Mediatonic (Production Director), and CCP Games (VP of Product Development). I’ve worked on more games than I can count, but highlights include the Forza Horizon franchise and EVE Online.
Work Organization at Sharkmob London
We have a fairly traditional structure in place at Sharkmob London, with our teams split into the disciplines of Art, Design, Narrative, Audio, Engineering, and Production, and cross-collaborating on a single project. Within each project, cross-discipline teams take ownership over individual parts of a project.
Our Game Director leads the overall creative vision, with the Production Director leading budgets, planning, and execution.
In terms of communication, we have various key meetings in place and use Slack outside meetings for general communication. Here are some examples of the meetings that might pop up in a typical week:
- Regular company and studio update meetings;
- Studio wide Show & Tell of Work;
- Planning and review sessions for Milestones and Sprints;
- Daily standups for cross-collaborative feature teams;
- Face-to-face collaboration.
Hiring New Specialists
We place a very high value on our culture at Sharkmob and promote an environment that is open, honest, and built on trust. Aside from the hard skills and experience needed for any particular role, we massively value soft skills at Sharkmob.
We want talented people, but we also want people who are good human beings, non-toxic, not-political, with a good teamwork ethic. We care passionately about what we do, and really want to have a good time doing it together.
During recruitment, we look for people who are proactive, driven, and passionate about games and the work they do, but also people who are collaborative, good communicators, and capable of articulating their thoughts and feedback in a constructive manner.
Finally, we have a culture catch-up at Sharkmob which is pretty important to all of us – "Don’t Be An Asshole”!
Welcoming Newcomers
We have an extensive onboarding process at Sharkmob, which starts before a new team member joins us. From the first interview through to their first months with the studio, a single representative from our HR team will act as a point of contact for any questions or support.
During a person’s first week with us, they will be introduced to their team, the projects, our various development disciplines and processes, the studio history, etc. We also have a buddy system so that new people have one-to-one informal help with getting to know life at the studio.
We also think it’s best for people to jump straight in and start working with their team as soon as possible, and so make sure people are deeply involved with their project work, and collaborating closely with their team, right from the get-go.
Managing Burnout
We make live games, so crunching for a milestone when you need to immediately move into “live running” is counter-productive. The leadership team has many years of experience in developing strategies to avoid crunch and its fallout, which boil down to good planning and communication. We place a high degree of focus on forward planning and setting realistic scope, budgets and timelines. As the project develops we have regular formal reviews to balance expectations with timelines.
In addition, our employee benefits have been designed with well-being and work/life balance front and center – for example 30-days holiday as standard, health allowance including wellness, annual full health check, full private medical including mental health support, industry-leading parental leave, and weekly fitness hour on work time.
Our Malmo studio has plenty of facilities to chill out and decompress during the day, including gaming rooms (both video and board games), chill-out spaces, a huge kitchen, reading nooks, etc. – and this is all planned for London, too, when we open in June.
Creative Freedom
Autonomy and freedom are a key part of Sharkmob culture, and one of our pillars – people cannot flourish when micromanaged and cannot be creative without feeling free. Our directors set high-level vision goals, but the team defines the creative direction within those goals and the same is true for the process – any good idea is implemented, regardless of where it comes from.
We encourage an open-minded, supportive culture throughout the business and have an open forum once a week for all staff to make suggestions and ask questions of the management group.
Education
We see education on the job as a fundamental part of improving skills, and always look to find projects for people that align with their skill and career development goals. Our managers have regular check-ins with their team to ensure a regular conversation is always ongoing about team members' ambitions, career goals, and what support they need to achieve those goals.
We have a fairly informal, but supportive approach to training that can be suggested by a person’s manager, or a person themselves, at any point. If there’s an agreement on the benefit between manager and employee, then Sharkmob funds the training.
Team Dynamics in the Post-COVID Situation
COVID has been a big experiment on how well remote working actually works and our conclusion so far is that some tasks can be done remotely and, others (particularly more collaborative, blue-sky creative tasks), are far more efficient when handled in person.
One example is running a writers’ room for script development – this is so much more productive when people are sat in a room with a whiteboard. Not only is it more engaging for people, but it’s also less fatiguing and the results come thicker and faster when people can bounce ideas off each other in person. You also see organic conversations in the office leading to great ideas, or the solution to problems. Sadly, this is so much harder when working remotely.
It’s really too early to say how this will all work out, but for now, we’re finding a balance is working best: when the collaborative tasks are handled in-person, but when you just need to get your head down on a piece of work, working remotely can be advantageous. We’re still working it out, and I think these next 1 to 2 years will be a big learning curve for many companies, us included. I’m sure our view will also change as we continue to scale. We’re 50 people right now but aim to be 250 in a few years' time.
I think it’s safe to say that we are very flexible and adaptable given the fact that the London studio was founded and grown during the pandemic, with most interviews done remotely, and some outdoors in Hyde Park (staying 2 meters apart at all times, of course!).
Advice for Artists
Sharkmob London tends to focus on visuals closer to the realism end of the spectrum, so keep that in mind if you're interested in a role with us. What you demonstrate doesn’t need to be realistic in style, but it should ideally show techniques that would be used in building realism.
Focus on making your portfolio the best it can be. We always want to see amazing materials, characters, environments, etc. and use reference materials to help you analyze your work. In interviews don't be afraid of saying "this bit of my artwork is incorrect or needs work". If you can explain why and what you would do to fix it then it shows that you've learned and developed and that is very important.