Teravision Games on Its Work Culture & Hiring Practices

Introduction

Hi! My name is Luis Daniel Zambrano, but everybody calls me “LD”. I’m Venezuelan, I’ll turn 40 in autumn and I've been a gamer since I was 5, “Burgertime” [Intellivision II] was my favorite game back then. 

Later in life, I decided to join the Computer Science bachelor program at Simon Bolivar University [USB]. That decision was inevitable. After spending so many teenage hours dying on spikes in Prince of Persia, not being able to jump over the fang worms in Another World, and constantly failing at being furtive while spending irresponsible amounts of paper on printing ASCII-decorated game guides that I downloaded using my dad’s dial-up internet connection, I just knew computers were “my thing”. 

My other obsession was to draw anytime and anywhere I could. My teachers totally LOVED that one. So after programming my own copy of Pac-Man for a Computer Graphics course at the university and noticing that my ghosts could look a little better, I decided to get a second bachelor's degree, this time in Graphic Design at the Prodiseño Institute, also in Caracas. That’s where I learned that art is never finished but abandoned and discovered that my favorite time for working is around 1:00 a.m., not great!

Luckily, during the internship I had at the end of my first bachelor's, I met my bestie Enrique Fuentes, TG’s Founder and relentless Supporter-in-Chief. He had the crazy idea to create a gamedev Studio, and I was crazy enough to follow him. A few years later, Paul Mackie, my favorite Canadian and our COO extraordinaire joined the crew. They helped me turn all this into a productive career. 

So currently I’m the CCO of Teravision Games (TG) and proud to be one of the Co-Founders of this amazing gamedev studio. We are currently an 80+ people team, mainly located in Colombia; we have worked on more than 80 games since we kicked this off in 2006.

Our main projects right now are Captain ToonHead Vs The Punks from Outer Space, our silly VR space opera that we proudly launched in November 2021, and Killer Klowns from Outer Space, an unexpected asymmetrical horror game for PC and consoles that our AMAZING team of passionate and talented devs is still working on.

Yes, we like “Outer Space” a lot! 

Work at Teravision Games

Like gamedev itself, we are an ever-evolving studio. Every project and new team member teaches us something new, and we strive to turn that knowledge into structure and processes that help us become better game devs as a group. 

The main TeraGamer who champions this constant evolution is Cyndi Ordoñez, our Studio Manager Superstar. She makes sure we put our team first by constantly and literally asking ourselves how we can become better by following our core values and turning the conclusions into actions that shape how we organize into something that is designed to nurture the professional happiness of all of our members. 

We are currently organized into 15 sub-departments: Gameplay Programming, Backend Programming, Game & Concept Art, Animation, Audio Design, Tech Art, Game Design, User Experience, Production, QA, DevOps, IT & Security,  Marketing, Admin, and Talent Management.

At the same time, these sub-departments are categorized under bigger umbrellas (Art, Tech, Tech Art, Design, Production, Marketing, and Operations) that let us have leaders that articulate and manage the teams within each of those meta areas, company-wide.

For us, communication is the bloodline of the way we work and the fundamental fabric of our cherished organizational culture. We take it very seriously, so we have implemented and constantly mutated a myriad of practices that encourage constant info irradiation, candid communication, and prompt problem discussion. Some of the stuff we do is IM channels structured by project components, feature briefings, sprint plan/review/retros, project post mortems, knowledge documentation, 360º performance reviews, cross-departmental 1on1s, biweekly company-wide catch-ups, company surveys, among many other dynamics that motivate us to be communicative, closer to each other and operate as a well-orchestrated singular team.

Game Development in South America

The gamedev and digital art markets in South America are exciting! The gamedev industry here has grown a lot. Teams in the region are amazing and the quality bar of their work is top-level. An example of that would be the Killer Klowns from Outer Space game that we are currently having a lot of fun developing here in Teravision Games.

Another fascinating aspect of South American studios is that they create games with unique thematic angles inspired by the myriad of cultures that constitute this amazing continent. You may notice this uniqueness in the form of a superhero that dual wields flip-flops in Captain ToonHead Vs the Punks from Outer Space, the breathtaking environments inspired by real places from Colombia in CrisTales, and the beautiful hand-drawn Tunche, an action game that completely revolves around the majestic Amazon rainforest.   

I can only be excited and eager to see the unexpected titles full of unique beauty that will emerge from our region in the years to come. 

Hiring

Technical proficiency is always key when hiring because of how complex gamedev work is, but for us that is never more important than culture match. Any new team member that we hire needs to be a good fit with our values. They need to be on the same wavelength as the group of talented and kind people that compose our team. We don’t hire bullies or big egos, no matter how good they are technically.

We seek people that are not only passionate about their profession but also deeply excited to be always learning new stuff. Gamedev is an ever-changing industry and we, as a team, like to consider ourselves as forever students of the craft. Each problem we solve, each feature we build, each decision we make teaches us something new. We treasure the iterative process as the only way to discover the game we should build, in contrast to the game we initially thought was correct at the beginning of the project. We get better only to be able to iterate faster and, in that way, reach farther in the infinite search for the best version of the game that we are currently building, within the unavoidable finiteness of time and resources you always have when creating it. 

There are definitely easier ways to bring home the bacon than making games. It takes a very special breed of professionals to face this endeavor and we are very conscious of this when interviewing candidates for the job. We need people that are intellectually humble and incessantly curious, people that love sharing knowledge and helping others find their way, people that are a little stubborn about finding solutions but always quick to change perspectives around difficult tasks and constantly attentive to figuring out the most efficient way to overcome problems. Also, people that are okay with saying “I don’t know” while taking that situation as a strong motivator for learning something new, either by asking for help or embarking on their own journey of research. People that love games and that are aware of how life-changing a game can be for some players. We seek people who deeply care about what they do and cherish the fact that they do it with others and for others. That’s how every Teravision Gamer is in our studio.    

We are so careful when hiring to make sure that each time somebody new joins, they instantly jell with the team. That said, we don’t leave it to chance, we also have specific practices in place that encourage this positive amalgamation. 

Our Talent Management team, led by our super talented March Ricon, makes a big deal about introducing a new member to the team, not only through company-wide IM channels but also by the camera during our bi-weekly whole team catch-up meetings. We operate under a hybrid workplace model, so digital gatherings are super important to us.

New TeraGamers also fill out a “get to know me” survey that gets emailed to everybody in the team, these are very good at providing ice-breaking talking points when getting to know new people. 

We go through thorough introductory dynamics where we help beginners set up their environments, understand our values, learn what we expect from them and understand what they expect from us, show them the way we operate, our processes and rules, let them know the project and surrounding team in depth, point out who is there to help them with anything that they might need, establish mentors so they are always accompanied, assign introductory training tasks to ease in the project work to come, show them the different special interest clubs that the team has created within our organization for them to join, and, among many other things, give them a cool welcome package of goodies so they can wear our colors.  

We basically dedicate significant time and effort to insert the person in the team first before introducing the work that we expect them to do. 

Burnout

Gamedev is extremely hard. You never fully understand what you are building until you can play with it, and to be able to play it, you have to build a playable version of it first. This means that predictability is almost impossible, unexpected problems are our day-to-day, and we need to be always willing to pivot the direction of the game as we learn more from it while we build it. On top of all this, because building games professionally is a business, we need to do all of this under the context of established deadlines and budgets. 

As you could imagine, this is a perfect storm for stress and burnout. The way in which we mitigate this is to have a solid organizational structure and processes that are designed to handle uncertainty while being open to change. The higher up you are in our structure, the more uncertainty you need to manage and turn it into concrete directives for the team that you support. 

More than a specific task list, these directives need to be articulated more in the form of “what’s the problem that we are trying to solve and why it is important to solve it”, and after that’s clear, propose the leader’s hypothesis of how to solve this problem as an actionable task list. Always open to discussion with the developers that will execute it. This way, we make sure the devs are invested in solving the root problem and open to pivoting half-way when the hypothesis might be proved wrong, instead of being fixated on just finishing a laundry list that might just change after they are done with it. This makes their work more meaningful and interesting, which translates into more motivation and less frustration.

Another part of it is constant communication through 1on1s, sprint retrospectives, performance reviews, and daily sync-ups that let everybody share and help us to promptly address any discomfort or opportunity area that could make our professional lives happier. We also do this to make sure people seek and receive help from others, you are never alone in solving your problems. If somebody within the team cannot help with your complex technical problem, we hire external consultants that could help you with their expertise. Being accompanied and supported is super important for enduring complex work.

And lastly, we do everything in our power to protect proper resting downtimes. Our production team strives to constantly make sure that reasonable workloads are assigned. If we need to do extra work, we plan and discuss it ahead of time with the team, so we distribute it in a preventive and sensible manner, not just let it accumulate toward the end of a deadline. And if we detect that people have let too much time pass without taking a vacation, we help them reorganize their current workload so they can take a holiday as soon as possible. 

We also have, among other things, yoga classes, game tournaments, and special interest clubs founded by our own team members that help people steam off doing stuff that they enjoy in the context of their place of work.  

All of this doesn’t eliminate the problem, but it surely helps us mitigate it to the point where our team’s status quo is feeling supported, happy, and grateful for being part of a team that really cares for their wellbeing. 

Freedom

Freedom is an essential part of our environment, definitely! Every voice within our studio is important. This is true not only within projects but also in the direction that our studio takes. That doesn’t mean we do everything out of absolute consensus, but we make sure we hear all opinions before making important decisions. For example, the reason why we are working exclusively on PC and console games today is that in 2016 we did an introspection where most of our team expressed that their passion wasn’t exactly working on mobile games for kids and that their collective dream was to create titles like the games they played at the end of their workdays at home. So we worked very hard on building the opportunities and the knowledge that took us where we are today. 

Process-wise, leaders and teams can design their own ways of working, but still, there are some mandatory processes that are there to nurture general and mutual understanding within the whole organization. 

We encourage freedom but we also work hard to provide our team with the right structure so everyone can focus on their craft. It’s counterintuitive, but creativity really thrives in structure. We empower our people to think as entrepreneurs within our team, and we ensure that they also understand that their choices affect others even outside their own departments. “Leadership is a support class” is one of our values, so it is important that all our choices are in the service of our teams and the other people we interact with. This creates a deep sense of responsibility that encourages everyone to always communicate and consider the perspective of others, which is both challenging and powerful, and ultimately one of the main reasons why we have grown so much in our latest years of working together. 

Education

Everybody on our team is both a student and a teacher. We encourage all TeraGamers to share their knowledge not only within the studio but also outside of it. I’m super proud of the sheer amount of online courses, talks, and workshops that many of our team members impart in their spare time. We make sure all our team members have access to these learning tools that our own people have created even outside our walls.

For beginners, we always assign mentors within our team which help them learn as they progressively do stuff that is relevant to our projects. We also provide access to virtually any course or book that they might need in their own gamedev journey. We make a habit out of asking in our 1on1s, “How do you want to grow as a dev? And what do you need for doing so?” and as long as it is reasonable, we go ahead and get them what they need.

I cannot talk about education without mentioning one of the initiatives that Enrique, our CEO, is most excited about: The TG Academy. Juan Diego Alzate, a brilliant programmer and exceptional leader that brightens up our team, is leading the charge of building a space where anybody from our team can channel their expertise and passion into teaching others, outside and inside our studio, about specific aspects of how to make games. It is like building our own program where we help create industry by teaching others how to achieve their gamedev dreams, even if they don’t end up working with us. Right now we are in the early stages of teaching through project-agnostic internships, and we couldn’t be more happy with the results.

Tips for Artists

First of all, learn to self-edit. A succinct portfolio that shows only your best and most recent work is a must to get our attention. A huge portfolio is more often than not a hindrance since always the lesser works are what define the bar of how you perceive the rest of it. Also, please consider that maybe the person who is reviewing your work doesn’t necessarily have the time to go through an extensive portfolio with the thoroughness it deserves, they usually need to review multiple dozens of applications in a day, so help them notice your skills by only showing the best side of your work.

Once you have nailed your craft, focus on your communication and organization skills. Be humble, understand that you don’t know everything, and cherish learning from others, this will take you a long way when joining a gamedev team. Make sure your work process is tuned for efficiency and that it is obsessively orderly, make it easy for others to insert themselves into your workflow and you will be more successful when working with a team. Make sure you don’t progress too much in your assigned art assets before showing them around and asking for feedback. We always say that “surprises are not good in the workplace”, enact the power of discussion over quick sketches before jumping into final execution and be okay with sharing incomplete work, that’s how you make sure you are always on the right track.

And last but not least, internalize that game art is a vast universe and that you don’t need to excel in all aspects of it. Obsess with understanding yourself as a professional artist. Discover what is really your passion and double down on it. Try out character art, environment lighting, prop design, concept art, texturing, UI design, VFX, etc. Give anything you are even mildly curious about a try, so you figure out what you enjoy the most and go deep into it. Don’t be afraid to fail in this self-discovery journey, each failure will teach you something that would greatly help you hone in your specialty and be sensible of other people’s expertise. Being a specialist and learning how to show it in your portfolio will help you land your dream job in this amazing industry. Come join the interactive side! Nothing beats playing a game that you helped build.

Luis Daniel Zambrano, Co-Founder & CCO of Teravision Games

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine