Kenneth Holm

Who doesn't love a game, especially when interfacing with tech? Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Words with Friends, or Applying for a Job, wait? WHAT? Gamification is the strategic integration of game design elements into non-gaming environments. In this article, we delve into the realm of gamification within recruitment, examining its applications, current trends among employers, and the opportunities it presents for Talent Acquisition (TA) leaders to enhance their organizational processes: https://lnkd.in/gsHg9EVR #Talent #TalentTechnology #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Tech #AMSVerified

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DeamPlus Games Earned $12M+ IAP Revenue Amids “Hoa Hoa Hoa” Season 🍂 Game of Vampires: Twilight Sun, an empire-building RPG, is the ultimate vampire fantasy brought to life. 🌘 Gothic castles, luxurious dark interiors, a spooky atmosphere — and a ton of pop-culture references! From Twilight and The Vampire Diaries to Blade and The Addams Family — this game is packed with nostalgic nods that resonate with players through its ASO, ad creatives, and character design. 🧛‍♂️🏰 The right timing and a touch of luck drive this success even further: with the game’s global launch, the unexpected revival of the Twilight franchise came into play! Millennials are fueling it with nostalgia, while Gen Z is having fun with those cringy moments the old movies have. ✨🧛‍♀️ For a deep dive into this phenomenon and the insights game developers can draw from it, check out Diana Levintova's fantastic article for AppMagic. Halloween couldn’t be a better time to dive into the industry insights, spooky vibes, and, of course, “hoa hoa hoa” 🎃👻 Link in the comments! 👇

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How to accelerate your career in game development? Think "one level higher." 🔹 If you're a junior or mid-level:  -- Consider how your task affects the team's work. 🔹 If you're a lead or senior:  -- Focus on how your team's work impacts the entire project. 🔹 If you're a producer, director, or PM:  -- Think about how your project fits into the company's strategy. 🔹 If you're a CEO or executive:  -- Ensure the company's results align with stakeholder interests. 🔹 If you're a stakeholder:  -- Align your assets with market interests. Always try to understand the bigger picture.

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I've seen so many of my fellow Games Industry executives saying something along the lines of "People are our greatest asset". If so, then why are games industry professionals failed so often by their leaders? Not only the obvious layoffs, but failing to onboard people then deciding they aren't a fit, promoting people without training and having no plans for either career planning or progression for employees, much of this leads to bloated orgs which are ripe for layoffs and not prime for production. Issues which are all too common, there's just "too much else to do". Perhaps, in many cases it's down to a lack of consistent organisational or individual competence. One of the most common management concepts I discuss with people who I work with, either as a Leader in a studio or my clients looking for leadership coaching or organisational assistance is this: The Peter Principle If you're not familiar, it's the concept that people will rise to "a level of respective incompetence" which means basically that people will be promoted until they aren't able to do a very good job. Initially written as satire, it became quickly obvious that it was an issue which was absolutely a serious and real matter for consideration. We promote people to roles that need different skills, they either adapt of fail, if they adapt, they are again promoted as so on and so forth until they aren't suited for the role. This isn't just true of, say for example, artists who become leads and without support and training are awful planners, leaders and communicators. It's also true of leaders. People who were great developers start up studios without support and training then are terrible bosses, junior leaders become senior leaders with poor strategic or wide remit understanding and so on. There's no 'ceiling' to where this problem can exist. If you're a leader who sees this problem and needs help, get in touch and I can help. If you're an organisation who needs someone to come in and fix these types of issues, again I can potentially assist you either independently or in a more formal long term/permanent engagement. Doing better by our people also means doing better by ourselves. These issues are deep rooted in our industry, but they are not insurmountable. Have a great Tuesday P.S. No, not THAT Peter... 😀 #gameindustry #leadership #peterprinciple

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Hello friends. Last month, I was looking for more work and finally secured some on Reddit from a guy who needed help with preproduction on his Tabletop RPG / Card Battler. After a meeting with him, he showed me what he had and it was quite impressive. He had a prototype of a card-battler using a tabletop RPG battle system, but he had little to no documentation or planning—he's been chiseling away at his game for a few months in his spare time after work. I suggested that before I dive into art, we flesh out the game design and the rest of the game up to around an 80% mark and let the last 20% be changes, additions, and that sort. As your game evolves, it'll come into it's own and you'll find things that need changed or added, this accounts for that. He agreed and I asked if I could work on all this since I did that with my game Alligori and lead the team from start to finish with our vertical slice, and I know tabletop RPGs very well. He agreed and we did the whole song and dance with paperwork, and he sent over a retainer and I began work the following Monday. Three weeks go by and we're working great together. I'm fleshing out his game, adding some meat to the backbone of his prototype with classes, abilities, etc. My goal was to write out as much as possible and then trim content to fit it into a 1-year development cycle. So I flesh a bulk of his game out, and then categorize it more into a game design document that clearly conveys concepts, ideas, and mechanics. Catching up, last week was the final week of my first month and payment was due. He just up and disappears like a fart in the wind, I have no idea if he's alive, incarcerated, on vacation, or what. He didn't remove me on Discord, so I don't entirely suspect malicious intent, but he gave no notice. That's the risk you run with working 1-on-1 with a client remotely, one day they can just up and disappear. I do have paperwork, so I may pursue legal action. If he doesn't log on by Friday, I'm going to publicly release all my documentation and the GDD I wrote on here.

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Stoked to reach the milestone of 50+ player reviews on Hive Jump 2: Survivors, just a day after 1.0 launch. https://lnkd.in/g2yMxnDa That "Very Positive" review label matters a lot to Steam when deciding how "valid" our game is (not to mention impacting customer perceptions). It's a hard label to achieve. It has to come from paying players. It excludes any players who received a promotional key (hence the two numbers in the GIF). It also filters by your languages preferences and region, to some extent, too. So, yes, stoked to say the least that our team at Graphite Lab has met this mark with our first sequel. Of course, if you want to add to the good vibes with your own review, all you have to do is pop over to Steam and for the price of a latte you too can see what all the fuss is about. https://lnkd.in/g2yMxnDa If you are curious about the impact reviews have on games released through Steam, take a look through this 2022 article. It gets right to the point and (for the most part) is still valid today. https://lnkd.in/g9D5feGC

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Landed for #MDev 2024 today! Excited to be speaking tomorrow about “Just Adding Multiplayer” to your game. I’ll be talking about how to plan your game’s infrastructure, monitization, and how to avoid common pitfalls. Come check it out tomorrow!

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Legendary Shout-Out to these amazing Gaming Recruiters who helped out Games For Love new interns with an amazing Resume Review Session this evening! Your dedication and support will mean the world to the upcoming interns who are helping save lives through Games For Love charity organization ❤️ Some Key takeaways from the event: ✅ It's okay to have more than 1 page resume, especially in Tech and Gaming, focus on boosting your resume as much as possible ✅ Boring Chronological Black and White resumes are still king, it helps with standard compatibility issues and makes it easier for recruiters to read, bonus points for PDF resumes ✅ #ABN Always Be Networking, don't just reach out to Recruiters, reach out to peers and ask for advice, more than likely those peers in that dream company will be more willing to respond faster and more often than recruiters, ask for the mentorships ✅ Be a sponge, even when you land that job or even become a senior level, there is always stuff you can learn from your peers and mentors, never stop learning Shoutouts: Ted Oh, CSM Viviana Baldarelli Tia LaRue Luke Davis and thank you Nathan "Jetti" Blair for inviting me to the event, your selfless crusade to help save kid's lives in hospitals through gaming is a blessing If anyone is interested in helping GFL or wish to volunteer please check out GamesForLove [dot] Org #Gamesforlove #charity #helpingkids #recruiters #volunteers #thankyou

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Your first VR game should take 3 months to build. Not 2 years.

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Updated 11/23/24: 649 New Games Jobs at 150+ Companies Category #3, Resource #11 at amirsatvat.com https://lnkd.in/d6x5NHMZ Looking for new opportunities in games? Please check out Resource #11 - the most robust new games roles resource out there! Combining it with Resource #10 (Games Jobs Workbook - our long-form flagship resource updated every 1-2 months) offers the most comprehensive view of the games job market worldwide. It's not just about the total aggregate numbers - our data is the cleanest! I run a 9-step process to keep everything clean, accurate, and automated: When the role was posted How it categorizes across our 20 standard community functional groups Dedupe for the same roles in multiple locations Clean out miscategorized roles Tell you where the role is Tell you if it's remote or not - for real Tell you if it is a reposted role or not with conditional formatting - for real Give you a direct link to apply Explore more and dive into your next big opportunity! Always free and without ulterior motives, for gamers!

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Experience vs. Education: What is Most Valuable? Working in game development, I often receive inquiries about how to break into the industry. True story: I’ve had numerous mothers call me about work opportunities for their sons in game testing. One common question is: what do recruiters value more, experience or education? People have different views on this, but my answer is always: the combination of both. I love finding candidates who possess a combination of experience and education. Hiring a programming or a game design student for a QA role is ideal. They are likely to excel in the role and have a clear growth path within the business. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am a huge advocate of internal mobility. I generally prefer to promote from within rather than recruit externally whenever it makes sense. That’s why – if your personal situation allows it – I highly recommend continuing education alongside gaining relevant work experience. Most companies have a tuition reimbursement program. Take advantage of it! Study something you enjoy on a part-time basis. Internal QA analysts, developers, and artists who grow within the company make the best future game designers, producers, team leaders, etc. I went back to school after working for 15 years. That experience made me realize how much more I could still learn. And the things I learn in school on Saturdays usually make their way into my work on Mondays. #personaldevelopment #gamedevelopment

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Know anyone that might know someone? Asking for a friend 👀 https://lnkd.in/g44DSCP8 #'s for the #'s #TheMattBarney #VideoGames #GameJobs #GameDevJobs #Unreal #UnrealEngine #GameEngineer #PrincipalEngineer #RemoteJobs #RemoteEngineeringJobs #RemoteEngineer

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What's the biggest delusion in game dev? I see it all the time. You think you know what players want. YOU DO NOT! 🚫 And that’s where everything falls apart. Mistake №1 ↳ Relying on your past success. • What worked then won’t work now. • Players evolve, so should your approach. Mistake №2  ↳ Trusting your brand will keep you safe. • Players aren’t loyal to brands. • They’re loyal to experiences. Mistake №3  ↳ Overhyping your game pre-launch. • Hype without substance kills trust. • Deliver first, market later. Mistake №4  ↳ Ignoring your scope creep. • Bigger doesn’t mean better. • Keep it tight, keep it focused. Mistake №5 ↳ Blind faith in your Free-to-Play model. • F2P isn’t for every game. • Know your audience. ✅ Solution? Stop assuming you know what players want. Start listening. Test → Adapt → Evolve. Your players are your best resource. Build with them, not just for them. P.S. Can you spot the game in the image?

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Voodoo's Cup Heroes already scaled to $60K a day 🤑 in IAP only and 100K downloads a day. The game has been constantly growing from its soft-launch in February making probably more than $3 Mil. in last 30 days altogether. This seems as another major Hybridcasual hit for Voodoo, as it already overtook Block Jam 3D and its on its way to catch up to Mob Control. Ironically it has the Mob Control math gates ➗ core built into it, which seems as an obvious choice to iterate upon. 2 months before its launch there was Bag Fight in Voodoo's portfolio, a game that iterated upon the Backpack hero successful Steam game. Cup Heroes took its top visualization and 2 phase core setup and replaced the inventory merging mechanic with the tried and tested Mob Control gates. But don't be fooled, the biggest and the most important iteration is actually the rogue lite skill randomizer. Here skills are picked at the end of each wave as there is no level in the game. You also need to pay the balls currency to get them, in contrast to the usual setup, where these are given for free, each time you level up. This offers a lot of places for ad placements, and I mean a lot 😅, with possibilities to refresh the skills, get a specific skill for and ad, get all 3 skills for an ad, revive, etc. On top of it you also have interstitials popping in your face. The core gameplay itself is also very interesting as the combat happens automatically on top of the screen with no player input. After you kill the enemies and they drop some balls you need to select where do you want to drop them, so that mathematically, they will multiply as much as possible, so you can then buy skills with them in the last 3rd step, then the core repeats. Join us as we talk about all of this with Felix & Matej 🦩 😎. Data based on Sensor Tower, thanks for the support 🤗 📺 Watch on YouTube: Link in the comments 🎧 Listen on Spotify: Link in the comments 🗣 Join the discussion on our slack channel: https://lnkd.in/eZXJ2Une #gamedev #gameindustry #mobilegames #gamedesign  #mobilegaming #mobilegamedevelopment #useracquisition #gameproduction #games #gamedevelopment #mobiledeveloper  #userexperience #hypercasual #hybridcasual

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Game developers - job opportunities ✅ Currently 20+ open roles, with more on the way ✅ Remote and in-office roles ✅ Triple AAA talent at the helm Archetype Entertainment Details in original post. #jobs #gamedev #jobsingaming #gamedevjobs #careers #videogamejobs #nowhiring #gameDevelopment #GameIndustry #GameJobs #GameProduction #RemoteJobs #RemoteWork #Hiring #Jobs #JobOpening #JobOpportunity #Hiring

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Game studios are filing for bankruptcy and game devs are losing their precious jobs almost every other day. Here is a list of all the studios affected since the closure of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Games with their numbers of devs impacted. Lightforge Games: 35~ CI Games: 30~ Mighty Kingdom: 25~ Studio Wildcard: 6 Gameloft Romania (Cluj): 136 Phoenix Labs: 125~ Singularity 6: 36 Hatchery Games: 13 Fall Damage: 50~ (Bankrupt) *Stats from Obsidian The worst part is all of the gaming devs are being advised “not to take things personally” as businesses are going through restructuring. Why the hell shouldn’t they? How can we remotely imagine the hardships that they and their families are going through? I am not here to give hollow advice, I am here to share resources that will help anyone who was impacted recently in the games industry. First💎 A 100% scholarship on our $11,000 Full Stack game dev program - https://lnkd.in/gNKBWtjf Re-skill and revise your game dev knowledge with our advanced C++, OOPs, Unity, and Data Structure modules. Not only that you get exclusive 1-1 mentorship from top game programmers who will help you build a strong base. Second💎 Layoff Support Kit 2.0 - https://lnkd.in/gCCXW_Wp My team and I have spent tireless hours finding top resources for game dev across the internet so you don’t need to waste your time finding them. The resource contains top programming boot camps and game dev teaching creators, almost every major game engine compiled together in one place, free game assets to help you build games, podcasts, and so much more. Third💎 Our Discord Community of over 10K game devs - https://lnkd.in/gH-wZe2G Here, all we ever talk about is game development and its marvels, support aspiring game devs to build stronger portfolios, and solve each other's game dev doubts. If you are a professional game dev help young talent crack their way into the games industry. Also requesting Kelly Bender, Alexander Rehm, Caitlin Cooke, Jordan Mazer, Ruty Rutenberg, Hailey Rojas, Kevin F., Kat Craig, Lord Amir Satvat, Willem Delventhal, Ali Farha, Matt Barney, Ash C., and Matt Hearnden to help this reach all the folks who need this and can make use of this greatly. Sending all my power and prayers to everyone going through these tough times ♾️ WAGMI 💪

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Update 1: After pretty good response to the fellow post I decided to spend some time researching, exploring, and "diving deep" into the gaps and opportunities in gaming and interactive media, I figured out what we're gonna build and we've decided to call it "Level Zero". So, what is Level Zero? It’s an inclusive but closed community to be built specifically for wicked brains in gaming and interactive media, a space where creators, innovators, and disruptors come together to push boundaries, connect meaningfully, and unlock new levels of innovation. Imagine it as a “secret level” where only the most dedicated and passionate players are invited to participate. The Inspiration: Level Zero draws from the concept of the Eudaimonia Machine —a unique architectural structure designed to create spaces for various stages of work and thought. The idea is that each "space" within Level Zero supports members at different stages of creation and collaboration, from brainstorming to execution. Phase 1 begins with “The Chamber.” This space will serve as the first, foundational layer of Level Zero, designed for deep, focused engagement. Think of it as a high-impact arena where creators and visionaries can work, plan, and refine their big ideas. We’re bringing a unique structure to "The Chamber" that I’ll be sharing in the next update. Stay in loop, and on this journey as we unlock each level in the coming phases. Exciting things are on the way! 🔥 #LevelZero #GamingInnovation #InteractiveMedia #CommunityUnleashed #EudaimoniaMachine #NextBigMove

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I started Gold Standard Gaming in 2017 after recognizing a ceiling at my current job (which was Eleague). I didn't KNOW exactly what I wanted to do, but I had ideas and I had motivation. I knew A LOT of people in gaming culture because I had been to 50+ gaming events from.... MLG in Columbus to Final Round in Atlanta to Pax Prime in Seattle to E3 in LA. 🎮. 📷📸🎥🚈✈️ I knew I like connecting with people and helping. 🫱🏻‍🫲🏾 I knew I liked discussing marketing strategies.🎨📈 I knew I liked the hype surrounding events. 📢📢 I took those passion points and started an LLC. ✅ No funding, only... Pivots Persevering Pushing (And a lotta Ramen) 🤣🤣 In 2021 we got hot... In 2022 took off🚀🚀 and got our first 6 figure client Through our core values, which internally we refer to as "The Gold Standard" we just always try to treat all of our clients, products, stories and events like they are our OWN and when it comes to getting stuff done.... DO NOT take no for an answer. I couldn't have gotten this far without Marcus "Esports" Howard Kathryn De Shields-Moon, MFA Aishwarya Shinde Sanjay Yadav Adesoji Ige Shreya Singh This thread did pretty well on Twitter so I thought you might want to take a look. Hopefully, it helps you on your journey. 😎 #Esports #Entrpereneurship #Education #Gaming #Startup

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