Christopher Baisan

Sadly, Friday was my last day at Creative Assembly. I will miss so much about that place, and I learnt a great deal during my time there. These are tough times for the gaming industry, and I see more and more Quality Assurance testers left stranded after such huge waves of redundancies across so many big companies. So I ask, what does that mean for the future? Will stakeholders and companies consider the rising financial gains from a national or worldwide crisis in the future? If it happens again, should the company's growth be halted to allow an internal safety budget to be built up to protect workers from this in the future? I hope we all learn from this and aspire to do better, as Quality Assurance is an integral part of the gaming industry. To lose so much so fast is a huge blow to the industry, not to mention the lives of people who dedicate their time and talent to achieving a smooth and secure product. The cost of making games is constantly rising, yet the cost of buying them has remained the same since 2010! Thats over a decade of money rising into development costs but not increasing the product prices; consumers want more for less. But they want better quality games more than that. I think it's time the industry had a shake-up. I will miss my time in CA so much, but I will not give up on this industry. We're gamers as well as developers. I would be pretty rubbish at QA if I didn't try to diagnose the issue the industry faces. QA isn't a last resort. We're a necessary resource and work alongside development to ensure our customers get quality games because we're passionate about games ourselves and we want to enjoy them for years to come. Somewhere, we seemed to forget that it was always about Quality and not Quantity. So I think it's time we rebalanced that original structure and try stabilising this industry again. There will always be games and people to play them, so let's make them better together.

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Accessibility and how it affects me? Probably Part 1 of hundreds, eventually. I wanted to do a quick post about this! ⭐ I recently got supplied some Speech-To-Text software to help me with my work, meaning I can use my microphone to type and reducing the strain on my hands. Originally, I was going to use it a moderate amount but I expected to still use my hands to type a bit now and then, especially while I get used to it. Cut to a few days later where I've mysteriously (unfortunately a very common reason for many ailments with my chronic illnesses) managed to damage a finger beyond use. After the initial panic, I realised I have this software now and I can still work, and message people, when needed. I spent some time getting to understand how to use it, and in conjunction with setting my steam deck to have a bunch of quick-starts for my most used programs that I can select with my working hand, I have been able to not only continue as usual, but arguably even more productively! A huge difference I'm seeing with using Speech-To-Text exclusively is that I'm able to just type what is in my head immediately, rather than sitting and having to wait for the processing time between my brain and my hands (which is a rather long process for me!) It's been an interesting experience to see just how much accessibility software has made a difference to me, and how useful it came in when I developed a temporary further impairment to my hand 🖐

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Another International Talk Completed ✅ Digital Dragons, thank you so much for having me! With everything happening in our industry, it's easy to spiral, but that's when you need community the most. That's why travelling to Poland, representing Sumo Digital Ltd and PixelAnt Games, felt extra special! There's something amazing about getting together on-site, with people from all over, to #RethinkRecruitment (even if that means I need to budget extra energy for public speaking 😅), and I'm super grateful for the opportunity. --- This got me thinking... ...you might have noticed I haven't posted much recently, and this is why: 🗺️ Bird's Eye View has been working with two amazing partners to put together a bid for the BFI grant. 🔍 I'm busy at work reviewing a couple of hiring processes. 🤖 The LinkedIn Algorithm™️ is incredibly demotivating when it comes to pushing helpful content to people that need it the most. 🚫 I wasn't sure if I was making any difference since the industry barely has any roles open. However, so many people reached out during #DigitalDragons to say my content really helped their job hunt; I can't help but think I should give it another try! 👉🏼 So bear with me, I probably won't post every day (I'm aiming for 1-2 a week), but I'm planning on writing articles with all the content from previous posts, as well as new bits of advice, especially when it comes to a slower industry. 💬 If you have topics you would like me to write about, feel free to drop them below! --- 📣 Follow #RethinkRecruitment and ring the 🔔 to read about: 📙 #GameDev Recruitment Best Practices 🔎 #JobHunting, #CareerAdvice & #RecruiterTips 👁️ Bird's Eye View & the #ELSH ⏩ https://entrylevel.games/ 🌟 Opinions are very much my own™️

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The Sumo Group closures really have broken me a bit, and I need to rant about the state of things. I'm sorry if it seems I'm glossing over all the closures before this one, but so many ex-students went there, so many ex-colleagues passed through there, and so my timeline is just filled with people looking for work. We keep talking and talking about the economic factors involved, Brexit and Covid and this and that ... the thing I can't stop thinking of is that in my life I've watched the world slowly pitch into a place of despondent capitalism. Art has become more about making stars and fame than helping people escape and reflect. A drive for "truth" and objectivity has resulted, paradoxically, in people putting more stock in spreadsheets and numbers than people. I can't help but feel that if you're bleating about finance and trade deals and business decisions, you're ignoring the fact that general support for artistic and creative endeavours has declined sharply and is still declining, even in the so-called "art world". Games are ultimately always going to be the first to fall in a culture war against creativity, because games are ultimately and profoundly pointless things. That's the whole majesty of the medium: they make us feel profound feelings, they help us explore our existence by being separate from reality, but to do so they MUST bring us nothing tangible in return. The truth is that our industry will probably bounce back to some degree, but it's not any financial structures or cost systems that will save game development as a medium and an art form - it's a cultural shift to recognise the importance of expressive and explorative subjective art in the world today, and the need to support creative endeavours without the pressure of financial recompense.

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How we helped Hexworks earn serious fan praise for Lords of the Fallen's voice acting. ... and saved them 100's of hours of internal time and resources. In 2014 the original LOTF game was released. - 8/10 for story - 2/10 for voice acting Based in Spain, Hexworks knew it would be hard to cast and produce the English VO by themselves... - Lack of in house resources - Already super busy - no time to take on the casting and VO production - Didn't have the contacts, connections or experience to voice produce in English They reached out to us when one of their team members recommended us from a previous project. - We provided a small, dedicated VO team. Everybody was contactable. Fast - We provided 'multi-location' casting. Working with actors across the globe - Cast a variety of diverse, authentic and interesting talent - We handled all project management - Client focused on their most important work / tasks Hexworks got instant access to our Producer, Editor & Casting / Voice Director. Nice & easy. The result was an outstanding cast assembled from all over the world. Each actor bringing their own unique story, background and lived experience to their role. This is where the magic happens. And the fans loved it. The voice performances received glowing reviews on forums. All because Hexworks decided to: - Go where the talent is and not just base casting in one studio / city - Work with a smaller, story driven partner whose owners are hands on each project "Yeah but not all game devs want to record remote sessions". But remote doesn't = home studio. When we prioritise incredible casting in multi locations. We... - Record in our own studios. - Record with our in market partner studios / facilities. - If home studio is only option and approved. We test, test & test again. - Send all sessions to our post team in Glasgow for edit / Mastering / QC For this to work: - We only take on clients who believe in quality & creativity over convenience - Focus on problem solving for our clients rather than maximising profits - Prioritise innovation and creativity during casting If you want to protect your team's time and get more interesting results with your casting, DM me and I'll send you our latest studio deck. P.S. Full transparency - we're not the cheapest. We tend to charge a little more as our service requires a higher level of project management. But it's worth it. I like to think we're reassuringly expensive. #GameDev #VoiceActing #GameAudio

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This time I've added some small changes to the system. Introduced a tooltip widget with information of hovered item (It's moved with mouse pointer) and moved interaction with containers into container blueprint instead of controller. Less ifology would need to be made with that approach when different interactable actors are in the project :) #unreal #unrealengine #blueprints #gamedev #beginner #inventory

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How to Deliver the Bad QA News The CRC build has just been delivered to QA and QA has broken it to the point of it not being a CRC build anymore. This story has played out a billion times since video games were invented, but how should QA deliver the bad news to production and development? Ideally, swiftly. The sooner the rest of the team knows there is a major problem with the build, the sooner the team can design and implement a solution to the problem. But that's the when, not the how. Personally, I find that by creating an air of positivity around my QA team, it makes delivering bad news simpler. By maintaining a positive attitude, a friendly demeanor, and keeping lines of communication always open, it helps makes delivering bad news easier. Also, by having strong testing practices such as the consistent collection of logs and video before presenting an issue and a robust peer-reviewed set of test cases. Being able to say, "I ran the new feature through all the test cases. It fails because of X. Here's logs and video of X occurring." There is a big difference between having too little information and having too much information. It is always better to collect unused information than to not collect important information.

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The hiring problem in games. Yes there really is one, and it's probably not what you think it is. Many studios over hire. I've seen this in tools businesses, game studios and publishers. The default seems to come from a need arising, then the assumption that to fulfil the need a person/s is required. I've seen this first hand, where instead of defaulting to the question 'how can we do this with who we have, without adding extra time and pressure to current staff?'... ...the default is usually 'how can we grow the team to do what we need?' Those businesses who default to evolving methods, processes, utilising generalists etc. before hiring...they're the ones who'll likely be winning over the next 5 years. They won't be laying people off when projects shutdown. They won't be laying people off when investors ask for lean, as they'll already be lean. And they won't be laying people off to follow industry trends, as they'll already be a leader in industry trends. This is even more pertinent with upcoming AI solutions coming to market. I hope if you're hiring, whatever the industry you're in, you're hiring for the long term and not just for the need you have right now. #management #hiringandpromotion #careers #technology #startups

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Awful news again today, with us finding out about more layoffs in the games industry. This time it is affecting Mighty Kingdom: CEO David Yin announced in the early hours this morning that around 28% had to be laid off (you can find this post here: https://lnkd.in/eZhb3PwM) To those impacted by these layoffs, please find a comprehensive list of resources, below: 🥇First, Discipline Games Jobs Resources: Over the past weeks I have created 9 (at time of writing) Games Jobs Resources to find jobs in a wide range of disciplines: 🎨 Art, Animation, VFX and UI This resource contains around 1,300 jobs worldwide across all links. Link: https://lnkd.in/eu2bjadW ⚙ Engineering and Programming This resource lists just over 1,700 jobs worldwide across all links. Link: https://lnkd.in/etPj22BE 🕹 Quality Assurance This resource lists over 440 QA jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/dkiEy8da 📑 Game Production This resource lists around 400 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/d9qfQ5tg 📢 Marketing & Community This resource lists around 380 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/dc-PVb3h 🎶 Audio and Sound Design This resource lists around 180 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/dU8t6Esq 📠 Studio Support, HR, Recruitment and BizDev This resource lists around 300 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/dMdWv4xN ⚙ IT This resource lists around 100 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/df7d-KkR 🎮 Game Design This resource lists around 600 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/d2kKaw95 🥈 Second, the Ultimate list of Video Games Career Resources: This should be your one-stop shop for all information. My dear friend Amir Satvat maintains these documents, he is a legend for doing this - please check them out: https://amirsatvat.com/ 🥉 Third, If you have worked in publishing, please message me. I am looking for quite a few roles right now! ⬅ 🎖 Finally, do not give up. Ever. No matter how dark things may look right now, I KNOW you will get through this, you have got this! 👊 Remember you are not alone. If you need help, advice, or even an ear to listen, we're here for you. Always! ➡ A request to my community, please can I ask you to repost this post to your colleagues and friends, so that we can get as many into jobs as possible! And please comment if you or your studio are currently hiring - let's help each other! Much love ❤️ #layoffs #gamesindustry #jobsingames #mightykingdom

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Afternoon everyone! We're still on the hunt for a hands on QA leader to help us launch our first cloud game. This is the perfect opportunity for somebody who wants to help build something from the ground up, and doesn't mind rolling up their sleeves and doing some of the work themselves. If you're interested read on for a "Cheat Sheet" on the types of things we are looking for in an ideal candidate Key skills we are looking for... * Experienced being deeply embedded with a game development team, especially at the early 0 to 1 stages of making a game. This is a role where you will be shoulder to shoulder working in the trenches with developers. We want people that invested in the project, and capable of building strong collaborative relationships. * Technically capable of navigating your way around game development tools with strong familiarity with game engines (Unity is ideal), developer workflows / tools, build processes, etc. We're a small team so we're counting on you to be able to do forensic investigation and help us find the root cause of issues. * Knows their way around QA process & workflows. Our first QA lead will work with production to set up our QA reporting process including but not limited to; Bug workflows, JIRA setup & management, Test plan processes, Smoke & build testing, etc... * Comfortable with leading a small team (eventually). We fully expect to need to bring additional folks online for the project. But it will never be a massive team everyone on our team is a working manager. So we're looking for folks that are capable of managing a few high functioning individuals or a solid external outsource partner. Still reading?! Awesome here is even more information to help you stand out! You might be our unicorn if you... * Work on a larger development team as part of embedded QA. Ideally as a Sr Tester or Lead.. You focus on a specific area of game development have built a deep understanding of how the game works, the tools to make it and how to best partner with your developers to nip issues in the bud early. You're looking for a broader role, but you love development and you don't want to just be a people manager on a large team. * Are the QA equivalent of a Swiss army knife.. You've spent your time in the trenches of smaller startup teams or medium sized game teams. You didn't have an army of testers, or all the fancy toys.. and you didn't need it b/c you and your crew were basically the QA version of Seal Team 6 * A grizzled veteran of many a game launch.. You've been there done that, and have the tradeshow T-shirts to prove it. Day to day you manage a large crew of amazing QA folks, but secretly you wish you can go back to the glory days and roll up your sleeves and get your hands deep in the guts of a game again.

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**Inspired by Liam Bolling's post on the Google AI Hackathon, a brilliant idea sparked! ** Remembering Helen Poon's idea about using AI to tackle the universal dilemma of "what's for dinner?", I reached out and we knew we had to team up. It was a pleasure collaborating with this talented crew: Rémi Vansteelandt on the front-end, Jacob Ledgerwood on the back-end, and myself contributing to the design. Together, we built a proof-of-concept (POC) that not only works beautifully, but also addresses a significant issue: food waste. ♻️ This AI tool goes beyond just generating recipes. It helps you use ingredients you already have on hand, making it a fun way to plan a date night meal or simply save some money. Plus, it's a fantastic way to upcycle pantry staples into delicious dishes! We'd love your feedback! Would you try our Google AI Hackathon entry? Let us know in the comments and don't forget to like and share! https://lnkd.in/gR_nCwyd #GoogleAI #Hackathon #AI #FoodWaste #PantryUpcycle #DinnerDilemma #Gemini

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Back from seeing a lot of great people at Develop Brighton, which was busy enough to distract me from doing the usual daily recaps. Let's continue, shall we? Today on GamesIndustry.biz... (Thursday, July 11th 2024) 1. Your must read is Chris' opinion piece on yesterday's Xbox Game Pass price hike announcement, exploring how the move reflects the need for profitability, the strength of Xbox's first-party line-up, and how determined Microsoft is to make Game Pass work https://lnkd.in/e5-rqs5R 2. In the news, Shift Up - the South Korean developer behind Stellar Blade - raised $320m with its IPO, which was the largest for a games company from that nation since 2021 https://lnkd.in/eUQzGTNf 3. Splash Damage is the latest studio to face layoffs, with the studio telling us a "small number of roles" will potentially be made redundant following a review of the business. These are said to be mostly operational roles, with development largely unaffected https://lnkd.in/ejA-f6Ri 4. GAME has reportedly dropped yet another part of its offering. After ditching pre-owned, its loyalty scheme, and Xbox All Access, the retailer will now apparently stop taking in-store pre-orders from August 1. The reason? According to staff, it's because the tills have to cope with too much so parent company Frasers Group is making it so GAME stores (or rather concessions) can only sell and refund products https://lnkd.in/ehMY4sg3 5. Tencent is shutting down free-to-play shooter Synced after just one year of it being available to play https://lnkd.in/e4r3C-kP 6. And Embracer has secured a new €600m ($652m) revolving credit facility with a two-year tenor, replacing the existing €420m ($456m) one, due in May 2025 https://lnkd.in/eGNwZC3g There's more news over at www.gamesindustry.biz and make sure you're signed up to the GI Daily to get it all delivered to your inbox: https://lnkd.in/eAkx_zen

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Trying Intro, a service that makes it easier for people looking to speak with experts (in my case games) with as little friction as possible. If you’ve got a game project you need help with, follow this link to book some time:

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I'm happy to say I'm opening my calendar up again for some more consulting so if you want some accessibility advice on your game or your community management strategy feel free to drop me a DM or book a 15-minute call to chat about what I can help with! (No obligations!) Here's what I'm offering: 🎮 Play and Review Want to see how accessible your game is in real time? I’ll play and review your game live with your developers. Hourly rates apply! 📚 Accessibility 101 Let me host a 1-hour presentation and Q&A session tailored for the gaming industry to your indie studio. 📱 Social Media Audit I’ll audit your social media channels and give you personalised recommendations to make them more accessible. 🕹️ Game Audit Basic: An audit against basic guidelines and recommendations. Advanced: An audit against advanced guidelines and recommendations. Full: A full evaluation of your game with recommendations. 💡 Custom Services Got something specific in mind? I’m open to speaking engagements, panels, design consultancy, and specialised training workshops. Reach out for a personalised quote! #Accessibility #A11y #GameDev #CommunityManagement #Freelancing https://lnkd.in/e6S8PUxJ

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https://lnkd.in/ed8dTSa2 if anybody has some free time and wouldn’t mind testing my ui prototype for my uni module it would be much appreciated https://lnkd.in/ekgjXwvw #UnrealEngine5 #UI

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I've just published https://gdscript.live since it's a tool I've wanted for a few years now, but no one else has seemed to make something similar the feature set I want. The main goal is to help share and test #GDScript snippets for answering #GodotEngine (#Godot4) questions, but I have also added a profiler to help test performance of different implementations of an algorithm/feature (eg: all the different ways of constructing a String); similar to what https://quick-bench.com provides for C++. Everything runs locally in browser. The "Share" button fully encodes the current script within the URL, so sharing examples should be effectively permanent. You can find the script in this image here: https://lnkd.in/gd6QqFbj

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🕹Today in Gaming History!🎮 25 years ago today Tarzan released for PC and PlayStation 1 from Eurocom Entertainment Software, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Disney Interactive in association with The Walt Disney Company. #TiGH #GamingHistory #Gaming #History #Tarzan #PlayStation #Eurocom #Sony #Disney #WaltDisney #Platform #Adventure #Movie #Games #Game #VideoGames #VideoGame #GamesIndustry #VideoGameIndustry

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It has happened 😔 I'm one of the many Sumo peeps affected by layoffs. I had a fantastic time at Sumo Digital Ltd. I met incredible people that will be lifelong friends, I represented my company at many international events, and, super recently, I've been nominated for Diversity Star at the Develop:Brighton Star Awards. I also got to build teams for the really cool titles below: 🗃️ A Little to the Left 🪓 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 🏎️ Stampede: Racing Royale 🛢️ Still Wakes The Deep But, now, it's time to say goodbye 👋🏼 So, to all the incredible people I had the honor of hiring & working with, I just want to thank you for enriching my experience 💖. I can't wait to play all the future games you'll make. --- 🚨 I am now on the lookout for a new team I can complement with my skillset! 🚨 I have 5+ years of experience recruiting for all main core development teams, as well as senior leadership and operational roles, via many different ATS & CRMs. Exclusively in the Game Development Industry. However, THAT'S NOT ALL! I also have extensive experience 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠: ✨DEIB programs, ✨Reports and analysis, ✨Career support initiatives, ✨Early career processes, and ✨Recruiting & hiring training materials. ➡️ So if you are looking for a recruiter, a #DEIB specialist or a generalist who can support multiple areas & teams, make sure to message! ➡️ If you aren't hiring but want to help, leave a comment below or repost to increase my reach! --- 📣 Follow #RethinkRecruitment and ring the 🔔 to stay updated! ⏩ https://entrylevel.games/ 🌟 Opinions are very much my own™️ #Layoffs #Redundancies #JobHunting #GameDev

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