Release management

Games don’t just magically appear on stores. I was the little ghost in the machine who actually made it happen, together with the tech director in charge of game builds. I coordinated the following releases:

• 02/2018 – SOMA – Launch on PS4 and addition of Safe Mode to all platforms
• 09/2018 – SOMA and Amnesia: The Dark Descent – Launch on Discord Nitro
• 10/2018 – Amnesia: Collection – Launch on Xbox One and addition of Hard Mode on all platforms
• 08/2019 – Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Penumbra: Collection on Discord Store
• 09/2019 – Amnesia: Collection – Launch on Nintendo Switch
• 10/2019 – SOMA – Free giveaway and launch on Epic Games Store
• 03/2020 – Amnesia: Rebirth – Announcement and wishlist phase on Steam
• 04/2020 – Amnesia: The Dark Descent – Free giveaway and launch on Epic Games Store

Release management is essentially making sure all things needed for the storefront get made and uploaded, and in this case creating things where needed.

Storefront assets

Aside from coordination, I created several of our storefront assets. This is not always an easy task, considering a lot of original assets are in low resolution or lost forever. I remade a lot of assets in HD, including taking new screenshots for Penumbra games. For all other games I took assets and logos and combined them into all sorts of sizes and dimensions, from banner images to box art.

Trailers

The trailers for the older games were either low-resolution or overly long. For Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs I cut storefront-appropriate versions from 3 minutes to about 40 seconds. The trailers for Penumbra games were in 480, so I ended up making a completely new trailer with new footage. It was quite an adventure considering the old engine lacks developer tools and proper controller support. I was a part of Amnesia: Rebirth trailer production, and shot some of the footage.

Age ratings

All games require age ratings from different authorities. I have now become an expert on PEGI, ESRB and IARC, as well as Australian, Brazilian and Korean ratings. It’s always interesting to anticipate what kind of ratings a game will get for “torture but it’s morally ambiguous” and “full nudity that would be rated appropriate in Northern Europe”.

Localisation, QA, and porting

Since Frictional Games didn’t have internal teams for these, getting anything out the door required communications with external teams. These were divided between me and the tech director, depending on the project.

Recruitment

I started out by replying to unsolicited emails, and ended up running almost the entire recruitment process. Based on my experiences with both application processes and unsolicited applications, I wrote a comprehensive blog about best application practices – in this case for Frictional, but relevant to any position in gaming: Writing the best application for a Frictional Games job.

Unsolicited applications

Part of my daily routine was going through and evaluating all unsolicited applications. Some of them got forwarded to executives, and others get a nice rejection message.

Recruitment processes

When the company needed a new hire, I sat down with the executives and a team lead to map out the team’s needs. After that I wrote the job ad, making sure it’s catchy, but also easily readable and utilising inclusive language.

Once the applications started coming in, I pre-screened them and put them on JIRA, along with comments on each applicant’s strengths and weaknesses. In cases where work tests were required, I coordinated communication between the team and the applicants. In some instances I also participated in preliminary interviews with the applicants.

Applicants put a lot of effort into job applications, and my thinking is that they deserve something in return even if they don’t get the job. That’s why I took it upon myself to write feedback for each and every applicant for the open positions. The further in the application process they get, the more feedback they get.

One of the best experiences has been the applicants’ response to this – I have gotten several positive email responses, applicants tweeting about their experiences, as well as someone coming up to my boss at an event and complimenting the process.

Internal and external events

Most Frictional employees work remotely, so when they all got together, I wanted to make sure everything runs extra smoothly. As an event organiser I was at the first one to arrive and last one to leave.

My responsibility was researching, visiting and booking hotels, managing travel arrangements, ordering catering and dinners in accordance to dietary restrictions, setting up the office or venues, arranging evening programme, and most importantly getting tea, coffee, and snacks.

For external events such as student Meet and Greet events I made and printed promotional and info materials, brought and set them up, managed schedules, and talked to students if needed.

Testing

Amnesia: Rebirth went through several rounds of testing, including vertical slice, alpha, and beta.

Vertical slice testing was done remotely with trusted testers. My responsibility was coordinating with them, handing out game keys, writing testing and recording instructions, writing a survey, and managing the recordings and feedback.

For alpha the company utilised on-site testers, whom I supervised through the process. This means making sure the game runs, setting up recording and private streaming (which is surprisingly hard to find!), following the stream and helping them where needed, as well as taking them out to lunch and asking them questions.

In the global pandemic situation I had to rethink these testing practices, going back to remote testing. Some of it was done in real time, and some similarly to vertical slice.

Office management

Contrary to popular belief, an office doesn’t just run itself. I run it. Or ran!

Running an office means coming up with cleaning schedules and forcing people to stick to them, researching lighting and acoustics, mapping out the need for an IKEA trip, buying good tea, and most importantly watering the plants. Even on vacations. The plants were flourishing!