We continue to summarize the results of 2019 together with the heads of gaming companies and market experts. Next up is an interview with Tanya Loktionova, the founder of the recruiting company Values Value.
How was 2019 for the company?
We have traditionally closed a variety of vacancies, helped to assemble studios and develop entire departments of analytics, marketing, HR and recruiting. A couple of high-profile transitions of top managers announced App2Top.ru , — our work.
Of the specialists employed by us this year, 54% are women. In 2018, there were only 15% of them. If we talk about specializations, then most of all we have employed professionals in the field of game design, production and level design.
We set records on the scale of the vacancy walls for our partner conferences and on the number of respondents to a Large Salary Survey.
I am proud of our course “Introduction to Game Dev“, which we launched with partners from devtodev. We get an excellent feedback on it and prepare a content update for existing and new listeners.
A year ago we planned to double the size of the team, the financial plan was also doubled. New roles were allocated for this, promotions were carried out and new managers were hired, “hardcore” training for key employees was launched, a whole bunch of “process” things were started. As a result, many copies were broken, the structure was revised, and some administrative roles were abandoned. We conducted the most difficult and exhausting organizational evaluation of employees. It was followed by another wave of rethinking and parting with really good specialists. As a result, the company now has the same number of employees as it had a year ago, but the transformation of the team, the development of managers, the breakthrough in expertise and the quality of service greatly inspire me.
We increased our income by one and a half times, because we realized in time that it was not scaling that would help us earn more, but an emphasis on quality and speed, orientation to the customer as the main client. The candidate has remained our core value, everything is stable here.
What events in the regional and global gaming industry do you consider central in the past year?
The creators of my favorite game Beat Saber bought Facebook, but it’s rather personal. I will also take Keanu Reeves‘ participation in Cyberpunk 2077 there, I am waiting for the release now.
TikTok has broken into the mobile industry in marketing terms. I think that next year the service will prove itself as a serious platform, simultaneously influencing the labor market.
Some mergers and acquisitions, which I wrote about in the results a year ago, have become public.
“Our” continue to buy up “our”. This is not news anymore. Therefore, I will separately note the deal between the American AppLovin and the Belarusian Belka Games. Such a precedent opens up completely new prospects for companies in our region.
Also interesting is the case with Kharkiv h8games, which joined Voodoo, and the purchase of the Serbian studio Eipix Entertainment by Playrix. I was also pleasantly impressed by the opening of the MyTona office in New Zealand.
What are the main trends in the market today?
I will talk about the trends of the labor market.
Firstly, it is the spread of remoteness. If earlier only a few companies considered such a format of cooperation, including with managers and top specialists, now there are more and more such studios and vacancies. Such teams are most active in Belarus, Ukraine (especially Kiev), Latvia and Lithuania.
Secondly, Minsk is like a new Cyprus. There are more and more successful companies, more and more relocates, the positive impact of HTP is becoming more noticeable, salaries are getting higher.
Thirdly, the number of new companies with a success story or investments and a large demand for scaling is growing. The success of local hyper-casual developers and publishers played a role here.
Fourth, a request for expertise in the form of books and courses. The industry is studying itself and is ready to share knowledge.
Fifth, the growth of salaries for top specialists. It’s from the series “the poor get poorer, and the rich get richer.” Junior- and middle-specialists have not grown much in income, but bloody battles are unfolding for experienced guys. It was especially difficult for companies to find analysts and technical leads this year.
Which third-party game releases turned out to be the most important this year? Plus, which games did you spend the most time on in 2019 as a gamer?
Death Stranding has become in my eyes a worldwide phenomenon in the field of gaming and marketing. Kojima is a hype genius, for sure. I didn’t stay away, and Death Stranding became the first single-player AAA game that I played on the console.
Our tribute to Death Stranding (in the photo, Values Value CEO Alina Mudraya and Values Value Recruiting Head Yulia Rebik)
In the summer, I got very excited about PUBG Mobile, played for several hours, and started watching streams, especially fervent Asian ones and our YouTubers.
And so – everything is traditional, I play games of customers and my favorite matchtrishechki.