Conversations with Game Developers – Sam’s top five takeaway’s from Develop Brighton
This week Sally (owner, director), Tom (operations manager), and I (Sam – trainee solicitor) attended the Develop conference in Brighton. Develop is a networking, information sharing and recruiting event focused on game developers.
Sally and I, along with our excellent colleagues Lydia and Caitlyn, form the business immigration team at OTB.
You may have noticed that already that this blog is a little different than the kind we normally publish. When we write our blogs and articles for the website, we normally write anonymously and in the passive voice. We all own and take responsibility for the content that we put up and write them as useful guides for existing and future clients to reference at any point.
For this blog I asked Hannah (our wonderful marketing manager) if I could write more informally, and as myself. The gaming sector is an area that we are all passionate about and is an area of focus for the business moving forward. We attended this conference in part to get a better understanding of the issues facing the sector and how any immigration advice we can provide can be tailored to fully support in this area.
One of the common areas of feedback we have heard all week is that studios want lawyers who understand and care about the nuances and challenges that are specific and unique to this industry. We’ve received a lot of valuable insight this week, we couldn’t possibly fit this into a single post but we wanted to cover the four or five big themes that we’ve heard and briefly address and briefly address the immigration law implications.
Ultimately this week has been about personal conversations, so it makes more sense to write to all of you in a more personal way (and to exceed the usual wordcount by about 1000 words – sorry Hannah!) as well as to show we have listened to what you all have to say.
We’re always keen to hear more, this article is not meant to be exhaustive. If there are other areas that you would like us consider, or where you would like us to focus our attention within your industry, please get in touch. You can reach me directly at [email protected] or on LinkedIn.
1. Junior’s need jobs! – A highly competitive market for entry level positions.
“Junior’s need jobs” is a refrain we’ve heard all week. The UK gaming sector is expanding rapidly but even at this pace the entry level positions cannot keep up with the number of talented, passionate and eager young people looking to enter the industry. The sector is also changing. Companies are no longer just looking at university graduates, those with equivalent experience, or ‘bedroom programmers’ are being recognised for the talent and contribution they can bring to developers as well.
The very first event Sally and I attended on Tuesday evening was a roundtable discussion of talent in gaming. The conversation quickly became a lively discussion between recruiters, graduates and juniors over the best ways to set themselves apart and how to get a foot in the door.
One company told me that this year they advertised for two environment artists and received 2000 applications. I spoke to another that told us that they will not consider international applicants for entry level positions because the UK market is so competitive already.
Such a large pool of talent is a positive for the industry, but it also has an impact on your international recruitment. The previous resident labour market has long since been abolished, however you are still required to show that you have a genuine vacancy. If you’ve identified an international worker for a junior or entry level position, you will need to think carefully over whether you will be able to demonstrate to the Home Office that this position is indeed a genuine vacancy.
2. Areas of shortage
Junior and entry level positions tend to be highly competitive, but this is not the same in all positions across the sector.
All week we have been told the same thing. Companies are struggling to fill certain highly skilled and sometimes niche junior roles; and people to fill senior positions are in consistently short supply. The most common roles we heard referenced as being in shortage are physics-based coding roles, technical riggers, technical artists, VFX artists and UX/UI artists.
No two jobs are the same, even if the job titles match. I had one company talk to me about the challenge they face in hiring character artists, specifically because their games necessitate hyper realistic graphics whereas other companies with more stylised graphics have more applicants than they can handle.
Where your company is struggling to recruit then you have a legitimate need to tap into the international market. This recruitment doesn’t just benefit the company and your final product, it benefits those intrepid juniors who have managed to secure a role with you too. Having the world’s best talent join you in senior roles means that your junior staff are being mentored by the very best and you can create the leaders of tomorrow in-house removing fears of shortages of seniors further down the line and future proofing your company for the long-term.
To hire overseas talent, you will first need to secure a sponsor licence. We would be delighted to have a chat to learn more about how we can support you in either securing a licence for you or maintaining your existing licence.
3. Recruiting seniors
One of the more important conversations we’ve had with developers this week is surrounding how the recruitment process for seniors takes place. Headhunting is the name of the game and this is completely understandable. As developers you have a wealth of experience and in most cases you will know who is the right fit for your next project from the outset.
While we’ve already talked about the legitimate vacancy question above, this headhunting approach will have implications for your sponsor licence compliance that are important to keep in mind. You don’t have to submit evidence of your legitimate vacancy when applying for, or assigning, a certificate of sponsorship but you are required to keep a record of this. The types of records that you need to keep vary depending on how you’ve recruited the employee.
For example, if you followed the traditional advertising approach that led you to identify an international candidate then you need to keep records of the adverts, where they were posted and how long they were posted for. You also then need to provide evidence of the process used to identify that candidate as the most suitable for the job (e.g. interview records etc.)
If you identified someone via headhunting, or through a speculative application or another none formal approach then the guidance is more vague, simply requiring you to provide evidence and explain the process used to identify that the worker was the most suitable.
This can sometimes be a confusing area and something that we would be delighted to support with.
4. Start-up’s – getting started with sponsoring workers
Developers come in all shapes and sizes. While it was pleasure to speak with the teams at the large studios visiting the conference, we also had just as many fascinating discussions with teams at small studios as well as those just in the process of getting their company set up.
Starting a new company is intimidating and there is a lot of red tape to get around, particularly for those whose primary experience so far has been on the technical and developing side. The important thing is not to panic. Whether it is corporate law, employment law, immigration law or any other type of law, it is important to take legal advice early so you understand what your next steps are and be supported through the process.
We had a lot of people come up to us and tell us they had identified international talent but were having to turn them away due to not knowing how they can hire them. I can’t possibly cover the whole process within this article but I’ve put the core steps below so you can see that this is an achievable goal, regardless of the size of your company. If you would like to discuss this in more detail, please book a free appointment using the link at the bottom of this article.
Hiring international talent:
- Apply for a sponsor licence (which satisfies the Home Office that you are a responsible employer and gives you the right to ‘sponsor’ an overseas worker)
- Apply for a certificate of sponsorship (which confirms the detail of the job you are filling)
- Assign the certificate of sponsorship (which links the job to the employee)
- Apply for the visa (which gives the employee the right to come to, or remain in, the UK as your employee
5. The talent is here and it is exciting
Our last takeaway is more reflective of our experiences. No legal insights.
All three of us were blown away at the level of talent, both domestic and international, on display as well as the generosity of spirit of everyone in attendance.
It is clear that there are some brilliant minds within the industry. I recall overhearing someone in the coffee queue talking about a solution he had come up with to fix an issue he was facing integrating a cloud solution with Unreal engine. I’m not a developer, I won’t pretend to understand the nuances of the technical issue at hand, but the thought and creativity on display was obvious. Whenever I walked the corridors, I would walk past dozens of small groups or one to one conversations of people sharing solutions to technical issue they were facing in development.
One independent developer showed me an AR game he’d made that blew my mind at the creativity and attention to detail (although swore me to silence on what it was!) as he recorded a video on a table next to our stand.
It has been a pleasure to swap conference stories with a couple of delegates from Supermassive. Exchange restaurant recommendations with a midlands-based developer who visits Nottingham regularly. See smaller studios on neighbouring stands such as Party for Introverts and MilkBubblesGames get such positive interest on their projects. Give the team at Mudstack a steady supply of breakfast bars throughout the day. Chat with university lecturers about the challenges they face in helping their international students get experience in the industry while complying with their visa restrictions. And speak with students and encourage them in trying to secure their first job as I see them experience the same hurdles, challenges and anxiety’s that I faced in the music industry 10 years ago.
Thank you game developers!
We would like to thank everyone who we met and attended this year for welcoming us in as part of the ‘gang’. It has been a valuable and insightful trip for our team and we look forward to meeting everyone again next year. It is exciting to see the gaming industry grow at such a rapid pace, to see such a wealth of talent in the young developers breaking into the industry and to see those in senior positions recognise and cultivate this brilliance.
If we spoke to you this week and you are interested in a deeper conversation about the support we can provide, or we weren’t able to link up and you still want a chat, we would be delighted to speak with you.
You can book a free consultation appointment with a member of our team below...