Mikael Silvennoinen is the customer support and live ops lead for Critical Force, having joined the developer almost two years ago. He's also a long-time competitive gamer, having competed as a semi-professional in multiple competitive titles.
Silvennoinen will be joining a panel on the power of community management on day 3 of Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1, taking place on April 6th-10th 2020.
Ahead of PGC Digital #1, we caught up with Silvennoinen to discuss his dream of joining the industry and any advice he has for people trying to get in.
PocketGamer.biz: Tell us a bit about Critical Force.
Mikael Silvennoinen: Critical Force is like a big family and a great place to learn! If you have an interest in coding, design, or such, there is always someone in the company who will help you to learn, and workshops are created from time to time by employees.
What does your role entail?
I'm currently responsible for Critical Force's customer support & live ops, including customer support development, social media management and some parts of community management.
Why did you want to work in the games industry?
It has always been my dream to work in the games industry, since I feel I have a lot to give towards development due to my experience with competitive games, as an example.
Critical Force was the perfect starting point for me since the product did fit my past very well (Critical Ops).
What advice would you give to anyone looking to get into it?
You should connect with people from the games industry and just start applying.
Having a solid CV will always help.
What are your thoughts on the industry in the last 12 months?
The games industry, at least on the mobile game side, is growing a lot, and trends are continually changing, though on FPS/TPS side Battle Royale is still booming.
What major trends do you predict in the next 12 months?
Most likely due to COVID-19, games which have lots of content to play will start trending.
How has the games industry changed since you first started?
I've not been in the industry long enough to answer this question properly :(
Which part of the Connects event are you most looking forward to and why?
Not sure yet! I hope to see talks from Jam City again!
PG Connects Digital #1 is the best of our Pocket Gamer Connects conference in an online form, with an entire week of talks, meetings, and pitch events taking place from April 6th to the 10th. You can register for the online event here.
