Feature

Mobile game jobs weekly: New studio Playrmakr hires chief design officer, InnoGames' new PR team, Jam City recruitment drive

The movers, shakers and job opportunities in mobile gaming

Mobile game jobs weekly: New studio Playrmakr hires chief design officer, InnoGames' new PR team, Jam City recruitment drive

Welcome to our new regular weekly article where we round-up the week's big movers and shakers in the mobile games industry.

We’ll also be linking to handy jobs-related articles and identifying the top job opportunities in the sector.

Check out last week's big movers and vacancies here.

Movers, shakers and job opportunities

Don’t forget you can check out our official jobs board for vacancies in the mobile games business. We’ve also published a list of companies currently hiring, which we update each month, available right here.

In this article you'll find:

Got jobs news you’d like to share? Contact PocketGamer.biz Senior Editor Craig Chapple at craig.chapple@steelmedia.co.uk.


Click here to view the list »
  • 1 The movers and shakers

    Check out this week's movers and shakers in the mobile games industry right here.

    Got a new hire we should cover? Get in touch with our senior editor at craig.chapple@steelmedia.co.uk.

    Wargaming’s Anil Das-Gupta heads to London start-up Playrmakr

    Wargaming product owner for mobile competitive games Anil Das-Gupta has left the World of Tanks developer to join a new London start-up called Playrmakr as chief design officer.

    The studio was set up by ex-Arsenal and Burnley football player Danny Karbassiyoon and football agent Adam Davis to develop sports games for mobile.

    Das-Gupta, who has worked at the likes of NaturalMotion, Mind Candy and Gree, said the opportunity to work for the team was “an opportunity I couldn’t resist”.

    “Playrmakr’s gaming concept and USP is unique: Connecting fans and superstars in a mobile-first gaming offering that is bitesize yet contains all the magic of the real thing,” he said in a LinkedIn post.

    “Too often in the games industry, we get caught up in what's worked in the past without thinking about how to best utilise the technology and leverage the platforms of today's world.

    “Today's athletes are more than just star players - they are superstar brands and media companies in their own right who need to find unique ways to engage their fanbases. The way fans consume information and enjoy sports has undergone a critical shift since the rise of the mobile phone, and I believe that providing an experience curated for today's world is a huge blue ocean in which gaming is a huge part of.

    “With seven professional soccer and NBA players already as investors in Playmakr and considering the rolodex of our founders, I think we are perfectly setup to take advantage of the opportunity."

     

    German developer InnoGames names new PR team

    German browser and mobile studio InnoGames has named new PR team as it plans to increase its output of corporate stories.

    In particular, it aims to promote employer branding and work with media that publish content of a more “technical and business focus”.

    To that end, it’s hired Jan Kronenberger as senior public relations manager. He previously worked as a PR manager and consultant for start-ups and members of the German federal parliament, the Bundestag.

    Ex-Faktor 3 communications consultant Dennis Schoubye meanwhile has been hired as senior PR manager for games and corporate.

    They join junior PR manager Esther Haal, who has been at the company since June 2017 focusing on event management.

    Current Innogames senior PR manager for corporate Sarah Sellner will continue to serve in the role. The developer noted it was looking for a trainee to operate on its social media channels.

    The new InnoGames PR team

     

    CrossInstall promotes Anuj Kucheria to chief revenue officer

    Programmatic interactive mobile ads outfit CrossInstall has promoted its VP of business development Anuj Kucheria to the role of chief revenue officer.

    Kucheria will now lead the company’s business teams and oversee its revenue generation and its three main businesses: DSP performance, brand sales and creative partnerships.

    BEfore joining CrossInstall, Kucheria was head of advertising sales for the Americas at Chartboost, and prior to that worked at Google, AdMob, and Causes.com.

    “We’ve experienced massive growth within the last two years, and Anuj has been one of the core drivers of it,” said CrossInstall CEO Jeff Marshall.

    “He has a keen sense of how to advance the various lines of business and execute a thorough revenue generation strategy. He delivers when it counts as a forward-thinking leader, and I am excited for his expanded role in the business.”

  • 2 The mobile game job vacancies

    Here we feature a select few job vacancies from our jobs board and around the industry, as well as companies recruiting significant numbers of staff.

    Rovio

    Angry Birds developer Rovio is hiring across its studios in Espoo, Finland and London, UK. Roles include:

    Product Manager (Slingshot Studio) - Espoo, Finland

    Art Director (Puzzle Studio) - Espoo. Finland

    Senior Game Designer (Puzzle Studio) - Espoo, Finland

    Senior Game Programmer (Puzzle Studio) - Espoo, Finland

    Senior Server Engineer - London, UK

     

    Playwing

    Canada-based developer Playwing has also listed eight jobs on our board, with vacancies including:

    Lead 3D Environment Artist

    Technical Arist

    Level Designer

    Lead Programmer

    Gameplay Programmer

     

    Outfit7

    Talking Tom developer Outfit7 meanwhile has a flurry of job opportunities open at its studio in Ljubljana, Slovenia, including:

    Data Scientist (Product)

    Game Monetisation Expert

    3D Artist

    3D Generalist

    Senior VFX Artist

     

    More jobs highlights

    Audience Development Editor (Steel Media) - Anywhere

    Online / Backend Programmers all levels (Pixel Toys) - Leamington Spa, UK

    Business Intelligence Manager (Ubisoft) - Paris, France

    Senior Game Programmer (MojiWorks) - Guildford, UK

    Character/Concept Artist (Outplay Entertainment) - Dundee, UK

     

    Hot vacancies around the mobile games industry

    Flaregames, hot off announcing the first partner for its Flare Accelerator Developer Relations Manager, is on the hunt for a developer relations manager to build relationships with studios across the world.

    Scotland-based developer Tag Games has an exciting opportunity open for a senior games designer to lead the creative vision across one or multiple mobile games.

    UK racing games studio Hutch Games (which also has a Canada office) is looking for an art director, responsible for managing UI art and UI designers.

    Big Bang Racing Traplight Games, which focuses on titles based around user-generated content, is after a game programmer.

    London studio Space Ape Games, an expert in live operations and a company that has close ties to Supercell, has an open vacancy for a game developer.


  • 3 This week’s big recruiters

    Here we link to a selection of the current big recruiters in the mobile games space.

    Know of some hot job opportunities? Email craig.chapple@steelmedia.co.uk.

    Jam City

    Panda Pop and Cookie Jam developer Jam City has more than 50 vacancies across its US offices.

    Scopely

    The Walking Dead: Road to Survival publisher, a Mobile Games Awards-nominee, has 29 roles open across a variety of disciplines, mostly based in Barcelona, Spain.

    N3twork

    Mobile games company, the developer behind Legendary: Game of Heroes as well as its own technology in the works, is on the lookout for 18 new staff in California, Chile and the UK.

    Pixelberry Studios

    A leader in the mobile interactive fiction space and now owned by publisher Nexon, US-based Choices developer Pixelberry Studios has 11 roles open right now

    Pocket Gems

    Another key interactive fiction games developer, this time for the hit game Episode as well as other titles such as War Dragons, has 28 vacant roles at its San Francisco office.


  • 4 Jobs around the games industry

    Still here? Well while we've got you, here you can find jobs news from around the rest of the games industry, courtesy of our sister-sites PCGamesInsider.biz, InflunecerUpdate.biz and TheVirtualReport.biz.

    Click on the links to get the full story.

    Co-founders leave Call of Duty: WWII studio Sledgehammer for Activision exec roles

    The co-founders of Sledgehammer Games, the studio behind Call of Duty: WWII (pictured) and Advanced Warfare, have departed to take on new positions at publisher Activision.

    As reported by Kotaku, Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey have both moved to non-specified executive roles at Activision, with director of product development Aaron Halon taking on the top job at the Call of Duty developer.

    The studio was founded back in 2009, coming on board to help out on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by Activision following a fallout with Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella.

    Sledgehammer made the leap from support studio to effectively leading the Call of Duty franchise with bold new steps in 2014's Advanced Warfare and WWII.

     

    CI Games announces layoffs despite Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 hitting 1m units

    Polish games firm CI has revealed that its 2017 release Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 had sold more than one million copies, but has revealed it has downsized the studio.

    In a blog post on the company's site, CEO Marek Tyminski said that the project was "relatively successful" despite a "middling media reception". Furthermore, the studio was profitable.

    The exec says that laying off staff was the best way for the company to move forward, but said that the decision was not an easy one.

     

    Diversity is essential to the growth of the games industry, Microsoft's Spencer says

    The head of Microsoft's games business has said that corporate diversity is absolutely essential to the market's future.

    Speaking at DICE - as reported by GamesIndustry.biz - Phil Spencer spoke about the virtues of making companies more diverse, saying that he had learnt some hard lessons along the way. This included, but was not limited to, the Microsoft party at 2016's Game Developer Conference which featured podium dancers in school uniforms. This, Spencer says, was an "unequivocally wrong, unequivocally sexist and unequivocally intolerable".

    The exec went on to talk about the future of the games market and how companies need to best position themselves to serve a growing number of consumers.

    "One estimate has the number of gamers growing to more than two billion people worldwide in three years," he said.

    "I think the question we need to ask is this: How do we transform our industry to prepare for this massive growth opportunity? We're going to see increasing opportunity, with increasing responsibility to make gaming for everyone."


Head of Content

Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.