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Supercell celebrates its 10th anniversary by taking a look at what its learned

10 lessons across 10 years

Supercell celebrates its 10th anniversary by taking a look at what its learned

Supercell has celebrated its 10th anniversary with 10 lessons it's learned over the years.

As announced on its website, CEO Ilkka Paananen discussed what lessons he and Supercell have learned over the past decade. Firstly, the Finnish studio has learned to "always play the infinite game".

Meaning, try to create games that will be played for years to come.

It's a team effort

"Our dream is to create games that as many people as possible play for years and that are remembered forever."

To begin with, Supercell believed the "best people make the best games." However, it has since learned that it's actually the "best teams" that will create great games. Furthermore, Paananen discussed how important it is to take your time with the hiring process. He also claimed that a small team is an effective team.

"One of the most valuable lessons that I learned from our first Chairman, Petteri Koponen, was his advice about hiring: when thinking about whether you should hire someone or not, try to imagine the average quality level of the people at your company," said Paananen.

"Then ask yourself whether the new hire would increase that average or not. Only hire if the average will increase."

Trust issues

If there is one important lesson that Supercell has learned, it is to "replace control with trust." Paananen went on to explain that when teams are allowed to make their own decisions, results will come quicker and the team will be happier.

Furthermore, fear should not guide you. Instead, you should embrace the unknown and try different ideas. Paananen used Brawl Stars as an example. It saw a 35 per cent increase in revenue amid the coronavirus outbreak. On top of this, the game will hit China in June.

"Many Supercellians had mixed feelings about the art style and controls, and even whether Brawl was "a Supercell game" to begin with. But, the team kept working hard to improve the game, making massive changes to the game in beta and launched it after seeing the positive feedback from the community."

"Enjoy the ride"

An interesting lesson learned by the studio is not to create rules and processes, regardless of mistakes made. Furthermore, Paananen claimed "traditional goal setting" is not effective in Supercell's culture.

Paananen closed with a quote from a Supercell staff member: "Life is short...enjoy the ride. Find people that inspire you and make you better at what you do and make you a better person. We don't know what we are doing, so it is best to focus on creating a great team and the best possible environment for that team to succeed."


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.