Remote Working in the Games Industry
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marketing director Jemima, in her at home office with her custom auroch headset
Founded in 2010, Auroch Digital has always been a studio with people at its heart. We’ve grown over time but our goals have always remained the same: to put our people first because happy people make amazing games.
I’m Jemima Crow and I’m the Marketing and Communications Director here at Auroch Digital. I’ve been with Auroch since 2019 and in that time I’ve seen it grow, develop and evolve into the friendly, culture-first and caring studio it is today. Here, I’ll be sharing insights into how game studios can make remote working suit the needs of their business, their games and their people. Let’s dive in!
The games industry and remote working
Like many, we packed up our desks in March of 2020 and waved our colleagues goodbye with arms full of plants, Warhammer figures and PCs. Little did we know then that our office would never be used in quite the same way again…
When the big ‘call back to office’ started happening later that year (and then again in 2021… and then again later in 2021…), Auroch Studio Director Tomas Rawlings surveyed the company to see if we wanted to return to a bigger office, or if people preferred being remote. The response was staggering: people LOVED working remotely! It gave them more time to spend with their families, more time for the hobbies and activities they loved and – weirdly – allowed them more connectivity with their colleagues. We still have an office in our hometown of Bristol, but for the majority of the Auroch team – working from home is here to stay.
It hasn’t always been easy, and we were certainly full of questions about the longevity of work from home: Would our studio culture survive? Can we continue collaborate on games? Could we still work together while being apart? The answer to all of this is: Yes.
What we found was remote working made Auroch Digital stronger than ever: we developed and released our most successful game, we more than tripled in size and now have over 100 people working from all over the UK and beyond with a stronger studio culture and connectivity than ever before.
Studio director tomas rawlings gives a talk on climate and games
Why Auroch Digital chooses remote working
Aside from it being the preference of our people, remote working can be an incredibly practical way for game studios to operate.
Comfortable working for all
We’re very proud to be a studio which puts the wellbeing of our people first, and remote working is a great way to ensure everyone could work in a comfortable environment. We’re able to support our people to get the kit they need to do their jobs, and they can do it from the comfort of their own homes. Auroch is also a workplace that is very neurodiversity-forward and know that remote working can provide a preferred environment for our neurodiverse colleagues.
We know that flexible thinking is the best way to create a workplace for everyone and are always looking to improve wherever we can… so the door is always open for any of our people to make suggestions, share ideas or give opinions on how work from home life can be improved.
Remote working allows our staff to spend more time with loved ones - Rosie is happy her owner Simon works remotely so they can go on walks at lunch
No commute
Remember when everyone used to spend their free time driving to and from work? Remote working presents an opportunity to snooze the commute, no more traffic-filled drives, late buses or stressful interactions means our people can start the day with clear, calm mind and be ready to make some video game magic.
As a studio which is passionate about creating a greener future and protecting our planet, we’re more than happy to support any efforts to lessen carbon emissions, vehicles on the road and journeys made... and remote working does just that! Even for our Bristol based staff some have to travel over an hour to get to our studio, which added up would be a lot of hours spent in cars, on buses and trains.
Growing our culture
The culture at Auroch Digital has always been one of our proudest achievements – we’re a studio packed with creative, RPG fans, game-loving, miniature building, boardgame loving people. Remote working enables us to open our clubs and interest groups wider. Since becoming remote, we now have a Creative Club where people hang out in Discord whilst working on personal projects such as art, music, sculpting and more. We also have monthly online game nights, online RPG campaigns, book club, and digital meet ups for other activities like minis painting. We also have a whole host of channels in our private company discord to share anime recommendations, recipes, cute pet pics and much more.
Recruiting top talent
Remote working allows us to hire people from all over the UK and overseas. With no concerns about long commutes, relocating or being away from home, the available talent pool is made more accessible. We now have people working in 61 cities, 8 countries and 3 continents who come together and work on projects every single day. This fact has also pushed us to continue level up our benefits and offerings to our teams, with no geographical restrictions, people are more likely to be on the lookout for studios who are offering the best package.
How to stay connected when working remotely
Undoubtedly the biggest question we had at the start of our remote working journey was how we could keep our team working together from front rooms, dining tables and spare bedrooms across the country. It’s been a process of learning, but here are some great ways to stay connected:
Using Discord and Teams: Arguably, the adoption of Teams/Slack in the workplace has made a huge, positive impact onto the productivity and connectivity of teams all over the world. Being able to be in constant communication reduces the risk of loneliness, working in silos and stops workflow disruptions. Outside of work, we have virtual channels for all of our clubs and interest groups where people can share pictures, stories and advice, and – of course – our Discord where we can game and hang out whenever, from wherever. We also encourage staff to drop into these channels for a chat and cup of tea during work, or to sit in a discord chat together whilst they work.
Virtual Facetime: A huge part of game development of collaboration, and we’re big believers in virtually talking wherever we can. As a manager, I meet with everyone in my team individually every week (where the focus is on them, their experience and how I can improve it), we meet as a team almost daily to talk about projects and our plans and I meet with teams on each of our projects from up and down the country to get the latest updates on our games, see new features and to playtest. We also meet every Thursday as a whole company where Studio Director Tomas and Operations Director Nina talk through what’s new for Auroch, give an update on teams and projects, and share future plans. This is a great way to keep the whole studio connected and remind them that we’re all one big team working towards a common goal: to make awesome games.
IRL Facetime: But Jem! Isn’t Auroch a fully remote studio? Yep, we absolutely are. Everyone has the choice to attend strategy days, project milestones, team meet ups, or whole studio events – meeting up in person isn’t for everyone! We offer these IRL meet-ups to give people the chance to get together, celebrate and share ideas. These IRL meet ups can be work related, where we all gather together to go over a project, or social ones where we meet up to play tabletop games, play football, go on dog walks, or attend expos together. These events give our teams a good opportunity to connect and have fun with their colleagues.
The Mars Horizon 2 team meet up in the office to build friendships and get to know each other better in person - this helps our remote work as well
Avoiding loneliness when working from home
While working from home offers so many perks, it can also be a lonely situation if you don’t have the right team around you. Below are some top tips for avoiding loneliness while working remotely:
Hear and see your colleagues: No one likes a calendar packed with meetings but putting in 10 minutes to chat through something can sometimes be much easier than a long thread of emails or Teams messages. It can be easier to communicate, better for clarity on instructions and it can be nice to see a familiar face or hear a familiar voice.
Virtual coffee breaks: Once upon a time, we’d all pile into the office kitchen to make a coffee come 11am… working from home should be no different! Make sure to give yourself time to stand up from your desk, stretch, walk the dog or grab coffee with colleagues. People are able to hop into a call, chat to colleagues for half an hour and then head back to work. We encourage these tea breaks at Auroch, and support this by having our daily crossword we all solve together, as well as other Discord games such as watering our virtual tree.
Team socials: Team socials don’t always have to be studio-wide get togethers in a physical or virtual space. We have a whole bunch of clubs that our people can be as involved in as they want, including the creative club, the book club, the food club, the fitness club, the miniatures and boardgames club, the anime club and more. We also have regular team games available for anyone to hop into, and dedicated gaming club evenings for people to join, game and relax with colleagues.
Casual chat channels: While Teams is great for work, it might not be great for social. Find a platform where people can have casual chat outside of work topics; creating this area means people can have all those ‘chats-while-making-a-tea’ experiences of an office, from home! So if it’s somewhere to talk about the latest episode of The Last of Us, a groan about the weather or a check in on someone’s new puppy – a casual chat zone is a must.
Coco cam is always popular viewing, shes the official auroch digital mascot
Pet-Cams: Ok so this one might be just us, but we also like to have livestreams of office mascot Coco and adorable puppy Tikka available to our teams during work hours. The Auroch team might be able to catch Coco having a snooze in the sun or Tikka having the zoomies… always a great pick me up for the 3pm lull!
How to be productive while working from home
It can be difficult to find your workflow when working from home, with housemates, partners, pets and post all vying for our attention. It’s easy to get distracted or fall out of routine when you work remotely, so we’ve chatted to some of our team about their WFH routines and some top tips to find your mojo.
Matthew Holmes, Associate Producer: “Optimise your morning routine. Act like you’re going to leave the house by waking up early and taking the time to look after yourself and get ready for the day. I found it really helpful to try and incorporate exercise into my daily life, and get of the house as much as possible, and maintain social connections both online and in person.
Joseph Beacham, Technical Artist: “Be honest and assume the best of others. The same mishaps of office-life still happen at home: technology breaks, power goes out, people get sick and you make mistakes. Whilst the temptation is there to pretend like everything is fine when it isn’t, it’s better to be honest with your team whenever something comes up so they can help, find a fix and support you.”
Andy Sheppard, Junior Programmer: “Take breaks. Give yourself the time to step away form your PC to make a cup of tea, say hello to family or give your pet scritches. You’d take the same amount of breaks if you were working in an office and it massively helps reduce the risk of burnout.”
Sébastien Dulong, 3D Animator: “Establish boundaries. It can be very easy to lose work/life balance when working from home, stepping from one room to another is a less distinct end to the day than a 40-minute drive, but find ways to draw a line between work and home. Use different rooms or hardware, have a ‘build up’ and ‘cool down’ routine… whatever you need to make a clear distinction! Also get a dog and hydrate, they help too.”
Danielle Arkle, Admin Manager: “Find a comfortable workspace. I’ve spent a few work days sat on my sofa while working and it’s damaging to my productivity, my comfort… and my posture! By creating a workspace that serves your wellbeing, you create somewhere that you can deliver great work and sit comfortably. Speak to your studio about getting the right equipment – like chairs and desks – and personalise it to make it yours!”
Peter Willington, Production Director: “Have a call! It’s really easy to misinterpret someone’s tone or words in an email or Teams message and can be even easier to feel isolated when working remotely. Try, wherever possible, to talk to your team on the phone (cameras optional!) about projects and tasks – it will probably be more efficient, clearer and you might even get a nice conversation out of it!”
Some of the Auroch Digital herd wave hello from our weekly company wide catch up - its a good time for a laugh and to shout out to team members going the extra mile.
Frequently asked questions about remote working
Who can work remotely?
Remote working is usually decided by your company! There may be some circumstances where remote working is granted to an individual due to circumstance, but generally it will be the case that in a remote company, everyone will have the option to work from home. All jobs are different and have different requirements and needs – the games industry is a great place to find a remote-first role to suit your skills, and there are so many departments and disciplines looking for talented team members right now.
Is remote working good for you?
Remote working can be what you want it to be! For some, it’s a great opportunity to use the lack of commute to catch up on some sleep, spend more time with families or get in a run before work. It’s important to find a balance between home and work, even if you do both in the same place - there are lots of great resources online packed with tips on how to stay healthy physically, mentally and emotionally when working from home.
How can I work remotely?
If you think remote working could benefit your work experience, a great first step is to put together some suggestions of how your role could transition to be WFH: How would it work logistically? What support do you need? How would your role or output be impacted? Not all companies will be open to these conversations, but as mentioned at the start of this blog, lots of places do offer remote working and competitive packages for top talent… like you!
Remote working allows our staff to have a set up that works best for them. Auroch provides laptops or desktops depending on your preference.
