There are no limits to what you can achieve at Outfit7! The company gave me my first ever job and, over the years, I’ve been promoted (several times!), moved to a new country, changed a lot both personally and professionally, and helped make games that people play with all around the world. And it all started because the company reached out to me, after seeing a presentation I’d done for my Game Technology and Graphics class, back when I was finishing up my undergrad studies!
Moving up, quickly
I started out working on updates for My Talking Angela, one of our Tamagotchi-style games. At first, I was just fixing bugs, but then I started working on bigger features like the roulette wheels and sticker albums. Over time, I got more and more challenging stuff to do, and I worked on other games. And it seems I did well, because I then got the opportunity to take on the role of Lead Developer on My Talking Tom 2. It’s one of our most played games, meaning I was responsible for making the game run smoothly for millions of users. Millions of users! That step up wasn’t just challenging from a technical perspective, but from a leadership one as well.
Right now, I’m working on a brand new game that we’ve got in development. It’s exciting for me because I’ve never worked on a game from the very beginning – I’ve only joined existing games where most of the core mechanics were already implemented. I’m currently working on setting up the characters and collaborating with artists and all sorts of different people.
Working here feels like working on a movie set!
You know, that’s something else that surprised me about working at Outfit7. I figured it’d just be a load of development people working here. But it kind of feels like working on a movie set. There are just so many people involved in creating our games and videos and products – producers and writers and programmers and software engineers and artists and game designers and more.
Jumping at opportunities
I’ve ended up getting a promotion at almost every performance review I’ve had since joining the company. I didn’t expect things to move that fast. But that’s what Outfit7’s like. Everyone has every opportunity to progress. It’s all open to you. I got lots of opportunities in those first few years, and I jumped on them.
That’s how I ended up moving from Slovenia to Cyprus actually. I was on a Zoom call – this was around the start of the pandemic in April 2020 – and the VP of Technology told us that our group was going to be transitioning to Cyprus and that if we were interested, we could move with it. Otherwise, we’d just join a different project in Slovenia. I said I’d think about it, but I was immediately into the idea.
In the end, eight of us moved out to Cyprus. And it was a really smooth process from start to finish. There were a couple of people in the offices, both in Slovenia and Cyprus, who helped us with everything from paperwork to finding apartments. One person in Cyprus actually went to see apartments for us and took loads of pictures! The teams organized flights and transfers and even hired consultants to help us with the administrative stuff. Basically, any question we had, they’d answer. Moving to another country is a pretty big deal, but I felt really safe during the whole process. We were really given the feeling that we matter.
And then Outfit7 gave me another first (in addition to my first job!) – my first time flying on a plane! I was like a kid on that flight. One of my colleagues gave me their window seat, which was really awesome of them. I’ve traveled a lot since then, but I’ll always remember that first flight.
So much has changed for me since moving here, and since joining Outfit7 in general. But even though a lot has changed, one of my favorite things about the job has stayed the same – that moment when a friend or a friend’s kid is playing with one of the games I’ve worked on, and I get to say, “I helped make that!” That’s just the best thing. And it’s not that rare either – it happens a lot!
Living and working in Cyprus
It was the first time that a whole production team was going to be set up in the Cyprus office, so it was a pretty cool thing to be involved with. And personally, I love it here. I’ve changed a lot since moving here. I’m more outgoing for sure, and I’ve tried all these different things, like horse riding and driving on the other side of the road! And there’s just so much sunshine. Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean, after all. We’ve got this little ritual as well – we go swimming in the sea every Wednesday morning and watch the sunrise. I go hiking in the mountains and walk along the cliffs on the weekends. I’m always exploring. I go to work in flip-flops! Sometimes I just lie around in the sun and think that no one could be unhappy here in Cyprus.
So much has changed for me since moving here, and since joining Outfit7 in general. But even though a lot has changed, one of my favorite things about the job has stayed the same – that moment when a friend or a friend’s kid is playing with one of the games I’ve worked on, and I get to say, “I helped make that!” That’s just the best thing. And it’s not that rare either – it happens a lot!
