Whenever one of my friends has a birthday, I always have the same wish for them: “Don’t forget how to play like a kid!” I say this to my friends and colleagues at Outfit7 Group as well but, to be honest, I don’t really have to. People here haven’t forgotten how to be kids, and that’s one of the reasons I fit in so well.
At Outfit7 we’re in the business of play. It’s okay to be that geeky kid who wants to talk about video games and other nerdy, techy stuff. You can easily find a person to talk to here. Personally, I can talk about games day and night – and I often do! Nerds (a badge I wear with pride) are appreciated here. All those years spent in front of a computer, instead of out in the sun, weren’t wasted after all!
I love breaking games down and trying to understand them.
I’ve been interested in (or you could say obsessed with) how games work since I was a kid, but it was only a few years ago that I started designing games for a living. Despite having no formal qualifications or experience in the field, I managed to get a game design job at a small start-up studio in my home country of Serbia. They seemed impressed by how much I love breaking games down and trying to understand them.
That job was a great start in game design. I enjoyed myself and learned a lot. But I was also constantly evaluating my situation and eventually, I realized that I couldn’t do what I really wanted to do in Serbia, so that’s when I started to look for options abroad. And I didn’t have to look far!
Slovenia popped up as an option when Talking Tom Gold Run came out. I was immediately impressed by the game’s tight controls and wealth of content. It still remains one of my favorite Outfit7 games. I was looking at other game studios in the region too, but none of the others spoke to me as Outfit7 did. So when I heard that Outfit7 was looking for a game designer, I jumped at the chance.
I could make such great games here.
The application process gave me the opportunity to visit the company’s offices in Ljubljana, meet members of the team, and get a real insight into how things work there. I remember seeing people being silly, having fun and laughing. And they were all wearing informal clothing, and there were beanbags and (for some reason) bouncy balls everywhere. It certainly didn’t seem like an uptight, suit-and-tie type of company. I thought to myself: “I could make such great games here.”
And now, here I am. Working here has reinforced my suspicion that a really serious, humorless company couldn’t produce great games like ours. Sure, we have to work hard and take responsibility for what we do, but really, some of us are just a bunch of big kids who never quite grew up. I mean, who’d want to anyway?
