Dizziness on a Fine Line
In the life of a Game Developer

Video games are challenging even during production. Poornima Seetharaman and Sebastian Hollstein can confirm this. They design very different games in Bengaluru and Berlin, yet face similar challenges.

By Jan Bojaryn

“I love working from home,” declares Poornima Seetharaman. Of course, she’s not happy about the reason; her employer’s office in Bengaluru is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sebastian Hollstein is also at home. He usually works in the Berlin coworking space Saftladen.
Even without a pandemic, workdays in the games industry in Germany and India would have a lot in common: Both professionals have to balance meetings, admin and actual game development. Both have to battle to keep their day from getting too long.

Poornima Seetharaman is mastering a unique challenge: The game designer hasn’t yet met most of her co-workers in person. She was hired by the gaming giant Zynga in April – the office in Bengaluru was already closed because of the coronavirus pandemic then, and it will probably not reopen until June 2021. Zynga stands for easily accessible top-selling games like FarmVille 2: Country Escape. The mobile game was released in 2014, but is still being changed and developed. “We’re making sure it’s still fun today,” explains Seetharaman.
  Sebastian Hollstein has known his co-workers for a long time. He still works in the studio that he co-founded in 2011. Fizbin started in Ludwigsburg, now has a branch in Berlin and employs 27 people. In Germany, the studio is known for The Inner World, a classic graphic adventure with an original setting. Since then, the studio has “professionalised and changed,” explains Hollstein. The company receives coaching to stay on top of things in spite of its rapid growth. Fizbin presently has three announced games in production, all of which are expected to be released in the coming year. This is a challenge for Hollstein, who sees himself more as a creative and frankly admits that “multi-tasking makes me dizzy.”

Blocked calendars
 

Seetharaman also has to stay on top of things. As lead game designer at Zynga, she’s responsible for a wide range of tasks. Although it’s important to her to “pitch-in” herself and help design the actual game, she has to set the direction, control the progress of the teams involved, keep an eye out for problems and guide employees. Not only are lots of meetings needed for all of this to work, but also periods of guaranteed quiet time. “Sometimes I block my online calendar so I can concentrate on a task,” she says.
  The games industry is notorious for its difficult working conditions. Excessive overtime, referred to as “crunch” in the scene, is still common. However, awareness of the problem has grown, including Hollstein’s. “It wasn’t so good in the beginning,” he says of the early days of his studio. The young founders’ team continued to work on the big goal of their first own game until some “were running on fumes.” Today, countermeasures are taken: At Fizbin you’re “not allowed” to work more than eight hours a day. Some work shorter hours; they have core work hours. Every two weeks, tasks are redistributed in the studio, progress is discussed daily in stand-up meetings. Hollstein combats possible dizziness with stalwart planning. This way, he can juggle game development, teaching, conferences and customer acquisition. Seetharaman also plays many roles at once. In addition to her job at Zynga, she holds lectures and advises other female developers: Her experience is in demand; this year she was the first Indian woman to be inducted into the Global Hall of Fame of the NGO Women in Games. The fact that she has enough time is ultimately also a question of priorities for her. Crunch is, in her opinion, an excuse for “poor planning.” Especially when working from home during the pandemic, there’s a fine line between work and private life. Meetings could quickly get out of hand now. Seetharaman’s advice is to keep cool. “Everyone thinks that everything is important. But that’s not true,” she says.

More money for art

The medium itself is important for Seetharaman. She describes herself as a person with an “indie attitude” – she loves games that have cultural aspirations and a message like the platform adventure Gris by the Spanish indie developer Nomada Studio. She herself “experimented” for a year on her own account before taking up the post at Zynga. She develops her own ideas; but when she told her contacts years ago about her idea for a biographically inspired game about Carnatic music, they were skeptical. “Who would play that?” she was asked.
Game financing in India is getting better, but “we need more money for indies,” Seetharaman sums up the problem. Art projects also have to assert themselves according to commercial criteria.
Things aren’t easy for Hollstein in Germany, but it’s precisely with this approach of creative self-realization that he’s been successful. “We wouldn’t mind becoming millionaires,” he grins, “but that’s not why we founded the studio.” In fact, his studio’s games have also enjoyed financial success, but “we always count on zero euros” profit. In the meantime, state, federal and EU funding help with the financing. Publishers also contribute a large part of the money. Hollstein has to convince the sponsors of his games; he has to justify growing budgets. That too requires a balance. “Of course, we want to earn money with our games but without throwing our attitude and complexity overboard,” says Hollstein. “We’re not bowing to the market.” With the funding, Fizbin doesn’t produce wealth, but a cultural gain. Seetharaman would like to see that in India as well. She’s already observing a trend for the better, with new sponsors and a dynamic developer scene. Despite all the difficulties, it is now “a great time for indies,” she avers. Not only are publishers opening new branches in India, but the firsts are also investing in independent artists. Newer hit games like Raji: An Ancient Epic are causing an international stir.

A generation too soon

Seetharaman is still dissatisfied with the perception of her medium at home. In public perception, games are still either casual fluff like Candy Crush Saga or shooting games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The poles range from addiction to a waste of time. She would like to see more interest in and openness to the beauty of the medium, especially from parents – she enjoys talking shop with her eight-year-old nephew on the phone about Minecraft.
In a way, Hollstein has it easier: Politically, video games are accepted as a cultural asset. Angela Merkel’s visit to the opening of Gamescom is considered a milestone of recognition. “There’s a lot going on in Germany,” he acknowledges. But he also sees part of the problem in the games themselves: Even the typical gamepads are a closed book for non-gamers. And if you didn’t start at 13, you’ll hardly make it through a 3D game today. Hollstein is bothered by the barriers that games build around the medium.

He, too, knows parents who can’t really talk about games with their kids. Before Minecraft anecdotes at the dinner table become the norm, “it might take another generation,” he estimates soberly. Seetharaman sees things the same way.
The medium is international; so are its problems.