Hello Games' Sean Murray

We've had quite a range of people across the board, probably a wider range than you would normally see applying, from people with absolutely no experience, people who always wanted to get into games, and we've had people who are indie developers themselves who want to team up and collaborate, and we've had people who've been working in the industry for years and years.

We've some CVs that you wouldn't expect. I think that within that, what we've found, and I hope this doesn't sound bad, but we've found graduates really interesting, juniors, people who don't have much experience, they kind of fit in with us really well - maybe because we really don't know what we're doing!

We're excited about working with people who are really enthusiastic. I don't know if it really comes across but we are very enthusiastic about what we do and it's very hard to interview someone who says - 'I've been at such and such large studio for ten years and I just want to be a network programmer. I've been that before and I'd now like to be a lead network programmer.' And we say, well, there's only us here, you know?

With us, you do everything, and we really enjoy that. So there have been people from really experienced studios who are really good, who can do that. Something that we've found is that it's amazing how quickly people can get jaded in this industry. You can have people interviewed who've just joined the industry two years before and they're already telling you how terrible everything is. How they've worked on three canned games in a row or whatever.

You desperately want to rescue them from that, but you also want that freshness and enthusiasm.

I think... I'll get myself into lots of trouble for saying this, but, we've had really great applicants who've done computer science and things like that and we've had really great applicants who've done games specific stuff, but we've been shocked in some cases with how little real world skills people have been given by certain games courses.

I think that's something that's talked about within the industry, maybe not said that often, but I think there are some games courses that are almost taking advantage of people who see the word games and get excited about that. We've had some very clever people who've sent CVs in who've just spent three years not getting the right skills really, and those three years could have been better spent elsewhere.

GI: Do you feel that sort of thing should be regulated more? That there should be a list of qualifications which are industry approved?

SM: What I'd like to see is that, if you do have a games course, that you've got people who've been very successful in the industry moderating that. Who are used to hiring and who are involved in working in the industry.

Sometimes I feel that there's a lot of outdated information probably being taught for a start, and also that maybe some of the lecturers or the people involved in setting up the curriculum maybe haven't been involved in the industry enough. Or they have been, but not on very successful games.

You just never want to see that sort of situation, where those that can do and those that can't teach. It shouldn't be that way round. I think that's down to universities to make sure that they have the right people and the right advisers.

I think it comes from that. I don't think it's any particular course or concept. I think you can teach people how to design a game but you need the right people teaching that.

I think that what we hit when we were developing Joe Danger was that publishers weren't signing games at the time, and I count myself lucky that we didn't get signed up at the time, but there was definitely an effect. That effect then trickles down to a lot of companies who work in work for hire.

Certainly I've noticed that while there may not have been loads of layoffs, you see a lot of studios getting involved in other types of games development. A lot of people going into download and self-publishing, a lot of people doing Facebook games and things like that. I think that goes back to what I was saying earlier in that you're seeing a lot of reliance on licences and 'me-too' games that are very easy to sign.

I think that's a real shame because those aren't the type of games that tend to do really really well and set new ground, it's always innovative titles that do that. I think that kind of self-fulfils really, that will hurt the industry further down the line. I think that's a shame. The part I really care about is that it hurts gamers. If there are less games coming out that I'm really excited about then I get really annoyed. [laughs]