My Blog About Making Games in Chengdu

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  • #43528
    Avatar phototurtle
    Participant

    Hey in case anyone is interested I’ve started blogging about my crazy adventures living and making games in Chengdu.

    Check it out and pleeeeeeeeeeeeease lemme know what you think.

    http://Niberspace.com/blog

    #43529
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Hey in case anyone is interested I’ve started blogging about my crazy adventures living and making games in Chengdu. Check it out and pleeeeeeeeeeeeease lemme know what you think. http://Niberspace.com/blog

    Cool, nice blog. I’m in game development as well, I work at Tap4Fun. I’m guessing you work at Tribeplay.

    You worked at Rockstar? Impressive!

    #43533
    Avatar phototurtle
    Participant

    Thanks!

    Cool! I knew there are many studios in Chengdu but not that they had foreigners. A friend of a friend said she worked at some place with 200 employees but when I asked if there were any foreign developers she said there wasn’t a single one.

    #43536
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Thanks! Cool! I knew there are many studios in Chengdu but not that they had foreigners. A friend of a friend said she worked at some place with 200 employees but when I asked if there were any foreign developers she said there wasn’t a single one.

    Very few have foreigners, not including the multi-national companies here like Ubisoft and Gameloft. We have 400+ employees and about 15 foreigners here.

    #43546
    Avatar photoAl the Dead
    Participant

    Heh Charlie you are in T4F? If i may ask. how are they doing these days? I heard some wondering news couple months ago, with mass firing preps and all.

    #43554
    Avatar phototurtle
    Participant

    Just wanna write thanks to those who’ve visited the blog, I notice on my Analytics that people from this forum has read my posts very thoroughly which is very rare with todays internet users.

    If any feedback please let me know 🙂

    #43555
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Heh Charlie you are in T4F? If i may ask. how are they doing these days? I heard some wondering news couple months ago, with mass firing preps and all.

    A lot of people have been asking me that question recently. Basically, we went through a period of explosive growth where we went from 100 to 300+ employees in a year but our managerial capacity didn’t expand at the same rate. If you aren’t careful about how you expand, the threat of bureaucracy and inefficiency spreading is very real. We’re still hiring, but we’re not acquiring up to a dozen people a week like we were a year ago. It’s good news for me: I prefer to work in a smaller company where everyone knows each other.

    #43562
    Avatar photoRick in China
    Participant

    a period of explosive growth where we went from 100 to 300+ employees in a year but our managerial capacity didn’t expand at the same rate.

    Absolutely. IMO an office of around 100 is great. More than that in the companies I’ve worked in has shown very obvious deterioration in the quality of coworkers and culture on whole – but some companies don’t pay enough attention to maintaining a solid core, and get caught up in expansion and more projects/whatever at a break-neck pace, lucky yours caught themselves before it did irreversible damage.

    #43566
    Avatar photoBen
    Moderator

    Basically, we went through a period of explosive growth

    Explosive is definitely the correct word:

    http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/tech/2014-09/02/content_18531530.htm

    4,638% is crazy!

     

    #43576
    Avatar photoAl the Dead
    Participant

    A lot of people have been asking me that question recently. Basically, we went through a period of explosive growth where we went from 100 to 300+ employees in a year but our managerial capacity didn’t expand at the same rate. If you aren’t careful about how you expand, the threat of bureaucracy and inefficiency spreading is very real. We’re still hiring, but we’re not acquiring up to a dozen people a week like we were a year ago. It’s good news for me: I prefer to work in a smaller company where everyone knows each other.

     

    Oh. Thanks for the info. Hope everything is ok, thumbs up for ya. After all i almost got there half a year ago and who knows, maybe will get there one of these days 🙂

    #43579
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Oh. Thanks for the info. Hope everything is ok, thumbs up for ya. After all i almost got there half a year ago and who knows, maybe will get there one of these days :)

    Thanks man. Get in touch if you end up interviewing, I would be happy to help you however I can.

    #43582
    Avatar photoPk_c
    Participant

    Hello guys, that’s a cool coïncidence I found this topic and blog. I’ve just signed a contract to work in Chengdu’s game industry and might come there next year  if I can get the work visa, I have a pretty low diploma ( like assosiate degree ), but lot of years of experience in the game industry so finger crossed 🙂

    I also heard that there is quite a lot of games company in Chengdu but not that much laowai do you guys works using Mandarin or English ?

    #43583
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Hello guys, that’s a cool coïncidence I found this topic and blog. I’ve just signed a contract to work in Chengdu’s game industry and might come there next year if I can get the work visa, I have a pretty low diploma ( like assosiate degree ), but lot of years of experience in the game industry so finger crossed :) I also heard that there is quite a lot of games company in Chengdu but not that much laowai do you guys works using Mandarin or English ?

    That’s right: many companies, not many laowai. I speak Mandarin mostly, but English sometimes. All emails and documents are in Chinese.

    #43584
    Avatar photoPk_c
    Participant

    Are you a developper as well ?

    Even if I might have enougth Chinese for everyday life / conversation I think it will be quite challenging for me to talk about code and software using Mandarin 🙂 . The writing / reading part being the hardest part ! However I imagine one can pickup a lot after a certain period of time.

     

    #43590
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Are you a developper as well ? Even if I might have enougth Chinese for everyday life / conversation I think it will be quite challenging for me to talk about code and software using Mandarin :) . The writing / reading part being the hardest part ! However I imagine one can pickup a lot after a certain period of time.

    No, I am a designer. We do not employ any expat developers here currently. But if you already speak Chinese, it will probably take a few months to learn all of the relevant terminology for your area of expertise. I have a growing list of Chinese vocabulary specific to the game industry that I put on the wall in my office for interns so they can pick up new Chinese that’s used here frequently. Words like:

    • ??
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    • ???
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    • ????
    • ??
    • ???
    #43591
    Avatar photoAl the Dead
    Participant

    Thanks man. Get in touch if you end up interviewing, I would be happy to help you however I can.

    Heh thanks. But they don’t seem to hire atm 🙁

    #43593
    Avatar photoIkari
    Participant

    Nice blog! What is the work language in tribeplay, Ubisoft, gameloft and other foreign companies?

    It seems like there is not much job market for foreign programmers, I have been looking job ads but most of them seem to be targeted for local hires.

    #43595
    Avatar phototurtle
    Participant

    At Tribeplay I speak English all the time, so you can definitely check out http://www.tribeplay.com/join-the-team/open-positions

     

    #43596
    Avatar photoAl the Dead
    Participant

    Yeah, mostly they hire for localization and CS only, at least i never been offered any other positions. Granted, i only know Basic 🙂 Oh and a bit of C++ too, but just a little.

    #43597
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Yeah, mostly they hire for localization and CS only

    Right, this is accurate. Why hire a foreign programmer when there are thousands of programmers in Chengdu who will work for much less than an expat will and they won’t have to worry about providing a visa or dealing with communication problems?

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