Recruiting Battle Royale: hiring and counteroffers in game development

What the talk is about

This panel looks at how hiring works in game development on an overheated market. The speakers, Tanja Loktionova, Serhii Komar, Ruslan Didenko and Viktor Trukhnov, share experience from different companies. They discuss who is hardest to find: people with hyper-casual experience and specialists who have shipped projects, as vacancies have grown sharply, game designer roles included. They also cover counteroffers, since candidates often accept another offer without discussing it with their current employer. Advice for companies includes respecting candidates, transparency, healthy culture, fewer stages and test tasks, and investing in juniors. Candidates are urged to learn English and refresh their CVs and portfolios. Audience questions cover test tasks, cross-disciplinary skills and courses. Useful for recruiters, team leads and job hunters.