Splash Damage

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day! We're excited to go in-depth with what we've been up to this month (and it's a lot), led by our brilliant Game Accessibility Program Manager, Jozef Kulik, and the Accessibility Champions across the studio, but for now let us show off our brand new Splash Damage Accessibility logo! #GAAD #Accessibility

In today's episode of 'Splash Damage Makes You Feel Old', Brink turns THIRTEEN today. It remains one of our most celebrated titles; introducing a now ubiquitous movement system (you're welcome), having legendary character designs, and popularising the colour blue. To celebrate, we dug into the archives to pull out some things you may not have seen before: 📜 A look at the original Brink script, covered in notes and amendments (more in the comments) 🎥 The original, hand-drawn, Brink storyboards ✍️ Some beautiful, pencil-lined sketches of our early characters We'll also be sharing more photos, videos, and memories in the comments below this post - and ask that you share *your* memories of Brink on its birthday.

Last week we hosted a Women in Leadership presentation and panel in our offices. We talked about: 📈 The Gender Pay Gap 👩💻 Women's experiences in the industry ✅ Succession planning 👩🏫 What good mentors can help people achieve 🤗 How to be a good ally and support your peers And much much more. Click below to have a read. #Diversity #Inclusion #Panel #GamesIndustry #UKGameDev #GameDev

Clubs at Splash! No matter your interests, we have you covered: 🥊 Fighting games 🎲 DnD ♟️ Chess 🪜 Climbing 🧘 Yoga 🎨 Painting ⚽ Football (Best group) 🎸 Jam sessions And so much more. If that sounds like a bit of you, why not check out some of our open roles? https://lnkd.in/dBae2GM #Warhammer #LifeDrawing #DnD #Football #Climbing #Yoga #GameDev #UKGames #GameDevelopment #GameJobs

Upsettingly, it's been FOUR YEARS since we released Gears Tactics. This Sunday marks the PC release of our second foray into the tactics genre and another of our contributions to this legendary IP. But how did we take Gears of War and turn it into the best* tactics game of all time? It's time to share some details you might have missed. First, why not glance at this interview we and The Coalition did with Polygon? It explores how Gears Tactics began life as a board game, allowing our design team to quickly iterate on ideas, like abandoning the grid! 📖: https://lnkd.in/eFwycnqT Finished reading that? Time to dive into an extensive look from some of our amazing level designers about how they built levels that felt true to the world and the franchise: 📖: https://lnkd.in/dMDq7qR We assume by this point you're convinced by the game's quality, so you probably want to grab yourself a copy. Luckily for you, the game is on sale right now on Steam (and free on Game Pass!) https://lnkd.in/gW62uUi #Gears #LevelDesign #GameIndustry #GameDev #Development #GearsofWar #Design *Scientifically proven

Since we shared photos of the first cohort of work experience at Splash this year we've had a *lot* of interest and questions. We've written an article explaining the program, why we've expanded it, and how you can get involved next time. Give it a read and let us know if you'd like more articles like it. #GameDevelopment #WorkExperience #GameDev #UKGamesIndustry

Since we shared photos of the first cohort of work experience at Splash this year we've had a *lot* of interest and questions. We've written an article explaining the program, why we've expanded it, and how you can get involved next time. Give it a read and let us know if you'd like more articles like it. #GameDevelopment #WorkExperience #GameDev #UKGamesIndustry

Skillsearch recently shared some fascinating industry research (attached).   One of the key things that stood out to us was their findings around the 4-day workweek (pages 11 & 12), and we wanted to share some of our thoughts.   Our version of the 4-day workweek is on-site, which we understand won't be for everyone. However, we believe that our teams function best when they’re together, and our studio ethos is about building lifelong friendships through our games, for both our players and staff. We’re not advocating that one way of working is better than any other, but wanted to share some first-hand experience about why the 4DWW is working for us, and what we've learned as we go.   ⬆ "Increased Productivity"   We fully accept that some individuals have better productivity from home, but for us, this decision was about improving team effectiveness and output, and that’s undoubtedly been the case since we made the shift.   Prioritisation becomes incredibly important when the week is shorter as you don’t want to be spending your time on the wrong things. To help with this, we’re encouraging everybody to align with their manager on key priorities at the start of the week (we use 15Five for this process).   😃 "82% have positive feelings towards the 4DWW"   Not without teething problems, the 4DWW has been incredibly popular with staff at Splash. That said, we were open when we made this decision with the company, knowing that this shift wouldn’t work for everyone. While we love the change to the on-site 4DWW, we're not advocating for this way of working over all others.   🧠 “Improved mental health”   Our studio ethos is about building lifelong friendships through multiplayer games. That doesn’t just mean our players, but our staff too. The return to office and shift to 4DWW has massively improved relationships and cohesion amongst our teams. ⏰ “Longer Hours = More Stress”   We were clear from the start that we didn’t want to compress 5 days into 4 and end up with 10+ hour days. First, we assumed that physically getting our teams back together would help us increase speed and momentum. But much of this is about finding efficiencies in our processes and faster ways of doing things.   We invited everyone in the studio to challenge our established ways of working – whether that's binning unnecessary meetings or reworking our processes to trim the fat. This is an ongoing challenge - we're still early in our journey – but getting everybody involved is incredibly important.   In a few months, it’ll be the year anniversary of when we announced our 4-day workweek, and we’ll do a more in-depth look at the impact of that decision, what we’ve learned, and how we’re evolving moving forward.

We're thrilled to have been nominated for Major Studio of the Year at the MCV/DEVELOP Awards 2024! We're amongst some great companies and can't wait for the event in June: https://lnkd.in/eDFQm2J8 Join us: https://lnkd.in/dBae2GM

Our Accessibility Program Manager, Jozef Kulik, will be speaking this afternoon as part of #LondonGamesFestival with some wonderful people from across the industry.