Why People Join, Stay, or Leave a Game Studio

A game studio that people know and genuinely want to work for does not become that way by accident.

Behind that reputation is careful work across talent acquisition, employer branding, internal communications, and employee engagement.

Marina Surdu helped build this work from the inside at IO Interactive. In this interview, she shares the side of game development most artists and developers rarely see: how studios attract strong people, support teams during uncertain times, and create a place people want to join and stay in.

Main Topics

• Employer Branding in Game Studios
• Game Studio Culture & Employee Retention
• Hiring and Talent Acquisition in the Games Industry
• Internal Communication During Layoffs and Uncertainty
• Career Advice for Artists and Game Developers
• How Small Game Studios Attract and Retain Talent

Interview

 With Marina Surdu, Employer Brand and Communications Leader who built IO Interactive’s global employer brand function

Q: I’m just a young artist or developer. What is an employer brand, and why should I care about it?

Most people working in game production are not employer branding specialists. They simply want to find good work, join an interesting project, and be treated fairly.

What does an employer brand mean in practical terms for them?

Answer: We all know how important a good community is in game development. A good employer brand means you have a better chance of working with colleagues who are talented, passionate, and have the skills that not only the project needs, but that you need as well. It means having a better chance of working with great colleagues you can learn from, who can make your life easier and every day one that you enjoy. 

It means that you, as well as the company, attract the best talent out there who align with the reasons why you’re there as well. People who want to be there not only for the pay or the project, but also for the culture, environment, and mission of the studio, which are, in mine and a lot of others’ opinion, crucial not just to shipping a game, but to long-term success. 

At the same time, a good employer brand enables you to become that ambassador and to fluently articulate what it is about the work you’re doing that is so exciting and what the studio you work at is all about. If you know it and experience it yourself, you have a better chance of piquing the interest of those developers you would love to work with. 

The employees of a company have about 10 times the network of the company itself. At this scale, if they speak about the work they do in similar ways, it echoes and amplifies immensely. It can impact not only great talent, but also the industry, education, and young talent. It can inspire and contribute to the further development of your discipline and game development as a craft itself. 

As far-reaching as that might sound, it’s a trickle effect that I have, to my satisfaction, seen happen on multiple occasions. 

Is it only the image a studio presents while hiring, or does it also include what employees experience after joining?

Answer: I believe a great employer brand happens when employees feel it is true. It should always be rooted in day-to-day reality and reflected outwards, but also used as a tool to identify areas that could be improved. One example of this is employee engagement surveys, where the goal is to find out what works, but also what can be done better. My work at IO Interactive involved regularly gathering what developers thought were the most attractive points and using those to create an image of IOI that was then communicated externally and organically adopted internally. 

There is also a pitfall in showing too much of ‘the good stuff’ and never the tough realities of production. There is a balance there, and you have to make sure you don’t become tone-deaf, because you risk losing the trust of not just potential talent and the industry, but most importantly, your employees. If you have a good relationship with them, they will tell you when something feels off in the last post that was made or the last article that was published. Often, you might hear it in the first chat as a recruiter with a new starter, when they talk about what they expected versus what they found. When that happens, you have to listen, adjust, and seek feedback again. 

At the same time, employer brand is not only a bottom-up exercise. It also takes direction and a mission, which leadership is supposed to set. Opinions are split on this, but in my experience, a bit of both worlds is the best way to go. Employees know what works and what they have seen others do, but sometimes they might be surprised by what they find themselves appreciating once they are introduced to it. Be it a new project, a new way of approaching feedback, creative direction, or technical innovation.

What separates a real employer brand from a polished careers page?

Answer: You can have a basic careers page, but if people have a good experience there and, very importantly, you give them the tools to talk about it and spread the word, it will be seen. A polished careers page helps too. 

A great employer brand can make employees see why they are there and why their work matters. It also shows them how valuable their knowledge is and makes them feel appreciated in rapport with the industry and players. It also helps strengthen the reputation of a studio and give way to new business opportunities. Everyone wants to either work or collaborate with the cool kids, right? The better you look, as long as it is authentic, the better it is for developers, support staff, and the business overall. 

A careers page and visual content just help communicate that. Unless you rely only on pitching your strong points when you meet a business partner or a candidate for the first time, which I have done as well, it is a tough thing to crack and keep doing. You miss more opportunities that way than by proactively showcasing snippets of your culture that are available for those interested to seek out and learn more about. 

Q: How do you support a team when everyone is worried about losing their job?

The games industry is going through layoffs, project cancellations, studio closures, and hiring freezes. Even people who still have jobs may be worried about what happens next.

What role do internal communications and employee engagement play during this kind of uncertainty?

Answer: It is a complex area to navigate, but transparency towards your employees should be your go-to here. Where are you as a studio currently? Is there enough money in the bag, and for how long? What avenues are you exploring to secure new business, once those conversations are at a stage where they can actually be shared? And if something does happen, what are you committed to doing to support employees, and to what extent? People need to know what they can realistically expect so they can plan accordingly. These are honest conversations that people managers, HR, and leadership should be able to have with employees. 

The role of internal communications in these cases is to make sure everyone is aligned on what is being said and that no one feels they were told less than others or that information was withheld from them. Information, candid communication, and empathy are key, especially during periods of uncertainty. 

It does require a leadership team with a backbone and one that is, generally… made up of good people. There is no point in making big promises when you know you may not be able to deliver on them. People are adults, and in most cases, they don’t expect you to save them. They need to be spoken to like grown-ups and treated as valuable, key participants in the success of the studio. 

How should producers, art directors, and studio leaders communicate when they do not have clear answers themselves?

Answer: Stay hopeful and focused without making promises or giving certainties you don’t have. In uncertain times, more often than not, the best course of action is to keep following your path and moving ahead as intended, while being particularly conservative with financial resources, of course. A lot of things can fall into place when you stay focused and keep doing your best work. 

Keep going, and as a leader, actively reach out for information and communicate with peers at your level to exchange ideas. Seek advice from people managers, support teams, and people functions. It’s your right as a producer or director to seek clarity for your teams. An answer will come. But in these moments, what you do as a people leader sets the example for the morale and focus you expect from your team. 

This is where good internal communications can set things apart. Answers are gathered, disseminated, and communicated in a way that resonates with the people who need them. 

Most importantly, a workplace can only give so much and deliver within its means. It requires those expectations to be communicated transparently, so employees can plan their lives and their means accordingly. 

What helps preserve trust, and which mistakes can quickly destroy it?

Answer: Trust is preserved through consistent transparency, empathy, and following through on what you promised, no matter how small that promise might be. If you don’t know something, say so, and commit to looking for more clarity and answers. 

Prepare for the questions you will receive, so you don’t fall into the natural tendency to spiral into negativity alongside the people asking you those difficult questions. A lack of communication destroys trust. 

Any communication helps, even if it is as simple as describing the current situation, the avenues you are considering to move forward, and what you will be working on over the next period of time, together with a commitment on when you will provide the next update. That next update might contain additional information, or it might not. The important thing is that you kept your promise. 

Q: How can artists and developers find work when there are fewer jobs and far more applicants?

Experienced professionals are competing for fewer roles, while junior positions often still ask for production experience.

From a talent acquisition perspective, what can candidates realistically do to improve their chances?

Answer: First, don’t rely on AI to write your entire CV and cover letter for you, and double-check everything before clicking apply. Second, describe yourself as less of a specialist and more of a generalist, or at least express an intention to work and learn beyond what your specialist role says. Studios are increasingly looking for people who can wear different hats, as that reduces the human resources they need to invest in. This doesn’t necessarily mean you will work more, but you might be asked to cover different sides of production. 

Learn the skills of the teams adjacent to you. If you’re a 3D artist, try to learn some technical art and perhaps dip your toes into concept art too. Add what you’ve done to your portfolio. 

For junior talent, I always advise going to as many game jams and competitions as possible, but make sure you keep your portfolio alive with the work you’ve done. This is the kind of experience that can come closest to actual production experience. 

Reach out to people. Rekindle those old connections, ask how they are, say you’re open to opportunities, and ask to catch up. If they’re already working at a studio, ask for mentorship, feedback, or a second opinion, regardless of whether they have open roles or not. People love to help. Game developers love to share their knowledge, and that’s also part of what makes them great. 

Go to events focused on knowledge sharing and engage in communities built around similar interests. I don’t just mean the big conferences we all know. I’m talking about the smaller, specialised, often local knowledge-sharing events and meetups. 

If you’re not the social kind at all, which is common in the industry, spend your time working on bigger projects in your spare time that you can later add to your CV or portfolio. Try to focus on projects inspired by the studios and game styles you’re interested in. 

What makes a recruiter pay attention when hundreds of people apply?

Answer: A recruiter’s attention is mostly paid towards how much the candidate understands the style of the studio and the games it has made. For example, if you apply for a level design role on Hitman, you better have a stealth or sandbox-inspired level design piece in your portfolio. Also, have I mentioned being careful with AI-generated CVs and cover letters? Please double-check what you submit when you click apply, remove those prompts and give it some personal flair. It shows

Where do candidates often waste time or make the same mistakes?

Answer: Listing a whole section of soft skills on your CV, such as team collaboration or interpersonal communication. In my opinion, those can only be assessed past the initial interview and it’s taking up so much of your CV space. 

Also, there’s no need to tell a games industry recruiter, in your cover letter, that you are a big gamer. That is implied. Sharing a fond memory of playing one of the games that the studio has made, or going in detail about how a project you have made related to one of that studio’s games however, is a much better way to grab attention. 

Q: Your first studio can become the standard you compare every future job to. How do you know when you already have something good?

Young artists may not always realise how valuable a supportive team, fair leadership, trust, and a healthy working culture are.

What should someone consider before choosing a bigger name, a higher salary, or a more exciting project?

Answer: One should generally consider how good they are at collaboration, with everything that comes with it. Can you handle having to make last-minute changes because the team before you was delayed? Can you adapt to different types of communication and the different needs of your peers? Are you comfortable having your work evaluated, scrutinised, and sometimes changed altogether? 

Working in a larger studio tests your patience, how you handle dependencies, and how well you can communicate constructively with everyone around you. Documentation and process also become crucial, since your work becomes part of the work of many people rather than just your own. 

Your limits are tested, but it feels incredibly satisfying when you look up from all of it and see what you’ve built together. All those devs who worked on that big project become people you will run into or hear about again years later, and you get to share the memories of having achieved this big accomplishment together. 

Which parts of a good workplace are easy to overlook?

Answer: Whether there is room to have a different opinion. How are different perspectives treated, and is there space to bring another, tangible idea to the table? 

Developing a game has many moving parts, and things change all the time. It is important to have the space to innovate and bring something new. If you speak up, you should also have something to show for it, but it is worth first gauging how your lead, producer, or studio leadership in general responds to bottom-up ideas, and what kind of attitude or structure they have in place to support them.

What can look like a clear career step but come with unexpected trade-offs?

Answer: Becoming a manager is not as much sunshine and rainbows as people might think. You will find yourself in the middle of a lot of dependencies and decisions that you sometimes have less power over. When you’re a specialist in your craft, you can do the work and trust that you did it well. Becoming a manager, or even a lead, can make you feel less in control over the outcome of your discipline. 

I have seen a few people step down from such roles because they wanted to go back to doing the work they used to do. A manager’s role is to make sure things happen by facilitating and communicating constantly. 

So, if you’re currently pining for that promotion, think about it carefully and talk to the people who would become your peers if you got it. Ask them how much ownership they feel they have, and whether they have people they can naturally rely on and talk to in that role. 

Q: What can smaller game studios do when talented people sometimes move to larger companies?

A larger company may offer more stability, a recognised project, stronger benefits, and a name that carries weight on a résumé.

An indie or growing studio cannot always compete with those advantages.

From an employer branding and retention perspective, what can a smaller studio offer instead?

Answer: A smaller studio can offer more ownership of your craft, sometimes a bigger impact on the final product, and the opportunity to learn a lot of different skills in the process. 

It can also create more learning opportunities internally by allowing employees to learn from as many disciplines as possible, whether by simply shadowing their colleagues or being embedded in a new team to support and learn from them. 

For a larger studio, however, it can be slightly more difficult to facilitate this given the processes, workflows, and time constraints involved, unless it already has some form of recurring work flexibility programme in place, which is still quite rare. 

Which practical steps can strengthen people’s connection to the team and project?

Answer: This is the exact question that the work of employee engagement aims to answer. Every studio is different and is shaped as a brand by its history, legacy, leadership team, and what it can realistically offer. 

What I have often seen work, however, is to start by communicating more than you assume is needed. Ask for developers’ input. Create opportunities for your team to interact and collaborate across disciplines. Check that everyone is on the same page about where the game is going, and then communicate it again. 

Make them dream. Inspire them, and represent the ethos of the game and your mission in every interaction. Get your directors in the same room and make sure they are aligned and passionate about the universe they are working to build. If they, and the other layers of leadership, genuinely are, it will be felt and followed. 

How can a studio give people a reason to stay without making promises it cannot guarantee?

Answer: This is a big question, and one of the reasons why employer brand, as a function, plays an important role. It depends on the vision each leadership team has for its studio. 

If you are leading a smaller studio without a game universe or fanbase to rely on as a legacy, ask your gamer and game developer self why you are doing this in the first place. Then get the right people to communicate that with enough passion that others can feel it too. You can only hope that the people who resonate with it will follow. 

If you already have a released game or an established universe, you have many more tools to amplify that message and play with.

For Small Game Studios

Q: How can an unknown studio earn a candidate’s trust?

A candidate may like the project and the team but still worry about funding, leadership, stability, and whether the game will actually be completed.

How can a small studio present itself honestly without making the opportunity sound either unsafe or unrealistically perfect?

What should it communicate about the project, team, leadership, and future plans?

Answer: I will answer both questions more broadly, because a specific case and context are needed in order to give a specific answer. First, every studio has something genuine, interesting, and deeply rooted in passion to talk about. Once you find what that is, there will always be an audience for it, whether that is talent or potential business collaborators. I truly believe that. 

The other side of it is that, as a studio leader, you have to embody all of that, live and breathe it, and make people want to work on it and, most importantly, under your guidance and inspiration. Many people leave smaller or bigger studios because they are looking for something else: a different culture, better trust, more freedom to be creative, or the opportunity to make something that lasts. You have to ask yourself: what is your cultural commitment? Don’t underplay how much people can be inspired by you as a leader. 

Make sure you have a secondary reason beyond simply making a game, whether that is innovation for a greater good, social responsibility of some kind, or a solid production ethic that contributes to employee wellbeing. These are all valuable and not that often found. 

Most importantly, people want to work with people they like

What makes a young studio feel credible without a famous name or a released game?

Answer: When its people talk about its product, culture, mission, and operations in the same way and with the same passion. From intern to studio founder, the smaller the team, the more united, loud, and passionate that message should be.

For Young Artists

Q: What makes a young artist easier to notice, trust, and recommend?

When recruiters review many strong portfolios, artistic skill alone may not decide who gets an interview.

From your experience in talent acquisition, what makes someone easier to recommend to a hiring manager?

Answer: If they clearly define themselves in line with the role we’re looking to fill. If the role calls for a Senior Character Artist, I hope I can clearly see from your CV that you see yourself as a character artist, rather than a generalist or 3D artist, and that you have senior-level experience. That tells me we’re on the same page, even if you are a generalist who can also do character art. 

What also stands out is how closely the pieces in your portfolio align with the style of games the studio is making. If the studio is known for stylised games, I hope I can see that reflected in your art portfolio too. If it is an action game, I would hope that, as a designer, you have complex systems design applied to at least one of your portfolio pieces. If you are an animator applying to a studio that has created fantastical universes, I hope you’ve rigged a monster or two. The list can go on.

How much do a focused application, clear communication, visible teamwork, recommendations, and genuine interest in the project matter?

Answer: They all matter equally. Genuine interest in the project can sometimes come later if your experience is valuable enough and you are more passionate about the craft itself. Recommendations tend to become more important in later stages and are usually more relevant for leadership roles. 

As a general rule of thumb, a recruiter or hiring manager will often ask a current employee who previously worked with you what they thought of you when you were colleagues at a specific company. And because the industry is so small, I personally recommend leaving on good terms. 

What common mistakes make talented artists easy to overlook?

Answer: A portfolio with everything they have ever made. I recommend prioritising quality over quantity and highlighting the work that is most relevant to the studio you are applying to. If you need to pull those relevant examples together into a separate file and attach it to your application, do so. 

As an artist, show technical skills as well. For example, if you are a concept artist, being able to show that you have translated some of your 2D work into 3D, or experimented with mapping, texturing, or rigging, can be very valuable. I have often seen candidates with backgrounds in industrial design move into concept art roles. 

The more you can show that you have tried to bridge the gap between your discipline and the discipline that comes next to you in the production flow, the better. It’s what we call preparing for production reality.