Happy Hutch-A-Versary to Lara! She’s celebrating her first year at Hutch as a Game Designer on Top Drives in our London office. Keep reading to find out how Lara has navigated her first job in the games industry and what advice she would give to others looking to take on a similar role...

Being a Hutchie

What’s your job role at Hutch?

I am a Game Designer! I’m involved in a lot of the Live Ops we create for the game and I’ve recently started working on feature documentation!

What’s been your favourite moment at Hutch?

Recently we’ve started having monthly designer knowledge shares at Hutch. We used to be quite disconnected as designers since we’re working on different projects but this gives us a great opportunity to share what we’re working on, get advice and learn from each other. Personally, it's made me feel more at ease and also made me think about the next steps of my career more thoroughly.

Which 3 words best describe your time at Hutch so far?

Friends, challenges, balance

What is your favourite Hutch benefit? How do you use it?

The 4 day work week obviously! I wish I could say I use my Friday to work on something really productive, and maybe that will come in time, but to be honest it’s an extra much needed rest day for me. I find I feel much more ready to start work on Monday after that!

Lara's role...

What’s the most important thing you’ve learnt at Hutch?

I think since this is my first game industry job it’s easy to get swept up in the flow of things without really knowing that I can change what I want to work on based on my interests and where I want my career to go. One of the most important things I’ve learnt is to ask for what I want, especially when it comes to doing work that I feel is important to my career progression.

What’s been your biggest challenge?

Overcoming imposter syndrome for sure! I experienced a lot of that in the beginning and sometimes even recently when working on things I’ve never done before. I think it’s important to know that it does pass once you get more comfortable with the work you’re doing, and asking for help definitely makes it easier.

What advice would you give to someone interested in doing a similar role?

Game design comes in a lot of different forms, it’s good to have an idea of what area you’re interested in. In general though, playing lots of different games and thinking about their mechanics with the purpose of deconstructing/analysing them is a great start! There’s also a lot of resources on this process that you can check out.

Fancy joining Hutch? Take a look out our latest vacancies here: https://www.hutch.io/careers