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Life as a Full Stack Developer at Big Viking Games

By | Career Advice, Culture, Recruiting | No Comments

Big Viking Games is looking for a talented Full Stack Mobile Developer with a passion for gaming to join our Toronto studio. To get a better idea of what life is like for a Full Stack Developer at Big Viking Games, we asked Tom to tell us a bit about what inspired him to become a Viking and what keeps him motivated. 

Full Stack Developer Big Viking Games
What advice would you give to other developers who are wondering how to work in the gaming industry? 

First off: never stop learning! Go to school and get a good base in computers and programming. But don’t limit your studies to your classes. Read up on games and the gaming industry, try games you normally wouldn’t play—from the complex to the simple—and develop a critical eye for what makes each one a good or bad game.

Next, try your hand by making some simple games by following some tutorials, and then share all your work in an online portfolio on github (or a similar service). Finally, and this might seem counter-intuitive, but: embrace the mistakes you make! When you make an online profile of your work, share ALL of it—even the stuff that didn’t work out!

What made you decide to apply for a job at Big Viking Games?

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What’s it Like to Work as a Customer Support Specialist?

By | Career Advice, Culture, Recruiting | No Comments

As our player community grows, we’re constantly on the lookout for new Customer Support Specialists. To get an idea of what’s in store for this role at Big Viking Games, we spoke to Ashlee, who grew from her role as Customer Support Specialist into our Community Manager.

Player Happiness Engineer

What are the most challenging and rewarding aspects of being a Customer Support Specialist?

The part of this role that is both the most challenging and rewarding is seeing how much people care about the game. As a Customer Support Specialist, you’re on the front lines. When something goes wrong, you’re the one who receives the brunt of the frustration players might be feeling.

However, you’re also the first one to hear about it when something goes right. I’ve had the opportunity to make deep and meaningful connections with fans. They’ve sent me pictures of their newborn grandchildren, updates on events in their lives, and have even made me fan art. When I see all of that, it reminds me that we’re more than just a company in our fans’ eyes. We’re having an amazing impact on people, and I’m proud to be a part of that!

What made you decide to apply to Big Viking Games?

I saw the application online, and Big Viking Games just seemed like a dream place to work. As I read the job description, I got to the list of perks, and I recall actually wondering if it was real or not. Anyway, I took a leap of faith and put in my application, and the rest is history. Read More

Working as a Photoshop Artist at Big Viking Games

By | Career Advice, Culture, Recruiting | No Comments

We’re looking to hire a Photoshop Artist and Illustrator for YoWorld, so we wanted to share an insider perspective from one of our existing artists. Here’s Travis’ experience of what it’s like to work at Big Viking Games as a Photoshop Artist.

EmployeeHighlightWhat made you decide to apply to Big Viking Games?

I have always loved making and playing video games. When applying, I liked that BVG produces live, social games, so I would be able to see players enjoying my art in real time. The promise of working on something new every day also appealed to me.

What is the most challenging aspect of being a YoWorld Photoshop Artist?

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Designing the Future at NXNE Future Land Interactive Conference

By | Events, Tech | No Comments


0283badA post by Big Viking Games CEO, Albert Lai

It’s no secret that I am a huge believer in the potential of Ontario for becoming the next amazing hot spot for tech and mobile games. We are fortunate to have a fertile ecosystem for tech growth, sustained by a government that is aligned to make this happen, and a strong pipeline of creative and tech talent from Ontario’s educational institutions.

Events like the North by Northeast Future Land Interactive Conference, where I joined a panel this week, are great catalysts to keep this tech ecosystem humming. NXNE’s music-focused festival is a Toronto fixture, and this year they introduced the Interactive Conference to broaden the focus of the festival to include our city’s red-hot gaming community. Read More

GalatronVS Release 1.2.0

By | GalatronVS | No Comments
  • Added boss encounters to the game
  • Added combo counter and combo score into the game
  • Changed enemy flight paths and enemy bullet patterns
  • Updated bot story flow to be more narrative
  • Temporarily removed meteors and laser spawns
  • Added 2 minute timers before boss encounter
  • Updated all notification images

If you want to give us feedback as we improve the game, please follow us on Facebook at GalatronVS.

Introduction

This is our first ever GalatronVS Game Update blog post. We want to use these to talk to players about what we’re working on and to hear your feedback. Please send us any of your player suggestions, feedback or comments through our Facebook page or by email at [email protected].

GalatronVS is currently in Alpha. This means that we’re still working on a lot of the features we want in the game, so the game will be growing and getting better over the coming weeks. Here’s a list of some of our recent changes, as well as updates we’ll be making in the near future.

Combo Counter & Kill Score

Flying your ship and blasting robots should be fast-paced and exciting. To capture this, we’ve changed the way enemies spawn and added a combo counter that ticks up every time you destroy an enemy. Hitting various combo counter numbers gives you a bonus to your kill score, but when you miss an enemy, your combo counter resets to zero. We believe these changes make destroying enemies more rewarding versus trying to dodge as many enemies as possible to maximize your distance score.

Coins Drops

Players have consistently told us that they’d like to see more coin drops. Honestly, we are considering revisiting the entire coin system since dropping more coins in game could create on-screen clutter and get distracting. We’re hoping to find a way to distribute more coins to players outside of gameplay, while still preserving the thrill of dodging enemy bullets to catch items in the game. We’ll share more details soon as we work on this part of the game.

New Modifications and Power Ups

Currently, you’re able to purchase only new ship designs, and while these designs look cool, they don’t give you any different abilities in game. We’ll soon be adding awesome modifications like missiles, bombs and laser cannons that you can buy for your ship. You’ll be able to unlock new bullet patterns and level them up to make your ship more powerful as you progress. Finally, we’ll also be introducing premium currency, which Kik players will be able to buy using Kikpoints.

Difficulty and New Maps

Many players have noticed that the game got a lot more difficult with the latest update. We’ve also added in our first boss encounter, and we’ll definitely be adding more bosses in the future.

As we continue to build the game, we want to provide a wider range of map options, including easier maps for those who still are trying to learn the game, and harder maps for those who want that extra challenge. This is one of our main areas of focus where we’re working hard to improve the game.

Give Us Your Feedback!

This first blog post should give you some idea as to what we’re working on, and how we’re planning to improve GalatronVS. However, we really want to hear your thoughts on what we’re doing right and what we could be doing better. Let us know what you think on Facebook, or send us an email.