You may or may not have heard of King, the leader in casual games online, however you would have to be hiding under a rock to not hear of their globally popular game Candy Crush. King, after 10 years of operation as a successful company, has experienced extraordinary growth during late 2012 and 2013.
The great news of the Barcelona technology scene, King have not only setup up a game studio here, recruiting 70 people in the last year, but are also in the process of setting up a global services centre in Barcelona, making it one of their main cities of operations as they plan to take over the world of social gaming.
Also keep reading to see how, Psy, the other biggest recent craze other than Candy Crush is involved.
Below is an interview we were lucky enough to have with Ligia Sabillon, Senior Recriuter in King’s Barcelona office.
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JF – Thank you for taking the time to chat with us Ligia. For those less familiar with the company, what does King actually do?
King makes great games that offer fun, bite-size entertainment experiences for everyone to enjoy. We put everything we have into creating snackable entertainment that is packed with excitement and energy, adding moments of magic to the days. Since 2003 we’ve been a leader in making quality casual social games for players all around the world, with over 130 million monthly players and more than 16 billion game plays. We make games for the web at www.king.com, on mobile devices (both iOS & Android) and for social networks
Candy Crush Saga is the top game on Facebook and our hits include Pet Rescue Saga, Bubble Witch Saga and Pyramid Solitaire Saga. We are in the process of taking our best titles to smartphones and tablets and with a catalogue of over 150 titles, we regularly launch new games on the web. We have offices in London, Hamburg, Stockholm, Malmo, Barcelona, Malta, Bucharest and San Francisco.
JF – What are King’s plans in Barcelona?
During the past year we have been building up an amazing Games Studio in Barcelona, going from blank space to more than 70 super talented people in the team in less than a year. For 2013 we are continuing to build out the studio teams, along with the development of a global Shared Service Centre which will support our growing global team with activity across HR, finance, marketing and much more. We’re really proud to have been chosen as a Great Place to Work in Spain, achieving 2nd place in our category within our first year!
JF – Why did King pick Barcelona?
Barcelona is a great place to recruit rock-star international talent. There is a strong background of other gaming, technology and start-up businesses in the city. Combine this with a reputation for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial thinking – you get an amazing place to build a team. Our studio is already releasing successful games into the market, sharing our global success, and this is down to the calibre of the people who have joined us.
JF – What roles are you recruiting for?
In our studio teams we’re looking for a range of experienced Business Managers, Product Managers/Producers, Front and Back-end Developers, Business Intelligence, Game Artists and graphic roles. As we grow our Shared Service team, we are looking for a number of specialist roles across recruiting and HR, administration, finance and software engineering roles.
JF – Please tell us more about the team you have in place (e.g. background / nationalities etc.)
We’re proud to have a very diverse, international team in all of our European offices, and Barcelona is no exception. We have people from gaming, online media, e-commerce and other backgrounds, all working to make King successful. We have people from across Spain and Europe in the team, including expats who have been working further afield and have returned back to Europe. Listing all the nationalities would take too long!
JF – Apart from specific skills for specific roles, what are some of the common attributes you look for in people to join the King team?
King is a collaborative environment, where we all have a passion for gaming and for making amazing bite-size pieces of entertainment for our players. The hiring bar is set high to make sure we have the best skills and experience in our team, and this includes both technical and niche functional roles. We look for people who are innovative, focussed on quality and committed to working in an agile but supportive team environment where we get things done. We also want people to enjoy working for us and have fun of course!
JF – Obviously social games is a high growth area, what experience do you look for if the person is not from the online games sector?
For some of our roles, gaming experience is naturally essential, but we look for broad experience in e-commerce and industry dependent on the role. Usually, candidates will have easily transferable experience, within software development for example, or have a strong educational background at University or through an MBA. The most important thing is the way a candidate approaches their work and applies their skills and experience to life at King.
JF – Was that really Psy playing Candy Crush in the recent song he released?
Absolutely – Candy Crush is a global phenomenon and is avidly played everywhere, including South Korea.
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Want to learn more about King and meet their recruiting team? Join us on Wednesday the 5th of June, at JobFluent Barcelona: Management Edition