Författare: tjejerkodar

☕️ Hi Hannah, tell us a bit about yourself!

Hi I’m Hannah, a lady who originates from the Netherlands but has lived in Sweden for about 2 years now. I always like to claim I came out of the womb telling stories, but that’d be a mild exaggeration. I’ve always been lost in the stories in my head. It only got worse when I discovered the magic of video games and Dungeons & Dragons. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

☕️ What do you work with at Coffe stain? 

I’m a level designer and writer at Coffee Stain studios. Mostly what that means is that I make the world in every sense of the word. I write the lore, the characters, dialogue, story, etc. And I also make the environments on the map with the assets I’m given. My time is divided about 30/70 between writing and working on the level respectively. We use Unreal Engine 4.

☕️ Can you tell us a little bit more about Level design?

I always relate level design to architecture. My current project, Satisfactory, is an open-world game on an uncharted alien planet. Which means is that I use geology, patterns in nature, erosion, and lots more to figure out how the world would logically look. This I then balance with demands for gameplay, breaking conventions to make something look and feel alien, and what’s considered aesthetically pleasing.

☕️ When did it first occur to you that you’d like to work with Level design?

I originally started studying games because I wanted to combine two things that I loved: writing and games. But it became clear to me very early on that being a games writer is difficult, not to mention the oversaturated job market. So I figured I’d focus on level design, something I discovered on the way that I loved doing as well, and get into the industry first before thinking of writing again.

☕️ How does a normal day at the office look like for you?

We eat breakfast together at the office, and then I go to the spot I have with the other level designer. I go over my assigned tasks, pick whichever needs doing most or suits me best that day, and get to it. Usually that means continuing work on creating/re-iterating a biome (eg. desert, forest, caves). Which includes landscaping, landscape painting, creating an asset set out of existing assets, placing those assets, making paths for the player, lighting & fog. All while keeping the art direction and gameplay in mind.

☕️ What’s next on your agenda? Any more skills you want to learn?

Ever since I discovered VFX I’ve been interested in it, and I’d love to cultivate my skills in that field more than the basics I currently know. It would also be a great bridge to teach me more more technical skills, which is my current weak spot. This is also the first writing job I have had, so there’s plenty left to do and learn!

 Hi Sandra! Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi everybody! I am an expat, from Macedonia, living in Stockholm, working in Stockholm and Visby, frontend developer, soon-to-be-a mom, tv addict, music aficionado, foodie. Open and outgoing but prefer the indoors. Still figuring out how to survive Swedish never-ending winters. Hobby: looking at cats on the internet.

What do you work with at Svenska Spel? 

I work as a web developer on our inhouse build CMS (content management system, like WordPress). This includes maintaining and developing new features that make it easier to manage all the content on our web site. I started directly at this position and have been at it for 2 years now. I recently switched offices from Visby to Stockholm.

How does a normal day at the office look like for you?

It really looks quite normal. In the mornings we have a team standup, where we share our daily tasks so we are all on the same page. Then, it is the mandatory morning fika when we fill up our cups with coffee and get to coding. It can get very quiet in the team, with everyone having their headphones on. I really enjoy it actually. When we are not coding we have planning meetings, demos of what we have built or discussions for new features. Oh yes…and we have the afternoon fika as well

When did it first occur to you that you’d like to work with programming?

Well, I am actually a self-thought developer that previously worked in the world of finance. That culture never really clicked with me and I always felt like there is something else I should be doing. Luckily, I had many developer friends as well as my partner who suggested I should try coding. I was immediately drawn. I took a few months of sabbatical and I studied at home every day. Just like in school. I would use online courses, started going to meetups and before I knew it I landed my first internship and then first job as a web developer. Since then I worked at a couple of smaller startups in Stockholm until I settled at Svenska Spel in Visby. Amazing journey so far!

What’s next on your agenda? Any more skills you want to learn?

Yes definitely. Next on my agenda is more focus on backend with Node.js. Eventually I would like to learn a new language besides JavaScript or maybe even try mobile development.

Do you have any advice to someone who’s interested in a career as a software developer?

My advice is go for it! The way to becoming a good developer is putting in a lot of hours of coding, ‘copying’ good code and trying to understand it and a lot of google-ing. No matter which way you choose to go into development, stay curious and code code code. It worked for me!