Keyan Mynhardt

Just announced! This month's UX Salon Halifax meetup is all about... User Experience of course. That's it. Back to the basics. Ever wonder why some things just work so.... nice? Or why some other experiences are so frustrating? We can answer that. :) See you in two weeks! #uxsalonhalifax #halifaxux #userexperience #halifaxtech #uxdesign #uxresearch

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🎙️ New Series G podcast episode: Featuring Raphael van Lierop - CEO and Founder of Hinterland, the Vancouver-based studio behind the brilliant survival game "The Long Dark". ⭐ This discussion features topics including: - The early stages of building Hinterland as a company and studio - Managing Early Access expectations with the game community - Building a company culture that promotes studio longevity Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gabUNB-g YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gmbNJsxJ Here's a short clip from the episode where Raphael discusses how the team decided upon The Long Dark's Steam description:

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Excited to join the gaming community where we help each other with career planning, job searches, and coaching! I'll be focusing on providing CV and LinkedIn reviews to help you put your best foot forward. A big shoutout to Amir Satvat for bringing us all together! 🙌 Let's make great things happen! 🎮 #GamingCommunity #CareerPlanning #JobSearch #CVReview #LinkedInReview #Coaching #Networking

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Ubisoft Toronto confirms reports of 33 layoffs If your role is affected by this news, please make use of the support available across our three platforms. Specifically, I recommend checking out the Games Org Support Posts in Home 1. These resources are highly effective, with ample data to back their success. I won't pretend there are easy solutions but our community's only goal is to make things a little easier for as many people as possible. We have a ton of data showing that, for all candidates, your chances of finding a games role double (from 5 to 10%) over 12 months if you regularly use all our resources versus not. Additionally, recently I presented a 100% update to our Games Jobs Workbook, with 3,600 companies fully updated and nearly 14,000 roles fully updated. Of our 18 resources, this is the most powerful tool we have to help you. https://lnkd.in/d6x5NHMZ (Resource #8) I'm so sorry to hear this report and I will, as always, do my best to do something about it rather than just talking. Home 1 - 🔗 AMIRSATVAT.COM: Our main hub provides 18 resources to assist you in finding work, featuring a fully updated design. - 🔗 Games Org Support Posts: Find a template at AMIRSATVAT.COM (Category 4, Resource 10). If you can provide information from your team (with their consent), I’ll help edit and disseminate the final product, reaching 100,000+ people. These posts are highly effective in increasing visibility, and we've done 99 of them. Home 2 - 🔗 Discord: Join us at discord.gg/amirsatvat, our live extension of community resources. With over 4,300 members, we are currently in an open-join phase. Home 3 - 🔗 LinkedIn: Our community here includes nearly 91,000 members, with 1-3 daily posts offering support and career assistance in the games industry. How the Broader Community Can Help: - Spread the Word: Reshares and comments on this post amplify the visibility of these resources. - Offer Support: Utilize the 16 ways listed on AMIRSATVAT.COM under "How You Can Help" to assist, or simply lend an ear or advice on our Discord server. - Join Our Movement: Volunteer with us at AMIRSATVAT.COM to support our colleagues in the games industry. Our network has facilitated over 2,100 jobs and 39,000 coaching conversations to date, the largest impact of any games organization on earth, and has been visited by millions of gamers lifetime.

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Friends, our weekly community impact update for June 7th! This week, I'm so proud that we added Hailey Rojas' #opentonetwork resource as our 16th community offering. I thank Desirée R. also for her help with that content and design leadership this week as well. Haven't signed up yet for our community badge rewards for being a member and participating in community coaching? Register here: https://lnkd.in/evQpQDfd Our Four Headline Stats First (as always), straight from amirsatvat.com: - Job Placements: We've successfully facilitated over 2,000 job placements. - Advisory Chats: Our community coaches have engaged in more than 37,000 free advisory chats - We added 808 members to our LinkedIn community (88,973 total). - We added 336 members to our Discord community (3,735 total). JOIN OUR DISCORD COMMUNITY HERE: discord.gg/amirsatvat Resource Updates: - Hiring Visibility: Our community now includes 7,501 job seekers, with 70 new candidates joining recently. - Coaching: The number of coaches has risen to 2,228, thanks to 19 new volunteers offering support across our four services. - Role Listings: There are now 13,783 job opportunities across 3,616 organizations. Providing a full update on this is my top priority. - Career Planning: Both our General Planning Resources and our Early Career Pack are now live. Please submit any additional contributions you may have! - Games Org Support Posts: We have highlighted 98 individuals affected by programmatic layoffs. - Free LinkedIn Premium Trials: This week, we provided 20 new 2-month LinkedIn Premium trials to gamers, bringing the total to 370. - Ticket To Ride: We have given out 370 free tickets to gamers across 5 events, thanks to 29 generous sponsors. - Weekly Community Spotlight Posts: We have posted 8 spotlights, allowing community members seeking work to highlight themselves. How You Can Help: We have a page (https://lnkd.in/dY9KQ5a3) detailing 14 ways to contribute, highlighting areas of elevated and highest needs marked in yellow and red. This Week’s 8 New Mentors, 6 New CV + LinkedIn Reviewers, 3 New Mock Interviewers, and 2 New Art Portfolio Reviewers are in the comments! Thanks for your support and let's continue changing gamers' lives together! Super Amiro

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Does your software project need a designer? 🖍️ I’m a bit biased, but hear me out. A designer can always improve a software product. Maybe users have a particular frustration point. While some might respond “we need better docs and more training,” a UX designer might help optimize for discoverability and a clear path that actually solves the problem. Or maybe your buttons just feel off, and you don’t know why. A UI designer might run some accessibility tests and find that your brand color really shouldn’t be paired with white text. Those examples are clear. But where a good designer will really add the most ROI is when they’re given a seat at the table, early and often, where the actual business goals are being discussed. Because to design good software, context matters. And the more thorough context a designer has, the better the software will be. Creative problem solving is what makes a designer’s job interesting. But more importantly, a designer’s creativity applied to proper, thorough business context is what makes your software better. https://lincolnloop.com/

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Another week, another round of layoffs, another studio closure, and another blow to the Vancouver game dev scene. Game development in Vancouver has been on life support for the past few years, and what a shocking fall from grace in comparison to how things looked in the early to mid-2000s where you couldn't throw a BC roll (sushi reference) without hitting a triple-A studio! You can blame more favourable tax credits in other Canadian provinces (which doesn't help!) but that's not the real reason for the decay, is it? We're not really competing against other provinces within our country, we're competing with a global talent market and a shift to remote work that has driven game development to lower cost regions that can produce stuff that's just as good as anything we can make. It's a shock and a wake-up call, perhaps too late. Everyone is on survival mode right now and there are still rough waters ahead. Today doesn't seem to be the day for big-picture industry analysis, but when the dust settles and the pain of layoffs is not so fresh for people, it'll be time to sit down and ask ourselves some tough questions about how we got here. I'm getting tired of saying it, but my heart goes out to all those affected by the current round of layoffs and closures. 💔

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Narrative games are in an interesting spot. I was in a mentoring group for Toronto indie devs in Hand Eye Society's Futures Forward program, which primarily supports games as a form of creative expression. There were eleven pitches, which were largely based around personal and cultural stories or perspectives. As a queer, visible minority, migrant woman in the game industry, I absolutely LOVE this, of course. I think there's opportunity, though, to help guide narrative projects to increased commercial viability across the industry. Much of what gamers expect out of games - narrative or otherwise - shifts season to season, but I'm still seeing pitched projects suffer from old-world brain. The standard walking sim, QTE one-shot, bare-bones puzzle adventure, and the illusion of choice to deliver strong narratives have been done to exhaustion. I think there will always be room for them, to be fair. However, more and more players are looking for varied first-run experiences, choices that actually matter, replayability, immersion, engaging art styles and music, and - well - gameplay. Why not stand out? Will this apply to every game? No. But too many narrative games pitched today still focus solely on the narrative and not enough on the game. Venba (venbagame.com) is a fantastic example of successfully employing some of these aspects in a clever and impactful package (read: I was destroyed by the end and recommend it to immigrant gamers any chance I get). In Stars and Time (instarsandtime.com) has some pretty clear gameplay and visual inspirations that act as an effective vehicle for its storytelling. Slay the Princess (slaytheprincess.com) just gets it. Then there's the risk factor for investors and publishers. Narrative games generally have much higher word counts to localize, cultural sensitivities or simply appeal to check against on a global scale, less game design-centered devs or development planning, how to market around spoilers, what to offer consumers post-launch, delivery of the final writing and storytelling production based off early concepts and sometimes pre-writer-on-staff, etc. There's not enough space to write out all my thoughts on this subject - and I haven't even touched on HOW to pitch a narrative game, even with modern design elements in mind. So I implore narrative game designers to really dig deep into the landscape - past, present, and future (seriously, pay attention to announcements, please!). What has worked well? What hasn't? What are lessons you can learn from both? Who is your game for and what games do they play and like? I really want to experience your story. I would love to see your game reach and have impact on the many lives who need it. And I'll see you at the next LudoNarraCon (ludonarracon.com). Edit: I must add that I don't run LudoNarraCon. :) That event is run by the good folks at Fellow Traveller, helmed by the lovely Christopher Wulf. (For those asking to be included.)

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Tomorrow I'll be going over how to make a budget for your prototype. Using google sheets to break down expected/unexpected costs and creating a timeline to visually gauge the development timeline. The same process can be used for the entire development cycle at a high level and help you estimate full development costs so you know just how much you will need to ask for when seeking funding from VC, publishing or crowdfunding. (It's more than you think.) As a side note I'll be demonstrating why most roles in games are contract based and addressing how we can tackle that as studios/teams and avoid layoffs and high churn rates. There are pros and cons. If there is time at the end, I'll be showing the budget study we did at BlackCap Creative Ltd when evaluating a pitch for the Heavy Metal IP we wanted to pursue and how a market analysis impacted our choice not to.

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Look at that funnel breakdown: First contact: 1,000 Follow-up meeting: 253 Right away we know that only 1 in 4 teams who make contact with a publisher will achieve a 2nd meeting. Some might see that as a bad thing but I see it as a recognition that if you can hone your pitch properly, and ensure you are directing it at the RIGHT audience (no spray'n'pray), you can increase your chances of moving ahead dramatically. Being 1 in 253 is 4x better than being 1 in 1,000. Obviously there is a lot more to do from there but that second meeting will net invaluable information to use and apply even if that's where the funnel ends for a team. Publishers know what sells games and if they're willing to impart their knowledge take full advantage and soak it in!

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Kicking off the week with a productive meeting with Soohyung (Eddie) Kim, Governance and SEA Lead at Klaytn Foundation. 🧑‍💼 Starting the week right with a solid team meeting is key. It's not just about getting on the same page—it’s about checking in with each other, syncing our plans, and making sure everything’s on track. 🗓️ Communication is the backbone of everything we do. Whether it's in business or life, keeping those lines open ensures we’re all moving in the right direction. 🔗 Did you already have your meeting this week? 💬 Visit https://www.kaia.io/ and https://klaytn.foundation/ to see how we’re shaping the future together. 🚀 #JBlaze #MondayMeetings #Kaia #KlatytnFoundation #Communication #Technology #Blockchain #Benefits #ThinkGrowth #KaiaNatinIto #KaiaKaya

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Remote work enabled me to hire an expert team of UX designers and researchers dispersed across Canadian cities. It allowed me to support employee wellbeing so that precarious child care situations, creative passions and needs at home could be balanced with flexible work. We never missed a deadline; our work was always of a top quality. I could hire for the best talent and recruit from outside government. I couldn't offer the pay of private sector, but I could offer a healthy work environment and flexibility - something which many creatives (and folks in general) covet more than money. A slow creep to the end of remote work will make this impossible for many managers working in the federal government in IT. And equally, it will make it hard to retain managers and executives who are also subject matter experts in the field. It's really disappointing to see, and I hope there will be flexibility given so that we can retain the best talent in house. When you foster a work environment that is enticing to IT talent, you build real functional IT capacity within the government. Haven't we learned from ArriveCan? #DigitalGov #IT #remotework #returntowork

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Had a fantastic chat with Julian Maroda while visiting Montreal for MIGS this week! What a treat to meet other devs who deeply understand and harness the power of feedback and rapid iteration. Julian's success with Tribes of Midgard at his studio Norsfell was built on a foundation I strongly believe in: weekly sprints, regular build reviews and playtesting, and a "less talking, more doing" philosophy. What really resonates with me is Julian's commitment to sharing builds early with players - even when core systems aren't complete. At Norsfell, the team actively involves players even before some of the basic mechanics are implemented. Why? Because involving players early to capture and make sense of their experiences allows teams to validate fundamental decisions when changes are still easy to make. This is exactly why we built Live Aware - to help teams of all shapes and sizes effortlessly engage with and learn from their play community. We are empowering the next generation of devs make better games, faster and more aligned with audience expectations. Merci Julian for the great chat and for demonstrating how embracing "extreme velocity through iteration" can lead to great success! Want to learn more about Julian's work and dev philosophy? Check out a fantastic interview with Julian hosted by Daryl Ogden at Valued Cultures: https://lnkd.in/gCHMGqYA

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Names are incredibly powerful. Learning the names of things is how we begin to communicate as humans. Names empower objects with purpose and meaning. It is no different in UI. Layouts will often require many divs and containers. When designing a layout, I’ve found it helpful to slow down and think about why I’m creating a new frame in the first place. Giving a UI element a name helps with my own understanding of what its purpose is. Not only that, but a well-named and organized layer list acts as its own documentation that both designers and developers will appreciate. #figma #uidesign #designtips

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Bennett Liu shares an important life lesson here about the power of connections, and the value of supporting one another. His work with our awesome volunteers is one of the reasons XP Game Summit 2024 was so smooth. Check out his talk below:

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🚀 For Sale: SpaceRobotics.ca 🤖 Are you a Canadian company in aerospace, robotics, or tech innovation looking to make your mark? SpaceRobotics.ca is up for grabs, offering a memorable and strategic online identity for anyone serious about dominating the robotics and space exploration space in Canada. With a name like SpaceRobotics.ca, the possibilities are endless. From research giants like MDA Space and Canadensys Aerospace Corporation to ambitious startups diving into robotics and AI, this domain could give you the authority and visibility to stand out in a rapidly evolving industry. 🌌 Interested? Reach out, and let’s launch your brand into orbit. https://lnkd.in/eHaqbuxU #SpaceRobotics #RoboticsCanada #AerospaceInnovation #CanadianTech #SpaceExploration #TechStartups #AI #CanadianInnovation #SpaceIndustry #TechForSale #DomainForSale #RoboticsAndAI #CanadaTech #Innovation

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Hey, you there! Person who identifies as a gamer and/or game developer! Do you have 30 minutes to contribute to academic research? Brock University is running a research project exploring the relationship between games and motherhood. I think it's really cool that they are putting effort towards understanding this topic better as it directly relates to my personal interests and experiences. But the survey would benefit from people of all genders, whether or not they are mothers or have been pregnant, sharing their perspectives on how pregnancy and motherhood are depicted in video games. There are extra specific questions if you are a mother and/or have been pregnant, if you are a game developer, and if you have worked on games that show pregnancy or motherhood. To clarify: I am not affiliated with the study, I just participated in it and want to share it further. Please consider taking some time out of your day to run through their survey. You can also be entered to win a gift card if you do, if that helps sell the idea. Please also feel free to share this with your own network of gamers or game developers. https://lnkd.in/gVJgVTvy Photo tax for the algorithm: Me, a game developer and mother, trying to work from home in April of 2020.

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🎆 Loom Wrapped 2024 is here! Turns out I saved myself a whopping 601 😦 meetings. Are there even meetings left in my day-to-day work? I can assure you yes, there are - but the essence of the meetings is a totally different ones. While meetings and jour-fixe per se came from a valuable thought, which is to bring transparency into teams of any size, it didn’t take long for many meetings to turn into redundant time slots that just - exist. The uprising of online meetings was an even bigger catalysator in setting up meetings without agendas and inviting irrelevant people. All this left us at MVST. wondering - how do we get back to the roots? The answer is actually rather simple: Let’s do as much as possible async and only set up a real meeting in a couple of thought-through situations: ℹ️ If there is an open question that really needs more context. In this case, we’ll just jump into a spontaneous huddle most of the times. 🔄 We also have one standard weekly per client. This is more of a status update or show&tell usually and takes us 30 minutes to one hour. 🚝 When we plan workshops, we try to maximise the outcome with showing up on-site right away. Everything else can be done pretty efficiently using tools like loom and forces us all to stick to the essentials in the meetings we do have. 👋 Goodbye pointless big-round online meetings! *Of course there are also a couple of important internal meetings. All-hands, a design critique and a couple more that just foster collaboration and team-building outside of client projects. #meetings #efficiency #recap #2024 #2025 #meetingculture #value

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I mean, I get it. Spend years and millions to build a major franchise installment and end up being an "also ran" behind the most anticipated release in recent memory. It's wicked risky. Almost unbearably so. That being said, if everyone is holding their breath then it feels like the stakes get too high. Rockstar can't deliver anything less than slam dunk. And anyone who's planning to publish in 2025 needs to consider a "GTA" contingency which could be wincingly-expensive-to-completely-not-feasible depending on how hard you'd have to pivot. So who's more under the gun, do we think? Rockstar/T2, or everyone whose studio needs to publish in 2025? Pressure to deliver, or pressure to respond? https://lnkd.in/gVkGNgFe

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