22nd July 2020

NOMAD GAMES - WORKING FROM HOME

Hi Nomads!

We’re sure a lot of you have had to adjust to a completely new way of working and living while this worldwide pandemic is still happening. We’re all working from home here at Nomad Games, and wanted to share some insight into what it’s like to work at a games studio while everyone is at home!

So, we asked some of our staff how they’ve been finding it - you can have a read of how they’ve found it below:

For Mat, one of our directors, the biggest challenge is context-switching. “In the time before the coronavirus, we would travel from home to work, which gives us time to let one set of challenges rest, and prepare for the next. Even walking from your desk to a meeting room gives your brain mental cues to switch thinking modes from *programming* to *planning*, for example.  But nowadays everything happens at the same place (home) and at any time - we might have to go from an online meeting straight into helping a child out with their homework, or from a tricky coding task into hanging up the washing! This can all get a bit disorienting and exhausting, as without the usual cues of home and work life, we have to rely on being organised and disciplined - which isn't always easy!”

For Rob, one of our other directors, “it's pretty much what Mat said, along with ongoing tech support issues for other family members!”

For Andy, our studio Art Director, working from home has definitely been a big change! 

“When lockdown first started, we as a family realised that we would need a workspace that all of us could use for school, work and our various hobbies. So we decided to convert our dining room into a creative studio that we could all be able to work in comfortably with everything that we needed to hand.“

“Work starts early in the Bate household as I try to get a couple of hours of quiet work in before the “School Day” starts. Home School starts for Tom and Hannah at 8.30 and we all knuckle down and get our daily tasks done for the day. I help Tom with maths and he gives me plenty of feedback on the game UI!”

We have plenty of inspiration to hand as the ‘game wall’ is pretty well stocked with various books, games, dice and models.

Once the working day is done, the creativity usually continues as the room doubles up as a painting and craft studio.

“Into the early evening, the Wacom pen is replaced with a paintbrush as I paint my latest tabletop army. What am I painting? Vampire counts of course! Our lockdown studio is certainly a hectic, highly productive,  creative workspace, perfect for members of our family to create their latest masterpiece… It also has a dog!”

And for Ethan, one of our junior programmers, working from home during lockdown has not been better or worse, just different.

“I can start work earlier in the day and deal with house chores more flexibly/frequently which make me feel like I have more free time when work time is over. At first it felt odd to have my personal and work space combined, it made days meld together in my memory. But I think I've adjusted well now. I've managed to keep myself on task during work hours.”

“Communication between team members feels a bit harder since sometimes they don't respond to @ mentions, which means it’s not as easy as being able to walk over to their desk. Overall I'm relieved that I'm in a line of work that can continue during a lockdown.”

For Jethro, another one of our programmers here at Nomad Games, he’s been in a similar boat to Ethan. 

“It’s mostly been the same as usual, just without the commute. The actual work itself hasn’t been an issue, although having to deal with noisy neighbours who BBQ most days has definitely been annoying, as I'm half jealous, half annoyed by the music which makes for a less than ideal work environment, but I’m coping!”

“Outside of work, I've been trying to get outside more and go for runs, taking advantage of local green spaces and exploring /getting to know the local area more intimately. Oh, and I’ve been in my cats space a lot more over the past few months of course. Not sure she appreciates that…”

We hope this has given you some insight into how the Nomad team (and our pets) have been coping with working from home in these crazy times!