From Lisbon to Stockholm: Why I Moved To Sweden To Work For Resolution Games

As our team continues to grow, we’re excited to welcome new colleagues from all over the world. Today we’re talking to our Game Developer Alexandre to discuss his move to Stockholm from Lisbon, Portugal.

Where did you move from? Why?

The timing to switch jobs or careers will never seem the best, but in the middle of a global pandemic might just be the worst time you can pick. But for me, moving from Lisbon to Stockholm in late March 2021 to work full-time in VR gaming was one of the best decisions of my life.

Most people will relate that 2020 was an eye-opening experience that made us question the way we do things and what matters most. As a creative person who spent my childhood drawing, teenage years writing weird love songs and eventually getting into game development, I knew my career would have to be built on creating imaginative and interactive worlds.

While studying to become a computer engineer, I had the privilege to come to Stockholm and study at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. You can learn a lot by traveling the world and exposing yourself to new cultures, but living abroad will change you. I immediately fell in love with Sweden, the people, the culture and the nature. Let's be real — I didn't like the weather, it was too cold for me, but as I flew back to sunny Portugal in 2016, I remember looking through the plane window, and somehow knowing I wasn't done with Sweden, and Sweden wasn't done with me.

When did you join Resolution Games and what attracted you in the first place?

Excited and armed with new knowledge from game design courses at KTH, I knew I wanted to apply my efforts on a new technology that had caught my attention - virtual reality. I had a handful of VR games on my Samsung Gear VR, but one of them in particular got me spending hours inside the headset - Bait! - from a company I had never heard about, Resolution Games.

The graphics were beautiful. The music was relaxing. The fish were super cute. All of my friends loved it when they got to try it for the first time.

Bait! and other games inspired me to become a VR indie game developer during my free time and to hustle to publish Oculus games for the Samsung Gear VR, then the Oculus Go and now to current VR headsets such as the Meta Quest. Looking back, it’s fun to see how the industry as a whole was maturing alongside me and so many creators including Resolution Games.

Fast forward to 2020 and the pandemic showcased how impactful VR is for social presence. I spend an extraordinary amount of hours inside my VR headset purposely escaping the four walls where I was confined during quarantine. It kept me sane during an objectively terrible year. By the end of the year I had my resolution (pun intended): I was going to work full time in a VR gaming studio!

And why not one of the best ones?

And why not in a country where I already knew and loved?

And why not... Resolution Games?

What have you found after the move? Please can you provide us with a brief overview of your role at Resolution Games?

I am very grateful for the opportunity of re-launching my career as a VR game developer and especially for working with a game I already loved - Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale.

There's a saying "do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life". That is false! There's an endless amount of big challenges, sacrifice and hard work required to make games in a meaningful way. As a programmer you'll find yourself writing and rewriting code and debugging, and debugging and debugging just a little bit more to solve THAT critical bug that players encountered on your previous fully tested release.

It's something of a bittersweet magical process, bumping your head into the computer one hundred times until you and your colleagues finally crack down the problem and the sun shines again.

The best part - it's all worth it! I'll read a player's comment on how "Cook-Out is the only game I can play with my daughter" or feel the energy of people in Blaston's Ozo Lounge and I know for a fact that our games made those people's day just a tiny bit better.

And as the legend and now my colleague Tom Hall once said, "It's never not important to work to make people happy!"

What’s the most exciting thing about working at Resolution Games?

Everyone - and I mean EVERYONE - is extremely creative, dedicated to their craft and wants to see the project succeed. I honestly still can't grasp how we manage to gather so many talented individuals with such spirit. That makes things so much easier.

You'll find mentors that become friends and seasoned professionals working alongside new graduates full of energy and eager to learn. In our lunch room you’ll even find people from all over the world sharing and comparing experiences during fika.

Sometimes I take a minute to look around and absorb the excellency, friendliness and uniqueness of the people around me. It's hard to put into words, but I think you get my point.

What would you say to someone thinking of joining Resolution Games?

Take a leap of faith! If what you read today is even remotely relatable or appealing (trust me - I'm an engineer, not a writer... I can't put fluff on anything) then check out our current openings and apply.

VR and AR are here to stay and we're building the industry standard studio while still working with kind and humble people that make every day feel like a new adventure.

I'll let our last Hi Resolution video sell the rest for me. I'm the guy screaming because I scored a last second goal in Ultimechs. Oh... you'll love that one!