Looking into a group of game company developers whose job is not about making games.
Like “Q” in the James Bond films and “Lucius Fox” in the Batman series, everything that draws the public spotlight has its facilitators that support. Same thing happens in making games. As much as all games must be fun, they also need support of well-established platform services to appeal to more users and ultimately aim for a market success. Read onto the following interview with Alex Park, who’s leading KRAFTON’s Global Publishing Platform Department (GPP Dept.) to back up the dev teams.
Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Hi. I’m Alex Park and the lead of GPP Dept.
Could you elaborate on GPP Dept. for the readers who are unfamiliar with the name?
When game companies launch the games they make, many choose to use third-party platforms such as Steam, PlayStation and Xbox. This process requires some background works and that’s what we do. For example, when you launch your game through Steam, they don’t do everything for you. Things like synchronization and account management are up to you. So, we develop and manage such backend platforms. We also support almost every dev process such as making websites for our games.
As GPP Dept. has many roles, the organization must contain diverse teams.
You’re right. We have two GPP Teams, which manage the third-party platforms that I just talked about, are in Korea and the U.S., respectively. KRAFTON Account Team oversees management of user accounts on the platforms. There are also Web Tech Team which develops various websites while GPP PM Team designs and manages all this stuff. Platform QA Team literally works for quality assurance and Game Platform Team connects the backend platforms to the games.
You said GPP Dept. makes everything except for games. Could you give us some examples?
The PUBG MOBILE Esports website that has recently opened, and the NEW STATE MOBILE website are our products. We also made various types of micro websites such as the one for the pre-registration for “PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS” free-to-play service. We’re working game websites that are currently prepare for an opening. These are all visible, but we’re also involved in backend platforms which are invisible. Although they are not seen on the screen, our role is essential to keep the systems running.
It seems that you are playing a very crucial role from inconspicuous places.
Yes. I think we are like Q in the James Bond films, as it’s our job to support the game developers. The very first task that was given to us was to support Striking Distance Studios. They requested for help and that’s how GPP Dept. began. Now we’re also partly involved in Special Project II, in which several groups of developers are working on how to combine the deep learning technologies to games, as well as in some unrevealed projects. We closely cooperate with Data Engineering Dept. and Data Analytics Dept. as well to support various marketing activities. We’re currently on the step of closely working with various studios in-and-outside KRAFTON to gather ideas and provide something better.
Do you agree that GPP Dept. has a very extensive areas of work?
Assuming we’re in the movie industry, GPP Dept. is playing the distributor’s role. In order to distribute movies, we need to promote them and deliver them. We also need a system to sell the tickets. We still have a long way to go even after the movie production is completed. The same is true of making games. Diverse systems including account management, commerce, items, messaging, push notifications and voice chat service are required to provide a game service. As much as we can call the game as composite art, the platform that we work on is the full package of game services.
Speaking of “composite art,” you must be seeking for a special working culture at GPP Dept.
As a matter of fact, there’s nothing special. Still, we have one principle that we value. To make an environment where everyone in this team is willing to come to work. We all need to feel our job enjoyable and feel like we’re improving. I always emphasize this principle, hoping my teammates to be satisfied with their work. I try to have personal meetings with them as much as I can. If they like coming to work, the result is naturally guaranteed.
Those who work in GPP Dept. would be able to have international work experiences since it’s quite common to work with KRAFTON’s overseas studios.
You’re right. We work with with the overseas independent studios under KRAFTON such as Striking Distance Studios and Unknown Worlds. There are several aspects that makes working experiences with these overseas studios different from those with domestic ones. For example, overseas studios usually ask for more open, flexible and simple Application Programming Interface (API) and Software Development Kit (SDK) whereas domestic studios require more specific and advanced features. Dealing with such complicated demands, we sometimes feel our own craftsmanship arises inside us.
Since GPP Dept. works with international studios quite often, English fluency seems to be crucial. Do you agree that English skill is among the top 3 competencies that needed in GPP Dept.?
I cannot deny it, as we communicate with our overseas business partners in English. Experiences and knowledge on server scalability are also essential. But the most important thing is communication skill. Miscommunication between developers may cause serious issues. We may also end up wasting our time while communicating with our counterpart in other countries due to the time differences. Therefore, those who want to work in GPP Dept. would need to know how to listen carefully, deliver the message clearly, and reaffirming it in order to make precise communication at once.
GPP Dept. consists of developers who don’t make games. How do they map their career path?
That’s one of my top priorities when I recruit new hires. I only can say that “what we do is like composite are as much as game developers.” Creating websites and backend platforms, maintaining them, developing generic frontend/backend technologies, and so on. Although we are a small department in size, we do a lot of works. So, if you’re eager to create and design a complete product by yourself, making sure it’s perfect in quality, you would be able to have such experiences in GPP Dept. with various game development studios both at home and abroad.
What type of developers are joining GPP Dept.?
Many experienced engineers joined GPP Dept. last year. Thankfully, they are satisfied with experiences I mentioned, and we’d like to promote such cases to attract new colleagues. Some were even from Naver, LINE, Kakao and Daangn Market. Of course, there is a clear reason why they wanted the position where they don’t make a game in a game company. It’s because they can still get many opportunities to experience a “composite art,” to work internationally, and to try out new things.
For which positions are you hiring now?
We’re hiring backend software engineers for the platform sector. Web Tech Team’s looking for frontend developers for various web-based apps used inside the company, as well as backend developers who work on web-based apps for our customers. We’re also looking for Unreal Engine SDK and plugin developers. One of the engineers joined us last year told me he’s very contented with interesting works and global experiences. We’re yearning for more colleagues who will work with our engineers.
Who would be suitable for GPP Dept.?
As I mentioned before, I want those who know how to enjoy communicating with others. Coding is not the only thing that matters to developers. As we work together with many partners, clear and concise communication is essential. Also, I hope them to dig into the issues they face while working. It’s because those issues usually get bigger, if we don’t look into them thoroughly and solve them perfectly.
Lastly, what is GPP Dept.’s goal?
In the short term, we focus on supporting the launch of our titles scheduled in the latter half of this year without any issue. We’re trying to provide support for events for them on time and in a proper quality. Our long-term goal is to polish our skills and functions and provide them in a ready-to-use form. Another one is to leverage KRAFTON’s new games based on user data. We keep trying to be the department that provides some values to the partners and the colleagues, and they can trust.
