Today we went to a game studio called Hibernum Creations. Hibernum is a game studio in Montreal, focusing mainly on the mobile platform. It’s located on the 7th floor of a tall building on Saint-Catherine street. After we all signed NDA documents stating not to talk about anything we saw, an HR representative greeted us, opened the glass doors, and we stepped inside.
My first thought after walking into the studio was,“Wow, that is a lot of computers.” The entire floor was full of desks and computers, occupied by a multitude of different employees. Looking from screen to screen, I recognized an animator drawing a character bobbing up and down. Beside her, someone was using Audacity to test out some music, as he was wearing headphones, while a programmer nearby was studying code with a frustrated brow. To my relief, I saw he was using MSDN as a reference to research his problem.
After a short glimpse, we were led into a conference room where Mathieu Foran, the HR manager, gave us an informative presentation on what Hibernum considered it’s goals and guidelines as a company. Over a span of 10 years, Hibernum grew from a studio of 4 people to about 160 skilled employees from various backgrounds, such as AAA games. Matthew explained that for each game they produce, they gather a team of around 8 – 15 members to work on the game, having about 10 – 15 projects in production at one time. In order to keep track on each project, the teams have a short scrum meeting every morning with their respective team-members to figure out what has been done and what the plans were going to be for the day.
One of the main points Matthew got across was that Hibernum encouraged a “family culture” in the office. Initiating the idea at first, Matthew spoke about the various clubs within the company that the employees took part of. Clubs such as the Cinema Club, where members would take breaks throughout the day to watch a movie, to the Decorating Club, embellishing the empty walls of the new company offices with interesting ornaments, invoked a sense of companionship and togetherness with the employees of Hibernum. There was even a sign-up sheet for a “Hearthstone Tourney” on the wall, complete with bracket and a description for the winner. The people who worked there were so close, they called the original founders of the company “Dinosaurs”. If that doesn’t get you fired, you know you’ve bonded with the employers of your workspace.
Once Mathieu was finished with the presentation, he took us for a quick tour of the office. Turning the corner down a corridor past the server room, Matthew showed us that there was more than just computers and employees everywhere. We stepped into a cafe, equipped with personal chefs that catered to the staff. Break rooms with FatBoy chairs were there to allow anyone to take a break and relieve their stress. The lack of cubicles really gave Hibernum a sense of a workplace where the work seemed really fun!
We had just finished the tour and stepped back through the glass door entrance; Mathieu thanked us, we thanked him, and I made a note to definitely consider Hibernum for an internship application. My initial idea of what a game studio would seem like was changed drastically by the tour I had at Hibernum. Instead of cubicles and individual workspaces, Hibernum embraces a sense of family with one another, creating an environment of work and fun that meshes incredibly well. Brush up on your resumes – you don’t want to miss an opportunity working with a game company here!
– Abner Herrera, Game Programming Major, Spring 2015