Tomislav Gojević, Head of Fury Studios: Games are a Part of Life

From a young age, Tomislav Gojević, the head of Zagreb’s Fury Studios, was infected with video games. However, although gaming did not immediately become a business choice for him, over time he returned to his favorite childhood pastime by starting a video game development office. He now hopes that this industry will become increasingly attractive and stronger in Croatia, following global trends where, in terms of revenue, it has long surpassed the music and film industries.

How did you decide to enter the gaming industry?

– I have been involved in gaming since I was young, since I first played video games at a friend’s house on his ZX Spectrum. I first wanted to work in gaming when I got a PC 286 and thought how great it would be to create video games. Life took me in various directions, so after graduating from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, I started working in the telecommunications industry and only returned to the gaming industry after ten years, starting at Croatia’s largest studio, Nanobit.

After four and a half years of valuable experience at Nanobit, I was given the opportunity to start and lead the development studio Fury Studios, founded by the Swedish indie video game publisher Raw Fury. We started in 2019 with five people, and today we have 30, and I believe we will not stop at that number. Our most important product is the game ‘Kingdom’, our intellectual property on which we do absolutely everything, from development to art and testing of the game itself.

What is important to you in product development?

– When working on video games, it is important to us that the vision of the game is fully satisfied, that the game has an artistic factor, and that the quality is at a high level. Everyone at Fury Studios plays video games and knows exactly what we want to see in the games that players around the world will play, especially when our signature is on those games.

What does a typical workday look like in an office that deals with gaming?

– It may sound like a cliché, but it is very important to us that private life and work are in balance; we strive to avoid crunch, so that people do not greet Monday with a knot in their stomach and do not burn out, all things that are, unfortunately, very well known in the gaming industry. We support a hybrid work model; some work exclusively from home, some exclusively from the office, and some come to the office occasionally when they want or arrange a meeting in person.

It is important to us that the work is done on time, and where the work is done is not that important. We start the day with a short meeting where each of us says what we are working on, and after that, we start working, each on their own project, at a pace that the team agrees upon.

Have you tied gaming to work, or is it also present in your personal life?

– Today, it is almost impossible to leave gaming just for work. I play our games, not just for work, but because they interest me; I play video games from other publishers on consoles, I play with my children; games are a part of my life. I think gaming is something wonderful, and today, when almost all games have a multiplayer component, video games also serve as a medium for socializing and meeting new people, which I see as a very positive experience for anyone.

What kind of employees are desirable in the world of video games?

– We are looking for entrepreneurial and responsible people who do not want to be led by the hand but want to be the ones who ensure that something is done on time and at a high level of quality. We want them to care about the games they work on and to be excited to see the final product. Our big plus is that, as a publisher, we have a high level of care and energy invested in the project, which indicates that the game we are working on is something more than just a project. Formal education of candidates is desirable but not crucial, and for each position, from developers, artists, quality assurance engineers (QA), to producers, we have a test where a person can demonstrate their knowledge and give us a reason to choose them from the sea of candidates who apply to work in the studio.

We still manage to find people in Croatia who want to work in the gaming industry and who meet our requirements, although I must admit that each subsequent time it is getting harder. I sincerely hope that we will have more and more people in the market, both in more studios working in the gaming industry and in various educational institutions that have launched educational programs in recent years.

Content created in collaboration with Fury Studios.