Bad Monkee gives you a glimpse into working for a mobile games start-up. What does a typical day look like? How are games made? What kind of person works at Bad Monkee? And: What challenges await a developer at this Hamburg-based gaming outfit?

Who is Bad Monkee?

We are a young mobile games development studio based in the Grindelviertel in the heart of Hamburg close to the university. Our most successful mobile game is "Goal One – the soccer manager" in cooperation with DFB / German national soccer team and ProSiebenSat1. Games. Currently we are eight team members – everyone a gamer by heart and with high professional standards. We mutually aim for the common goal to develop games that foster excitement and fun knowing that our users will enjoy it too.  How does a normal day look like at Bad Monkee?

How does a normal day look like at Bad Monkee?

We cannot really tell you about a day at any other startup, but we can share some insights about ours. The day starts between 8:30 and 14:00 and ends as soon as all important tasks are finished. On a daily basis we make sure that crucial information reaches the team and everybody is on the same page what the colleagues are up to. This is the only way to assure that we stay efficient and every one can live up to his responsibilities.

We have each other’s back in order to achieve our goals. Our hierarchies are flat and we have an "open discussion" culture meaning that criticism as well as praise independent of job status is common and occurs on a daily basis. Here at Bad Monkee we are all about being successful together, vanity doesn’t fit in here. There are days on which we work far beyond midnight and others where we creatively brainstorm new game ideas and concepts. Our focus is on quality, not quantity and how many hours we spend at work is completely in view to the quality of the results.

We work in a highly dynamic business, which forces us to react on short notice to trends in order to stay profitable. That also implies an out–of–the–box approach and innovative ideas to challenges that arise. Those are exciting times, since mistakes occur naturally and once realized, offer the potential to grow and emerge stronger from them.

And it goes without saying that partying is part of our company culture.

What kind of personalities work at Bad Monkee?

The most outstanding asset our team members bring in is their commitment to responsibility. As top achievers in their field they not only deliver superior results, but also make sure they keep their stuff together so that nobody has to clean up after them. That way we don’t have to implement exaggerated means of control, which is hugely resource–friendly and contributes to a culture of trust. In a startup you’re not just a number or someone anonymous – you’re part of something bigger and your performance is visible and directly impacts the company’s results. Open–minded creativity is needed to come up with solutions that meet the demands of a highly complex market, while facing a shortage of resources. In conquering those challenges there lies extraordinary potential for personal and professional growth as well as learning to trust in your own decisions. Working in a startup can be a shortcut to success, but you need to be aware that you give up the security of a classic job. A startup is usually at the brink of either skyrocketing or going bankrupt and the whole setup might be sort of fragile. Every wrong decision taken or economic impact that cannot be cushioned with financial backup could mean the potential breakdown. With every risk one takes the rewards are growing and once successful, one’s life will most likely switch to something beside the average

How are games being developed at Bad Monkee?

When brainstorming over new game concepts we trust in the individual strengths and experiences of our team members. Source of our inspiration is life itself and emerges in the most common situations: Over a beer, while playing Playstation or during any other task that’s fun…

The key lies in the execution part, since hands–on mentality and a sense for pragmatics reduces unnecessary administration and shortens the time to reach solid results. Based on the prototypes that we develop from scratch we quite quickly get a feeling, if there’s potential to the game or not. In case of a positive assessment we go full speed until the new game is ready for release. This is when then actual work starts…

If you feel that this way of working is something you like, why don’t you take a look at our open job positions here:

Mobile Front-end developer (iOS, Android)

• Front–end development of complex multi–player games (Flash,Unity,Cocos2dx)
• Participation in the development process of innovative new games
• Development of algorithms based on the game design
• Supervision of junior developers and trainees

Back-end developer

• New and further development of game servers (Java,Php)
• Conception and implementation of game logic
• Optimization of high–performance systems
• Close cooperation with frontend developers, game designers and game balancers
• Supervision of junior developers

We look forward to receive your application:

Alexander Hintz
hintz@badmonkee.de
+49 162 957 66 62
Grindelallee 100
20146 Hamburg / Germany

www.badmonkee.de