By Gustavo Dort,
Associate Technical Director at Kokku
As a member of the Engineering department, it’s my mission to empower people to grow to the best version of themselves. This allows us to deliver high-quality contributions to games that impact millions of players worldwide.
I can spend hours talking about our culture, how we strive for excellence while fostering psychological safety through trust and transparency, but in this article I’m tackling the elephant in the room: how hiring us at the end of the development cycle to work on optimization would help you set your game for success?
I get it. A lot has been done, there are hundreds of particularities to your project, the tech stack is unique and the last thing you need is having to hand-hold a brand new team while managing to finish your game. Also, on paper it’d be ideal taking optimization into consideration from the get-go, but let’s be honest: when the team is developing the game, all eyes are on creating the most amazing experience possible, often keeping optimization as an afterthought. It’s only when the project reaches its final stages that performance issues come out of the rug. So let’s break it down into two parts:
1 – Why Optimization Matters (even in the late stages of development)
A better experience to your audience
When players have the time of their life immersed in your game unbothered by lag or crashes, they’re way more likely to recommend it to others. Also, since most launches are primarily targeted to PC and there’s a plethora of hardware setups out there, making sure the experience is smooth across the board is a good call!
Extending your reach, both in terms of players and devices
Optimization is often needed to bring your game to other platforms, especially to the Nintendo Switch. Whether you’re planning on launching across several platforms at once or making a phased launch dependent on the ROI in the first months, getting optimization done before the first launch is a great way to set your game for success!
Another thing to keep in mind is the possibility of tapping into new markets such as handheld PCs, for example. This niche in particular is still suffering from poor experiences, so standing out in there is great PR! This would not only prove the credibility and quality of your product, but would also open up new opportunities for growth and revenue.
In today’s fast-paced gaming industry, optimization has become do or die. You can count on us to quickly grasp the situation and come together to make it happen, which brings me to the next part:
2 – Why us
We’ve been there and done that
Kokku means “together” in Estonian, which means collaboration is in our DNA! Throughout the years we had several experiences, including but not limited to:
- Iterating upon discontinued networking solutions in order to implement new functionalities and performing optimizations so players could have the best multiplayer experience possible.
- Jumping into the final sprints of projects to perform critical optimizations.
- Bringing gems from decades ago to the current gen, while keeping track of the timeline and resources.
- Integrating seamlessly into world-class teams to bring new installments of famous franchises to huge audiences.
We’re a technical reference for excellence in the gaming industry
Beyond having a track record of amazing contributions to our partners, we also love sharing our knowledge:
- Design Patterns That Shaped the World of Games: History and Practical Application, which was brilliantly written by André Pasquali, exemplifying the usage of Design Patterns in different games while giving us a history lesson!
- Legacy vs. modern rendering: the hidden challenges of game porting, in which Arthur Pedroso explains the new paradigm with modern graphic APIs, highlighting how exciting it is to bring our most beloved games to new generations.
- Parallelism, Concurrency, and other monsters, as Iotti explains the fundamentals of parallelism using practical and relatable analogies.
- Unpacking UE5 toolbox Part 1 – Nanite, where Mateus Lacerda explains the particularities of Nanite and how to make best use of it in your game.
- Last but not least, our CTO hosted a web seminar where he laid out the foundations for multiplayer development.
We’re technology agnostic
Whether your game is built on a weird tech stack or something more conventional, rest assured we can handle it. We’re technology agnostic, which means understanding different technologies is our bread and butter. We’re accustomed to working with unusual tech stacks, especially when the game engine is customized. It’s part of the fun understanding how everything is put together and we’ve got a track record of iterating upon those! Of course, we also have proficiency on modern game engines: from Unity to the Silver Badge as a Service Partner to Epic, we’ve got the skills to match your game’s unique needs.
We love challenges
This is what really sets us apart. Not just when it comes to game development or gaming (which is very obvious since we’re huge nerds), but by also actively seeking out difficulties outside work too, whether that’s rock climbing, hiking, triathlon training, or learning difficult languages like Mandarin and Japanese. This mentality translates perfectly to the world of game development, where we’re always up for a challenge.
By partnering with us at the end of the development cycle, you can tap not only into our expertise, but also in our passion and commitment to deliver to the highest standard possible. Our team will work closely with yours to identify areas where co-development can help optimize your game’s performance, ensuring a smoother development process and a higher-quality final product.
Let’s work together and make it happen!