Hey! I’m Steve Gibson and I run Gearbox Publishing, a sister company to Gearbox Software.
We feel like some of what goes on at a game publisher could be interesting to those of you who are curious about what it takes to get a game into the hands of gamers. We’d like to give you a look into our process, which means talking about anything from certification, to marketing, to translation!
So, every once in a while Meredith is going to walk around convincing folks here to share a bit about what they are up to. Please let us know if this is a thing you find interesting!
Here’s some stuff that some people said:
Communications
Jeff – Brand Manager
This month, I spent some time with the team visiting the Compulsion Games’ crew up in Montreal! We like to work very closely with our developer partners to make sure anything we’re doing to promote a game (trailers, social content, overall strategy, etc.) aligns with the developer’s overall vision for their brand. This visit was mainly focused on working through production planning for our upcoming We Happy Few trailers. I’m sure you’ll be hearing details here from Mike and Kat in future updates!
Aside from that, I’ve been getting some content partners up to speed on We Happy Few, who will eventually help us make neat videos like this:
In personal news. Sam from Compulsion keeps trying to convert me from a League of Legends player to a DOTA 2 player. Who is right here? Let us know at @jeffybug and @samabbottnz.
Meredith – Community Coordinator
Hey y’all! I’m Meredith, the Community Coordinator here at Gearbox Publishing. My job is to wrangle our various social media channels across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I also write blog posts, maintain the chill on our forums, and spend an inordinate amount of time begging people to make me gifs.
PAX West kicked off this busy month, and I spent my time there documenting our Main Theater Show, autograph session, and cosplay meet-up! All for the ‘gram, naturally.
We Happy Few has drawn most of my focus for this month socially, as I’ve been planning and executing themed posts for the WHF social channels. That means coming up with new content, writing the copy for it, and then working with the Marketing Art team or Elisa to create cool visual representations of that content. Here’s a fun example:
Wellies and Welletes always strive to look their best. After all, they don't want to be mistaken for a Downer! pic.twitter.com/VaFJJmF4Fu
— We Happy Few (@wehappyfewgame) September 28, 2017
That’s it for me! See y’all next post!
Austin – PR Manager
Hi all! I’m Austin, the PR Manager at Gearbox Publishing!
The highlight of my month was a trip up to Montreal, where Compulsion Games is located. I met with their Marketing and PR team to discuss how to be more active with the community, how many trailers we should make and when, and what major events we want to take part in before the launch of We Happy Few in April.
To wrap up the month, I gave tours and swag to local children to help support charities we often partner with. Community outreach is, in my opinion, the best part of the job, and I really had an awesome time!
Elisa – New Media Manager
Hi, everyone! Elisa here (aka ElisaRockDoc), holding it down on the New Media front. My job includes creating livestreams and video content for Gearbox, helping with assorted marketing fun, and working with streamers/video folks on YouTube, Twitch, and Mixer.
This month’s highlight was PAX West in Seattle. We took We Happy Few on a livestream tour, including stage shows for Twitch and Mixer. I also produced and hosted the Main Theater Show on Saturday morning. Along with We Happy Few, we showed off tons of cool stuff there, like our Penn & Teller project and Desert Bus—in VR!
I also had the chance to attend a StreamTexas event, a meetup for local Texas streamers of all levels of experience. It was awesome to share experiences with fellow streamers, trade tips and tricks, and get to know what people’s passions are.
Are you a content creator? Got New Media questions? I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to hit me up on Twitter (@elisarockdoc), and I’ll see you next time!
Production
Michael – Submissions Specialist
Hi All!
I’m Michael, and I’m the Submissions Specialist here at Gearbox Publishing. I’m responsible for gathering the appropriate materials (think game builds, achievement/trophy lists, etc.) of the games our developing partners are working on in an organized and timely manner. Once I have those materials, I send them off to our first party partners to begin the Certification process. As you can imagine, all of this requires working together with the Developers, Publishing Producers, and Quality Assurance Groups (both Functional and Certification).
I have some background in Quality Assurance Testing and Certification testing, so when I’m not submitting games to Certification and following up on testing results, I’m reaching out to my friends in QA and Certification and helping where I can be of assistance. Most recently, I’ve been working on We Happy Few (very exciting) and Desert Bus.
Thanks for taking the time to get to know me and I hope you guys enjoy hearing a little about us here at Gearbox Publishing!
Marketing
Kat – Publishing Project Manager
Hello and welcome to Kat’s Corner! I’m a recent East coast transplant to the Dallas area, and the newest member of the Gearbox team as the Publishing Project Manager. My days are spent working on thrilling things like Gantt charts, schedules, emails and spreadsheets (which I love). My special triumph this month was creating a dynamic schedule that would auto-populate all the dates that I need for different projects.
My hands are in all the (I would say pies but cake is much better so…) cakes and I spent a good chunk of this month finalizing the We Happy Few “Time Capsule” so keep an eye out for cool things from that!
I’m still learning the physical publishing side of the business – having come from a production background – and this month I got to tour a physical manufacturing area and touch all the shiny and holographic packaging textures!
I am looking forward to sharing my caffeine fueled world with you in the future!
Kelly – Art Director
Hi everyone. I’m Kelly Romeo. As the Marketing Art Director at Gearbox, my job is to work with our marketing artists to make sure we produce the best possible art to showcase a game. That means making key art, logos, screenshots, trailers, websites, images for social media, video assets, print material, or whatever else is necessary to market a game.
As marketing artists, we embrace what I lovingly refer to as the “Zen of Artistry”, which is the notion that what we craft and create is not ours in the end, but the player’s instead. Everything we create must be seen through the lens of the player. The team I work with makes my job very easy in this regard. Everyone has his or her own specialization, but we’re all generalists at heart and can perform nearly any task we’re given.
For example, one of my specializations is in video production, so a few weeks ago I spent several days in Las Vegas taking behind-the-scenes video of Penn & Teller while they were working on their VR game. Before that I was giving feedback on art pieces for the We Happy Few Time Capsule, and next week I’ll be working in our game engine to pull marketing assets for future needs.
Every day is different for marketing artists, so be sure to check us out next time to see what’s new!
Nicole – Marketing Artist
Hey, I’m Nicole, a Marketing Artist for Gearbox Publishing. I mostly do the visual assets for social posts, gameplay capture and whatever the marketing and publishing team needs to make them look all nice and shiny.
Most of this month has been heavily focused on We Happy Few social assets, including some gifs, screenshots and edits.
Other than that, I mostly drink copious amounts of coffee and slap blue-orange gradients on things while cackling. (That’s a joke, I also use green-orange gradients when I’m feeling spicy.)
Sean – Web Designer, Chief Bro
Hi, I’m Sean and I made you able to see this blog on The InnernetsTM. I made my sweet avatar and I also worked on some ballin’ automation things for Publishing to make sure our work stays turnt.
Support
Joe – Community Support
My role on the Gearbox Publishing team is to seek out feedback from the community and work with our development teams to put that feedback into practice wherever possible. I also have the privilege of coordinating with others on the team to help bring you news of the changes your feedback informs. Through update/hotfix notes and forums posts, we work hard to let you know we’re listening.
The past couple weeks have been busy. We’ve been in the thick of the Project 1v1 Closed Technical Test, and we’re continuing to keep tabs on We Happy Few – both of which are feedback goldmines, thanks to you. Time for me to get back to work, I’ll check in with you next time!
