On the Job: A UI/UX Artist's Story

The entrepreneurial nature of Supercell can be seen in the freedom that is present in the company’s culture. There is a great trust among the employees, and we have a great deal of independence. This also means flexible working hours – the most important thing is that work gets done. At the same time, everyone has time for quality work, as we don’t want to rush things out of the door too early.

A user interface and user experience engineer describes how he has felt about working in the company in the past few years and how the company culture reflects on his work.

“As a UI/UX artist, my ultimate goal is to create the best possible user experience for the players, so everything feels fun and smooth. This, however, is not a task that I can accomplish solo. We need to see the whole picture and collaborate as a team since even the smallest parts of the game interlink with each other.

On a daily basis, I work with the game designers, programmers, and other members of the team so that our common vision for the game and its features stays in line. We value the communication between us and share mutual respect regardless of our years of experience or backgrounds. We work to create an environment where everyone’s voice and opinions are equally important.”

We try to keep the quality of our published games high, and we are not afraid to kill game projects that do not meet the bar that we set for ourselves. For us to live up to our dream, we want to deliver our players with experiences that create unforgettable memories. These ambitions are reflected in the day-to-day work of a UI/UX artist:

“The process for creating good and polished user interfaces and experiences is very iterative. I get to create high-level ideas and concepts for upcoming features, but attention to detail is also needed. Great user experience is built upon small things; making opening a chest feel worthwhile through joyful but subtle animation, giving a sense of control by carefully limiting and placing menu items without overwhelming the player, and using textures and shadows to draw attention exactly when and where it’s supposed to.

I feel proud to be able to work in an environment that appreciates subtleties and allows us to craft – but also pushes us to know when to stop.”

The performance of mobile devices has taken huge leaps forward in the past few years and impacted how game experiences can be developed. We have tried to turn the gains in performance into a better playing experience for your players.

For a decade, we’ve focused on making mobile devices the best platforms for our games and tailoring user experiences from the ground up. However, Supercell’s origins are elsewhere. The first published title, Gunshine, was a browser-based game played on Facebook. With the tablet and smartphone ecosystem quickly developing, the team saw the unique potential of mobile devices in creating new gaming experiences and decided to switch gears.

For quite some time, mobile game development had restrictions that stemmed from the limited performance of phones and tablets. For example, we could not offer the best possible graphics, and we really had to think about how to make the gameplay feel responsive even on those devices with limited performance.

Today’s devices give us a chance to create even richer and more impressive-looking games. Even though we keep an eye out on the trends of the industry, we don’t start to work on stuff only because it is new and flashy. What matters is concentrating on things that improve the experiences of players the best way possible.”

The structure of Supercell’s organization is very flat, which has its pros and cons and can be a slight culture shock for someone who moves here from a more hierarchical company. The games are developed in nimble teams. This means that everyone has to take part, collaborate, and speak their minds in game development.

“I think the best part about working at Supercell is the culture and the collaboration within the game teams. In my experience, the people who work here usually have an entrepreneurial mindset and are very self-organized.

Our dream is to create games that are played by as many people as possible for years and that are remembered forever. If all of this sounds like something that you want to be part of, we invite you to join us and make our dream a reality.