Markus Kiukkonen, the newest addition to our team of super developers
How do you do?
Im doing great! At the moment i’m playing lots of Supernauts! There is still much to catch up! In general people here at Grand Cru have been really friendly and there is a lot of so called ”tekemisen meininki”, which freely translates to english as “active attitude”.
So tell us something about yourself and your background?
I’ve studied computer science at University of Helsinki. In 2006 I started my career in game industry when I joined infamous Mr.Goodliving to work there as a game tester. Later I moved to Sulake to work with Habbo Hotel, first as testing developer but eventually became a scrum master. That gig took me last 6 years.
What is a scrum master and what do you do now as a QA & Delivery lead?
Title scrum master is coming from software development methodology called Scrum. Scrum master is ”master” of processes. He or she organizes teams daily work and is constantly looking for better ways to improve how things are done. As a QA & Delivery lead I have a strong take on quality and I also manage all game submissions. Basically it means that I make sure that everything in the game is in it’s right place and working as it should. I also take care of delivering the game to third parties – e.g. external people and Apple.
What about when you’re not working?
Besides playing both computer and board games, I try to keep myself in shape by running – ran my first half a marathon last summer. To balance it, I try to taste as many different beers as i can find. Unfortunately I’ve lost the count already, but guess it’s in the range of 300-400!
All time favorite game?
I’m not sure if it’s my favorite game, but I think most memorable game is the original UFO: Enemy Unknown. The new remake is really good too. In general I used to play lot of heavier games like Civilizations or RPGs like Baldurs Gate, but now-a-day’s I don’t want to think too much when playing, so I mainly pick casual mobile games or some FPSs when playing on console.