Self Care and Pets: How Auroch Digital deals with Stress

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The month of April is national stress awareness month and national pet month, so what’s better than to highlight how the Auroch team de-stress, featuring their pets. 

Stress awareness month has been held every April since 1992, which has allowed people the opportunity to have open conversations and remove the stigma around stress. Here at Auroch Digital, we regard mental health the same way as physical health. Sick leave is for mental and physical health and appointments for either are permitted during work time. Our staffs well being always comes first. Auroch Digital and Sumo put a lot of time and resource into supporting staff around stress and we all work together to help and support each other.

There are loads of ways to de-stress and our team have shared some of their favourite ways, featuring their pets. 

Lola

Take a rest and smell the flower 💐 

Lola reminds Georgina to take a pause and rest.

“This is Lola! She's my 7 year old adopted American Bulldog (maybe, we still don't know exactly). She loves napping, food puzzles and being fussed by everyone she meets.

Playing and being with Lola is a big reliver of stress for me, she reminds me to slow down and do as she does; Take a rest when you need to; love fully; and sniff the flowers.”
 - Georgina, Associate 3D Animator

Here we have the beautiful Lola.

Taco with a replica taco

Hopping around Alix’s heart is Taco! 🐇 

Taco inspires by maintaining his sassy attitude despite adversity.

“Don't know what I'd do without this boy, he's survived some of the worst conditions rabbits can get and still keeps a sassy attitude, he's an inspiration” 
- Alix, UX/UI Director

Here with have Taco, with his 3D printed doppleganger.

Take a walk on the wild side 👿

They say exercising is good for de-stressing, so Minnie and Matt go for evening walks.

“I walk this beast every evening, which helps clear my head after work (especially helpful when working from home!)” 
- Matt, Principle Designer

Here is Minnie relaxing after work - whether Matt or Minnie was the one doing the actual work we cannot confirm.

Weapon of mass destruction 💢 

“This is Pepper, she's the most loyal companion you could ever want to meet!

She was a rescue from Battersea Dogs, when she was there she would cry when left in the kennels and so they had to keep her under the reception desk! We think she's Lurcher Spaniel cross, AKA a Splurcher!

She's a great stress reliever... all you need to do is grab a ball... she will never stop playing fetch... and I mean never!!! Afterwards just sit on the floor and she will literally sit on you wanting cuddles!

She has the softest velvety ears... and a tail that's a weapon of mass destruction!” 
- John, Producer

Here we have the angelic face of Pepper.

Chasing squirrels 🐿 

Rosie, our marketing extra, is officially part of the team for our mental health.

"Having Rosie to enjoy the outdoors with has been an incredible benefit to my mental health. When there's so much going on, it's such a wonderful feeling to experience the quiet woodlands with my best pal and for us both to have an amazing time. She gets to chase squirrels up trees and I get to unwind. It's a win-win!" 
- Simon, Marketing Manager

Here is Rosie, enjoying the great outdoors (and mud).

The Loveable Duo 💕 

Benji and James are the perfect companions whilst gaming, they bring utter joy to our hearts. 

“My boys love to cuddle up to me while I play games, either on my lap or on my feet.” 
- Ysobel, Associate UI/UX Artist

Here we have Benji and James snuggled up together, hugs are one of the best stress relievers.

The best puppy cuddles  🥰

Even if our pets cannot be with us at all times, when we do get to see them, they can still help us relieve stress, just like Maya. 

“Maya lives with my parents but when I'm visiting and feel stressed taking her for a walk in the woods is a really effective way for me to calm down. Maya adores me so will readily jump into my lap for cuddles, and nothing beats puppy cuddles for destressing (she's 10 but all dogs are puppies!)” 
- Dave, Lead QA Manager

Here we have the lovely Maya, about to jump up for cuddles, we are sure of it

 

Love comes in all sizes 🐹

Maddie the hamster gives us plenty of moments to break up our day and boosts of endorphins.

“My pet is Maddie the hamster, and I usually relieve stress by preparing food for her, watching her eat and go about her day. It is calming to watch her run on her wheel and gently petting her.  I also enjoy painting with watercolours as it puts me away from the PC and makes me slow down.” 
- Daniela, Senior Programmer

Here we see Maddie resting up before another run on the wheel. 

Auroch’s Official mascot 🐶

If you haven’t heard about Coco, then meet our Official Company Mascot! She’s the tiny sausage dog with the giant personality.

"Coco is such a sweetheart, and loves snoozing on my lap whilst I play games. I am lucky enough to dogsit Coco when Nina (our operations Director and Coco’s owner) is jetting off to important meetings around the world. Spending time with Coco does wonders for my mental health, she really helps me disconnect from work and relax.

She’s also great for getting me out and moving early in the morning, very important as I work from home and its good to get that morning exercise and fresh air."
- Jemima, Marketing and Comms Director

Here is Coco lounging on the sofa, her favourite place.

Cassie

Why is a dog like a writing desk? 📝

Cassie reminds us it’s important to have hobbies separate from work, not easy when you work in games!

“For stress relief, aside from playing with Cassie I usually write short or longer stories depending on my mood”
 - Caleb, Associate QA tester

Here is Cassie, thinking about the next story she’s gonna ghostwrite for Caleb.

We’ve got loads more amazing pets owned by members of Auroch Digital, enjoy this gallery of the wonderful animals that bring us joy and help keep our stress levels down 🥰

More great stress management tips for those without pets

Not everyone at Auroch Digital is a pet person! For those of us without pets here are some other ways we manage our stress:

Let’s watch a movie 🙈

Soothing music or scary movies, Sounds like Gemini behaviour to us…
”I actually like to listen to calming film scores and chill out in a bit of nature... Or watch horror films” - Shuvojit, Principal Concept Artist

Travelling heals the soul 🧳

Work on passion projects, take time for religion and spirituality, and travel the world.

"I find working on my hobby game dev projects in the evenings/weekends helps destress me. But also purely recreational things, like playing videogames or watching films. Also walking. Religion/spirituality is quite important to me, so I'm sure those practices help with managing my stress levels too. Since remote work became a thing I've found changing my environment from time to time really helps (spent several weeks in Turkey last year, & a week in Gibraltar last month).”
- Luth, programmer

Pet Owner at Heart 💜

If you are a pet owner, remember to share the love and send pics of them to your non-pet owning friends

“I'm a pet owner at heart, but don’t have any currently and learning to de-stress without them has taken some time! But, I've found going to the gym and lifting very heavy weights is helpful on the days I feel energised, and on those when my mental health is in the pits I find comfort in familiar video games like Hollow Knight and The Sims. I'm also very lucky to have friends who send me pics and videos of their pets, and they bring me an unprecedented amount of joy each time”
 - Jess, Business Development Associate

Age is just a number 👀

Make sure to spread your holidays throughout the year, and enjoy some hobbies away from screens - especially important for people who work at PCs all day.

”I make sure to take a lot of breaks and spread my holidays through out the year so I don't burn out and prevent stress in the first place. At the end of the day though, I'll just play some multiplayer games and socialize as much as I can so it sort of "distracts" me if I feel stressed. I know someone who builds Lego after work and after trying it myself I would definitely recommend for unwinding as well, there is no age limit!”
 - Migle, Character Artist

Pump it! 🏋🏾‍♂️

Exercise is great for mind and body, and can warm you up for a great gaming session online with friends.

“I find exercise a great way to destress - Nothing like an arms and chest workout to release some tension plus playing valorant with the herd after work!”
 - Toby, Producer

Team socialising at wargaming day at the office

‘Me time’ 🤭

Be very aware of your work/life balance, and be sure to get “me time” doing the things that help you recharge.

“For me preventing or dealing with stress means keeping a good work/life balance. I prioritize getting enough 'me time', which would include socializing and exercising. Sometimes it's necessary to force ones self to slow down, I occasionally book my evening out to spend it doing lightweight and therapeutic. I also track my stress levels daily as it can be easy to miss signals your body is giving you.”
 - Joseph, Artist

(Can you spot Coco in this pic at a recent Auroch Digital tabeltop and painting meet up?)

Cooking = Healing 🥗

Cooking can be both creative, exciting, and you end up with delicious food to eat at the end of it. The perfect de-stress. Plus, getting outside with our pets, enjoy some more pet love for the incredible Tikka, seen in our gallery above!

“I like to go for a round of elaborate Asian cooking, using spices in the evenings, and try to get creative with them, trying new recipes and blending them helps so much to focus on something else! Plus, you get to share an awesome meal afterwards, provided everything went well!
My favorite thing, though, is going along with my significant other for a walk with our puppy Tikka and some other dogs and their owners, and marvel at how she's growing into this cute, well balanced puppy, happily frolicking in the spring's tall grass or getting absolutely bodied by another pup twice her size and asking for more. It gives us a reason to go out, breath fresh air, discover new places and meet new people, and most of all, appreciate the time slowly flowing, one walk at a time. ”
 - Sebastien, 3D animator

Resources for stress

Here are some great resources for dealing with stress:

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Ladell Smith

Remote Working in the Games Industry

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marketing director Jemima, in her at home office with her custom auroch headset

Founded in 2010, Auroch Digital has always been a studio with people at its heart. We’ve grown over time but our goals have always remained the same: to put our people first because happy people make amazing games. 

I’m Jemima Crow and I’m the Marketing and Communications Director here at Auroch Digital. I’ve been with Auroch since 2019 and in that time I’ve seen it grow, develop and evolve into the friendly, culture-first and caring studio it is today. Here, I’ll be sharing insights into how game studios can make remote working suit the needs of their business, their games and their people. Let’s dive in! 

The games industry and remote working 

Like many, we packed up our desks in March of 2020 and waved our colleagues goodbye with arms full of plants, Warhammer figures and PCs. Little did we know then that our office would never be used in quite the same way again…  

When the big ‘call back to office’ started happening later that year (and then again in 2021… and then again later in 2021…), Auroch Studio Director Tomas Rawlings surveyed the company to see if we wanted to return to a bigger office, or if people preferred being remote. The response was staggering: people LOVED working remotely! It gave them more time to spend with their families, more time for the hobbies and activities they loved and – weirdly – allowed them more connectivity with their colleagues. We still have an office in our hometown of Bristol, but for the majority of the Auroch team – working from home is here to stay. 

It hasn’t always been easy, and we were certainly full of questions about the longevity of work from home: Would our studio culture survive? Can we continue collaborate on games? Could we still work together while being apart? The answer to all of this is: Yes. 

What we found was remote working made Auroch Digital stronger than ever: we developed and released our most successful game, we more than tripled in size and now have over 100 people working from all over the UK and beyond with a stronger studio culture and connectivity than ever before.  

Studio director tomas rawlings gives a talk on climate and games

Why Auroch Digital chooses remote working 

Aside from it being the preference of our people, remote working can be an incredibly practical way for game studios to operate.  

Comfortable working for all 

We’re very proud to be a studio which puts the wellbeing of our people first, and remote working is a great way to ensure everyone could work in a comfortable environment. We’re able to support our people to get the kit they need to do their jobs, and they can do it from the comfort of their own homes. Auroch is also a workplace that is very neurodiversity-forward and know that remote working can provide a preferred environment for our neurodiverse colleagues. 

We know that flexible thinking is the best way to create a workplace for everyone and are always looking to improve wherever we can… so the door is always open for any of our people to make suggestions, share ideas or give opinions on how work from home life can be improved. 

Remote working allows our staff to spend more time with loved ones - Rosie is happy her owner Simon works remotely so they can go on walks at lunch

 No commute 

Remember when everyone used to spend their free time driving to and from work? Remote working presents an opportunity to snooze the commute, no more traffic-filled drives, late buses or stressful interactions means our people can start the day with clear, calm mind and be ready to make some video game magic. 

As a studio which is passionate about creating a greener future and protecting our planet, we’re more than happy to support any efforts to lessen carbon emissions, vehicles on the road and journeys made... and remote working does just that! Even for our Bristol based staff some have to travel over an hour to get to our studio, which added up would be a lot of hours spent in cars, on buses and trains. 

 Growing our culture 

The culture at Auroch Digital has always been one of our proudest achievements – we’re a studio packed with creative, RPG fans, game-loving, miniature building, boardgame loving people. Remote working enables us to open our clubs and interest groups wider. Since becoming remote, we now have a Creative Club where people hang out in Discord whilst working on personal projects such as art, music, sculpting and more. We also have monthly online game nights, online RPG campaigns, book club, and digital meet ups for other activities like minis painting. We also have a whole host of channels in our private company discord to share anime recommendations, recipes, cute pet pics and much more. 

 Recruiting top talent 

Remote working allows us to hire people from all over the UK and overseas. With no concerns about long commutes, relocating or being away from home, the available talent pool is made more accessible. We now have people working in 61 cities, 8 countries and 3 continents who come together and work on projects every single day. This fact has also pushed us to continue level up our benefits and offerings to our teams, with no geographical restrictions, people are more likely to be on the lookout for studios who are offering the best package. 

How to stay connected when working remotely 

Undoubtedly the biggest question we had at the start of our remote working journey was how we could keep our team working together from front rooms, dining tables and spare bedrooms across the country. It’s been a process of learning, but here are some great ways to stay connected: 

  • Using Discord and Teams: Arguably, the adoption of Teams/Slack in the workplace has made a huge, positive impact onto the productivity and connectivity of teams all over the world. Being able to be in constant communication reduces the risk of loneliness, working in silos and stops workflow disruptions. Outside of work, we have virtual channels for all of our clubs and interest groups where people can share pictures, stories and advice, and – of course – our Discord where we can game and hang out whenever, from wherever. We also encourage staff to drop into these channels for a chat and cup of tea during work, or to sit in a discord chat together whilst they work. 

  • Virtual Facetime: A huge part of game development of collaboration, and we’re big believers in virtually talking wherever we can. As a manager, I meet with everyone in my team individually every week (where the focus is on them, their experience and how I can improve it), we meet as a team almost daily to talk about projects and our plans and I meet with teams on each of our projects from up and down the country to get the latest updates on our games, see new features and to playtest. We also meet every Thursday as a whole company where Studio Director Tomas and Operations Director Nina talk through what’s new for Auroch, give an update on teams and projects, and share future plans. This is a great way to keep the whole studio connected and remind them that we’re all one big team working towards a common goal: to make awesome games.  

  • IRL Facetime: But Jem! Isn’t Auroch a fully remote studio? Yep, we absolutely are. Everyone has the choice to attend strategy days, project milestones, team meet ups, or whole studio events – meeting up in person isn’t for everyone! We offer these IRL meet-ups to give people the chance to get together, celebrate and share ideas. These IRL meet ups can be work related, where we all gather together to go over a project, or social ones where we meet up to play tabletop games, play football, go on dog walks, or attend expos together. These events give our teams a good opportunity to connect and have fun with their colleagues. 

The Mars Horizon 2 team meet up in the office to build friendships and get to know each other better in person - this helps our remote work as well

Avoiding loneliness when working from home 

While working from home offers so many perks, it can also be a lonely situation if you don’t have the right team around you. Below are some top tips for avoiding loneliness while working remotely: 

  • Hear and see your colleagues: No one likes a calendar packed with meetings but putting in 10 minutes to chat through something can sometimes be much easier than a long thread of emails or Teams messages. It can be easier to communicate, better for clarity on instructions and it can be nice to see a familiar face or hear a familiar voice.  

  • Virtual coffee breaks: Once upon a time, we’d all pile into the office kitchen to make a coffee come 11am… working from home should be no different! Make sure to give yourself time to stand up from your desk, stretch, walk the dog or grab coffee with colleagues. People are able to hop into a call, chat to colleagues for half an hour and then head back to work. We encourage these tea breaks at Auroch, and support this by having our daily crossword we all solve together, as well as other Discord games such as watering our virtual tree. 

  • Team socials: Team socials don’t always have to be studio-wide get togethers in a physical or virtual space. We have a whole bunch of clubs that our people can be as involved in as they want, including the creative club, the book club, the food club, the fitness club, the miniatures and boardgames club, the anime club and more. We also have regular team games available for anyone to hop into, and dedicated gaming club evenings for people to join, game and relax with colleagues. 

  • Casual chat channels: While Teams is great for work, it might not be great for social. Find a platform where people can have casual chat outside of work topics; creating this area means people can have all those ‘chats-while-making-a-tea’ experiences of an office, from home! So if it’s somewhere to talk about the latest episode of The Last of Us, a groan about the weather or a check in on someone’s new puppy – a casual chat zone is a must.  

Coco cam is always popular viewing, shes the official auroch digital mascot

  • Pet-Cams: Ok so this one might be just us, but we also like to have livestreams of office mascot Coco and adorable puppy Tikka available to our teams during work hours. The Auroch team might be able to catch Coco having a snooze in the sun or Tikka having the zoomies… always a great pick me up for the 3pm lull!  

How to be productive while working from home 

It can be difficult to find your workflow when working from home, with housemates, partners, pets and post all vying for our attention. It’s easy to get distracted or fall out of routine when you work remotely, so we’ve chatted to some of our team about their WFH routines and some top tips to find your mojo. 

Matthew Holmes, Associate Producer: “Optimise your morning routine. Act like you’re going to leave the house by waking up early and taking the time to look after yourself and get ready for the day. I found it really helpful to try and incorporate exercise into my daily life, and get of the house as much as possible, and maintain social connections both online and in person. 

Joseph Beacham, Technical Artist: “Be honest and assume the best of others. The same mishaps of office-life still happen at home: technology breaks, power goes out, people get sick and you make mistakes. Whilst the temptation is there to pretend like everything is fine when it isn’t, it’s better to be honest with your team whenever something comes up so they can help, find a fix and support you.” 

Andy Sheppard, Junior Programmer: “Take breaks. Give yourself the time to step away form your PC to make a cup of tea, say hello to family or give your pet scritches. You’d take the same amount of breaks if you were working in an office and it massively helps reduce the risk of burnout.” 

Sébastien Dulong, 3D Animator: “Establish boundaries. It can be very easy to lose work/life balance when working from home, stepping from one room to another is a less distinct end to the day than a 40-minute drive, but find ways to draw a line between work and home. Use different rooms or hardware, have a ‘build up’ and ‘cool down’ routine… whatever you need to make a clear distinction! Also get a dog and hydrate, they help too.” 

Danielle Arkle, Admin Manager: “Find a comfortable workspace. I’ve spent a few work days sat on my sofa while working and it’s damaging to my productivity, my comfort… and my posture! By creating a workspace that serves your wellbeing, you create somewhere that you can deliver great work and sit comfortably. Speak to your studio about getting the right equipment – like chairs and desks – and personalise it to make it yours!” 

Peter Willington, Production Director: “Have a call! It’s really easy to misinterpret someone’s tone or words in an email or Teams message and can be even easier to feel isolated when working remotely. Try, wherever possible, to talk to your team on the phone (cameras optional!) about projects and tasks – it will probably be more efficient, clearer and you might even get a nice conversation out of it!” 

Some of the Auroch Digital herd wave hello from our weekly company wide catch up - its a good time for a laugh and to shout out to team members going the extra mile.

Frequently asked questions about remote working 

Who can work remotely? 

Remote working is usually decided by your company! There may be some circumstances where remote working is granted to an individual due to circumstance, but generally it will be the case that in a remote company, everyone will have the option to work from home. All jobs are different and have different requirements and needs – the games industry is a great place to find a remote-first role to suit your skills, and there are so many departments and disciplines looking for talented team members right now. 

Is remote working good for you? 

Remote working can be what you want it to be! For some, it’s a great opportunity to use the lack of commute to catch up on some sleep, spend more time with families or get in a run before work. It’s important to find a balance between home and work, even if you do both in the same place - there are lots of great resources online packed with tips on how to stay healthy physically, mentally and emotionally when working from home. 

How can I work remotely? 

If you think remote working could benefit your work experience, a great first step is to put together some suggestions of how your role could transition to be WFH: How would it work logistically? What support do you need? How would your role or output be impacted? Not all companies will be open to these conversations, but as mentioned at the start of this blog, lots of places do offer remote working and competitive packages for top talent… like you!  

Remote working allows our staff to have a set up that works best for them. Auroch provides laptops or desktops depending on your preference.

Want to make great games in the comfort of your own home? We want you! The Auroch team is always on the lookout for talented, passionate and kind people to join its team. You can find all current opportunities on the Careers Page. 

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Jemima Crow

Steam Festival Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice Returns to Steam March 23rd-27th 🎲

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We are delighted to announce that Digital Tabletop Fest is back on Steam! From March 23rd at 5pm GMT through March 27th at 6pm BST, we'll be celebrating a variety of tabletop-inspired games and the people who play them. The theme for this year's event is Blood & Dice, which will have a special focus on fantasy, horror, versus, and war games.

What Can You Expect From Blood & Dice?

🎮 Exclusive Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun Let's Play from the developers

🍺 Brewing blood red beer in a Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator Let's Play

🚀 Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life developers discuss the sequel while playing the original Mars Horizon

💸 Wide array of discounts on tabletop-inspired titles

 🎉 Celebrating some of the best tabletop-inspired games such as Slay the Spire, Disco Elysium, Terra Invicta & Wildermyth, while highlighting upcoming titles in the genre

🗣 Panels with notable figures from Vampire the Masquerade, The World of Darkness, For the King II, The City of Games, V Rising & more industry experts

Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice is run entirely by Auroch Digital, who partnered with Steam for the previous two festivals. Studio Director at Auroch Digital and Co-Founder of Digital Tabletop Fest, Tom Rawlings, is excited to see the festival return.  

Tom says: “It’s been great to organise the third Digital Tabletop event, and it’s a genre that’s so close to our hearts. To be able to showcase so many tabletop-inspired games, from indie through to AAA, shows us just how varied the tabletop space is for video games. It’s incredible to see different takes on board and card games, as well as other titles that are inspired by tabletop mechanics or IPs. We can’t wait for Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice to begin!” 

Schedule for DTFest: Blood & Dice 📅

We're so excited to host Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice and can't wait for you all to be part of it! 

Digital Tabletop Fest: Blood & Dice takes place on Steam from March 23rd – 27th. The page will be live from 5pm GMT on March 23rd and the promotion will end at 6pm BST on March 27th. For more information, follow @SteamFestivals and @AurochDigital. 

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Auroch Digital

Marketing and Community Managment for Auroch Digital in Bristol, UK.

Welcome to Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life! 🚀

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We have lift-off!

The news is out! Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life is coming in 2024. We are so excited to share the development journey with you. To kick things off we’d like to introduce you to Tess, one of the producers on Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life. 

🚀 Hello to all you Martians - waiting patiently on the Horizon! 

I am sorry if you felt neglected, it has been deeply difficult to ignore your pleas for more content and prayers for updates. Instead, I have been biding my time and anticipating the day when I can finally say…  

WE ARE MAKING MARS HORIZON 2!  

A narrative Choice event in Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life

Oh wow, that feels better.  

The team behind Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life are passionate and dedicated and have been researching astrobiology, rocket improvements, orbital mechanics, toon shaders, accessibility… etc. in pre-production for the last year.  

Next, we are heading to Production to knuckle down and deliver the game our fans truly want. We have been listening and we aim to please! We are going further into the future and searching for life- not just on Mars but through our solar system, letting the player play Astro-detective. 

This won't be Mars Horizon 1.5. We are going to take what was great about Mars Horizon 1 and improve upon it, we are aiming for double as good! 

Please enjoy our pre-alpha trailer full of things we are going to build on and refine over this next production process. I am looking forward to saying so much more but for now I will leave you with my cathartic exercise of spilling the space beans! Have them on toast and rest assured there are more courses to come. 

Sending Meteors of love and gratitude to all the Mars Horizon fans that have been with us along the way.

Tess 👩🏻‍🚀

We’ve had some amazing coverage since the announcement of the sequel of our well received Mars Horizon. Take a look at some of the highlights here: 

The Solar System with UI in Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life

Thank you to all the sites and channels that took the time to cover the announcement,
we can’t wait to show you more.  💕

Some of the Mars Horizon 2: The Search For Life Team doing their best impressions of rockets

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Alice Liguori

How to create an authentic video game

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In 2022 we released Brewmaster – our first-person simulation game about brewing beer. It’s been a success for us as a studio in a number of ways, the most obvious of which is that it’s our game with the highest percentage of positive reviews on Steam to-date, it’s accumulated a great player base in our Discord and we’re pretty happy with its sales. 

The success of the game has been in-part down to how we researched and immersed ourselves in the subject material to deliver an authentic experience to our players. Here, Production Director Peter Willington discusses the research journey of the team and the impact it had on the development of Brewmaster. 

Astronaut Tim Peake sits with an official Xbox On presenter behind some computers filmed from above. T

Astronaut Tim Peake plays Mars horizon - you don’t get more authentic than that

What does authenticity in video games mean?

Authenticity refers to how ‘true to life’ something appears – whether it’s a person being their authentic selves or a piece of media accurately reflecting its real-world inspiration. 

For video games, the word ‘authentic’ is often associated with games that are set in a historical context and research prior to and during the development of that game is to ensure events are correctly presented, personalities are mirrored and environment is reflected. 

However, we’re experts in making games that relate to and deal with real world issues so ensuring our games feel real is hugely important to us. Whether it’s the accuracy of space exploration in Mars Horizon or beer recipes for Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator – we’re always working to create an authentic experience that players can learn from and enjoy playing. 

In-depth research and analysis around a topic have proven to be a successful recipe for true-to-life media for many years, and it can be brilliantly summed up in Ed Catmull’s book, Creativity Inc, in which the co-founder of Pixar, who later become the President of Walt Disney Animation Studios, explains how dining across France influenced Ratatouille’s famous kitchen scenes.  

Some members of the Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator team from Auroch Digital sat down at a table with snacks and beers doing a beer tasting.

Some of the Brewmaster team doing beer tasting.

But this use of the technique in more fantastical works indicates another interesting aspect of research: immersion in a subject matter is also important for games that aren’t realistic. 

The sheer number of Warhammer miniatures on display in our studio video should hopefully indicate that we’re incredibly passionate about all aspects of the Warhammer universes. Consequently, it should be no surprise that diving deep into the lore and history of Warhammer 40,000 to help build out aspects of the setting and story for Boltgun has been both a pleasure and a way to ensure we make the game feel authentic for fans that really know their stuff. 

So how did we do this with Brewmaster it? Let’s begin…

We drank a lot of beers 🍻

One team member drank roughly 500 different beers over the course of Brewmaster, and various members of the team did a number of different tasting sessions throughout the project - we encouraged anyone interested in getting to know beer a bit better to do so, if they felt comfortable. 

Side note: I want to stress at this point that we made it very clear at the beginning of Brewmaster that drinking was by no means a requirement to be on the project, and indeed we had a number of team members who either didn’t change their alcohol consumption, or simply didn’t drink in the first place (and making a video game sure wasn’t going to change this about them). I should also say that those 500 beers were consumed over the course of two and a half years, which equates to roughly one beer every couple of days (on average), well below Drinkaware’s guidelines for low risk drinking. 

With that out the way, why drink beer for research? What can it tell you about making a game? 

First, you really get to know the depth and variety of the craft that’s being represented. Before I started Brewmaster, I kind of thought that all beer was essentially the same, and I know a number of the team shared that feeling – we just didn’t have enough experience with the thing, and that meant we’d brought a lot of assumptions with us that would end up being challenged. I had no idea that beers could taste like mango, or dark chocolate, or bubble gum (!!!), and I had no idea that I could like different styles of beer rather than different brands of beer. 

Second, it forces you to challenge other preconceived ideas about the act of tasting. Sitting down and really considering the drink in front of you turns it into something that’s part of the main event of the evening and not an afterthought that simply accompanies it. You quickly start thinking about whether glassware is important (it generally is!) whether what you’re consuming is good for your health (it’s complicated!) and whether beer being as cold as possible is always best (it rarely is!). 

Third, your mind begins to wander into new areas of thinking. I remember one evening sitting down with a style I’d not tried before – a Belgian Tripel – and suddenly being struck by a bunch of questions: I’ve tried a Dubbel, is the Tripel related? Is it always a higher ABV? If they are related, why is the colour different? Are all beers like this from Belgium? And why does this bottle have a little “Trappist” symbol on it? The answers to all of these, and more, informed huge chunks of the game’s story mode and Brewpedia, and that initial round of inquisitiveness led to yet more questions. You start to realise that drinking craft beer, for some people, is a hobby with so many elements to it - it’s not just an excuse to drink booze. 

14 members of the Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator team from Auroch Digital are standing in the Moor Beer brewing in amongst the canning and fermenting equipment

The Brewmaster: beer Brewing Simulator team take a visit to Moor Beer Brewery, one of our partners for the game.

We got beer qualifications 👩‍🏫

Did you know you can get beer qualifications? I certainly didn’t know when we started, but as part of our research we found that they’re out there, and as part of our pre-production work, we had a bunch of the team do the Certified Beer Server from Cicerone course and exam, figuring that it would be a good way to get to grips with the subject and have a rounded knowledge of beer. 

We learned so much about how beer is made, how it’s presented, and so on, but the key thing this gave us was a universal language to speak with one another. 

Often on creative projects you’ll end up calling the same things different names. Take Mars Horizon as a good example: what do you call the thing that takes a payload into space? Is it a “rocket”? A “shuttle”? A “spaceship”? A “launch vehicle”? This might seem like pedantry, but each of these terms is casually used to mean the same thing when they’re actually different, and anyone who knows a bit about the subject is going to find their incorrect use inauthentic, or just plain wrong. 

So doing the course meant that we stopped referring to the “darkness of” the beer or “how brown” it was, and instead started talking, much more precisely, about SRM values - we’d acquired a standardised set of knowledge so we could more clearly communicate what we were discussing. 

What the qualification also highlighted was how important getting these terms right was, and indicated towards where the limits of knowledge might be for our game. The course told us that there’s a lot of overlap between styles; one person’s Pale Ale is another person’s American Pale Ale. 

We think of a wine sommelier as being a knowledgeable, respected position in the world of food and drink, and a Cicerone is essentially a beer sommelier, so the fact that this level of knowledge exists pointed out to us that our simulation needed to take this stuff seriously, we couldn’t “fake it”, but we also needed to accept that there was dispute over many areas of making beer. 

When you perform a taste test in the game, you’ll notice that you can choose which style you were aiming for, rather than have Brewmaster make the choice for you, and that’s a direct gameplay decision that came out of this research. 

IMAGE GALLERY BELOW: Below is a gallery of images from our lead designer for Brewmaster Matt. He created a recipe, Auroch Digitale, and brewed it start to finish to give himself a better understanding of the brewing process. This was the beer recipe that we then went on to get made by our partner Moor Beer and it actually went on sale and went to streamers.

We explored beer culture 🎪

It’s easy to think of “beer culture” as just a single, stereotypical thing: people, often men, drinking lager, in a bar. And in some instances that is how people engage with beer; it’s no more culturally important to their lives than the taxi ride to where they’re drinking, or the “filthy kebab” they have on their way home. 

And if we’d just assumed that that was universally the case we would have made a very different kind of game in terms of its feel – more laddish, more focused on the results of beer than the process of creating it. 

But that perception of beer being one thing is so far removed from the reality of what beer culture actually is. Simply put, beer culture is as varied and nuanced as the beers themselves. 

And this was reinforced by our research. For example, we attended some beer festivals where high-end beer buffs were on the hunt for the new and the outrageous, and others which were about championing the local industry. We read Kenny Gould’s work of fiction about beer and poured over can art examples to see how artists think of beer as an avenue for creativity. We listened to Prof. Charles Bamforth’s lectures (collected in Brewmaster's Art) to hear about how some see specificity and science as the heart of what matters in beer. Even trips to local pubs reinforced to us that British drinking culture is very important to the fabric of the communities served by them – in many pubs across Britain these spaces are a communal location for anyone and everyone, and that’s not a global phenomenon. 

If you’ve played Brewmaster then you’ll know that a whole bunch of this ended up in our story mode. Each of the characters you meet are embodiments of an aspect of beer culture we found interesting – Mei is the slow food movement, Rosa is beer as social equaliser, Jeff is the lifelong community of dedicated homebrewers that kept craft alive, Pat is beer as an act of creative rebellion, and Kristoff is beer as cultural history. 

Members of Auroch Digital at the Bristol Craft beer Festival. Everyone is sat down each side of a long table, smiling and with beers.

Some of the team attended the Bristol Craft Beer Festival

Applying research to other kinds of games 🎮

It’s easy to see how all of the above could be applied to other games grounded in reality - I’ve already mentioned that Mars Horizon benefitted from this approach as well. 

And we know that this approach is successful at other organisations than just our own. In Ed Catmull’s book Creativity, Inc, the co-founder of Pixar (and later President of Walt Disney Animation Studios) explains the importance of research trips for the authenticity of Ratatouille’s kitchen scenes. 

But this use of the technique in more fantastical works indicates another interesting aspect of research: immersion in a subject matter is also important for games that aren’t realistic. 

The sheer number of Warhammer miniatures on display in our studio video should hopefully indicate that we’re incredibly passionate about all aspects of the Warhammer universes. Consequently, it should be no surprise that diving deep into the lore and history of Warhammer 40,000 to help build out aspects of the setting and story for Boltgun has been both a pleasure and a way to ensure we make the game feel authentic for fans that really know their stuff. 

Coco the sausage dog standing next to a can of Auroch Digitale and wearing a Brewmaster dog sized apron.

Auroch Digitals mascot Coco with the official Brewmaster Beer

How does research impact a game?

I don’t want to end on a downer, but before closing this article out, it’s worth highlighting a challenge that this sort of thing has. 

As a tool for use in creative projects, it’s hard to quantify research’s value directly - i.e. I’m not aware of any way of assigning a £££ value to it. This means that for teams wanting to embrace all the benefits it provides, it’s hard to justify it on a profit and loss spreadsheet to a sceptical audience. 

We know from first-hand experience that it’s valuable, and Auroch’s leadership team deliberately tries to foster a culture of learning and improvement that goes hand-in-hand with this kind of activity, but for organisations that don’t have this culture, it might prove tricky to implement. 

If that’s the kind of environment you find yourself in, one solution is to do as much research as possible without requiring investment from leadership – an artist listening to audiobooks about the subject, while modelling relevant objects, for example – and building out a case that points to any times that research avoided mistakes being made (saving money), or customers voiced their appreciation of a knowledge of subject material (improved quality). 

Conclusion: research is great, give it a go! 

I hope this article was useful and demonstrates why Auroch thinks immersion within a subject matter can be useful when making creative products. If our approach to this area of our work sounds interesting to you, check out our jobs page to see the roles we’re currently hiring for. 

An in game beer in Brewmater: Beer Brewing Simulator

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Peter Willington

The Year In Review 2022

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Wow, what a year! So much happened that it took us a while to piece it together. We announced new titles, ported games and DLCs, released updates, and launched a game across 4 different platforms. We gave talks, took part in panels, wrote blog posts, and appeared on podcasts. We raised money for charity, ran 5km as a studio, and got very muddy in the process. We grew in size hugely, both with the number of projects we are working on, and the number of Aurochs in our herd. 

It’s been an incredible journey thank you for joining us on it. Let’s take a dive into 2022 at Auroch Digital to look back at all the things we achieved this year. 

January 

We started the year off with the launch of our free Mars Horizon update Daring Expeditions on all platforms. 🚀This update included new flags, plenty of Spacepedia updates and new dangerous missions, including the Philae / Rosetta Mission. This is an ESA cornerstone mission to chase, go into orbit around, and land on a comet. Watch our stream of this update here. 

Next up, for January was the release of our latest podcast season. If you are an avid listener of our podcast you’ll know this was our 7th season which which covered topics such as: 

Lastly, we ended the month with the announcement of our port of the Megaquarium DLC Freshwater Frenzy coming to consoles! We were delighted to share with everyone that we were bringing it to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox later in the year. 

Our giant free Mars horizon dlc Daring expeditions

February 

With January being such a launch heavy month, February seemed so much quieter with our podcast season ending, but with some amazing topics still being covered, including a special Ogre double bill to get everyone prepped for a special surprise later in the year... 

March 

Finally, at the start of March, Megaquarium DLC Freshwater Frenzy launched onto everyone’s consoles after an unexpected delay in February. As always, we thank the community for being so patient and understanding with us ♥ We know it was worth the wait! 

Next up in March, Some of our devs wanted to share why it is important to #BreakTheBias surrounding the games industry on International Woman’s Day. We wanted to #BreakTheBias on: 

Next up in this jam packed month was a big Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator celebration of our partnership with Moor Beer in Bristol. Working with a real-life brewery to make our game was a dream come true and getting to visit them was a real highlight. 

What better way to round off such a busy month than with our very own steam festival, Steam Simfest: Hobby Edition from March 28 – April 4 🎮🔨 

We hosted and organise the whole festival, including and incredible line up of panels, talks, and lets plays from huge studios and publishers. We also took part in lots of panels and let’s plays ourselves including 

April 

With April, came warmer weather and more lockdown restrictions lifting. This meant our team were starting to attend more events in person to give talks and join panels. The first one of this year was at W.A.S.D Live where we gave two talks 

Following this we were featured in Nintendo Life indie spotlight for Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator showcasing our latest trailer for the game.  

To finish off April we were proud to announce that we had won the “The Queens Award for Enterprise for International Trade” as a part of the wider Sumo Group!  

May 

After announcing our Moor Beer partnership back in March, we just had to take some of the team down to visit the brewery so that they can see life imitating art? Art imitating life? Either way, they all enjoyed it and we learnt so much from the visit too. Check out Moor Beer and make sure to visit their taproom if you’re in the area, we had a brilliant time! 

While we have been busy working on our games, Jess took a moment to chat about the importance of mental health and wellbeing within games too. This is an important pillar to us as a studio, the well being of our staff and our players is always key.  

Towards the end of May we dropped a big surprise for Steve Jackson Ogre fans. A massive PC update for Ogre Steam users and we announced and released our port of Ogre on Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch on the same day! It was very busy and exciting. 

June 

Talking of surprises, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun was revealed as part of the Warhammer Skulls showcase as our next game launch in 2023! The fan reaction was spectacular and there was loads of hype for our game across socials. This game is very close to our hearts as a studio full of Warhammer fans. In particular our Studio director Tomas, who spoke about what the game and franchise means to him in this blog post.  

But we weren’t finished there, we had one more awesome announcement for our players. 

Next we announced another brilliant partnership for Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator, this time with Next Glass, the leading global provider of software, eCommerce solutions, content, and experiences in the beverage alcohol industry. This allowed us to include BeerAdvocate, Hop Culture, and Untappd in our game. 

We took part in Next Fest following this announcement, with a brand new demo for players to try. During the festival we did 2 streams with our partners and were joined by Kenny Gould from Hop culture, as well as Justin Hawke, Head Brewer and owner of Moor Beer Company. 

But that wasn’t all, the end of June involved celebrating Juneteenth, pets in our game and meeting up with the wider Sumo Group. June was a busy month! 

July 

Our surprises didn’t stop coming with regards to Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator. We did the unexpected and launched our very own limited edition Auroch Digit-ale Beer with Moor Beer! This beer recipe was created in the game so you could brew your own beer and then enjoy it in real life. 

In the heatwaves, Nina, our Operations Director did a talk at Develop called "Signing your Game and what to avoid” and we couldn’t be prouder of her.  

We did need to cool down though... 

Auroch Digital takes on tough mudder, the muddy victors

August 

So we decided to do Tough Mudder for the Grand Appeal, specifically raising money for Sunflower Ward which Auroch Digital is a patron of. We worked hard, supported eachother, got wet, got very muddy and we raised over £3,500 for the ward. At least all that mud helped us cool down. 

Just intime for us to announce the launch date of Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator and introduce you to the team you meet in story mode; Jeff, Pat, Mei, Rosa, and Kristoff. 

September 

September was a huge month for us, we launched Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator! We had been working so hard on the game, for so long, that it felt amazing to finally see it in players hands.  

We sent out awesome packs to content creators and enjoyed seeing people with our beer , wearing our custom aprons, and brewing the recipe we sent them. We also had some special aprons made for furry friends. 

We also took Brewmaster on the road and took the game, plus a load of badges, to EGX!  

the Auroch Digital team visiting Sunflower Ward at Bristol Children’s hospital. Featuring previous patient mae, and isaac one of the play assistants in the ward

October 

We wanted to keep giving the community more Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator greatness, so just before our console launch, we had Garrett Oliver, the renowned real life Brewmaster, play our game and drink our beer on the official Xbox On channel.  

That wasn’t all, the Brewmaster gifts kept coming, next up we also treated everyone to some special in-game posters from our some friends of the Studio. You could now put in posters from all these awesome games into your brewing space: Silt, Shadows of Doubt, Core Keeper, Fights in Tight Spaces, The Colonists, Kenshi, Megaquarium, Wildermyth, Warborn, Kitaria Fables, Wobbledogs, Loddlenaut, Snake Pass, Zool Redimensioned, Hundred Days - Winemaking Simulator, Unpacking. 

Remember Tough Mudder that we ran back in August? We were invited to go a visit the Sunflower Ward to give them the donations we had raised and met some amazing children including Mae. 

November 

After such a busy year, we started to wind down in November. It gave us time to tell people more about our Studio. Check out this article to learn 5 things about Auroch Digital, which tells you that we are 

  • 🎲 Never bored of board games 🎲

  • 👩‍🚀 We have friends in high spaces 👩‍🚀 

  • 🏡 We may be based in Bristol, but operate from everywhere 🏡

  • 🌎 We are experts in real-world ideas 🌎

  • 🐕 Plus we are a studio of animal lovers 🐈

We also had two of our producers give a great insight into neurodiversity and the games industry, which shows how as a studio we are always working to become more inclusive.  

To finish off the month, our beloved Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun was featured in an article about exciting shooters for 2023!  

December 

Even though it seems like things have been quiet during December for Auroch Digital, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. We have loads of awesome projects going on behind the scenes and we are working very hard on lots of games and events. Some you know about, but quite a lot you don’t! 

We can’t wait to share these with you in 2023, it is going to be our biggest and best year ever. 

Thanks to our publishers, developers, and partners who we’ve worked with on some amazing projects in 2022. Thanks so much as well to all our players and community for supporting us throughout the year, playing our games, and talking with us on socials and in Discord. 

Make sure to join our community to be the first to hear about our next exciting announcements.  You can find us on: 

And if you like the sound of working at Auroch Digital make sure to check out our jobs page to see what we are currently hiring for. 

On to a brilliant 2023

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Ladell Smith

Neurodiversity and the Games Industry

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Producer Hannah Corcoran and Senior Producer Mark Inman of Auroch Digital share their insights into how the games industry can best support its neurodiverse teams.

Here at Auroch, we know that it takes all kinds of people to make games, and that the very best games are created in an environment of kindness, inclusivity and authenticity. That’s why when Auroch Digital started out in 2010, our founders were passionate about creating a studio where everyone could bring their whole selves to work every day to do what they love: make awesome games.

A lot can happen in 12 years; and in that time, we’ve become a studio of almost 100 people and have worked on a bunch of games we’re incredibly proud of – including Mars Horizon, Megaquarium and – most recently – Brewmaster: the beer brewing simulator. It’s not just our headcount that’s increased in recent years – there’s been a huge lift in conversations around Neurodiversity in the games industry. We’ve been delighted to hear the voices of our neurodivergent games industry peers sharing their experiences and even advising how companies can best support their neurodivergent teams.

Our Senior Producer Mark Inman and Associate Producer Hannah Corcoran are just two people contributing to the wider conversation and driven by their own experiences have pulled together a resource centre around neurodiversity in the games industry and how we can all make changes to work better, together.

Meet Hannah:
“My neurodiversity is an integral part of me. I've been diagnosed with OCD and have battled with it since I was a small child. I also have ADHD, and so does my partner! Neurodiversity has surrounded me my whole life as I have neurodiverse close family members and friends, including Autism, dyslexia, and dyspraxia. On top of this, I have a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Psychological Research Methods, I'm a trained Mental Health First Aider, and a Neurodiversity Consultant!”

 

Meet Mark:
“I’m passionate about ensuring neurodiversity is a part of everyday conversation in the games industry. Studio Director Tomas Rawlings has really driven the studios’ approach to neurodiversity in a bid to make it a more welcoming environment for all, where anyone can have open and honest conversations without it ever becoming uncomfortable. Through active, mutual support, we’ve become better at normalising conversations and better integrating support tools.”

 

So, let’s get into it!

What does neurodiversity mean?

  • Neurodiversity (noun): The diversity or variation of cognitive functioning in people.

    Put simply, neurodiversity means the different ways brains can work and how they interpret information – not all humans are the same and not all humans think in identical ways. Just as we all have different interests, skills and motivations, we also all have totally different brains.

  • Neurodiverse (adjective): Describes the diversity and variation of cognitive functioning in people.
    Most people are neurotypical, which means that the brain functions and processes information in a way that is deemed ‘usual’ by society, but it’s estimated that more than 15% (that’s one in seven!) of the population is neurodivergent.

  • Neurodivergence (noun): Cognitive functioning which is not considered "typical".
    Makes sense then, that given the games industry continues to grow year-on-year, that a 2021 report found that 18% (that’s one in five) of UK games industry workers are neurodivergent, meaning there is a higher prevalence of neurodiversity in the UK games industry than in the general UK population!

  • Neurodivergent (adjective): Describes people who have a neurodivergence.

What can neurodiversity look like?

You might be wondering ‘what does it mean to be neurodivergent?’… well, there isn’t just one way to be! Neurodivergence cannot and is not defined as being one thing – it can include a range of conditions that effect everyone in entirely different ways, including:

  • Affects behaviour – those with ADHD can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and may act on impulse.

  • Affects communication and experience of the world around them – Autism is a spectrum and everyone with it is completely different in the levels of support they may or may not need.

  • Can affect learning, such as reading and writing, and has differing levels of severity for everyone on the spectrum.

  • Affects movement and co-ordination, such as fine motor skills like writing and using small objects.

It's common to find that neurodivergent individuals may experience more than one of these conditions, known as comorbidity, and it’s important to remember that not everyone may experience these conditions in the same way.

Neurodiversity and the Games Industry

As mentioned earlier, there’s a pretty high percentage of neurodivergent folks who find themselves working in the games industry. Despite these big numbers, there’s been very little official research into why a neurodivergent brain might be drawn to a career in games.

One thought is that video games as an activity provides continuous, external reinforcement, which caters beautifully to the neurodiverse brain! On top of this, games help neurodiverse folks embrace making mistakes, allowing space for self-compassion and for growth. It’s also been observed that video games are a safe space to help build communication skills through regular interaction with the gaming community. One study found that 41.4% of adolescents and children with autism spend their free time playing video games, compared to 18% of their neurotypical peers (Mazurek, Shattuck, Wagner, and Cooper 2013) - so it’s not hard to see how a love for playing games could develop into a valid career opportunity for them in adulthood!

It's assumed that the games as a career seem to suit neurodiverse brains for a plethora of reasons, and there are many strengths that come with being neurodiverse – many of which make neurodivergent people a perfect fit for the industry.

For example, Hannah’s role as a Producer sees her working with a myriad of teams every single day, with no two days ever looking similar. She has the responsibility of meeting to strict deadlines and more often than not, problems to solve. Common traits of someone with ADHD can be ‘hyperfocus’, ‘flexibility’, ‘eye for detail’ and ‘motivated by short term deadlines’ – don’t these sound like desirable personality traits you’d see on a job advert for a Producer?

Another example could be in Code and Programming roles. Oftentimes, these teams will be doing lots of repetitive action with a need for attention to detail – both of which can be strengths for someone with Autism.

What can I do to support my neurodivergent teams?

Despite such a high number of neurodiverse brains working in our industry, there’s little to no advice for managers and leads on how to best support their neurodivergent teams and even less in the way of toolkits and advice centres. Below are some easy ways you can support your team:

  • Whilst the responsibility to support neurodiverse staff sits with the employer, there are limits and it’s good to establish those boundaries early on. Identify with your team a sensible approach to working, understanding their ways of working or establishing reasonable expectations – such as additional support needed or time for tasks to be completed. In leading a team, you must be able to support everyone – not just individuals. With this in mind, it’s important you reach an understanding of the level of support they might need going forward.

  • Never underestimate the power of early conversations! The best time to talk to a team member about neurodiversity is during the interview stage by explaining your company’s approach to supporting neurodiversity without putting any pressure on the candidate to come forward and share. Framing your neurodiversity strategy as part of onboarding will make it feel like general information and may make dialogue later down the line easier.

  • It’s best not to let undisclosed neurodiversity linger, talking it through thoroughly will help you both understand what support is needed and how your team member can work at their best. Regular check-ins with your team to ensure they’re comfortable and feel safe to raise any issues is key in making a happier environment for everyone.

  • Across most neurodiversity, being able to manage time in a more granulated way can make it much easier for neurodivergent team members to manage their time and meet deadlines. It’s easy for large time tasks to feel overwhelming, so being open to supporting your team in breaking up their tasks into bitesize chunks will make a big difference.

  • Not all brains can process a wall of text or hear every instruction all at once. Find out from your team how much detail is enough and work with them on delivering instruction – it might not always be possible to cut a dense document down but including a bullet point summary can help. Opening the door to conversation around preferred communication will mean everyone is able to do their best work.

  • This is probably the broadest area and where a manager will need to show their best flexibility. Establishing the communication preferences of your team early on will make for the smoothest experience. For example: How do they best disseminate instruction/direction? What is their preferred way to interject/contribute to a debate or meeting? What tools/processes do they need to be able to track information personally? Knowing this early means they are not left feeling excluded or overwhelmed in meetings or team events

  • Exposure to certain sensory stimuli can be incredibly difficult for some neurodiverse people, and you should be prepared to take steps to support wherever possible. Whilst best to avoid these triggers, it’s not always possible. If you also cannot work to mitigate/reduce these triggers, it is good practice to ensure you give teams as much notice as possible of potential sensory triggering in the run up to it happening – for example, showing a trailer during a presentation. Remember: avoid, mitigate, notify!

  • It can be almost impossible to remain focused when you have low levels of certainty that your task list or plan for the day may go off the rails. With this in mind, avoid getting into the habit of changing your teams’ day-to-day work and try to limit unexpected meetings with little to no notice. We know the games industry loves a curveball, and not every change of plan can be avoided – but should unavoidable disruption rear its head, have a plan to work with your team to reassure them that the impact is not something they have control over. Also, avoid the use of hotdesking for neurodiverse employees.

  • The one thing employers can absolutely get right is providing the appropriate hardware/software to ensure team members are able to perform at their best. There is a wide variety of tools available, from footrests to aid balance, to noise cancelling headphones, to screen filters, to fidget toys, to supportive software! It’s important for an employer to stay on top of emerging tech, so the onus isn’t always on the individual to bring suggestions to the table

These are just some of the ways you can adapt your ways of working to suit everyone but remember: not all brains are wired the same way and what works for one neurodiverse brain might not suit another. It’s all about patience, adaptability and honesty.

Supporting Neurodiversity in the Games Industry

The estimated percentage of neurodivergent individuals working in the games industry is higher than that of the general population in the UK – so how can you find your dream role in games if you are neurodiverse?

  1. Research: When looking for roles in games, research various studios and whether they’re upfront abut their approach to neurodiversity at work – are they supporting causes like UKIE’s #RaiseTheGame or partnering with Into Games? Both of these are great resources for studios to upskill themselves in working with neurodiverse teams and may be a good indicator of their knowledge level in neurodiversity.

  2. Be open and honest: If you’re starting to have conversations with a studio about your career there, it’s important to be open and honest about your neurodiversity during this time. Many people with a neurodivergence find it useful to create a “Spiky Profile” – which is a visual graph to explain the differences of ability associated with your neurodivergence, capturing what makes you such a valuable individual, and what areas you need support in.

  3. Keep the conversation going: Wherever you can and feel safe to do so, keep conversations about your experience open. Be sure to manage expectations with your manager and be honest about what could make your experience better, whether that be time management support, adapted work hours, quieter desk space, communication preferences, simplified instructions or ways to mitigate sensory triggers.

As for companies, there are tonnes of ways you can make your studio space – both virtual and remotely – more accessible.

  1. Check your communications: Do you have a website with fancy graphics and lots of moving parts? It might look great but maybe take time to consider how it could look to someone who struggles to process a lot of moving imagery or someone who may struggle to navigate it. Think about how the text on your site might be read by someone with dyslexia – is it easy to read and clear? Are you using jargon upfront and making it hard to find your careers page?

  2. Make physical spaces more accessible: Having a bustling office may seem like a great idea, but for someone with neurodiversity it might be a very overwhelming space – especially if their desk is in an area of high-traffic.

  3. Create safe virtual spaces: A teams meeting with 15 people on might be necessary, but consider recording all calls so people can easily access and process the information at a later date without the pressure of a live audience.

  4. Keep the conversation going: Yep, it’s vital that team members and workplaces alike keep this conversation going. You could create anonymous forums for people to post their questions, thoughts and suggestions on changes that could be made to better the employee experience.

Research: It goes without saying that the advice given here is not a fix all solution – everyone is different and things are constantly evolving. Stay up to date, in the know and proactive in your learning around neurodiversity.

Auroch Digital and Neurodiversity

Here at Auroch, we’re very proud to have built a culture where our people can be honest with us and share how they’re feeling. Through the years, we’ve learnt that flexible thinking is the best way to create a workplace fit for everyone and we’re always making changes and improvements in any way we can.

We’re always learning, but through communication and patience, we’re on the right path to becoming a home for everyone.

A huge thank you to Hannah and Mark for their hard work and commitment on this guide – we’re so proud to have you on our team and of all the positive changes you make in the industry. As a final note, the two have pulled together some useful resources that we can all take the time to read and act on:

Hannah Corcoran is an Associate Producer at Auroch Digital and is always happy to talk about brains and video games. You can catch her on Twitter at @hazelrune – her inbox is always open!
Mark Inman is a Senior Producer at Auroch Digital and is available on Twitter at @Fortress_Inman.

Interested in finding out more about a role at Auroch Digital? Why not check out the Careers Page and see if there’s a fit for you!

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Auroch Digital

Marketing and Community Managment for Auroch Digital in Bristol, UK.

We raised over £3,500 for the Sunflower Ward at Bristol children’s Hospital 🌻

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At Auroch Digital we are proud patrons for the Sunflower Ward at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. We recently ran Tough Mudder as a studio and raised £3,825 for the ward through The Grand Appeal!

Tough Mudder was a big challenge for us, many of us had not done anything like this before but we really pulled together as a team and helped each other. Some of the obstacles we conquered together included ice baths we dunked ourselves into, slippery, muddy hills we pulled each other over, and even running through electric shock wires.

Our proud Auroch digital tough mudder team after passing the finish line

Visiting The Sunflower Ward 🌻 

To celebrate their fundraising for The Grand Appeal, the Auroch Digital team were invited to visit the ward and its patients. It was great to see first-hand the ward we are working to support and to see the impact that raising funds has had – it made all the mud, sweat, and tears of Tough Mudder worth it! 

We also got to meet the wonderful Mae, one of Sunflower Ward’s patients. She showed us around the ward and told us about her favourite games. She is an especially big fan of the Untitled Goose Game – it was lovely to meet you Mae! 

Some of the auroch digital team outside the hospital holding a giant cheque. They are joined by Mae, one of the patients on the ward, and Isaac, one of the Play Assistants from the ward.

Some of the donated items the sunflower ward have recieved so far

You know how we all like to come home and play a few games? These kids are exactly the same. After they have had procedures done, being able to socialise with other young people brings them happiness in such a difficult time. Playing games in a team, laughing with friends, and being creative are all things Sunflower ward helps these kids to do.

Play is so important for patients of the ward, it brings them joy, a sense of normality, and it helps with recovery.

The money we’ve donated is already being put to good use, here are some of the items the ward has bought so far.

What is The Sunflower Ward? 🌻 

We have been patrons for The Sunflower Ward since November 2021, read more about why we became patrons here. 

 The Sunflower ward is the neurorehabilitation ward at Bristol Royal Hospital for children. They see patients for both short- and long-term rehabilitation programs. Their admissions come from across the Southwest region and are made up of referrals, planned admissions, and transfers from other wards. There are eight beds made up of four cubicles and a four bedded bay. Patients are seen from ages 0 to 16+. 

The Grand Appeal is the dedicated charity for Bristol Children’s Hospital. The charity works  alongside  doctors,  nurses  and  specialist staff  to  ensure  that  every  sick child  has  access  to  the  best possible  care,  when  they  need it  most by funding everything from accommodation for families, state-of-the-art equipment, medical research and art, music and play therapies. 

All smiles inside the sunflower ward with the Auroch Team, Mae, and Isaac.

How can you help? 🏥 

If you’d like to support the Sunflower Ward as well there are loads of things you can do: 

  • 🍰 Raise money for donations - Take part in a fundraising event, or organise your own! These can be bake-offs, marathons, or other sponsored activities. The money you raise can go on donations for the ward. For ideas and events you can join check out the official charity for Bristol Children’s Hospital - The Grand Appeal.  

  • 🎮Host a charity Stream – Streaming is another great way to raise money for the hospital. Check out this page to sign up and for more info:  www.grandappeal.org.uk/streaming    

  • 🔊 Raise Awareness - Share any posts you see about the ward, including ours! Raising awareness of the important work they do and how people can help makes a big difference. 

  • 🐦 Follow them on socials to stay up to date - Follow The Grand Appeal (Twitter and Facebook) on socials so you can stay up to date with their work, help raise awareness, and get involved with events as they come up. 

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Jemima Crow

Brewmaster: Beer Brewing is out now on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch! 🍻

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Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator is out now on
PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch! 🍻

Today is the day, Brewers!

Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator is out now on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch! And of course, on PC too! Click the buttons below to be taken to the store pages.

There’s also currently a 10% launch discount on all consoles* right now 🍻
*(on PlayStation, this discount is for PlayStation PLUS users only)

 
 

A huge thank you to our console brewers for being so patient, we at Auroch Digital, alongside our publisher Fireshine Games, have been working so hard on brewing the console version just right and we are so happy it's ready to serve!

💡 PlayStation and Xbox players - make sure you head into your options and set your Brewing Tips too "All Tips" in the General tab! This will give new brewers the best experience to learn the game 🥳 This setting should already be enabled for Switch players.

🍻 Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator is the first-ever realistic beer brewing experience. From perfecting authentic, chemistry-driven brewing techniques to naming, bottling, labelling, and customising brewing spaces – you can refine your craft to create the beers of your dreams! Use a wide variety of ingredients and equipment in the story-led Brewmaster mode or the sandbox Creative Mode to hone your skills and become the ultimate brewer!

🎮 Developed by Auroch Digital and published by Fireshine Games, Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator launches today on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5 and Xbox One & Series X|S.

🍺 Auroch Digital and Fireshine Games are so excited to see the community experience Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator. We hope that everyone enjoys the game and keeps it lager than life!

If you're interested in a key for review or other content, please get in touch with us on - marketing@aurochdigital.com 🍻

💕 Celebrating your favourite indies!

Customise your brewing space with some of your favourite indie games with our new update on PC, and already available on Xbox and PlayStation.

We've been working with some of our peers in the industry to get posters of their game in Brewmaster, so you can represent some of your favourite indies in-game.

There are posters of Megaquarium, Wildermyth, Kenshi, Silt, Fights in Tight Spaces, Shadows of Doubt, Hundred Days - Winemaking Simulator, Kitaria Fables, Core Keeper, Wobbledogs, The Colonists, Snake Pass, Loddlenaut, Warborn, and Unpacking.

Please note: These cosmetics are available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.

Catch up with Garrett & XboxOn 🍻

Watch the VOD here! 👀

Yesterday, real life Brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, played our game over on the XboxOn Twitch channel. There were some really great moments including when Sam didn’t use the right malt for the task at hand, and even though Henry did in his run through, Garrett still preferred Sam’s beer overall!

Make sure you catch up with the stream here if you missed it! We loved seeing the XboxOn team try our real-life Auroch Digitale, brewed to life by our partners Moor Beer. It was so great to hear all about Garrett’s history with brewing, from when he lived in the UK to what he’s up to now - did you know Garrett’s a Knight?!

Thanks for reviewing Brewmaster 📝

And a massive thank you to our PC players for reviewing the game on Steam, we really appreciate it! We’ve already got over 300 reviews, which is amazing! As a smaller game developer we can’t stress how much they mean to us and how important they are.

Click here to learn more about why reviews are important and to get more information on how to leave a review.

If you've played Brewmaster on PC, spill your thoughts, we'd love to hear what you think about Brewmaster!

And for our console players please leave a review for us once you've played it, our blog post explains how to do it for Xbox, and PlayStation.

How and where to report bugs 🐛

If you encounter any bugs while playing Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, or PlayStation, it helps us out loads if you report it in the proper way.

  • 💡 Always check our FAQs first just in case your question has been answered or your bug has already been noted as something we're working on

We have a whole section in our official Discord where community members can give advice if you're stuck on a particular recipe, and we also have a very efficient bug reporting system via this reporting form.

👋🏻 Get involved with the community on our Discord or Twitter channels!

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Alice Liguori

🍺 Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver to Stream Brewmaster! 🍺

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We are thrilled to announce that Brooklyn Brewery’s legendary Brewmaster Garrett Oliver will be streaming Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator live with XboxOn ahead of the game’s console release!

📅 Wednesday 26th October
🕝 4:00pm BST
🔗 https://www.twitch.tv/xboxon

🎮 The XboxOn team and Garrett will put themselves in the home brewery and see how they fare at creating their ideal blend. With a whole host of ingredients and utensils in the game, we cannot wait to see what they come up with! 

😋 In addition to creating some fantastic beers in-game, the presenters will be enjoying some of the recently brewed ‘Auroch Digitale - Brewmaster American Pale Ale’, thanks to our partners at Moor Beer.

😁 A Great Opening Round! 😁

With the game having launched a few weeks ago on PC, Brewmaster has received ‘Very Positive’ reviews from PC players. We cannot wait for console players to get settled into the brewing space!

A massive thank you to our PC players for reviewing the game on Steam, we really appreciate it! We’ve already got over 300 reviews, and as a smaller game developer we can’t stress how much they mean to us and how important they are. They make us do really big smiles 😁

If you've played Brewmaster on PC, spill your thoughts, we'd love to hear what you think about Brewmaster!

🤝🏻 Join the Community 🤝🏻

Our Discord is where you’ll find out more information on the game and be able to share your successes with the community. It’s good for what ales ya!

  • 💡 Always check our FAQs first just in case your question has been answered or your bug has already been noted as something we're working on

We have a whole section in our official Discord where community members can give advice if you're stuck on a particular recipe, and we also have a very efficient bug reporting system via this reporting form.

🍻 About Brewmaster 🍻

Discover, learn and master the art of homebrewing in the ultimate celebration of craft beer. From perfecting authentic, chemistry-driven brewing techniques to naming, bottling and labelling - refine your craft to become the ultimate Brewmaster in the first ever realistic beer brewing experience.

With all the tricks of the trade and the best equipment at your disposal, follow a recipe, or experiment with a huge variety of real-world ingredients to hone your skills. Enter friendly competitions, earn beer tokens, and upgrade your equipment to become an even better brewer.

Choose to experience the story-led Brewmaster mode or throw yourself into Creative Mode, a sandbox with everything unlocked.

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Alice Liguori