Before InGame Recruitment existed, I was disheartened by parts of the recruitment industry. Too many transactional mindsets, too little accountability, limited integrity, a lack of genuine commitment to long term partnership.
After months of debate, I made the decision to start my own recruitment company on 29th February 2016 built around four core principles:
Integrity. Commitment. Dynamism. Accountability.
I wanted to prove you could succeed in games recruitment without cutting corners.
I remember my very first day of trading vividly. Panic set in. Allies I believed would support me weren’t as open to doing business as I had expected. Suddenly I was starting from scratch, picking up the phone, introducing myself, rebuilding trust. The first week was tough, there was self doubt, had I made the right decision to go alone? Did I have the financial runway to endure a slow start? Did I really have the minerals?
That uncertainty didn’t last long. Two weeks in, I signed our first client. By the end of month two, eight studios had bought into the ethos and the commitment behind the brand.
I still remember our very first placement. A Unity Developer relocated from Mexico to Thailand in May 2016. To this day, he’s still enjoying everything Thailand has to offer. That moment made it real. Budgets were allocated. Forecasts were built. Milestones were hit. Scaling plans were formed.
What started as a leap of faith quickly became a structured business, this wasn’t growth by luck - it was deliberate. Cash flow was managed carefully. Risk was calculated. Relationships were prioritised over quick wins. We focused on building recurring partnerships rather than chasing volume.
The result was consistent year on year growth, sustainable, measured, and resilient across changing market conditions.
As we approach our 1,000th placement, what stands out isn’t the number - it’s the responsibility that comes with shaping that many teams, products and careers, and responsibility demands quality. Over the last decade, 98% of the candidates we’ve placed have successfully completed their probation period. That statistic matters more to me than any volume milestone.
From one Unity Developer relocation in 2016 to almost a thousand strategic hires across the industry built one relationship at a time.
Over the last 10 years, we’ve partnered with studios across every platform and we’ve supported all from indie startups to AAA publishers, scaling teams across Europe, Americas, MENA, and Asia.
And through it all, our focus has remained the same:
Quality over volume. Long term partnerships over transactions. Industry understanding and insights over keyword matching. Whilst holding up our core values.
A decade in this industry teaches you things. Hiring is never “just hiring”. Every hire changes a studio’s trajectory. Culture fit, leadership style, technical direction. One person can alter product velocity for years.
The cost of a bad hire compounds. In games, mis-hires don’t just cost salary. They cost, delays, burn, morale, investor confidence, product quality. Relationships outlast market cycles: We’ve worked through: Funding booms, funding freezes, COVID remote shifts, mass layoffs, talent wars, Web 3 surge and corrections, AI disruption. Markets move, studios pivot, but strong relationships endure.
In 2016, cross border hiring was harder. Today, remote first is normal, global payroll is easier, talent is more fluid, studios think internationally from day one, the industry is global and so are we.
The Next 10 Years
The games industry is entering another period of structural change: AI is reshaping pipelines, monetisation models are evolving, studios are leaner, capital is more disciplined, leadership scrutiny is higher than ever. The era of “hire fast and figure it out later” is over. Studios are thinking more carefully about team design. About burn. About runway. About commercial accountability. About long term viability.
The best recruitment has never been transactional. It’s about structuring teams properly, hiring commercially aware leaders, building sustainable studios that can scale and survive.
That’s where we’re doubling down. We’re not just here to fill roles. We’re here to help build companies.
A huge thank you
To the studios who trusted us early. To the clients who stuck with us during slower cycles. To the candidates we placed who built incredible games. To the team at InGame past and present who delivered relentlessly behind the scenes.
This anniversary belongs to all of you.
10 Years. Still Only Getting Started.
I didn’t start InGame Recruitment to build a volume business. I started it to build something principled. To prove that integrity could outperform volume driven recruitment and short term tactics. That accountability could outperform shortcuts. That long term partnership could outperform quick wins.
Ten years later, those beliefs haven’t changed. Markets cycle, technologies evolve, trends rise and fall. But fundamentals endure: Integrity. Commitment. Dynamism. Accountability. That’s what built the first decade. That’s what will build the next.
10 Years. Still Only Getting Started. Built on principles. Built in games. Trusted globally.
Here’s to the next decade.
Scott Aiken: Founder & CEO, InGame Recruitment