Meet Antoine Guihery From Keywords Studios in Katowice

Staff Spotlight – We recently caught up with Antoine Guihery, Localization QA (LQA) Project Manager at Keywords in Katowice, Poland to discuss the studio's aims for the future, his journey into LQA as well as the evolution of the gaming industry.

Keywords in Poland has been on a remarkable journey to this point, how do you see the studio progressing in the future?

Within a few short years, the studio has grown exponentially. For example, the LQA branch alone has grown from a small staff of 40 to around 170 people. We’re also working with more languages than ever before.

The expansion is not only in terms of people, but also infrastructure. We recently moved to the Global Office Park in Katowice; a vast, modern space perfectly suited to the studio’s continued growth. We’re also working with more clients than ever before which lays the foundations for further improvements.

We’re in an industry that’s constantly progressing. I’m convinced that Keywords Studios in Katowice will continue to thrive.

What inspired your journey into LQA? Does one need to be passionate about games to work in the industry?

To be honest, it’s out of pure luck that I find myself on this journey. I simply came across an advertisement for video games testers in Dublin and gave it a try! I’ve always been a huge gamer and on top of being passionate for the industry and all that surrounds it (development, competition, eSport), it was also a good opportunity to start a career in a new country.

Now, I don’t think that passion for video games is a strict requirement for working in LQA. It’s obviously a plus and makes the job easier in many aspects. For gamers, this is a job that allows you to try the latest AAA titles before anyone else, have your work credited in the game itself and connect with very talented people, so it obviously appeals mostly to gamers. But let’s not forget that the main objective of LQA is to enhance the linguistic quality of the titles you’re working on and improve the overall experience for players, you don’t necessarily need to be a gamer to possess this talent.

How does the delivery process work in terms of partnering with clients?

It depends on the client and their way of working. We value flexibility at Keywords and adapt to client needs. A classic round of LQA will start after the localization team is finished with at least the first draft of content translation but it may also happen that we start projects with early builds containing only partially localized content.

According to the client’s main scope, we’ll deliver our results in the form of bugs, text edits and daily reports. The client implements our changes in their builds and sends the corrected versions for us to verify. The end of the project is normally marked by general feedback on the overall quality of the title written by our testers.

How has gaming evolved as an industry since you started?

I started my journey in 2017 and since then, I would say that independent studios are gaining a bigger portion of the market and that the public image of the industry has improved overall. It’s easier than ever to create video games and the recent achievements of some indie titles shows that successful games are not necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets.

The evolution of technology, not only for consoles and computers but also development tools such as motion capture, has also been remarkable and is helping to create more interesting games.

I also feel that the whole industry is opening up to a wider audience in terms of age, gender, accessibility etc. which is undoubtedly fantastic news for the future.

How do you see video games evolving in the future?

Every year, we come across new types of games that connect with audiences. For example, the huge increase in Battle Royale games after H1Z1 or more recently during the COVID outbreaks, the party-type games such as Among Us or Fall Guys. Some genres are evolving, like the Deck builders and Rogue-Lites; Turn-based RPGs are not so popular anymore while more and more Action-RPGs are being released. It’s a never-ending cycle when it comes genres and types of gameplay due to the cyclical nature of trends and tastes.

In any case, the gaming industry never fully reaches a peak, it simply grows and evolves with its audience.

And finally, what advice would you give to someone considering a career in the gaming industry?

If you’re passionate about video games and are thinking about starting a career in this industry, there is a place for you. No matter what you feel you’re good at, you can be a great addition to this ever-evolving space. Coding, scripting, art design, localization, sound production, acting, marketing, QA – there are so many aspects to making a game, all as important as each other.

I would also say it’s important to be willing to travel, from a life experience/personal growth perspective of course but it also helps open up further avenues to break into this global industry.

If you are interested in a role at Keywords in Poland, you can find open positions on our Careers page.