Evony: The King's Return, developed by Top Games Inc., has recently made headlines by ranking #5 on Data.ai's list of top ten US-Headquartered Mid-Core Games. Benjamin Gifford, the Vice Development Director of Evony and Vice President of Top Games Inc., has shared how his team led the game to success.
Encourages exploration and aims for excellence
According to Benjamin Gifford, Top Games Inc. believes that great ideas can come from anyone and anywhere within the company. The team encourages exploration of all aspects of the company to seek improvements. Benjamin also emphasizes that instead of striving for perfection, the team aims for excellence.
To achieve excellence, the Top Games team needs to constantly strive for innovation through incremental and sequential roof shots. This allows them to make products and services better and updates more impactful. By passionately pursuing these roof shots, Top Games Inc. identifies and achieves moonshots. Both roof shots and moonshots are valued, desired, and rewarded.
Empowering the team and making decisions with data
Benjamin further explains that the team can only strive for excellence by empowering them and making decisions based on data. The team is encouraged to fail early and often but learn from failure. They are also advised not to limit themselves to job protection mode, but instead to stretch their capabilities and grow constantly without satisfaction with current success.
Top Games Inc. operates in a lean, open, and flat structure. This allows each engineer to have no more than three management levels to the CEO, while managers and team leaders have more than seven direct reports. The leadership under David Guo ensures that all information is shared freely, wherever possible, to create the best value for players.
Investing in the team to create record-setting profits
Each member of Top Games has a sense of ownership and acts in the best interest and culture of the company. They have a responsibility to do the right things and ensure the team's goals and values are maintained. By giving the team as much information as possible, supporting their decisions, and empowering them, Top Games expects the team to discover and fix problems proactively. As Benjamin confirms, the Top Games team is their greatest resource, and the company heavily invests in them, which has helped them create record-setting profits.
In conclusion, Top Games Inc. has created a culture that encourages innovation, excellence, and ownership. The company's flat structure, coupled with the freedom to share information, has empowered the team to strive for success and create record-breaking profits.
