And now - for a bit of fun

Like most tech companies since 2020, we, too, have moved many of our social interactions online. Team huddles, After-work hangouts, or morning coffee meetings now happen in video and voice chats at HSL.

Today, instead of our more serious topics, we’ll be sharing things that can be done as a team – remotely together.

·????????Introduce new games to one another

Especially for us, who work with computer games, this is engaging and can bond us through our shared interests.

Like many others who are into pop culture and modern gaming, we’re fans. Not being engaged in current trends, options, and ideas can leave you behind in any business, and in the business of making games, this comes with a lot of reading and a lot of playing games. Over the last 20 years, our industry has grown tremendously. And not only do large publishers have the money to finance larger studios, but the market of indie games is also awash with fantastic games.

Staying on top of these can be daunting, and there are always only so many hours in a day.

Here is where having friends and co-workers, who can showcase games they enjoy, can really help. At HSL, we infrequently showcase other games, but we share the ones that recently caught our attention – and often those which proved to make the weekends vanish without a trace for all the time a game soaked up.

·????????Virtual board game nights

Many companies host their board games online, and it can be a fund hour to pick even an unknown game and learn how to play it together.

Big companies like Hasbro have their own games hosted online. There are also a host of other sites where you can either rent the more popular newer board games or play older ones which do not have a copyright on them for free. Big bonus – nobody can cheat the bank in Monopoly any longer! Having a few rounds of Yahzee with co-workers can be a fun hour!

·????????Book clubs

Assemble your readers and select books to read fully, chapter by chapter, or as an introduction to others.

We’ve spoken about our book club in the past. Recently, we have reviewed how we have been using it and the kinds of books we have been reading. We’re planning to change how we wish to use the club. We plan to move away from our old format to include some novels, consider the frequency of our meetings, and look for ways to keep the meetings more engaging for longer.

·????????Movie Nights

We have watched movies together-apart more than once, and with Halloween coming up in only a few months, our movie masters are already thinking about what we should have this year.

There’s the added bonus of being comfortable at home, we can bring as many snacks as we want to, and refills for our drinks are much faster! Being able to bond over movies, especially those that speak to a topic, can be very relaxing. It’s nice to be able to talk to our co-workers about something that’s not related to bug tickets, deadlines, and animation glitches every now and then!

·????????Leagues and Ladders

Whether trading cards or fantasy football – HSL has quite a few of them.

Card games, online games like shooters, quizzes with tallies kept – there are many fun ways to be competitive, especially at a games company. Even the more common fantasy football league in an office can be found in many places! And the distance from working remotely isn’t even a problem for this kind of activity. Everyone can join in and get excited over their chosen engagement.

We know that remote Happy Hour and similar ways to connect while working remotely aren’t easy, but we hope you’ll be able to join in on the fun!

Today, one of our producers said they will steam a new game for us, so we need to get ready. Enjoy the weekend, everyone!