As You may know, I remember when the dinosaurs walked on Earth because I’m one of the eldest Ten Square Games crew members. In the old days, seniority was much appreciated, and the most experienced tribe members use to tell the youngsters stories (about the uniqe TSG culture) by the fire. So here goes the story…

During the last 6 months at Ten Square Games, we spend a significant amount of time redefining our values and trying to capture our genuine spirit in words. We finally got it, and I wanted to tell you about it. So even if there is no campfire near you, I hope you would find a moment to read about one of our values, which I believe is the foundation of all social bonds and makes Ten Square Games a unique place.

My story with Ten Square Games goes back to the very beginning of the company. I knew the founders – Maciej Popowicz and Arek Pernal, from their previous project – Nasza Klasa, where I worked as a QA/tester. I was employed in the team responsible for building architecture around games in Nasza Klasa that would allow social interactions within it. Back then, I was already playing a lot of games, and there was one called “Fishery,” in which I had the highest score. When Maciej backed out from Nasza Klasa, he knew about it and invited me to a diner. As romantic as it may sound, we were, in fact, discussing quite serious issues. Maciej told me about his concept of building games and asked me for ideas. So I reached my pocket, found a crumpled piece of paper, and read aloud all the ideas I had.

And that is how the story of trust started. 

Basing on the ideas I’ve read from the crumpled note, Maciej trusted me and hired me to create Let’s Fish. The calculation was that the game has to bring profits after one year, otherwise, there would be no more games if it had not been a success. 

It was an example of great trust, and so was the case with subsequent Ten Square Games titles – even those that turned out to be failures. After the first significant failure of the game, which we did without adequate research, we quickly drew conclusions for the future, but the trust has not evaporated. 

And it even grew because finally, the moment came when with Maciej we decided that it was time to trust the next product owner, and for another time, he trusted me that by leaving the team in good hands, I could work on the next title. 

Along my career path, I had the responsibility and privilege to create teams, manage their work, and finally pass the baton when the time came. Being a leader is another level of trust – and it is more difficult than the trust given to us because as a leader, you have to build it by yourself.

Building trust in the team is crucial, because, thanks to it, the people have a safe zone at work, know what is going on, know that we are creating something bigger, and are not afraid to go in that direction. For a leader, trust is the key to employees’ willingness to invest their time and future in their work.

And this is also what the feedback culture at Ten Square Games serves – only openness and transparency make it possible. This is how we built a work culture We aim to create a work culture where giving and receiving feedback is just another way of improving company operations and our own quality of work. No one searches for a second bottom no one is scared to be punished. It’s just a clear path on how to do things better next time. Here at TSG, what we find as a success of this feedback culture are transparency and honesty.

Without a trust, there would be no TSG as it is now.