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Undead Labs

Employee Spotlight: Grace Chien

Continuing our celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage, we are pleased to introduce Grace Chien! An Undead Labs team member since 2018, Grace has had a hand in multiple State of Decay 2 updates, has steered exciting new projects, and has been spreading her love of Grogu (yes, that Grogu) around the office, filling hearts with joy. How many 6″ cakes can one person eat in a month? Let’s find out!

What do you do at the Lab?
I’m the Director of Studio Operations here at the Lab. I spend most of my time working behind the scenes making things happen.

What’s your boba order?
Taro with boba, 50% sugar, less ice.  In my book, if the bubble tea shop can’t get this staple right, it’s not worth returning to.

What’s your favorite thing about working in games?
I enjoy the vibrancy that comes with being surrounded with creative folks. I love the team problem solving, the abundance of terrible puns and jokes, and being able to joyously share my love of baby Yoda with other people who love him just as much.

What does your Asian heritage mean to you?
I grew up on the Eastside where there weren’t many folks that looked like me so I spent most of my formative years covering. It wasn’t until I went back to visit family during college that I realized how much was missing and just simply not represented back home. I’ve come to a point of contentment with it and like the other perspective it offers me. Over the course of my career, I’ve only worked directly with 8 other Asian people, all of them men. It’s weird being an oddity in the industry, so hopefully that will change in the future.

Any shout outs you want to make?
Tea Addicts or ShareTea are my preferred bubble tea shops. Northwest Tofu House is my favorite breakfast place. I love Shanghai Garden for its barley green hand shaven noodles as well as its pig ears. Its sister restaurant, Shanghai Cafe, with its (no idea how they translate this into English) dish of blood and intestines and veggies. Tiger Garden dim sum on Mercer Island. Szechuan Bowl for their beef noodle soup. Hood Bakery for their ube cookies. Tous Les Jours has been my most frequented bakery during the pandemic, I bought myself a 6″ cake from there every week for first 3 months. Zero regrets over these life choices.

Employee Spotlight: Larry Wu

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month may have come to a close at the end of May, but our celebration continues! Next up on our employee spotlight, please meet Larry Wu! Larry also joined us in January, and has been improving your gameplay experience since then –all from home! So, what does he think is the most fun aspect of design? And what Hogwarts House would Larry be sorted into?? We have the scoop.

What do you do at the Lab?
I’m a Senior Systems Designer on State of Decay 2. I maintain and improve the zombie survival experience thinking mainly in terms of how to excite players far past the point of their initial playthrough.

What’s your boba order?
My brown sugar boba fad addiction has died down and I’m back to a 50% sweet Taro Milk Tea with boba and almond milk.

What’s your favorite thing about working in games?
I especially enjoy the unexplored territory of game design that allows for creative problem solving. Designs that have been tread on a thousand times can get a small change or just a shift in context and suddenly provide a new and compelling experience. Being able to mix and match design ideas to come up with something that delights and engages players is endless fun. 

What does your Asian heritage mean to you?
I remember growing up, my dad would always ask whether I considered myself to be Chinese or American (My dad liked to test his children using questions with unclear answers). I always said “American!” and didn’t really understand why it was even a question or why I’d want to be anything else. At 31 years of age, I’m only starting to understand that Asian heritage isn’t contentious with my being an American. I am both Chinese and American and that gives me a unique perspective. I get to use that historic lens to learn and grow from the trials, triumphs, and values of my family and my people.

Any shout outs you want to make?
Boba Guys in SF, you’ll always be my #1. And to all my fellow Slytherins out there, don’t let the haters get you down.

Employee Spotlight: Viet Truong

AAPI Heritage month gives us a fantastic opportunity to introduce you to more developers who make the magic happen. Viet Truong joined the Lab in January of 2020, a fresh start in what would become a tough year for the world. Through it all, Viet has been an incredible team member, and we’re excited to spotlight him here, in his own words:

What do you do at the Lab?
I’m a Senior UI Engineer. Basically I work with our awesome team of UI/UX designers and artists to put colors and feelings into pretty rectangles for players to interact with!

What’s your boba order?
I used to like a basic milk tea, but recently I like just tea by itself, maybe with some flavoring. Wintermelon green tea is great. Add boba, 50% sugar, less ice, *chef’s kiss*. Also do you have popcorn chicken?

What’s your favorite thing about working in games?
I get to work with so many cool people. We’ll be talking and someone will casually mention that they worked on this game that I love, and internally I’ll start freaking out and fanboying.I was so intimidated when I first joined the Lab – there’s so much talent here and I’m just some dude who’s never even made a game before unless you count a college semester project. Fortunately we have some pretty awesome people here who make me feel appreciated!

What does your Asian heritage mean to you?
A little while ago my younger cousin called me to ask about what it’s like to work in games. As a child of immigrants, I never had that kind of guidance. Don’t get me wrong, my parents worked their asses off and gave me a great upbringing, but they just didn’t have the experience when it came to career choices. I never realized how few Vietnamese people I got to work with until a couple jobs ago, when I was paired with another Viet engineer. I was super excited, and after work we went out to get pho. It made me realized how important representation is.I felt very encouraged after my call with my cousin. It doesn’t matter if he ends up going into games or not (the important thing is he’s happy and fulfilled); rather, there’s a whole new generation of Vietnamese/Asian storytellers out there.

Any shout outs you want to make?
There’s this amazing Vietnamese coffee shop in Seattle called Coffeeholic House. I go there so much they recognize me even with my mask on. The other day I saw someone order a bac siu and felt a weird sense of pride. It’s like, my mom really likes to drink this, and now everyone else is starting to catch on! Anyways if you’re in the area you should give them your support!

Thank you Viet, we are so happy you’re a part of Undead Labs. Follow him on Twitter for the occasional tweet about JavaScript.

Announcement from Undead Labs

Today we are excited to announce that the Undead Labs Studio Head and Founder, Jeff Strain, is launching an exciting new initiative. As anyone who has played State of Decay knows, big ideas don’t always come from the biggest cities or the flashiest neighborhoods. Sometimes the heroes come from places like Marshall or Spencer’s Mill. That’s why game development needs a bigger base, where the know-how, grit, and ideas of even more people can find their way to the public. As a small town guy himself, Jeff is dedicated to opening a new studio and a partnered broad-discipline game development academy in New Orleans, Louisiana. With the support of Xbox and Microsoft, Jeff’s going to continue in his role as studio head at Undead Labs while also building opportunities to bring in people who might not otherwise consider a career in the game industry. Maybe even someone with the vision for the next State of Decay is out there just waiting for the right opportunity! That’s all we can say for now, but we’ll share more information as soon as we can.

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A message for our friends at ArenaNet

To our friends, former co-workers, and industry colleagues at ArenaNet:

We are profoundly saddened to hear the news of the layoffs today. We feel a special kinship with ArenaNet given our shared DNA and our shared history of working together. We can only imagine what you are going through and would like to extend our heartfelt support. Indeed, news like this takes its toll on the entire industry, and taken together with the recent layoffs at Activision/Blizzard and the closure of the former Z2 studio in Seattle, we are distressed by the destruction of trust and safety that creative enterprises require to thrive.

As such, we would like to do everything we can to help people find their next great opportunity. We invite all ArenaNet staff to join us for an open house at Undead Labs on Wednesday evening, February 27th, from 4:00 to 7:00 pm. We’ll do our best to coordinate with the entire Xbox Game Studios family to ensure we have broad representation of opportunity within all of our studios. We’ll be ready to share more about our open positions, our product plans, and our development culture with you. Dinner and parking on us. Please RSVP by letting a friend here at the Lab know you plan to attend, or send an email to: rsvp@undeadlabs.com